It’s been far too long since I’ve done one of these. Maybe that’s why I feel nervous and pent up
right now.
I feel kind of bad about ranting like an idiot about this,
but given that I’ve been rather short on topics outside of the couple video
games I’ve been playing lately, it’ll do until something better comes along.
At first, I was going to make this another post about my
Patreon, but on reflection, it occurred to me that there’s actually something
I’d been wondering for years, well before the concept of sites like Patreon
came along. Further, it occurred to me
that regardless of my attempts at participating in such things in some form or
another, this is something I really need to get out there. And yes, even though it’s about my own work,
I’m not going to beg for donations. At
least not right now.
I may have, on several occasions, mentioned that I’ve been
sharing works of various sorts online for quite a while; since high school,
really, when I was posting fan fiction to America Online’s Cartoons Forum. Generally speaking, these were things that I
was doing, mostly writing, because it was something that I enjoyed doing.
I wrote fan fiction about the Saturday morning version of
the Sonic the Hedgehog because I enjoyed the show and had a story idea or two I
wanted to share. There were Star Trek
elements in them because I was, and still am, really, a Star Trek fan.
It’s the same way with the other franchises I’ve done
stories for: Babylon
5, Doctor Who, and Mystery Science Theater, to name a few. All interesting shows, all that gave me ideas
that I thought were good enough to try making my own stories out of.
I also did movie reviews on occasion. Sometimes it’s been fairly regular, other
times not so much. I did those because
they were movies I wanted to see, and thought that maybe others would enjoy my
thoughts on them.
Somewhere along the way, I decided it might be interesting
to try my hand at video in spite of really not having a very good setup for much
beyond a cheap webcam set on top of my monitor.
In part because I’m not especially confident in regards to my voice and
appearance, I didn’t put much into practicing.
I’ve done pre-recorded stuff and live stuff, much in the same manner as
the movie reviews. Sometimes it’s been
on a somewhat regular basis, other times, not so much.
At about the same time, it struck me to have a go at
drawing, as well. I know I’m kind of
crap at it, and unlike the other things people get to see me do, I can say with
almost complete certainty that I probably never will be. The reason for that is simple: when I was a
rather young child, I went through quite a lot of tests that essentially
resulted in my parents, and later me, being told that, due to some muscular
abnormalities, my fine motor control would always be noticeably less than
average. There were other, somewhat more
dire results as well, but that’s a topic for another potential post. Needless to say, though, drawing pictures
would never be something people would say I’m much good at. All the same, though, there came a day when I
bought myself a flatbed scanner and started sharing my art with the world. The reasoning was the same as it had been for
all the writing and audio and video stuff I do: I enjoyed doing it, and I was
going to share it in hopes that others would, too.
And now that I’ve got my usual rambling setup out of the
way, I’d better start getting to the point I thought I’d try to make when I sat
down at my keyboard. See, for virtually,
if not literally (ding!), all the things I’ve ever posted to the various places
I’ve posted them, there have been at least basic, if not downright rudimentary,
statistics for things like views. What
this means is that I know people are looking at what I’m putting out there, be
it something written like this, or a video, or one of the silly little pictures
I try to draw.
So, I know that doing all these things because I like doing
them is a good place to start. There are
always a few people who at least take a moment to read, look at, watch, and/or
listen to just about everything I put out.
It’s good to know that, for a few reasons.
Now, as I said towards the top of this post, I’m not really
going to go out of my way to beg for donations or anything. There’ll be opportunities for that
later. I will say, though, that if
you’re reading this on Blogger and my work is something you want to support, by
all means, feel free to take advantage of the link to my Patreon on the right
side of the page. For the other places
this has wound up, I’ve probably shared the same link a time or two.
What I am going to do here, though, is ask those of you who
do take the time to look at my work what you’d like to see more of if you were
going to support my work. Do you like
reading these things I do where I write about what’s on my mind? Or is it the podcast I do on Tuesdays, when I
have a computer that works properly? How
about the art?
I ask these things because, while I know I’m getting
viewers, hardy any of them say anything about it. In fact, most often, the only way I know I’m
getting any viewers or listeners is by checking whatever stats I’m able to
access.
Since I’m pretty much doing what I like here and getting
virtually no response to it, I’ll try asking outright what people want to see
me do. I’ll listen to and consider all
suggestions on this, even if that suggestion is that I give this “stupid shit”
up and get a so-called “real job” instead.
Please, leave me a comment in the comments section here, or on Facebook
or Twitter. I’d really like some
feedback on all this, just so I know what people want to see, so I can focus on
that and maybe get at least a little bit better at it. Any and all input would be appreciated. Thank you for your time and readership.
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