DV: Patreon

Hello world.

It was recently brought to my attention that Christmas is next week. I have most of my gifts picked up, and only about three of them have been bought. This is terrifying because the rest of my gifts are going to be ordered online. Will they ship in time?! The answer is a decisive no. No they will not. So time to re-evaluate? Pick new presents? Admit that they will just be late? I love giving gifts, so this is extremely distressing for me. I have failed at something I love. Forgive me.

Thank you for letting me babble and stress. I have a feeling that most blog posts will start just like this unfortunately. I'll try to keep the personal stuff short, but frantically typing it out provides a kind of catharsis that is too tempting to pass up. I WILL try to make the majority of blog posts about writing/updates/relevant news.

So if you follow me on twitter (which you definitely should) you might have seen that I started a Patreon. I've known about the great guys over at Patreon for a while now, and I've always supported the idea. The idea that people actually make money from it always surprised me, though. Of course, the people that are successful deserve the success as far as I've seen, but it's the goodness of their patrons that surprised me. I am consistently broke. I just got out of college and I have had some medical issues lately. While I want to be in a place where I can support my favorite comic artists and streamers I'm am not there. Yet. If you'll remember from my last post I have a new job. I'm not being launched into six figures, but I can actually start saving. YES. SAVING. The idea is crazy to me, because as soon as I'd tuck some money away in college an emergency would occur. So it's a process. I'm getting there. I will try to put a list of people that I suggest supporting, but until then please look through Patreon. There are some great projects out there.

This blog, author site, whatever you want to call it has been in the works for a while. Dark Valley itself has been fermenting in my mind for almost three years now. I've launched, deleted, and re-launched iterations of this site several times. Yet in all of that time Patreon never seemed like it could be an option for me. I didn't and don't consider myself an artist or contributor. Is it vain to want to change that perception of myself? I am not sure, to be quite honest. Other people are an exception to this, but I am a tough critic of myself. I've built houses for my stories on the internet, painted them bright or moody colors depending on how I was feeling that day, and eventually opened the windows for all to see. But I've torn them down, because I never thought anyone would come inside. As I've said, what does it matter if nobody sees what I've built? I need to return to building things for myself. I need to sand down the edges, because I see that they are rough.

I want to create stories, but I want to create a community as well. I hope that Patreon helps the latter come true. I have big dreams for some of my stories, and I have big stories that have yet to touch the internet because they are too fragile right now. I don't see Dark Valley's final form being a book, though I want there to be a book. I don't see Dark Valley's story being about Den, though she certainly is the main character. I have ideas that seem so much bigger than the world of Dark Valley. I am excited to introduce them to you in one way or another.

Sometimes writing answers my questions, but this is not one of those times. I am still unsure as to whether I can call myself an artist. My knee jerk reaction is to say, "no". I suppose the decision isn't up to me anyways. Or it shouldn't be at least. Here is what I can definitively say about art: Right or wrong, it tends to take the form of a meritocracy.

Another update: Not related to DV, but related to writing. I've opened a new section on the site called "One Shots". As far as I know, this is primarily a Fan Fiction term. I am using it here, though. It may include DV one shots, but it will also include other pieces. I uploaded a very short story today. A choppy story about an anxious young man, that in many ways is based on parts of myself. I wrote this a while back in the winter. It was a good time in my life, but that only served to act as a foil for how bad things had been. My thoughts ran through many filters and "Thereabouts" is what came out. I hope you enjoy.

P.s. An interesting piece of introspection: While writing this I didn't underline Dark Valley once. I forced myself to go back and do it. I think this speaks volumes as to where my head is at.

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