Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Celebrating small wins.

Things are still tough but they are moving in the right direction.

Physically I am feeling the strongest I’ve felt since the beginning of February. I’m still not completely back to ‘normal’ – for a value of normal when you have chronic illnesses – but I am feeling that I am no longer at the bottom of a steep hill wondering how I make the climb.

I am having issues with flare-ups since we have a continuing heatwave in the UK. My fibromyalgia loves a mild climate and hates extremes of heat. This heat has provoked pain flares and because heat saps all the energy out of a person, I haven’t had the energy either to tolerate the pain.

My weekly taglines on top of my to-do list for the past three weeks include:

“Your health comes first”

“You are more important than your work”

“Future you will thank you for thinking about her”

I did take one day off with exhaustion, but I am proud that since returning to work at the beginning of June, that day remains my only day of sick leave over six weeks – a definite step forward. I do have a planned long weekend this weekend due to a family visit, and I know I am going to appreciate the extra day off tomorrow.

Still, it is a sign that my overall health has improved that I’ve been able to continue working through everything.

Work-wise my focus is still on my contracted work. I did manage a coaching session a couple of weeks ago and have another lined up. During the heat, it is difficult to do anything outside of work on a workday. Small tasks are sometimes fine, but mostly I focus on using my energy to have dinner and clean-up, so trying to write is not an option.

Having said that, I have made some good writing progress over the past three weeks since my last Writer’s Log. I’ve dived back into my novel and re-edited the last draft. This feels like a significant step forward. I plan to focus on getting that all elusive book cover over the next couple of weeks. I doubt that I will succeed in my original goal of getting it published at the end of July, but maybe the end of the summer is an option.

On the non-fiction side, there are a couple of ideas I’m excited about, but I really do need my energy levels to increase to tackle these. I’ve kind of reserved non-fiction for Monday to Friday evenings if I’m going to write it – with the exception of these Writer’s Logs which are more personal.

I have also returned to Another Dimension, and I am pleased to post up chapter 3 as a thank you to my subscribers for bearing with me and all the delays to getting it published. I am hopeful that I’ll be able to get it done by the end of August. It will be a year later than planned but c’est la vie. Other fanfiction projects may have to wait until I’m done with Another Dimension but I’m not ruling out my muse deciding to take a side quest.

It would be easy to look at my original plan and think that I haven’t made any progress; to look at all the unwritten articles, the half-finished fanfics, the lack of progress on my journey to becoming a published author. I have to remind myself to give myself grace – my body simply wasn’t up to the plan, and that’s OK. We’ll get there. Maybe later than we wanted and certainly later than we planned, but we’ll get there.

In the meantime, I am celebrating all the small wins; these small steps forward towards my goals. Small steps matter – they are still forward momentum and that is a positive.

24/07: It seems I forgot to publish this last Sunday. Oops. Better late than never!

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.