Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

The problem with having time is that even when you have a lot of it, there doesn’t ever seem to be enough.

With rest and recuperation the focus for the majority of March, writing wise the latter couple of weeks were turned over to my Big Moxie projects, centred around the trope of Marriage of Convenience.  I managed to get both Married to Justice (NCIS) and A Convenient Arrangement (Harry Potter) posted under the deadline of the end of March.  The third project I had in mind, a Teen Wolf story wasn’t so lucky.  I managed to get the first section done, but the rest is still in outline.

I also decided in March to take part in a Rough Trade writing challenge in April.  My 9-1-1 fic is going OK, but I’m already seeing where I want to majorly rewrite it, but I am sticking to just getting this first draft done.  Maybe.  I may decide to rewrite what I have before I continue drafting even if the purpose of these writing challenges is to write, not overthink and simply get it down.

I don’t usually take part in writing challenges in April unless I can secure vacation time in April.  It means I can spend my vacation days writing and getting a lot of it down before having to juggle it with work.  Part of my reasoning for taking part this challenge was ‘oh I have a lot of time now’ – and yet, no.

Part of my refocused plan this month is to get my actual business set-up and finding some paying work to help offset expenses.  That means buckling down to do tasks and activities which are less fun than just writing for fun.  It includes professional writing projects and some product development that I need to spend time on.

And then there is also juggling all the writing ideas I have, all of which I would love to be working on, all at the same time.

From a fanfiction perspective, apart from the writing challenge I have ten works-in-progress (including the aforementioned incomplete Q1 Big Moxie fic) that are sitting in my files.  I’m committed to completing two of them this year, Aftershocks and A Jump to the Left, with the latter planned to be completed and posted around a June timeframe.  I’m also signed up to the Q2 Big Moxie Challenge although I will just focus on one story for it.

Fiction wise, I want to get the murder mystery rewritten by June. 

Then there is the idea that I have for a review series to form the backbone of a regular newsletter which I don’t want to talk too much about just yet as it is kind of half-formed and needs more planning.  And then there are the reviews I’m planning to do (for example, the new series of Doctor Who) and those I’d like to do but I’m not exactly finding time to watch things never mind write reviews on them.

When I look at the plan, I’m reminded of the usual problem every client and organisation I’ve worked for has faced – too many projects going on all at the same time.  I am only one person, and while I don’t have a 9-5 job pulling on my time anymore, there are things I need to do to generate income.

I need to prioritise and focus.

I probably shouldn’t have signed up for the challenge.

Ah well.

Back to the planning drawing board…