On the first day back at work this year, which was 3 January, it was a Wednesday. Over the holidays I had decided that I was going to take Wednesdays off this year in order to work on creative projects that would stretch me, that would function as professional development, that would nourish me creatively in some way.
I faced the most insane debate with myself that first day. I very literally stood stock-still in my living room, asking myself, Do I do this, or not?
I’m a workaholic, frankly. I love to work. All else being equal, I will choose to work over going to a party. All else being equal, I will choose to work over doing just about anything – and have even chosen work over sex. (Well, you know, if we’re going to be honest with each other…)
Which means that not going back to work, after a few weeks off in which I generated loads of new ideas and thoughts about what I could do, was an agonising decision.
But I did it.
I worked on myself, instead.
I started this Patreon community the same day.
I launched it on Twitter, and by the end of the week most of you guys were already patrons.
Can you believe it’s been a whole year?
Over the course of the year, I have learned:
- How to safeguard my creative time, and why it’s so important
- That I work 1000% more effectively when I take a day off each week to create
- How to structure a story using The Snowflake method
- That I can write creative work I don’t particularly care about, when I have the right structuring methodology
- That developing a Logline – let alone a film! – is one of the most difficult things in the world to do
- That facing the reality of what to do when your story doesn’t work is like going back to Ground Zero and starting again, except after three months of work
- That research is the most fun thing in the whole world and that I wish I’d been an investigative journalist
- That important stories frighten people
- That fewer Australians know their own history than I thought they did
- That business and creation are interrelated
- That ‘earning a living’ doesn’t equate to ‘having a job’
- That people would rather pay to be entertained than informed
- That I can make my work visible, even though I’m not a painter, or a photographer, or a maker in a physical sense
- That I love the community that creating things brings together
- That when you work fewer days per week, your business gets more efficient simply because it has to
- That you can do the same amount of work in fewer days per week (thanks, Pareto!)
- That being firm about your own life in the face of a scattered, fuzzy, let’s-work-until-we-die culture shocks and amuses people
- That I have fans.
My Patreon patrons, and you guys who read my work, are all my fans. I think to hang around with me over the course of an entire year is an epic effort, and I want to thank them so much for being here to encourage me to keep going even when I felt like I couldn’t reach, like things were going nowhere, that I am hopeless, and that I couldn’t afford to keep doing it.
I’m not exactly an angst-free kind of creator, even though I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do any drugs, I generally dislike parties, and I go to bed at 9 pm. So, thank you.
I thank my patrons a LOT but I really do mean it.
So what this means is that 2019 is going to continue Wednesdays off every week. In 2019, we’ll see #LeticiaWrites get into an even more stable rhythm, with ever more cool things going on. If you want updates on these days, go join the Telegram channel. That’s where all the action is. 😉
A Special #LeticiaWrites Offer
If you become a patron, or you upgrade your patron tier, before 7 January 2019, you will get:
- A wicked #LeticiaWrites sticker so you can tell the world you’re a supporter
- A thank you pack consisting of a beautiful little card, a handwritten thank you, and one or two other things.
How fun! Here is to a second magic year of creation.
