Tag: Update
New Year, New Plan
If you’ve been following along with my progress reports, you know I’ve been struggling to write since the end of NaNoWriMo. I was also struggling before November.
Now that a new year has started, I’ve been reflecting on my goals. Last year my goal was to finish Inbetween. Now I’m thinking that goal is not attainable right now.
It’s a new year. Time to shake things up.
I’m putting Inbetween on hiatus. I have no idea when I’ll get back to it, but I’d rather put time and energy into a story I know I can actually write.
I probably should have done this months ago, but I was afraid to give up. I was afraid of disappointing you. When I say I’m going to finish something, I want to follow through.
Now I see I was just making myself miserable and having less to show for it than I might have otherwise.
Moving on to stories I have enthusiasm to write should make 2020 so much better than 2019. I’m excited to show you what I’m working on next!
Another Goal Unlocked!
I can’t believe I’m making another post like this so soon! For the second time this year we’ve unlocked a new goal on my Patreon.
What is a Patreon goal? It’s a milestone I set that can be reached collectively by my patrons as more people join and more money starts coming in.
I tried to come up with fun perks for my goals so there would be extra incentive to reach them.
Last month passed the first goal! That means my patrons are getting new chapters early now! It’s not always easy, but I’ve done my best to get new scenes and chapters ready early so my supporters on Patreon can see them a bit early. It’s not much, but I hope it conveys my appreciation for their support.
Now we’ve unlocked the second goal as well. Starting in March I’ll be streaming my writing once a month (more if I feel motivated or end up really enjoying it). I’m really nervous about putting myself and my writing out there for people to see live, but it’s something a few of my longtime supporters have wanted for a while now. Admittedly a small, brave part of my is looking forward to doing it.
At this point I’m wondering if we’ll unlocked the next goal in 2019 as well. It’s a long way off, but we’re growing steadily this year.
The next goal is all about swag. I want to commission bookmarks and other bookish goodies themed around my serials. All my patrons will get one. Imagining a bookmark based on the gorgeous cover art for The Dreams has me beyond eager to reach this goal.
If you’d like to see bookmarks, more amazing cover art, and other bookish thing, now is the time to join my Patreon. Every pledge gets us closer to the unlocking the next goal.
So far, 2019 has been a fantastic year for my writing. I’d like to thank everyone whether you’re a patron, follow my blog, a lurker, or just someone dropping by to leave a like or comment. I appreciate every last one of you.
Thinking About CampNaNoWriMo
Maybe it was the spring-like weather we had here yesterday, or maybe it’s just that time again, but I’m thinking about CampNaNoWriMo.
It seems too soon, but April is only a month and a half away. If I don’t come up with a plan soon, I’ll run out of time.
This year I have a bit of a dilemma. Usually I have one or two projects that need my attention during Camp months. I try to pick one and focus on it. Currently I have three.
I’m so close to finishing Inbetween. April might be the perfect month to wrap up the first draft. At this point I’m almost positive I’ll have enough story left to carry me through a reasonable Camp goal.
The Dreams still needs its 3rd draft completed. About half the 3rd draft (100k) is written at this point. I want to get it done this year. It’s another contender for my April CampNaNoWriMo project.
I’m also getting impatient to start my next project. I don’t want to start writing the first draft until I finish Inbetween, but CampNaNoWriMo is flexible enough to allow me to work on planning and outlining instead. The next story has no title at the moment, but it’s going to feature dragons and witches and the story will be guided by tarot readings. It’s going to be so much fun!
Based on the size of the paragraphs above, I think you can see which project I’m currently most excited about. New things are always exciting. It might be more responsible to work toward finishing one of my works in progress.
Is it better to be responsible and work toward completing projects that I’ve been passionate about for years? Or should I work on something shiny and new to hopefully get a word count boost for Camp from the natural high of a new project?
Fortunately, I have some time to consider my options. Camp doesn’t start until April 1, after all. Have you started thinking about April CampNaNoWriMo?
Patreon Goal: Unlocked!
A few days ago we unlocked a goal over on Patreon!
What is a Patreon goal? It’s a milestone I set that can be reached collectively by my patrons as more people join and more money starts coming in.
I tried to come up with fun perks for my goals so there would be extra incentive to reach them.
We recently passed the first goal! That means my patrons are getting new chapters early now! I’ve already posted the next chapter of Inbetween for them. It’ll be posted over here in a few days. I’m hoping posting chapters early on Patreon will have a snowball effect and soon I’ll have a ton of chapters prepared and posted there and we’ll have a more stable posting schedule here. It should be great for everyone.
In addition to surpassing the first goal this week, we’re only a few dollars away from unlocking the next goal as well. Once the next goal is reached I’m going to start doing a monthly writing livestream.
Some people (you know who you are) have wanted me to do writing streams for a while now. I’ll admit I’m a coward and I’ve avoided trying to set up a stream up until now. It’s something big and scary for me, but I know I can convince myself to try with the proper motivation. Livestreaming as an expression of appreciation and gratitude to the people who believe in and enjoy my writing would be the perfect reason to move outside my comfort zone and just do it.
It’s only January, but I already feel like 2019 is turning out to be a great year for establishing myself more as a writer. There’s a lot of going on behind the scenes and I’m looking forward to sharing more of it here with you when the time is right.
Welcome to my Blog: What to Expect
There’s been a steady trickle of new followers on this blog lately.
I just wanted to say hi! Thanks for deciding to check out my writing. I really appreciate it.
What Posts to Expect?
- weekly progress reports
- new chapters of my fantasy serials
- monthly reading updates
- NaNoWriMo related posts before and during WriMo events
What Else to Expect?
- late chapters/a sudden change to my posting schedule
- rambling in my progress reports
- I will get excited and nervous every time I see a new comment notification on this blog always
If you just started following this blog in November, you should be warned that this month is a little different from business as usual. I’m working on a new draft of my first serial for NaNoWriMo (in hopes of eventually turning it into a proper book). To focus on getting as much done as possible with The Dreams this month I’ve put Inbetween on hiatus until December.
Be prepared for more posts next month!
Where to review my serials
Did you know there’s a website where you can write reviews for my serials?
Both Inbetween and The Dreams are listed on Web Fiction Guide. The website lists all sorts of completed and ongoing serial novels. It’s a great place to leave a review of my serials since the website is dedicated to this sort of story. If you enjoy serial fiction, it’s a great website to join.
You can leave a review for Inbetween here and reviews for The Dreams can be submitted here.
As always, voting for my serials on Top Web Fiction does wonders for helping new readers discover my serials. Don’t forget to vote for Inbetween each week and show The Dreams some love with a vote as well.
7 Weeks to Go Until CampNaNoWriMo
Am I ready?
Maybe.
There’s a lot of projects I can work on during Camp this year. I can continue writing the first draft of Inbetween or work on draft 3 of The Dreams. With 7 weeks to plan I could even prepare an outline for one of the other projects I’d like to start this year.
With this much time before the event starts, all my options seem to be available. In almost two months a lot of things can change too. I might finish writing Inbetween before April. I don’t find that likely. The story is massive, but I might be struck by inspiration in the coming weeks and wrap up this draft far soon than I can anticipate. That still leaves me with The Dreams to work on during Camp. Right now that seems to be the most likely candidate for a CampNaNoWriMo project. That story hasn’t had nearly enough of my attention lately.
My other options are a prequel to The Dreams focusing on Motoko and a tarot guided fantasy serial tentatively titled Dragon’s Mage. Neither of these projects are anywhere near ready to be written right now, but if I set my mind to it I could be ready by April 1.
Which project do you think I should work on during April?
Have you started preparing for CampNaNoWriMo? Tell me about your project!
Important changes to my Patreon
So a lot of things have been happening on Patreon. The original post is here, but I thought I would share it here as well.
So, Patreon has gone and made some changes that are going in effect on December 18. You’ve probably seen the email they sent out. These changes will take transaction fees that used to be deducted from your pledge before I receive my money and tack it on top of the amount you pledged at a rate of $0.35 + 2.9%. This means a $1 pledge will now cost you $1.38.
In addition to this change, Patreon is also de-aggregating pledges. With my current pledge-per-weekly chapter model, this would result in you paying 4 separate transaction fees per month. I’m not okay with this.
Each pay-per-thing pledge will result in a separate transaction fee and every patron you pledge to will also result in a separate transaction fee. This is not ideal, and it isn’t what any of us signed up for originally.
That said, I don’t want to abandon Patreon. Other subscription services like PayPal have fees as well, and I’d lose the ability to easily provide patron-only content for you. There are ways to do it, but if I had the spare time and energy to dedicate to such a project, I would have done so already.
What I do want to do is reduce the number of transaction fees I cause for you. I can do away with them altogether, but I can at least take steps to make sure you’re only paying one transaction fee a month to support me.
My solution is to switch to the pledge-per-month model. This will guarantee you only pay one transaction fee per month for your contribution to me. It’s not ideal. I’d much rather have a system where the amount you pledge is the amount you pay, but that’s out of my control.
This solution does bring a bit of anxiety and uncertainty to me. I’m currently collecting your pledged amount between 2 and 4 (and sometimes 5 on 5 Saturday months) times per month. If everyone remains at their current pledge amount when we switch, I’ll only receive about $19 per month. While that’s a whole lot better than nothing, my budget has come to count on the income from Patreon.
So my solution comes with a question/call to action for all of you: will you increase your pledge amount so my pledge per month will match the amount I got from a typical month of pay-per-chapter posts?
We don’t have a lot of time. These changes are coming whether we want them or not on December 18. Please like this post so I know you’ve read it and please let me know your thoughts on this as soon as possible. I want to make these changes as quickly and painlessly as possible and I need to hear from you to do it right.
NaNoWriMo 2017 Week 3 Recap
I’ll be brief. Week 3 was terrible!
A migraine mostly took me out of the running for several days. I was already behind at the start of this week, and barely functioning at all for several days did not make that gap any smaller. I just barely managed to keep my writing streak for the month going. I forced myself to write at least a few words every day so I can get the badge for writing 30 days in a row on NaNoWriMo.
I have a lot of writing ahead of me in Week 4 and Thanksgiving might help or hurt my ability to get caught up depending on how the holiday goes. There’s more than enough time to make a comeback from almost anything so I’m not giving up.
How was Week 3 for you? Winning has begun. Have you validated your novel and turned your progress bar purple?
Fantasy Novels By Bridgett 