December status report
Added 2023-12-10 01:23:38 +0000 UTCAs laid out in my previous update post, I'm in the midst of a big experiment seeking to reconcile my need to put out content with my ongoing mental health struggles. This post is to bring everybody up to speed on my discoveries halfway through, and to solicit some feedback.
The short version is my results have been very mixed. The good news is that this has been fantastic for my mental health. I'm under substantially less stress, my depressive episodes have mostly tapered off, and I feel overall much better. The bad news is my productivity has been completely kneecapped. I've suffered a complete lack of focus and haven't actually written anywhere near as much as I would need to for this to be sustainable over the long term.
I suspect I do need some degree of pressure to meet regular writing goals, so my current challenge is to figure out how to thread that needle. I need to devise some kind of system that's less harsh on me than my previous one, because that one was slowly killing me, but more harsh than my current one is. I need stress for motivation, just...less stress, apparently. I'm having a really hard time coming up with ideas for this, and am open to suggestion.
The experiment will continue for the remainder of the year; I chose to run it for the last two months of 2023 because I have enough chapters, between Hoard and Dysland, to produce updates for that period even if I didn't write a word. That, by the way, is why I didn't take my regular monthly writing break last month, and won't this month either. The monthly week off will return once I'm out of buffer and producing content as I go, but for now, enjoy the extra posts.
The other point about which I wished to solicit opinions is how this new schedule has been received by you, the readers. I think only patrons are allowed to comment here, but feel free to post in my discord server if you have thoughts to share; I value all my readers whether or not they're giving me money directly.
Personally, I'm not very happy with the output... As much as I like the two stories I've been updating, I feel that dividing my focus means neither of them gets put out at what seems to me an acceptable rate. Of course, I knew that would be the case going in, so no surprises there. But now that we've all seen it, I'm interested in opinions.
Thanks for hanging in there, everybody. I appreciate you all, and I hope you're enjoying the stories.
Comments
This. I was also missing posts for some authors and it appeared to be a weird bug in the subscription system. I updated my membership level to whatever the same tier as my old one to "fix" the glitch. Or actually, it was a new tier at the same dollar amount that I switched.
AllenR
2023-12-13 16:41:45 +0000 UTCA few others have already mentioned this but I question whether your productivity has actually kneecapped. You're releasing ~2 chapters a week with this new attempt at less stress schedule, which hasn't felt any less than before, when you'd try to write more and then need to (very understandably!) delay releases for burnout-managing reasons. I have found these last 2 months really fun with surprise notifications of chapters. Especially because they've been so frequent. I think if it was less than 1/week I'd notice the absence, but if this schedule of less stress is helping you, I'd suggest keeping with it. And also please recognise that you have been successfully releasing quite a bit!!
archaeocyathid
2023-12-13 01:52:45 +0000 UTCTwo suggestions, though no idea if they are workable: 1 have a vote once a week (except break weeks) which story to write that week, where you pick the options and tell the voters what you would like to work on. 2 have somebody external who can tell you "that's not cool - how can you do better?" and make an/the above agreement with them
Jacob
2023-12-11 15:08:58 +0000 UTCAs the others are saying, err on the side of less productive less suffering lol. We can wait! And if you're still having trouble mustering the focus, it may be you still need more time to get back to 100%. A common mistake with healing is to think that reaching the point where it's possible to do something means that it's fine to start doing it regularly and can do it without setting yourself back
Shane Andrews
2023-12-11 15:00:42 +0000 UTCYou're likely a Nemitite level peasant like me. I see nothing as well.
Mark Robert Mitchell
2023-12-11 13:43:26 +0000 UTCThat's how it usually is for me, too. Just not for November. I've checked my spam and there's nothing. But I just discovered a weird Patreon bug. If I just go to "Home" on Webbs page, I see this post and the one from end of October announcing a new schedule, but no posts in between. But if I filter the posts by anything and then remove the filters again, all the new chapters are visible.
Benjamin Brünner
2023-12-10 18:38:03 +0000 UTCIf I'm counting correctly, I see 9 chapters in the last month - which is pretty much 2 a week, which is a very decent pace. Pretty sure that's what EE settled on with PGtE. As others said you might just need to make sure people can find a way to see that you are updating multiple stories at once, since a very common theme I've seen from your readers is that if they like one story, they like them all. :-) One other thought - if you need to take time to write drafts of *future* chapters/plot arcs (that can't be posted, and may be subject to change anyway), I think that's fine too and you should just build that into your schedule/expectations. I'm not really talking about a buffer here, I just imagine that with the epic sagas you write, spending time on future planning is probably pretty important.
Lord Haart
2023-12-10 17:39:20 +0000 UTCStrange, I see Webb's posted chapters as posts on their Patreon page and Patreon also emails them to me when they are posted - may want to check your junkmail and redirect them.
Lord Haart
2023-12-10 17:28:36 +0000 UTCTo be honest, I assumed you hadn't managed to write anything since your last update and I would have been completely fine with that. Looking through your Patreon page, it doesn't seem like I missed a post of you, but I also can't find any new material on here. Where would I go to find the most recent things you've written? Can I easily set up an automated notification, if there's an update? My life is a bit stressful at the moment, so I generally rely on Patreon mails notifying me, because I'm likely to forget actively checking for new chapters.
Benjamin Brünner
2023-12-10 09:34:07 +0000 UTCThe current rate of release has been very good (too good?) IMO. Make sure you can sustain what you do. Experimenting seems to have been a very good idea, so I would suggest you continue to try things until you are st s point you are happy with and can sustain?
Aaradur
2023-12-10 08:59:38 +0000 UTCSo I'm not really sure how this looks off patreon, but regarding new readers; I think it is important to have some sort of hub webpage that will allow people to see update notifications across all of your stories in one central location. This way a new reader who may be unaware of your other stories gets to see that content is still being produced. As for the overall release pace for me personally? I have over a dozen webnovels I follow up on at any given time, and when I catch up on all of them I find another to binge, so pacing doesn't really bug me in that respect. I usually don't notice unless an author doesn't update anything at all for a month or so.
Devin J Russell
2023-12-10 03:40:00 +0000 UTCI've said it before, I'll say it again - for those of us who are long-term followers of your work, we're just happy you're writing. I'll read anything you write, whenever it happens. And if this schedule means you don't need breaks, or months of to recover, I suspect the average isn't much lower than normal anyway. I do agree with others above, however, that it's probably not great for pulling in new readers, but I don't think there's a good answer there. I think this is the least worst solution - maybe a slowly ramping goal? X chapters in a month then, then x+1, then x+2, etc. until you get a feel for what your limit is, then drop back to the previous target as your comfortable value.
Jesters Ghost
2023-12-10 02:54:41 +0000 UTCI don't mind the lack of focus and not every story update being The Story I Like Most, because I would rather you be writing my fave occasionally in a good headspace than writing it exclusively and slowly dying. I patreonize other writers who are WAY less focused than 'two stories', so this is fine for me.As regards the suggestions, maybe just frame it as getting 'N chapters' written in a given month, and don't commit to that being of any particular ratio across your stories? Means you can work on whichever story you're feeling best with at any given moment.
EMac
2023-12-10 02:08:18 +0000 UTCFrom an outside perspective hard to comment on your output since you have the buffer. As a reader I’ve enjoyed both stories and looked forward to both. Taborask does have a point sbout new subscribers
giom
2023-12-10 01:47:20 +0000 UTCI dont mind you switching stories every week, although I suspect for new readers who aren’t already committed to your writing it is going to be a real handicap. I’d keep an eye on your patreon metrics to see how this impacts new subscribers.
Taborask
2023-12-10 01:27:37 +0000 UTC
