CTFMeister 2023 State of Affairs (Patreon)

Gosh, can you believe it's 2023 already? Feels like 2022 was just only getting started. For one reason or another, I tend to make update posts around the beginning of each year. This year is no different. There's a bunch of news I want to give. But I think in general I'll start writing an update every year or maybe sooner if I get the time. Wanna keep you guys updated in everything that goes on with my lewd writings.

This past few year has been a little bit tumultuous for me, in both good and bad ways. A lot of things have changed in my personal life, meaning that I wasn't able to dedicate as much of my time into writing as I would have liked to. But I want to change things this year. I wanna really get back in touch with my writing self. I wanna challenge myself and grow. There's so many things that have been holding me back, so I want to make this the year where I can realize my full potential as a writer.

So yeah, here's a couple of the things I've been thinking about regarding the future of this Patreon.

Due Patron Poll Stories

It's probably become a little bit of a meme by now haha. "Once I finish this, I'll get back to the poll stories." Well, this time I mean it. Starting this year, my first and main priority will be to finish all the god damn patron poll stories that I promised to do but never delivered. I have them all compiled in a text file, so don't worry about me missing one. Rather than doing them in the order that they originated in, I think I'm gonna space them out to have a little bit more variety between fics. But rest assured, I'm going to finish them. They're going to be long, it's going to take time. But I swear I'll have all of those patron poll stories done by this year. I don't even know if anyone cares, at this point it's my pride on the line haha. I feel super bad that I've left them on the side like this. I hate having them pile on and on. It makes me feel like I can't do anything for fun until I do them. And so with that in mind, I'm planning to change some patron stuff to help me accomplish this finalization of the patron poll stories. 

Monthly Patron Prompts on Pause

It's been a whole year since I started doing patron prompts and honestly I'm pretty happy with them. I like the flash fiction nature of prompts. One of the things that bothers me about longs fics is finding the strength to finish them, so having these burst of little stories I can complete and just leave feels great for my productivity. I'm not gonna lie, I also like the outcome that they bring. It's not that much, but the extra around 100 bucks I get from prompts alone is amazing, and it really inspires me to keep going.

That being said, I've realized a little problem with prompts. Every month starts with "This month I'll write a poll story... Right after I finish with the monthly prompts!" Only for the prompts to take up the whole month basically haha. 

So as much as it hurts me, I'm going to put monthly patron prompts on hold. I definitely want to do more in the future. I like the way that they currently work. But until the poll stories are done, I don't want to put my attention on anything else. 

Another thing I've been considering in regards to prompts are the availability and pricing. I'm happy that the people in the prompt tiers have enjoyed their prompts enough to consider supporting me, but I also feel bad that new people aren't able to join. Ideally, I'd like to allow everyone access to prompts, but I understand the competitiveness. It would be impossible for me to let more people join the prompt tier, and it would be unfair if I chose a random ballot system to pick who got their prompts for the month. Maybe the solution is switch from prompt patreon tiers to commissions? I don't know. Might be one of those unsolvable problems frankly. 

The pricing issue is simpler, but bothers me a bit more. The time investment on prompts is enormous. Each prompt document is about 16-18k words long, and it usually takes me half a month if not the whole month to finish the whole batch. With that under consideration, the current prices for the tiers are very very cheap. Much cheaper than my regular commission prices. I don't want to raise them too much, cus I feel a bit bad about having people pay me for lewds. Every time I charge anyone more than 100 bucks for a fic it really hurts my heart haha. But I feel like I'm overworking and underselling myself, so when the prompt tiers return I might raise prices. Still unsure

If any of the patron prompt guys (or anyone else) have any suggestions on the matter please let me know.

Commissions

A lot of people have been asking me for commissions. When I'm going to open them and such. Last time I opened commissions it was such a long time ago god I don't even remember. I honestly shouldn't have opened them, cus I put too much on my plate and I'm still trying to catch up haha. Now that I know I made that mistake, I've steeled myself. I'm Not going to open commissions until all of the poll fics are done. Even once they're done, I might not open them instantly cus I want to work with other artists on collaborations and trades.

But rest assured, this year I WILL be opening commissions. I want to write a ton of your awesome ideas (and I'll be happy to take your money hehehe). That being said, I think I'll start using the docs system, where I pick which commissions I want to do. I've gotten so many requests over this last year, that I know I won't be able to do them all. And I'm sure that I work on the commissions I like the most, I should be able to put in even more passion than usual. 

When I do open commissions, I'll notify the patreon first, then my discord and then finally everywhere else. Though applying from the discord or patreon won't make you more likely to be picked and the final deadline will be the same for all. 

Public Daily Prompts

Though I basically spent the entire year writing up prompts, I actually didn't have a single month of prompts like I used to. I really miss doing these monthly prompts. First because of the accessibility, everyone able to push their ideas and picking my favorite ones.There's also a fun challenge aspect to doing one every day, instead of the way I've been doing the monthly prompts. It's pretty tiring, but also very fulfilling. So yeah, I'm definitely planning on doing a month of prompts once all the hubbub is finished.  

Fate of Monthly Patron Polls

The Monthly Patron Polls are a tradition that dates back to the very start of this Patreon. Back when I was just getting into Patreon, I was a sad unemployed lad with way too much time. Patron Polls were my main way of coping, they gave me some sort of purpose when I had none. And some of my Patron Poll stories are my favorite fics of all time. 

That being said, I've started to feel like the monthly polls are dragging me down. It's a lot of responsibility for someone who already struggles finding free time nowadays. Moreover, there's so much more I want to do creatively. I want to try out CYOA fics, I wanna collaborate with other artists. I wanna try different types of fics where I set the concept, but you guys set the characters. I feel like I don't really get enough feedback for the polls. People don't suggest things no more. There's nobody rerequesting anything. I want to do something that adds a little bit more patron interaction, and I feel like monthly patron polls are just not that right now.

For those reasons, I want to hear what you guys think. Should the monthly patron polls go the way of the dodo? Or would they be revitalized once I finish my backlog. There will still be a patron poll tomorrow (since I technically missed December), but I've left a poll below so you guys can vote and lemme know your thoughts. Please leave any comments you have down below as well.

Conclusion

2022 has been one hell of a year for me. In both good and bad ways. I've probably had some of my highest highs and lowest lows. However, now that I've gone through the fire and come out of the other side relatively unscathed, I wanna push myself. I wanna become a better writer. I wanna make cooler and newer things. This is no longer just something I'm doing on the side, I really wanna put the effort and outshine what I've done so far. As usual, I would like to thank everyone for the support so far. You guys have been absolutely amazing. I hope that 2023 I can outdo what I've done so far and really make your investment worth it.