Good-bye (to one more try-fail cycle)

I always figured I’d someday make a Patreon page. When they announced their rate increase for new creators going forward, it seemed as good a time as any to throw one together before that deadline.

Spoiler: that is not a useful way to approach this sort of thing.

Not that making the page was a mistake–I don’t believe that. Figuring out who I am as a writer and what I want out of this possible career has been an ongoing series of try-fail cycles. And to be frank, I still don’t know what I really want out of a service like a Patreon.

Ok, fine: I want to be paid to write. Yes. But what can I offer that’s worth a subscription and doesn’t keep me from pursuing my other goals? That’s something I still haven’t quite sorted out. The folks who have stuck it out with me have my immense gratitude. They’ve given me encouragement and accountability at times I’ve desperately needed it.

Toward the end of last year, I started suspending the monthly payments to focus more on my kids and my story writing, after the baby reached a stage that allowed for even less writing time. In the months since, my hiatus from Patreon has been an unexpected relief. I was finally able to devote my scant writing time to stories without worrying about meeting that monthly quota. I finally had a break from stressing whether or not what I provided was worth someone else’s money. So I have decided:

In March, I will unplublish my Patreon page.

Maybe someday I’ll come back to it. For now, that’s not where my focus and priorities currently lie.

I’ll still be blogging! This outlet has been nothing but beneficial for my writing as a whole, and I will do my best to post quasi-regularly. My opinions have no end and they love an audience, after all. For those of you subscribed to the site formerly known as M. J. King, the only change will be more posts!

So thank you to you who have joined me on this leg of my writing journey. You mean the world to me. ❤