From:          "Ryan Mathews" <mathews1@ix.netcom.com>
To:            fanfic@fanfic.com
Date:          Wed, 14 May 1997 18:35:14 +0000
Subject:       Anyone else work full-time?   If so, how do you write???
Priority:      normal

I am starting to get really depressed here.  Back at Katsucon, two 
months ago, I had mentioned at the panel that I was going to write a 
TENCHI MUYO! story entitled "Mother's Day", which I hoped to have 
done by Mother's Day.

Well, two months have gone by, Mother's Day has come and gone, and I 
have written *squat*.  No, scratch that.  I wrote the prologue four 
weeks ago, but it's garbage and I can't release it.  Near the end, I 
was getting tired, but I was afraid to quit writing for fear I 
wouldn't be able to start again any time soon, so I rushed it.

I am having a great deal of trouble finding time to write while 
working full-time.  Work takes the best hours of the day from me.  
I'd love to write after coming home, but I just don't know how.  I'm 
too drained.  In a sense, the problem is that my job is too 
interesting.  As a software engineer, I write code and hunt down bugs 
all day long.  By the end of the day, I'm all thunk out.  When I sold 
shoes, I had problems with being tired, but I still managed to push 
out a chapter of something every month.  The job was maddeningly 
boring, so I had plenty of time to work through story ideas in my 
head.

I'd be curious to know how other people manage to work full-time and 
still remain an active fanfic writer.  Or perhaps fanfic writing is 
better left to the college kids.  :-(

Well, I don't know if this helps, but I'm working two jobs right now 
-- one full time, one part time, a total of 60 hours a week.  And 
I'm trying to finish "Hearts of Ice."  When do I write?  Let's just 
say that I  don't eat much on my lunch breaks...  ^_^

I know that doesn't help, but I thought I'd let you know you're not 
alone.

Krista