I finally got my act together a bit more on Friday by clearing out all of my blog posts from Patreon. I left the month ahead and monthly wrap-up posts and I left the book reviews. But everything else came off. Then I went in and rebooted an old premium post I’d unpublished and gave it a new date.
This means that from today, and aside from the posts mentioned above, there won’t be any free content on my Patreon from now on. Patreon needs to be a business tool and I think members should feel they’re getting something for their money other readers aren’t getting.
The week-daily blog posts will still appear on my website and on Medium, and while the posts on Medium will still be behind the paywall for members, they’ll always include a free link for non-members. Premium posts will be still published on both Medium and Patreon, but the blog posts will no longer have a Patreon card made for sharing on Instagram.
No one reads the blog posts on Patreon anyway. They read them on the website and on Medium, but not on Patreon.
Phew! That was a good decision and not one I’d planned but one that makes sense, I think. It takes out not one but two steps from my daily tasks when you take the Instagram posts into consideration.
I had in fact planned on rebooting the monthly or weekly short story on Patreon from the beginning of September, but September had other ideas.
The next two big things on the horizon that also should have happened at the beginning of September are the premium monthly writing ideas stories on Medium and Patreon and the newsletter. So, yes, folks, that means the newsletter may be coming back soon as well. It just may not be monthly and it may include news for subscribers ahead of when it’s announced via blog posts.
Anyway, back to Friday. I had one job I really wanted to do on Friday and that was finish the short story I’d started. I had a good first session before getting up and stretching and having a walk around. It was when I came back to it that I had my Patreon brain murmur.
Even with that out of the way, though, the writing was still like pulling teeth and I ended up pretty much staring at it for much of the day. By the end of Friday I did have another 600 words, so that was something. But I clearly had issues, either with writing this short story or with writing short storied in general.
I wondered if it was my critical voice/inner editor yelling at me, and the more I thought about that, the more sense it made. So I put the writing on hold and went in search of something that may help. I knew I’d seen a workshop on WMG Books’ Teachable about killing the critical voice, but did I have access to it?
The workshop I was looking for was in fact called Killing Critical Voice. It consisted of 6 weeks’-worth of videos and 5 assignments. And yes, it was on my dashboard. I knew I didn’t want to attempt any of the assignments at this stage, but I did want to binge-watch the entire workshop. So, for the rest of Friday and for some of Saturday, that’s what I did.
And reader, I think it worked.
I’m not going to go into detail because that wouldn’t be fair on the copyright holders. If you think you’re struggling with critical voice, then go look at the workshop yourself. But on Sunday, I transferred my Scrivener master file to my portable hard drive, took the laptop into the living room, and sat at the dining table with headphones on listening to heavy rain while I typed. And type I did.
By the end of the session I had almost 2,600 words. I went for a walk with the poet and the dog for a reset, and when I got back I quickly read back through it and then read it aloud to the poet and the dog. An hour or so later I was as happy as I was going to be with it on deadline day and I sent it off. It was auto-acknowledged by return and a huge weight lifted.
Now, I’m not sure about this writing something in one or two sittings, revising it straight away and sending it out. I know it works for a lot of people, but I also know it doesn’t work for just as many people again. I’ve been a planner for 40 years. It’s hard to suddenly become a pantster.
When I worked in a busy news room I had to write and submit stories (or articles) within an hour of receiving the brief. NiBs (News in Brief) I had even less time to write up – but they are a lot quicker and shorter. When I worked in an editorial office, I had to turn things around in a day or two. And when I wrote columns for magazines I could turn things in after a weekend or a week if they were desperate for something else.
But for almost my entire freelance writing career, I’ve had room and time to brainstorm, study the market, plan, draft, type, leave to cool, and revise before sending material in. Of course, that could also be why I wrote Night Crawler in 1996, while also working full time, and have been writing the sequel, and Catch the Rainbow, ever since…
However, I did it. I got there. I finished the damned story. (Heinlein’s Rule #2: You must finish what you start.) And I sent it out. (Heinlein’s Rule #4: You must put it on the market.)
I doubt I’ll finish this week’s story as it has to be in by the end of Wednesday, i.e. before or on 1 October. Or perhaps I should rephrase that: I doubt I’ll finish this week’s story on time…I’ve started too many stories and not finished them because I ran out of time. Perhaps I need to start writing short stories for pleasure again, use the calls for submissions as story starters, and send them in if I finish them on time.
The poet goes back to work today, which is both Yay! and Boo! Yay! because he’s well again, Boo! because it’s been nice having him at home – although not while he was so poorly.
He’s tested our water supply and it’s showing negative for e-coli – something that causes sepsis, which the previous owner died of last year. It’s also showing negative for lead and arsenic, and low or acceptable levels of chlorine and fluoride. It’s possible the water pipes were dirty because we removed the water tanks and now connect direct to the mains water supply. Holding tanks are notorious for allowing all sorts of germs and bacteria to thrive.
But this means we don’t have to buy 5L bottles of water now, other than for after the Armageddon, if it ever comes. (We’re having El Niño warnings as well as warnings of war.) And we’re back on the tap water.
Anyway, if he gets tired or feels unwell, he’s under orders to come straight home – from me and his boss and his colleagues.
Also on the schedule for today: this week’s short story and the new editing job, which I printed off last week after reformatting it.
This post appears on Words Worth Writing and Medium.
Those all sound like smart and practical decisions.
I hope the water stays clean!
Thank you!