Writing Update: 03/05/24 (Patreon)

Start of Week: 37,306 / 10,207

End of Week: 35, 433 / 19,740

Change: +7,660

Year to date: 74, 573

Editing this week brought changes to the first two chapters of Book 3, with the Halloween scene shifted to chapter 2, but the story with Michael Connor and then Dan and Anastasia kept in chapter 1. I'm considering Chapter 1 complete now, and am working on the final scene of Chapter 2. I reckon this chapter will finish at around 25-30k in length, depending on how things go with Julia.

It's a very important scene, and one that will signal her stepping away from the story. She'll still be around in the background, of course, but no longer in a central role. I anticipate it's going to be a challenging one to write, and pretty heavy going, so hard to judge how long it'll take. At current writing speed (approx 5k/week) I'd say a week or two, but getting it just right might take a little longer.

Meanwhile, I've started posting the revised chapters to FM. I sent chapter 10 off this morning, so Book One's now complete there, as well.

Looking forward, I've started thinking about what I should do with this Patreon. It's humming along nicely, and grown a bit since I posted everything to TGStorytime, but that's sort of levelled off recently. There was also a fair few short-term subscribers: people who popping for a quid, and I guess read everything? Then left.

And I don't begrudge them that, though obviously I'd prefer it if people hung around. (What would keep them onboard,, any ideas?) And of course, I can't help but gaze with a certain envy at other TG-themed patreons that are happily pulling down far higher sums and membership than I am. No need to retread all this--but still--I'm thinking of shaking things up a little.

Though obviously I don't want to alienate existing members, and my main interest remains simply getting the story out to people.

So, once I've finished chapter two, I'm considering tweaking the membership levels slightly - what do you think?

£1/2 membership level - access to weekly updates every Friday. Should there be more at this level?

£3 - new - Constant Supporter level - access to all things Constant: weekly updates every Friday, sneak peeks on Monday, early preview of completed chapters.

£5 - Patron - all of below, plus access to other fiction: short stories, and other long works in progress. Earlier access to Constant stuff.

Above that? I'm not sure.

Does that seem fair? Any thoughts?

In any case, once I've finished chapter two I'm going to take a little break to actually try my hand at some short fiction - I've been building up a catalog of story ideas, and I've been chomping at the bit for some time to develop a few of them into full stories. A week or two for that, and then onwards to chapter 3.