Things I did yesterday:
- Test software
- Add to my wordcount for NaNoWriMo
- Start writing Issue 19 of Curveball
- Record a promo video for and launch a Patreon campaign
Why would I even think of doing this in November, you ask? Because when I make poor decisions, I make them enthusiastically.
I’ve actually been planning a Patreon campaign for quite some time, but there have always been things that got in the way. First, there was a lot about Patreon I really didn’t understand, and I wasn’t sure if the ideas I had fit in the way Patreon worked. I had to ask a lot of questions and make myself a royal pest to people who already had Patreons going1 before I could decide “OK, this is what I’m going to do.”
Then after I decided what I was going to do, I had to do it, which took work. Getting this work done was compounded by, um, other publishing difficulties, which I’m pretty sure you’re all well aware of.
Which, incidentally, was actually the worst part of all this–trying to justify going forward with this while I was having all these problems getting the things I want people to support out the door. For many, many months my stance was “no, I can’t possibly ask people to support something I’m having trouble putting out the door on schedule.” But then I’d always follow up with “I’m not going to be able to support the schedule if my day job can grab me by throat and demand all my time (which it doesn’t always, but it can, and has in the past.)
At the end of all that, it came down to “you want to do this thing, there will never be a convenient time, there will always be reasons not to, go charge the windmill.”
