So – if you’re here, you’ve noticed the change in my blog’s appearance and the sudden disappearance of my sidebar pages. There’s no more separation amongst my past works because I’m working on a project that will take one year to complete (maybe 13 months, if I participate in 2019’s Nanowrimo Challenge). All of my works can now be read through the “All Writing” page, which will present my stories from the most recent to the oldest (I don’t recommend reading them in that order, however, because my writing has improved over the last three years significantly).
Making that commitment is a pretty big deal – and if you read my stuff – you probably want to know more than what I’ve shared on the main page of my blog. Project 52? Title Pending? Financial Backing? January 2019? That’s a lot of information that is really vague.
In response to those silent questions you’re not asking me, I’m going to give you three more bits of information about what this project is going to look like and what I’m hoping to accomplish with it.
1. 52 Weeks, 12/13 Months – Regular Posting!
With this new project, it is my plan to post every week. Weekly stories work best for the kind of life I am leading right now, and I felt the most fulfilled with my writing when it was cohesive, as I was doing when I abruptly stopped my “Writing the World” project. My plan with this project is for every post to belong to the same universe and the same characters. This project will follow the same two characters from the beginning to the end with a plot.
Right now, I’m looking at six posts per month. There will be a weekly story that you can read in the format that you would expect, however, there will be biweekly posts as well that are meant to read as transcripts. It will be similar to that of a script for a film or television show, or perhaps a hearing in court. I don’t want to explain much further because it could give away the specifics, and we’re not close enough to January 2019 for that level of hype yet.
I’m committed to this project and have already started planning the “introduction posts” that will premiere the main characters and hook readers into their stories. The excitement I feel is scary awesome and I simply cannot wait to share this story with you! It is going to be so much fun to create!
2. Love & Loss
Without giving too much away, this project is going to deal with grief, primarily, and the healing power of love when a loss has been suffered. Death is something that has always plagued my life, it seems, and with my father having passed away earlier this year, this is a topic that keeps popping up in everything I write – this struggle of loss.
Loss can be experienced in many different ways, of course, and it’s a feeling that everyone can relate to in some way. We as a people lose things that we love, lose things that we care about, and that makes my potential audience very large. I like that idea because I want to craft characters that people can read about and “see” in the mirror. Good storytelling always comes back to good characters, and good characters make readers keep reading.
As for the romantic aspect of the story, while it will be a secondary plot, I have always believed that love heals. Finding the love you have in the world, be it something you love doing, or someone loving you, or loving someone else, it gives you something to hold on to and enjoy. Finding love can be the difference between falling apart when grief is overwhelming or rising above and wielding that grief to achieve more in your life. It is my intention to showcase that in this project.
3. Financial Backing for Creators
I watch a lot of YouTube because I am broke. I don’t want cable, but I couldn’t afford it even if I wanted it. My television is cheap, cheap, cheap. Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll, YouTube, Prime TV – free or cheap. As such, I watch a good number of YouTuber’s content that is heavily paid for and sponsored through Patreon.
Many people in my life have done Kickstarters to fund a project or get a project started. Other people have utilized GoFundMe to raise money for families and organizations in need where I live and work. These platforms give people and companies with good intentions who have befallen hard times an opportunity to succeed.
And, despite my continuously saying that we’re fine, we can afford to just scoot by until I’m traditionally published, that’s – just – not – true. I’m going to breaking my back to keep this schedule, which is fine, but I’m ready for my writing to support me. For this reason – I’ve got a Patreon account set up and waiting for the launch day to arrive. I haven’t decided if I’ll launch the week before I roll my project out or a week after some of the content has come out, but it’ll be launched.
The idea is that if Project 52 grows and captures the hearts of readers, then maybe I’ll be able to go back to working one job – and then maybe I’ll be able to do this full time! Writing and working from home will allow me to more efficiently and effectively pursue traditional publishing for my Nanowrimo novels, and create a brand that includes ALL OF US, since, at the end of the day, I write so that we can feel connected. If I relate to this, and you relate to this, then we have found our common ground. It brings us together and puts us on a level playing field in this crazy arena we call ‘life.’
With any luck, the Patreon won’t scare anyone off, and will also, maybe, hopefully, work…
Thanks for reading this update, thanks for being here. I’ll share more sometime next week to talk more about what I want to accomplish with this project and why I think it matters enough to be read by others. Until then, please remember
You are loved.
Yours always,
–ab
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