Thursday, October 20th
Oct. 20th, 2011 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinThe Daily Report
I had a blinding headache yesterday, which among other things was made worse when I tried to use my headphones. So I'm starting today with a bit of a "word deficit". I keep finding myself realizing that I've spent most of this month just barely skating by on my production schedule... and then reminding myself that this is not a bad thing.
I'm operating with my tiny, aging netbook in an apartment with three people in it. I've had allergies and headaches to deal with. These are the situations that in the past would have just sent my productivity into a death spiral. This is exactly the sort of situation I had in mind when I was conceiving a schedule that could survive stress, and the fact remains that it is surviving the stress. Just barely making it is still making it.
The possibility remains that I might yet miss a deadline or push something back, but if I do it won't be a regularly scheduled Tales of MU chapter. I have things that can "give" before that.
Today's Tales of MU chapter might be up later than the now pretty typical ~7ish update time, because I'm behind where I expected to be. It might also just end up on the shorter side, which I think will work. Since I started the new production schedule, instead of using 3,000 words for a target to aspire to I've been using 2,000 as a baseline minimum, and I believe I've exceeded it every time. The "short" chapters tend to be 2200-2500 words.
Honestly, I don't think people much notice the length, except on the very long chapters... most of the time when someone comments to say something like "This chapter seemed shorter than normal." or "This one was short, but it was still good.", it's well over 3,000 words. I guess when a story is within the short story range, what's happening in the chapter and how it's written might have more of an effect on people's perceptions of length than anything else.
Anyway, whenever it goes up, today's update is also going to show my new focus in long-term revenue, which is directly encouraging more small contributions from more people. I have a good solid core of supporters who don't mind paying $5 or so a month to keep reading Tales of MU or who give even more substantial support regularly or who love pitching in to get the fundraisers up to the next big round number, but I feel like there's a lot of room to grow in the "pocket change" demographic, in the, "Yeah, that chapter was cool, have a buck." market. I think I just need to make it easier for that to happen. The set-your-own-price stuff has its advantages, but layers of complexity might turn off casual/impulse tippers.
State of the Me
Headache's gone. Allergies are about the same as they have been. My throat is still pretty scratchy, though my nose is much better.
Dreams From Last Night
Involved the ground beneath Manhattan being pumped full of buoyant gas so that it ended up floating off up into the sky, being tethered in place by massive steel cables.
Plans For Today
The first thing I did today is write a flash story, which brings me to 7 for the month. "Every three days" seems more and more likely for the eventual Fantasy In Miniature schedule. Of course, it's possible that once I've been doing it for longer (and once I'm doing it during a month with more ideal circumstances) I'll pick up speed and be able to bump it up to every other day, but no predictions or promises there.
For the rest of the day, I've got a chapter to finish. I did get a thousand word start on it yesterday, which is enough for me to be confident I can finish it today.
I had a blinding headache yesterday, which among other things was made worse when I tried to use my headphones. So I'm starting today with a bit of a "word deficit". I keep finding myself realizing that I've spent most of this month just barely skating by on my production schedule... and then reminding myself that this is not a bad thing.
I'm operating with my tiny, aging netbook in an apartment with three people in it. I've had allergies and headaches to deal with. These are the situations that in the past would have just sent my productivity into a death spiral. This is exactly the sort of situation I had in mind when I was conceiving a schedule that could survive stress, and the fact remains that it is surviving the stress. Just barely making it is still making it.
The possibility remains that I might yet miss a deadline or push something back, but if I do it won't be a regularly scheduled Tales of MU chapter. I have things that can "give" before that.
Today's Tales of MU chapter might be up later than the now pretty typical ~7ish update time, because I'm behind where I expected to be. It might also just end up on the shorter side, which I think will work. Since I started the new production schedule, instead of using 3,000 words for a target to aspire to I've been using 2,000 as a baseline minimum, and I believe I've exceeded it every time. The "short" chapters tend to be 2200-2500 words.
Honestly, I don't think people much notice the length, except on the very long chapters... most of the time when someone comments to say something like "This chapter seemed shorter than normal." or "This one was short, but it was still good.", it's well over 3,000 words. I guess when a story is within the short story range, what's happening in the chapter and how it's written might have more of an effect on people's perceptions of length than anything else.
Anyway, whenever it goes up, today's update is also going to show my new focus in long-term revenue, which is directly encouraging more small contributions from more people. I have a good solid core of supporters who don't mind paying $5 or so a month to keep reading Tales of MU or who give even more substantial support regularly or who love pitching in to get the fundraisers up to the next big round number, but I feel like there's a lot of room to grow in the "pocket change" demographic, in the, "Yeah, that chapter was cool, have a buck." market. I think I just need to make it easier for that to happen. The set-your-own-price stuff has its advantages, but layers of complexity might turn off casual/impulse tippers.
State of the Me
Headache's gone. Allergies are about the same as they have been. My throat is still pretty scratchy, though my nose is much better.
Dreams From Last Night
Involved the ground beneath Manhattan being pumped full of buoyant gas so that it ended up floating off up into the sky, being tethered in place by massive steel cables.
Plans For Today
The first thing I did today is write a flash story, which brings me to 7 for the month. "Every three days" seems more and more likely for the eventual Fantasy In Miniature schedule. Of course, it's possible that once I've been doing it for longer (and once I'm doing it during a month with more ideal circumstances) I'll pick up speed and be able to bump it up to every other day, but no predictions or promises there.
For the rest of the day, I've got a chapter to finish. I did get a thousand word start on it yesterday, which is enough for me to be confident I can finish it today.