I like to begin every year with a summary and self reflection on how my writing went the previous year, and 2020 is no different!
The Raw Numbers
According to my meticulously kept spreadsheet, in 2019 I wrote 49,900 words across 16 stories!
(The last two columns are ‘Days To Complete’ and ‘Words Per Day’; I only count days I actually write on, so—for instance—Mutual Satisfaction took most of March to finish, but I only spent 17 of those days writing.)
In contrast, I wrote 51,200 words across 11 stories in 2018. I’m actually surprised that I wrote (slightly) fewer published words last year than in 2018. It feels like I wrote much more, and far more consistently: after I started my Patreon in March, almost every month saw two stories published!
(Unfortunately, some of my best stories are still Patreon-exclusives, while I wait on art!)
One fact that adds to that perception is that I have a ton of unpublished writing fragments that I need to work into fuller stories. I also did a great job consistently writing Patreon-exclusive behind-the-scenes posts, which goes uncounted in this total.
The Reality
All thing said, I’m really proud of how much I wrote this year, and the quality of that work.
One goal of mine was to grow my fantasy world of Azuras, and I feel I succeeded: many of my best stories this year thread the needle between smut and world building, and I’m very pleased with the results. The amazing characters of Karla, Lucia, Korva, Zalas, the Greensea, and Xolotzil all came into existence in 2019, which is a really cool and unique feeling.
A huge development—and frankly, the story that should have opened this post—is that I launched my Patreon in March, 2019. At that time, 19 of my readers took a gamble on me; I’m now up to 40 patrons, which is a huge confidence booster. I can earnestly and honestly say that I write for them: they provide a loyal, committed audience who are invested in my success and who enjoy what I produce. I would not have written what had, when I had, if it weren’t for them.
Areas of Growth
When 2019 opened, I was still reeling from the fallout of Tumblr’s NSFW ban. Tumblr had been the primary venue for my writing, and I had to pivot from that very public and accessible forum to some other way to post and advertise my writing. I’ve followed Tumblr with a combination of Patreon and Twitter, but it isn’t perfect; the public updates on my website have languished, and my Patreon-to-public pipeline is so slow and unpredictable that it’s hard to establish a sense of consistency, which—in my estimation—is a very important quality for an internet creator. Furthermore, Twitter is a fickle social media platform, and tweets have far less reach than you might think.
I dabbled a very tiny amount in science fiction, but my writing has been predominantly fantasy. I think I’d like to write more scifi this year.
I opened commissions for a very tiny window, and was grateful people commissioned stories for my charity initiative. The problem is that I live in an area with an extremely high cost of living, and the price point I need to make my commissioned writing “worth it” (versus spending my creative hobby time on my own projects) is more expensive than the conventional (and super underpriced) cost of commissioned porn writing on the internet. I’ve again opened commissions, briefly and at a lower price point, but it’s mostly as a way of getting my creative juices flowing. I’m not convinced commissions are a sustainable way for me to write.
Finally, the winter is hard for me, creatively. The light change and cold really make it difficult for me to come home from work and dig into the mentally demanding work of writing, and I struggle to produce consistently in these months. That’s something I need to deal with better, both in my writing and in my life.
The Poll Results!
What better way to end this ruminating post than on the results of my recent Patreon polls—what my supporters liked this year!
Longer Stories (over 3,500 words)
Mutual Satisfaction and Technically Good were tied for first place, with Potion Pandemonium and The Mortal Coil tied for second. I’m a little surprised that The Mortal Coil didn’t do better—I felt like it was An Extremely Horny Devi Story—but I think both Mutual Satisfaction and Technically Good were excellent stories that deserved their win. (RIP An Embarrassment of Riches, which is a fun story but which doesn’t bring as much to the table as the more fantasy-focused stories.)
Shorter Stories (under 3,500 words)
Now this poll—this poll totally surprised me. Human Resources, Potion Problems, and Colonial Command 6-22 all finished first; the first two, I get, but the the popularity of the latter totally surprised me. It was mostly scifi worldbuilding and set-up. Do… do y’all like that? And then, two of the year’s oldest and plot-what-plot stories, Sisterhood of the Travelling Boots and Titnosis, came in second! I’m getting all sorts of mixed signals! I’m also a little disappointed to see Siren got no votes; it might be the favorite short story I wrote last year.
Finally:
Zyz Stories
I had to truncate the list in the screen shot, but these are all the stories that received a vote. For once, we had a clear winner: Paladin, a very excellent story about an ambitious ace knight and the eldritch queen she loves. Of them all, Bone Crown was probably my favorite Zyz story, but everything he writes is golden.
Concluding Thoughts
I have two, diametrically opposite goals for this coming year.
- First, I’d really like to begin writing some longer-form stories—not just sequels, but stories that have multiple parts and that let the characters grow and breath in a longer narrative.
- Second, I’d like to write shorter (and probably hornier) scenes, more stories like Sisterhood of the Travelling Boots and Titnosis. I think it would be good practice, and it’s apparently something many of y’all enjoy!
Thank you for supporting me in 2019, and thank you for continuing with me in 2020! I’m eager to show you all what I’m working on next!