This is an announcement that is strange · 9:35pm Jul 29th, 2016
I'm going to do something. Or, really, I already have done something and I'm now making all of y'all aware of it. This is a topic we will not discuss often, nor will it be one that I will be a nuisance about. To be honest, unless you wish it to effect you, it genuinely won't change anything.
This is a thing that exists. This is, in fact, a link to a Patreon.
I am working several part-time jobs right now, and heading into a master's program in teaching--and, at the end of the day, I am not desperate. But the nature of my work is that money is kind of tight. Driving patients is lucrative for what it is, but there is an upfront investment of cash each pay period that can make living stressful. Last month, I had about a week and a half where I was working/driving off of quarters and... and honestly, it didn't just make writing hard but it made life harder than it should have been and certainly more stressful than it should have been.
That being said, I want to be upfront with people: I am not going to starve. I have no desire to guilt people into something stupid like a patreon. I'm not even sure this will exist more than a month yet.
I'm still ambivalent about patreons. Not opposed categorically and not in favor categorically. I actually give to one every month! Just $5, and its to a visual artist, but I enjoy doing so. Reflecting on my own experience, I sort of felt like I was less paying for art and more investing in an artist. It was a feeling closer to distant but genuine support than to making them some sort of artistic mercenary. I like/d it. Gifts are sacred to me. I'm not sure if having one of these reflects that or works against it. Think of this as an experiment as much as anything else. Or don't think of it at all--the world will be more or less the same.
There are no paywalls. I'll still be publishing here. I made a solemn vow a few years ago that any ponyfic I finished, no matter what I felt about it at the time, would go somewhere. Whether that place was Cyne or another account, it would go somewhere. Why did I do that? Because once I took the decision out of my own hands, so to speak/think, then suddenly I found I no longer worried and angst'd over the whole thing nearly as much. It was an inevitability. It wasn't, of course, an inevitability--but the idea that it was was a useful fiction.
Then what will you get? Well, the patreon will provide access to works in progress that usually only a handful of writerly friends see, and even then rarely. Higher tiers provide other things--bonus content, pony or non, just a lil PM in your inbox every month with some sort of flashfiction or other work. There is a single slot for what amounts to either collaboration or very tight-working commission, with some stipulations and conditions (like, I won't do certain things and anyone wanting that will have to hash out things with me.) But generally I have avoided any huge promises of commissions and things because I don't want either of us to be in the awkward position of me being unable to deliver if something goes wrong, or the story not being up to either of our standards.
I will also be taking suggestions. I would like this Patreon to be something that feels less like a mercenary affair and more as part of a larger engagement and collaboration between the wordslinger and the constant reader. To mangle St. Paul: To see no donations is a relief, to see many will be ecstasy. Either way, I am genuinely glad to have all of you following me and even when I seem down, writing for you and for myself is what helps make the day bearable.
So thanks. And good luck.
(Also, as always, tell a story/share a revelation or bit of art/recite a verse/explain something interesting that you're really knowledgeable about in the comments.)
wat
[Dawning realization that Icelight Starkle has nothing to share except that she is drowning in horseword drafts.]
Unicorn: You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make you happy?
Schmendrick: Well, men don't always know when they're happy. But I — I think so. And you?
Unicorn: I am a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I now I do. I regret.
Schmendrick: I am sorry. I have done you evil and I cannot undo it.
Unicorn: No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy — save one. And I thank you for that part, too. Farewell good magician. I will try to go home.
-The Last Unicorn
4120797 This is the most nostalgic comment I have viewed on this site.
And there's one~
Lyrics that have been fluttering around in my head all day.
"So then which do you pick:
Where you're safe, out of sight,
And yourself, but where everything's wrong?
Or where everything's right
But you know that you'll never belong?"
I do wonder and worry if eventually we will find some critical mass of patreon supporters, and there will be more people asking rather than giving.
Let's see, something I'm knowledgeable about. Well, as it turns out, defragmenting your SSDs isn't the suicide pact a lot of people, including techs, seem to think it is. Most Windows systems do so fairly intelligently and in such a way that increases general drive life expectancy, and read/write speeds, when used in conjunction with TRIM.
Fun geographical fact of the moment: It's pouring rain in Arizona right now, and it's amazing.
Fun personal fact of the moment: After much mulling about with concrete shoes, I've finished an outline for a thing. Turns out the secret was paper, pencil, and not trying to back-edit on the fly. Go me. We'll see how the writing proper goes. That some folks turn out the sheer quantity of quality material they do still astounds me to no end.
At any rate, I'm glad you decided to go through with this. Every little bit helps.
4121078
I wouldn't worry too much about a critical failure point. I suspect people who benefit from Patreon, in no small number, also support a number of other artists through the medium as well. I'd be really interested in that data, now that I think of it.
I've had the song "Johny I hardly knew ye" stuck in my head for the last week.
I only contribute to patreons to people that have given up on everything else in life. You have too much hope left padawan.
4128794 "Have you come to teach us death, Mr. Ponygrad?"
creepiest line that Lewis ever wrote