What's Next For Space Camp? (Patreon)

(This is a cross-post from the Erika Moen Patreon.)

Ok, so like.

I finished the first draft of LETTERS FROM SPACE CAMP. You all know that because you're here and I assume you already looked at the comics I have to offer. Or, wait, should I have assumed that?

Recap:
Letters From Space Camp is my memoir about going through the Intensive Outpatient Program for mental health at my local hospital when my brain was well and truly broke. Over the course of my 162 page first draft, I chronicle my experiences in the program, share the mental health education I learned, and make a couple dumb jokes.

I was thinking I'd bang out this first draft by transcribing (via unpolished comics) the notes and journals I kept at the time without making some kind of overview first or reading over all my notes and then picking out the parts that would best make a cohesive story.

My plan was to pump out this first draft and then give it to my agent. I figured I'd still have to produce one nicely-finished chapter showing what the final art would look like for potential publishers and then my agent would just shop around the polished sample chapter and my 162 page first draft till she found me a company that would be like "WHAT. Hold the phone. HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU ACCEPT FOR THIS MASTERPIECE? Whatever number you're thinking, WE'LL DOUBLE IT. QUADRUPLE IT. You want a pony? WE'LL GIVE YOU A PONY. Just tell us what to offer you so you'll grant us the honor of turning this into a finished book." and then I'd be like "That's ERIKA spelled with a K" as I gestured towards their open checkbook.

Then, with the (generous, pony-filled) advance the publisher paid me, I'd get crackin' on revising the first draft into something more streamlined and, you know, publishable. The revision process would probably take a year, I estimated.

Instead, my agent told me that my first draft needed revision before she sent it out to publishers and that I'd need to write up an outline for it. (TOTALLY REASONABLE!!!) ...And also... the publishing industry isn't doing so hot right now so I should lower my expectations for the kind of money I may be offered and also-also the field is pretty well saturated with 30something-white-woman-talks-about-her-mental-health books so it'll be a harder sell overall.

Oh.

I gave myself the month to put together an outline and start cracking into revisions. Matt even dove in and mocked up his own outline for me, just to have a jumping-off point.

And.

Instead.

I did nothing.

The month swam by the second month is slipping away just as quickly and I just... haven't even opened up the Space Camp folder in my Dropbox.

Which brings us to right here, right now.

Ok. Here we go.

You're going to help me get over this wall.

It's Friday, Nov. 18th.

Two weeks from now, Friday, Dec. 2, I will post my outline here [on the Erika Moen Patreon], to you.

It may be super rough, it may not be in good enough shape to show my agent, but, by god, I'll put together something and I'm gunna be accountable to you.

There, see? It's on my calendar. That means I have to start working on it.

Thanks, guys.

I needed that.

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(This was a cross-post from the Erika Moen Patreon.)