Variety May Be The Spice of Life, But It Is Often Too Risky (As a Creator)

There is a cycle I've gone through several times as an author, and it sneaks up on me every time. In short, when I first get a new job, or enter a new niche, it's thrilling, exciting, and I have fun with it. Whether it's writing short stories, putting together newspaper articles, or working on TTRPG supplements, there's always a period in the beginning where it feels good to flex the creative muscles to accomplish a new task. Then the check comes, and it validates all of the effort I put in, giving me the fuel to get up and do it all over again.

With that said, though, it's really hard to keep doing the same thing day in, day out, with no changes in sight. And while it's an uncomfortable topic, I wanted to broach it today, because it's something that affects all of us who create professionally, and we're often not allowed to talk about it without sounding like we're ungrateful. However, I want to remind everyone that if you're doing the work, you have the right to complain. Period.

And this is something we ALL have to grapple with.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

The Grind, and "The Muse"

Have you seen the ARG from Happy Meat Farm? Well, in stage two this mysterious company that's conducting bizarre experiments started reaching out to various YouTubers with "sponsorship" opportunities. Those who accepted at first seemed to be doing great thanks to a strange "muse" who started dictating their content to them. While these creators were making money and getting the numbers they needed, most of them felt this was not the direction they wanted to go with their channels. The content was too socially engineered, too filled with clickbait, and too creatively hollow, even if it was paying the bills. In time these mysterious muses seemed to murder the creators, leaving clones of them behind who happily toed the line, delivered the content they were told to, and had no ambitions to do something other than what their corporate masters told them to.

Game Theory had a great video on it, in case you didn't see it.

What does this have to do with this week's topic? Well, everything, since you ask.

Because artists of all kinds (writers, YouTubers, audio dramatists, animators, etc.) are stuck living under capitalism the same as everyone else, that means we have to find ways to monetize our skills and abilities to make art that people want to consume. And when we're faced with the option between a project that we think would be exciting and fulfilling, and one that is likely to pay the bills, we often have to go with the latter simply because we cannot afford the former if it turns out the thing we want to make has low prospects for actually keeping the lights on.

And because I can hear throats clearing in the comments, and the future echo of people saying, "Just work on those passion projects in your free time..." you're grossly overestimating the amount of freedom and juice most of us have. Because if an artist has the energy, time, and ability to handle the "pay the bills" projects on one hand, and to work on longer-shot projects that are more fulfilling on the other hand, they do not have a problem.

Most of us, though, have both hands full with pay-the-bills work. We spend all day, every day working on it, and when the day is done we have nothing left except for a couple of fumes in the tank to maybe jot a couple of ideas into a notebook, or maybe sketch a concept or two. We simply cannot do more than that because there are only so many hours in the day, and only so many actions your brain can take before the quality of your output degrades, or your brain simply refuses to do more.

What Can Help Avoid This Problem?

The best solution would be the fall of capitalism so that artists could just make art without having to worry about the twin threats of starvation and homelessness if they don't make a certain amount of sales/reads/views every month. Failing that, though, the best practical solution would be if folks listened to the advice that Mat Pat gives at the end of that video about the muses and the Happy Meat Farms ARG.

In short, when a creator you like tries something new, or does something different, audiences should support them if they want to encourage them to keep making things. You aren't obligated to automatically love everything a creator makes, but if their new book, new podcast, new show, etc., seems like something you wouldn't normally go for, give it a try. See if you like it, and do all the things a creator needs from their audience to keep them moving forward (buy copies, make donations, share stuff on social media, read articles, watch videos, and so on).

Numbers matter, and the easiest way for you to help the creators you love avoid burnout is to make sure they have enough money on-hand that they can try new things, or that experimenting with a new format, new genre, etc., isn't going to land them on the street because they didn't pull in a certain amount of sales, views, etc. Because if the only thing that ever gets support is one type of content, then that's all a creator can afford to make if they don't want to come up short at the end of the month.

Getting Personal About This Problem

The reason I wanted to talk about this topic is that it's been creeping up on me for a while now, and a lot of the time I want to use this platform (small as it is) to talk about issues I'm facing as a professional. Especially if they're issues that other writers might consider personal failings, or just try to endure because they don't want to be seen as complaining too much.

A soldier's privilege is to grumble, though, and we're all mercenaries here.

Folks who are familiar with my work know that the bulk of my output these days is tabletop RPG supplements, which typically take the form of some kind of numbered list. Whether it's more general supplements like 100 Fantasy Professions (That Aren't "Adventurer") and 100 Knightly Orders For a Sci Fi Setting, or more specific ones like 100 Shadow Names (And Their Meanings) for Mage The Awakening, that format is the dominant one.

And the reason is because that's the product that sells. Full stop.

I would love to write more short fiction, like what I did for the Werewolf: The Apocalypse collection Tales From The Moot, or even more free stories like 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Cthulhu Mythos Edition. I'd love to write more novels like my sword and sorcery book Crier's Knife, and I wouldn't even mind putting together additional gaming modules like my recent piece The Price of Iron where players take on a dark fey threat in the middle of a major city. I've also been steadily releasing content for an entire fantasy setting titled "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age," and I've been putting out audio dramas for over a year now.

At the end of the day, though, what moves copies is numbered lists of random stuff. So that is what always takes priority.

What brought all of this to something of a head for me is "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic". This RPG is on Kickstarter for one more week, and though we've met our minimum funding goal, I was really hoping to at least make it to the first stretch goal. This game has been several years in the making, and it's nearly been killed twice in pre-production. I have all kinds of plans for expansions, additional rules, new enemies, and all manner of ridiculous, tongue-in-cheek nonsense for it... but I need folks' help to make that a reality.

Because I think this game has a lot of potential... but it's going to be really hard for me to actually explore that potential (and create more content for it) if I have to devote a majority of my time and energy to writing even more supplements for other genres, other game lines, etc. because those are what pay my bills.

If you could back this KS, I would really appreciate it. If you can't, or if you already have, please help me spread the word about it so we can reach more fresh sets of eyeballs. And if you're reading this article in the future after the campaign is over, consider searching for Army Men on Drive Thru RPG, and getting yourself a copy... hopefully future me got the support he needed to write some of those extra expansions I've got in my notes!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!