I'm feeling overextended... · 8:57pm Feb 22nd, 2021
And I do believe I am at this point, as I fear I've taken on too many writing assignments. 
By actual count, I have no less than six projects in play, listed here in rough order of priority:
- Rewrite of Unleash the Magic: Midnight Rising
- Update and Continuation of Feathered Heart
- Continuing third book of Into the Storm: The Flight of Firefly
- Finishing Unleash the Magic: Nightmare Night
- Adding a new arc to Nightmare Night - Temptations & Transformations
- Anthro novel sequel
I have to be honest, folks. This lengthy list is weighing on me rather heavily right now, and it doesn't include the various prereading and editing assignments I occasionally take on. It's making me moody and a bit antisocial with my online friends, to whom I apologize. The problem I'm having is very simple: I want to do it all, but I just can't. I'm prolific, or at least I have been in the past, but that's way too much even for me. So I have to prioritize.
I think what will make me feel better is knocking something off the list and at least seeing some progress on a second item. So I've decided that for now, I will be concentrating on the first two stories in that list. My first priority will be to finish the rewrite of Midnight Rising while continuing the update of Feathered Heart at the rate of one chapter every week or two.
So I ask for your patience with me as I try to work things out and find some creative equilibrium again. I'd also like to publicly congratulate AJ_Aficionado for hitting it big with his latest M-rated release, which reached the top of the feature list off and on for the better part of a day. It was a hell of a score--160 likes for an OC clopfic that draws on personal headcanon and doesn't involve the Mane 6?
But it was also well earned, and I'm honored to say I helped edit it.
Anyway, just wanted to let folks know what was happening. And sorry to sound like a broken record, but some donations to my coffeeshop or Patreon sites would really be appreciated. The latter is down at the moment pending a review of some changes I made to it, but should be back up later.
Nothing else to say, except look for a newly rewritten Midnight Rising chapter by week's end. It's a bit over half done and only a couple thousand words remain. There'll be one more blog update before that.
Please do what you need to do to keep this enjoyable. I, selfishly, desire you to avoid burnout so that at whenever point they appear, yummy words can be devoured.
You do great work, I wish I could help, but till the month is over I have no room for anything.
You do what's best for you, Fire.
We don't need to lose you to burnout, so rest your mind, so, as 5459326 said, you can give us more yummy horsewerds to be happily devoured later.
Yeah, spreading yourself too thin does you no favors. Here's hoping the new prioritization scheme helps.
Here's what I'd do in your situation:
- Cancel T&T altogether or turn it over to readers to write their own entries, similar to Clopficsinthecomments' "Apogee's Hypersleep".
[Adult story embed hidden]
- Put Firefly on hiatus, with the intention of not touching it for a year. Yes, I love Firefly and so do you, but it's the biggest drain on your time.
- Burn through Nightmare Night, diverting your attention to the FH rewrite when you're just not feeling the urge to write clop.
- Once FH is finished, update MR.
- Take a break from Fimfiction, at least a month or two, and work on your anthro novel.
- Once you've had a nice cozy sit with your anthro, then and only then should you continue work on Firefly with no other projects burdening you.
- If, while you're writing Firefly you come across an interesting contest, enter it! The word requirements are generally low, the standards are clear and unambiguous, and depending on the contest, you can network with people on the site. I was more or less a hermit between 2017-2019 but entering the Dirty Little Contest and meeting new people has been a pretty positive experience for me. It's allowed me to have a greater impact on FImfiction and feel more like a part of a fandom instead of... well North Korea.
And I thank you again for editing my story given the duress you were under. I felt bad for you, especially given some of the mistakes I overlooked. Were the story to have gone live without your help, it would have been a fiasco. It's always the case and if it makes you feel any better, I'm looking to make changes to my own editorial process to take some of the load off of you because I felt just uncomfortable and guilty throughout the entire process, especially remembering the Social Distancing rough draft I turned in that was, like, 6800 words that you gave back to me at over 9000. That's honestly pathetic on my part and I've never forgiven myself.
I won't be writing anything for a while. I told myself initially I wasn't going to write anything at all over the winter but for that contest, so that's what I'm doing. I'll write more in April but please don't stress on my behalf. This is supposed to be a hobby, not slave labor. And more than anything, I just want you to find joy in your hobby again.
Your friend,
AJ Aficionado
I'm going to have to second AJ on this. I love Firefly. It's my favorite out of the things you've written. But you can't work on it and Feathered Heart at the same time. They're to similar for doing one to recharge your batteries on the other. That would be like working on Five Star while taking a break from TLaTU. My best advise would be to identify what you can finish quickly, and just get it out of the way.
I can understand that you have to prioritize. Given that Midnight Rising is a rewrite focusing on it makes sense since you'll likely be able to finish it sooner than any unfinished story on this site.