Plan For Success

I’ve finally relaunched my Patreon! It’s been quite the ordeal, taking well over half a year to prepare. But I believe that level of preparation is what’s going to make it a success. I spent months designing a writing plan and researching other writers on Patreon, seeing what worked and why, and designing my own tiers based on theirs. Much like writing a story, I started out big and trimmed away what wouldn’t work for me until I was left with the kind of Patreon that I would enjoy working on daily.

Then I started writing the first story to be posted to my Patreon, Dreylaefess: Awakening. It’s a fantasy story that takes place in my Truth of Two Worlds novel series universe. Being one of my favourite stories that I’ve written, I thought I would revise it and use it for my Patreon’s first month.

But if you’ve taken a look at my Patreon, you’re probably asking why Dreylaefess is now being split over several months. 

Well, I made a happy little accident...

When I first wrote Dreylaefess, it was a novella at 15k words. But it was written a long time ago, so I wanted to apply all the skills and knowledge I had gained since then. What resulted was a short novel at 40k words...so far.

I couldn’t help delving further into Dreylaefess’s character and story, into the characters she meets, and into the struggles she faces. I wanted more!

But because I wanted so much, I wasn’t able to finish writing it in time for my Patreon launch in January.

But you launched your Patreon in May!

Exactly! It took months to get Dreylaefess into a version I felt confident sharing on Patreon. But the extra time it took actually ended up helping me solidify everything, from my Patreon tiers and rewards, to my writing plan for ToTW, to my plan for working a second job. The extra time helped me realize why I’m not a published author yet and what I need to do, or more importantly, what I want to do.

I’ve wanted to be a published author almost my entire life. So, why haven’t I done it yet? To be honest with myself, I never had the confidence, but I had a whole lot of procrastination. Lopi of the past always thought writing was something he would do when he retired, after he had finished with whatever career he was meant to pursue, whether it was teaching or software engineering. Becoming an author just wasn’t a financially responsible career path, and everything around me was telling me I had to pursue something financially responsible, that creative pursuits were the luxury of the wealthy or retired.

But meeting Audra changed all that. She showed me that, with a whole lot of patience and hard work, pursuing a creative dream was possible. However, by that time, I was in the midst of my software engineering career.

I’ll pay off my student loans and then pursue my writing career, is what I told myself time and time again. Going to school to be a teacher, and then switching to an overpriced school for software engineering had put me into so much debt that I’m still only halfway through paying the loans off, almost twenty years later!

And so, every time I tried to pursue my writing, it came second to my job. And an industry that often requires unpaid overtime, and a Lopi with a penchant for procrastinating, all led to my dreams of being an author never really leaving the ground.

But why am I telling you all this?

Well, I want to do something important this time around. I know why I’m not a published author yet, I know where I’ve gone wrong, and I know what it’s like to not have anyone to ask for advice while growing up. I never had an older sibling to teach me the ropes as a kid/teen, and I never knew any established authors to lean on when I was older. And being so horribly shy, I never did reach out to anyone. So, I want to share my journey with the world. I want to be there for the people who are in my position, or who want to be in my position, but are too afraid to reach out. For the people who don’t know what to do or where to go, I want to be an example they can follow, whether it’s to show what works and why, or to show what doesn’t work and how to deal with failure. I want to be the kind of person I wish I had found for myself long ago.

So, what’s my plan?

While it will be amazing when I secure an agent and a publishing deal, I know that’s not going to happen for quite some time. So, I want to try another approach. I’ve read how important it is to write short stories. They’re not a necessity to become an author, but they help a great deal in developing your craft and your voice, building an audience, and establishing a foundation on which to build a writing career. That’s why I’ve chosen to relaunch my Patreon. I’m hoping the work I do there will improve my chances at landing an agent and a publishing deal, while also providing an income to supplement my income from my other jobs.

During this process, I’ll be posting to Twitter and TikTok, and perhaps even YouTube eventually. I’ll share what I’m doing, what I’m learning, what is working and what isn’t. I’ll be sharing every step I take.

I’m hoping that what I share will empower others who lack the courage or confidence in their work, or who feel adrift on an endless ocean with no clear direction to sail. I just want to help make people happy, and if I can at least succeed in that, then I’ll feel accomplished.

I’ll be writing a couple more blog posts to go over things I’ve tried in the past that didn’t work, what I’ve learned from the failures, and a detailed outline of my plan going forward. If you want to follow me on my journey, then please check out my Twitter and my TikTok. And if you want to reach out, please do.