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2020 Writing Log, Part Nine
- I posted Chapter 30 of Malice on AO3. I’ve now been writing this story for almost a year to the day. It’s currently at 62k words, which is a decent level of productivity. I’ve gotten a lot of support from readers, and I’m grateful and honored. Still, I think this might be a good time to take a break and reassess my writing goals.
- I edited Chapter 28 and posted it on FFN. I also edited Chapter 29 and uploaded it to be queued next weekend.
- I replied to all the comments I received on AO3, which was a lot of fun. Next week I want to set a goal of leaving a comment on someone else’s work. Even if it’s just a short comment!
- I did two more rounds of editing on the stories in It Never Happened. Next week I’m going to get started on line editing and page layout.
- I turned in the proofs for my book manuscript. The publisher gave me about a week to go over these, and this particular week has been wild. I was able to catch a few typos and formatting errors in the proofs, but I’m sure there are more. I have strong feelings about this process, but I probably shouldn’t say anything until the book actually comes out.
- Given that universities in the United States are shutting down, everything has been cancelled, including the talks I was supposed to give during the next two months. You’d think this sudden influx of free time would help me be more productive, but this situation is actually super stressful. This comic on Twitter captures the feeling perfectly.
- During the past week I was able to work with Frankiesbugs on Tumblr to create a short original horror comic. They did an amazing job, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with them. Not to be weird or anything, but exchanging emails with this artist on a daily basis helped keep me sane during a difficult time.
- There have been a lot of emergency commission posts on Twitter from people who’ve suddenly found themselves out of work, and I’ve been in contact with about half a dozen artists. If I had to make a prediction, I would say that I’m probably never going to see the art I commissioned, but it doesn’t really matter. I was in a similar situation a few times when I was younger, and it would have meant the world to me for someone to send me money and say they believed in me. If actual art materializes, that will be a bonus.
- I wish more fic writers took commissions. I would take commissions myself, but dear god I can barely write my own stories at this point.
- I edited Chapter 28 and posted it on FFN. I also edited Chapter 29 and uploaded it to be queued next weekend.
- I replied to all the comments I received on AO3, which was a lot of fun. Next week I want to set a goal of leaving a comment on someone else’s work. Even if it’s just a short comment!
- I did two more rounds of editing on the stories in It Never Happened. Next week I’m going to get started on line editing and page layout.
- I turned in the proofs for my book manuscript. The publisher gave me about a week to go over these, and this particular week has been wild. I was able to catch a few typos and formatting errors in the proofs, but I’m sure there are more. I have strong feelings about this process, but I probably shouldn’t say anything until the book actually comes out.
- Given that universities in the United States are shutting down, everything has been cancelled, including the talks I was supposed to give during the next two months. You’d think this sudden influx of free time would help me be more productive, but this situation is actually super stressful. This comic on Twitter captures the feeling perfectly.
- During the past week I was able to work with Frankiesbugs on Tumblr to create a short original horror comic. They did an amazing job, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with them. Not to be weird or anything, but exchanging emails with this artist on a daily basis helped keep me sane during a difficult time.
- There have been a lot of emergency commission posts on Twitter from people who’ve suddenly found themselves out of work, and I’ve been in contact with about half a dozen artists. If I had to make a prediction, I would say that I’m probably never going to see the art I commissioned, but it doesn’t really matter. I was in a similar situation a few times when I was younger, and it would have meant the world to me for someone to send me money and say they believed in me. If actual art materializes, that will be a bonus.
- I wish more fic writers took commissions. I would take commissions myself, but dear god I can barely write my own stories at this point.
no subject
I wonder if people who are both writers and artists find it easier to take commissions for art rather than writing. I don't draw, but I think I would find it easier to do art.
no subject
I've been thinking about this for a few days, and I agree with you.
I don't know that many people who write and create visual art and take commissions, but all three of them only take art commissions. As for writers who take fandom commissions... it's all porn.
Which is cool, of course, but sometimes I miss kinkmemes. I was probably too young (or at least too emotionally immature) to be there during their heyday, but I remember having some good times on anonymous LJ comms. This is not to say that people shouldn't be paid for this sort of work, but rather that there's clearly a demand for it, and I wish there were more of an open forum for its expression than the current fannish social mediascape allows for.
no subject
Then, too, there's the fact that if you're posting on AO3 you can't say it's a commission or link back to your commissions, which is a completely valid choice on the archive's part, but also makes it difficult to raise awareness on the part of the commission-writer, you know?
no subject
Anywho, I just wanted to say thanks for putting that seed in my brain 💕
no subject
I want to play around in this space you've created, if that's okay.
If I were going to use Ko-fi like this, I think what I would do is $3 for "up to 300 words," $6 for "up to 600 words," and so on.
There are two reasons I would do it like this.
First, I'd like to be able to post this fic on AO3 (maybe under a pseudonym so it doesn't clog up my main account), and it's been my experience that people tend not to click on 100-word and 200-word drabbles unless they're part of the themed set.
Second, I don't have enough creative discipline to cut myself off at 100 or 200 words, and I wouldn't want to create a disparity between people who give me $3 and I only write 100 words and people who give me $3 and I end up writing a more normal (for me) piece of 300-ish-word flash fiction.
This is just me, though. Most of the people I see taking fic commissions do so through Patreon, where the standard seems to be $5 for 500 words, but all of those people are insanely productive. It would be necessary to create a good balance between accessibility and being worth it for you as a writer, and I'm not sure where that balance would end up being for me.
I'm totally going to try this, though. Probably starting in June or July?
But please send me a link when you're ready to share it!!
no subject
The word range sounds really reasonable and I trust myself enough to be able to hit that and not like, explode into a novel. I don't know if I'd offer anything over 1k, mostly because however long it takes me to write it, editing will take more or less as long, sometimes longer. A smaller piece that takes twenty minutes? No prob. A 5k fic could take me 3 hours to draft, then another 3-4 hours to edit/polish... if I were to follow the $3 = 300~ words logic, that would mean $51 for 5k~ words and essentially $7.30 to $8.5 an hour. Which I'm not a fan of, but I also don't feel like many people would be a fan of dropping over $150 if they did want a 5k fic from me.
I'd also need to iron out other logistics, like things I'm not willing to write, how I utilize the "gallery" section of ko-fi, if I even show the recipient the rough draft for approval before editing, etc. It would also mean I'd stop accepting random Tumblr ask prompts for fics.
Anywho, thanks for all the food for thought :D I will most definitely send you a link when I got it set up!