Patreon Launch

The first time I remember exploring creativity was when I was in early primary school. I remember it was the house we lived in when I was in grades 1-3, but not the exact year it was. There was a thunderstorm raging and I wrote a story to make myself feel better. This house had a doorbell that would ring before the next lightning strike. 

 

 

 

The story reads:

Storm Storys

A storm has started and you are on your way home from a school trip. You are sitting on the top of a double decker bus. Lightning is striking thunder is rumbling and everyone is screaming. (Ahhh!) Your bus has stopped under cover. The bottom part has to get off first. Finally it is time for you to get off. You will be staying there until the storm is over. Some of them brought games down. They brought lots of games down. Almost everyone brought games down. They played and played. At last it stopped. Everyone got on. After an hour, you were back at school. The end.

 

Also, note how I gave myself an A+ for the story – back yourself! 

 

 

Update: I no longer have a Patreon. No need to read the rest of this page. I’m keeping this post published because I love the story I shared!

 

 

I don’t think I’ve ever stopped trying to be a creative since. Yes, trying, because I don’t feel complete. But being complete isn’t necessary. Who is ever complete? As you can probably guess from the title of the post, this is the focus of my Patreon page, which I’m formally “launching” today. 

 

What is Patreon?

It’s a monthly subscription service that allows you to directly fund and support my work. In my context, it’s Netflix for the creative part of my brain, only not as terrifying because you can’t actually see what goes on in my brain. Though to be honest, last weeks post was a cut down version of my brain. There are different tiers (amounts) you can choose from. Each come with a different set of rewards. My tiers and rewards are: 

 

 

$1 ($AUD1.50) or more per month gets you:

• my endless gratitude 
• access to all patreon-only content

 

 

 

 

 

 

$5 ($AUD7) or more per month gets you:

• my endless gratitude 
• access to all patreon-only content
• a social media shout-out

 

 

 

 

 

$10 ($AUD14) or more per month gets you:

• my endless gratitude 
• access to all patreon-only content
• a social media shout-out
• a handwritten postcard

 

 

 

 

 

 

$20 ($AUD27.50) or more per month gets you:

• my endless gratitude 
• access to all patreon-only content
• a social media shout-out
• a handwritten postcard
• All books released while you’re on this tier – for free, on release day

 

 

 

 

I actually feel a little guilty about how my Patreon is set up, but not out of a “can’t dare to earn money online” kind of way. You see, I’ve been supporting a few things on Patreon for a while now … but from my an account set up in my personal email address. Then I started a creator Patreon account in my blog email address, and then learned you can’t merge them. And it’s too much effort to manually unsubscribe and resubscribe so… yeah. I started my own Patreon because I already use the system to support creators, but that’s invisible to people. Such is life?

 

Things I post about on Patreon:

• Creativity
• Writing
• Feelings and struggles about the two things above
• Monthly Creative Contemplations – what has creativity looked like for me that month?
• Learning to draw – because we don’t often see what a beginner looks like. I don’t know if I’ll ever get better. Maybe not. It’s not going to stop me from learning and exploring though.

 

A few years ago I realised that while I am not always consistent with everything in life, I’ve always stuck with blogging. And written online. But the story above goes to show you (well, mostly to remind myself, actually!) that it is writing itself that has been a consistent factor in my life.

 

What’s in the future for my Patreon?

Well, my first fiction book will be released on Patreon, chapter by chapter. I took a break from it after NaNoWriMo 2020, so I need to look at it again and maybe fill in some of the bits where I’ve written notes to myself along the lines of {oh crap does this world have x technology?}. Because that’s how I do NaNoWriMo – get it out, make notes where I need to return to things later.

 

I have other plans but need to learn more about the Patreon platform to see if I can use it that way/what the best way to deliver them will be. 

 

And that’s me, today. 

Become a Patron!