Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Or, in other words, actively finding time to write.

My focus at the beginning of the year has been on ensuring that I carve out time to write, fully making it a priority in amongst everything else that I juggle and the continuing illnesses which plague me (the flu making the rounds in the UK this year is a real problem – I was sick again last week and only starting to slowly feel better again).

I’m not going to claim that it has been easy.

Working a full-time busy consulting job which is never a true 9-5, plus finishing out a coaching contract on top of that is hectic. Add in the chaos that happens when you have to take days off due to being a flu-ridden mess and just the normal rhythms of life (eating, sleeping, cleaning, etc.)…sometimes finding time is actually impossible.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I have determined that beyond this full-time contract, I won’t take another full-time position. I’ll look for part-time work and take the hit on the salary front. I also will not juggle a full-time gig with other contracts as it is incredibly difficult. I’m shocked that I’ve managed to deliver 10 hours of coaching, but I have another 20 to go, and I’m estimating based on current progress that I won’t likely finish the contract until end of May or June. Until then it feels unrealistic to think I can do any other work for my business to shift to the passive income streams such as finish writing the non-fiction book I had partially started or construct on online course.   

But I am managing to write somewhere between 3-10k of words every week – across fiction and non-fiction, and I can’t complain about that since it is so much more than I was managing at the end of last year where I was lucky to get 500 words down. Of course, not every word and sentence written is wonderful, but that is what second and third drafts are for, and I’m beginning to appreciate editing and challenging myself on the quality of my writing in a way that I have not done before. I’m also making conscious choices though on when to simply get something done and finished, particularly on the non-fiction side.

Speaking of non-fiction, I’ve managed to continue my Deconstruction series over on Substack (with the latest article being a deconstruction of the film “Wuthering Heights” – when is an adaptation fanfiction?), maintained these fortnightly Writer’s Logs, and even started to relook at writing articles for my business website.

Admittedly, outside of my non-fiction writing, my focus has been on fanfiction since the turn of the new year since I’m rewriting my Harry Potter story Another Dimension ready for its very delayed publication, and I wanted to achieve my plan for Evil Author day/International Fandom day on February 15th. I am really pleased that I got the next Stargate Aftershocks done (Aftershocks: Living with the Consequences ), and finished up Earthly Fires.

I did waffle on the day about whether or not Facing the Past was the next Evil Author fic that I wanted to tackle. Since I’ve kind of hit on a pattern of post an incomplete challenge fic for EA day, and finish it as the International Fandom offering the next year, I wasn’t completely certain to go with this fic since my Muse is kind of on the fence about finishing up the story. I guess we’re going to have to see what happens in the next twelve months. I have managed to get my planned fic for this quarter’s Big Moxie challenge drafted this week. It’s not my best work as it didn’t quite go to plan, but it’s a solid offering.  

All of the focus on fanfiction has meant that I haven’t really been able to focus on my original fiction writing. I am still targeting June as a publication date for my novel The Case of the Cursed Conman, but I still need to sort the book cover and do a final edit. I’m planning to write the 2^nd book in the series in April. I figure once the rewrite for Another Dimension is completely done, I can focus more on my original writing. I know some people would argue that I should just focus on the original writing but I’d rather bring my fanfiction readers with me if possible. I know fanfiction is what brings people here a lot of the time.

Still, I am celebrating the writing I am doing rather than dwelling on the projects which are just not moving forward. Any time I can find to write is great and even if I write only a few words, a few words is better than none.

End Note: Please like, comment or share if you enjoyed this writer’s log! If you would like to buy me a coffee in support of my original writing, check out my Ko-fi or my subscription/donation page.