Thursday, January 11, 2018

2018 Guideline - What to expect artistically from me

And a picture says a thousands words, so:


The difficulty for me is keeping an eye on all my sites, on the day we are, what I should upload, etc. I'd already tried and work out a posting guideline for myself last year, and figured it was about time I structured it a bit. As you can see, the 'plan' consists of few updates - this to allow myself to easily stray from said plan while still ensuring I always do the minimum required of myself. Now I'll have a list to look at whenever I do/write/make anything and know where to best share the news. Each site has its own identity and, thus, purpose in life. With the main goal, obviously, being to get my writings out there.

That's for the behind-the-scenes structure. Now, for the contents.

1. A self-published book. Sometime this year. And I don't mean the sort of 'sometime' that ends up being 'never'. My editor is already booked for April and I've still many chapters left to write for my NaNo novel, but with a deadline in sight I know it'll get done. It has to. Very literally so.

2. More Tales to read. Which is dependent on how well I can self-edit my stories, and how much time I can devote to it. Hence why I decided to break my own routines and set my alarm clock every morning. Nope, I didn't do so before today. And I can't count the times I complained to myself for getting up too late and missing the entire morning - which is when I'm basically wired to work on 'all the rest' (as proves this blog entry).

After taking a small vacation with friends, a few things changed in my mind. One of which is that it fully dawned on me that I need to take this writing business seriously. It's not a hobby: it's a job. And you get up at a set time to go to work. There's a lot I still intend/need to do in order to expose Aeyuu as well as I can, meaning,

3. Refurbished Wordpress. Honestly, I haven't done nearly enough with it since creating it. The plans are there, but the energy/desire was lacking. I'm pretty good at donning blinds and trapping myself in my own trains of thoughts. Usually, if not always, because of fear and/or a lacking sense of worth or purpose. I've been very concerned about finances last year, and I still am; but, I've noticed that since I've become more generous with updates, with sharing my works, that activity has picked up a bit everywhere. I get likes from unknown people on Instagram, for instance. Even Wordpress has seen some visitors! These little peaks are invaluable to me, as is the fact a DA friend has told me they're looking forward to buying my upcoming novel. So, to stay true to myself, I need to share a lot more. This is what has always paid off the most in my life. I can't let fear dictate my future.

4. Patreon overhaul. I already made the biggest change by setting Tale updates at a single $1 tier. This means you can read everything new in a month for $1. I made this change in the spirit of sharing, and to distance myself from retail.

Because: I hate retail. I abhor retail. I've worked retail for years and absolutely detest it. Yet that's exactly what I was doing with the Patreon tiers I had, and I decided I'd had enough. I'm not selling my works: I want them shared, and for people to hop onto that train because they enjoy them and want to show their support. $1 is $1, and all little bits help.

Making that change has also freed up a lot of my mind. Before, I was always fretting to create enough to warrant the tier prices; now, I write what I write (which is usually quite a lot, as I have a personal 20k goal each month), and people can support if they feel so inclined. I no longer stress over creating for Patreon, but for me. All that's left is changing the About section and fluffing up that figurative pillow to make it better.

5. Maybe more art. I say 'maybe' because I know myself. I'm primarily a writer. But, I do like to dabble and try things. And got inspired by a few artists on DA to keep improving my lasso drawing. What does that mean?


Basically: use my brain's strength, which is simplicity. I love clean silhouetted artwork, always have, so it makes sense to try and have some fun with it. Drawing stresses me because it takes way too long; this way, time used is drastically reduced before getting something workable.

I also still have drawing courses to continue. I gave up on them over a year ago because I got bored of the exercise subject. But, I figure I don't have to follow the courses in perfect chronology; I can go as far as I can/need with one exercise until I grasp its essence, then move on, and return to it later. That's how I learned to use the lasso tool and to start understanding how I can benefit from it. Sometimes, you need to accept you can't do what others do - but you can still find workarounds to reach the same goal.

And that's it in a big nutshell. The biggest plans for 2018. With the Patreon overhaul a big priority, Wordpress updates close second. And writing Fates, of course. It's gonna be an interesting year. :D

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