It’s October 1^st, and today carries some import for me for two reasons:

1. It’s the official start date for the #writersunite revolution (or project? or both? I need more coffee) I wrote about on Friday.
2. It’s the official end date for #NoFanfictionSeptember.

I’m looking forward to hunkering down with The Secret Lives of Baristas this month, and hope things go in such a way so as to keep me posting regular updates past the designated “share at the end of the month” snippet. I’m also nervous, though, as I’m now accountable to other people to take this project from “cool idea in my head” to “story to share with other people and hope they don’t loathe it”.

“Eeek!” about sums it up.

Refraining from reading fan fiction for the month of September wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be . . . for the first couple of weeks. The temptation to read a story (or three) didn’t start trying to punch me in the throat until I was past the halfway point. But I held firm, because I knew how disappointed and mad I would be if I gave in, particularly with the finish line being in sight. Seriously, that would be a truly lousy time to call it quits.

I can do this . . . I hope . . . *

Yet even as the self-imposed deadline has now come and gone, I’m reluctant to pick up any of the stories I had been following again, or to peruse any new ones. I don’t know . . . well, I do. Maybe. I think. Basically there is a niggling concern I will let a once innocent past time become an improperly placed priority again. And I don’t want to pick up those chains again.

I think for the time being, my fan fiction forays should be kept to finishing the fan fiction story I started almost three years ago (yikes!) when I need a breather from this month’s main writing project.

Balance – it can be a tricky thing to find and maintain. But thankfully it’s not impossible.

*Photo Credit: Matt McGee © 2006 (Flickr via Creative Commons)