Pausing the Patreon indefinitely

Hey all. This announcement really should have been made earlier to give everyone a proper heads-up, but I was constantly debating about when the best time would be. I’ve realized now I really should have done this earlier; at the time, I underestimated how low my output would be.

Unfortunately, I’ve made the decision to pause the Patreon for the foreseeable future. All tiers will be paused; commission tiers will not bank any additional words, and there will be no story uploads until the Patreon is unpaused. I do not know exactly how long this pause will last, but I would assume the rest of the summer season.  When the Patreon is about to unpause, I will make another announcement so patrons can be as ready as possible for payments to proceed.

This month, I failed to get an upload ready in time. I apologize for the delay. A few selections are complete or near-complete, but are missing revisions that have left them unable to be posted. As I think most of us know, my schedule for the past while has been to have one upload per month; to make-up for this missing upload, I will upload two stories in the first month the Patreon resumes.

The Patreon is being paused due two primary factors. One, I’ve simply become creatively drained; I do not get fulfillment from writing, the thought of writing stresses me out, and I’m just plainly tired of this schedule I currently have. Two, I’m very behind on my words owed for the commission tiers, which compounds the previous point; in total, I have approximately 70k words owed across a number of patrons – some of whom aren’t even patrons anymore, yet have been owed words for that long.

To fix my first point, I’m going to be taking a much-needed break from writing. I’ve often been able to force myself through writer’s block, something I’d usually pride myself on being able to do, but this is definitely worse than just a case of writer’s block. I genuinely feel no spark or interest in wanting to write; it fully feels like a job that I’m no longer happy doing. Writing is still a talent I hold dear, but my passion has faded. I’m going to be taking a rest and staying away from writing a bit, during which time I hope to rekindle my passion and return with renewed vigor. I’d like to spend more time reading; I’ve often said before that I actually don’t read pretty much at all, but I think being a reader rather than a writer sounds good for my mind right about now.

To fix my second point, I’ll be focusing on catching up on this backlog of words, whenever I do get back into the spirit of writing. One of the most daunting parts about my current schedule is that for every word I don’t write, it gets added up into a future part of my schedule, as the next month will add a new amount of words to the bank for each patron. I hope to keep this outrageous 70k amount from growing any larger by pausing the Patreon, and using as much time as necessary to catch up as much as possible, without worrying about each month stacking more words to what I owe. To my patrons that I owe so many words to: I’m very sorry for these delays. You expect better from a writer that calls themselves high-quality.

And really, my entire audience deserves better. You’ve supported me so much, yet I’m slow on uploads, fail to maintain perks, and allow myself to get so far behind on the work you pay me for. I’ve been granted an incredible amount of patience from people, and I hope that patience continues as I try to clean up my act.