So, I have begun to realise that a pattern is forming. It doesn't have much to do with the thread, but its relevance will come into light soon.

This pattern relates with how I use my time: If I have an assignment to do by tomorrow, I will surely do it today. If it is by the next two days, I will generally do likewise.

Then, there're the assignments to be done later. Even just a week later, because of every other assignment, alongside with my computer time, I tend to easily put it away until some time before the actual deadline, then rush it out.

This is what happened with NaNoWriMo: I wrote most of the words in three weeks, but the last week saw the thing go from 60% complete to absolutely fucking done.

This is what happened with the last Writeoff with my stupid ideas, creative direction and generally bad writing, with which my wooden ladle is a testament to.

And this is what will happen with this Writeoff. Except because with school, it's worse. (EDIT: And also roleplaying, general internet surfing, having to catch-up with homework, etc.)

So, I've decided not to submit immediately in lieu of the failure that my first one was. But I still want to try and use the pockets of free time available to write out a story, hopefully one that is better written and based on a better premise.

The question I have is regarding its publication: Am I allowed to submit such a story online based on the prompt before the voting period is over on the basis of it not being a story that is going to be submitted to the Writeoff itself?

Perhaps the question is technically already answered in the FAQ or Rules and Regulations, but I wanted to confirm it based on these circumstances.

EDIT: I'm probably not the person to be sympathetic towards, since quite a large part of it is due to my own miserable effort at time management.

I believe that if the story is not going to be submitted in the write-off, and it isn't similar to what you would submit to the write-off, then you should be fine to post it.

After checking the FAQ, I couldn't see anything preventing non-submission stories from being posted, but you probably wouldn't be able to put it in the story folder for this write-off.

Side note: If you want a pre-reader, I'm happy to help. Good luck with your school stuff.

2607060 It probably will be similar, just not officially submitted to the Writeoff.
And I'll take note of that point.

2607100 To be fair, I'm not the best with time as mentioned in the OP. (As I type this, I'm both listening to songs and reading through test material, the test itself mostly being a content-based quiz, so I'm maybe not the person to be sympathetic towards with regards to this. I had a comment on the thread regarding the prompt and that comment helps to explain it better and more succintly.)

Still, thank you all for the well wishes.

Yeah, I skipped an entire two days of writing because of the ridiculously long writing period. I can finish today, but it's not gonna be pretty. :B All the confidence I had at the start is gone.

I absolutely agree about the power of a motivational deadline. All of 2013 has been crappy for me, as my fics sit either unwritten due to faltering motivation, or stuck in revision hell (with 2014 being the year of desuckification). When I first got into horsewords—the first prose I'd written since middle school—it was 33k for NaNoWriMo. Not including this round, I've written 16k across four of this group's writeoffs. Compared to my usual pace? Those numbers are ing phenomenal. I'd also add that it gives me an opportunity to experiment and take risks that I'd otherwise be too lazy to pursue.

Still, there's certainly something to be said about not rushing. Some of the bigger detractors of write-offs in general feel that good writing shouldn't be hamstrung by prompts and deadlines. Of course, if you so desired, you could submit the Competition Version to the contest, get feedback, and then later publish the Final Version to Fimfic. But other times—like your NaNoWriMo example, and perhaps this round as well—the deadline rush may cause more harm than good.

Gonna steal alexmagnet's example. He always mentions that, for one of the write-offs, he had this great idea for a Trixie adventure/redemption/reconciling-with-Twilight story, but he felt it was too ambitious for the deadline so he didn't submit to the write-off. That fic isn't even halfway done, and it just recently hit 10k views. Just sayin'.