Change to Bonus Pairings/Bad Ends/Other Tiers

Hello, my lovelies!

So, this is a little tricky to say. A few years ago, in a fit of hyperfocus/hypomania, I overextended drastically and started giving myself far, far more work than I could reasonably complete. It's gotten to a point where I need to scale things back or there's a serious chance I'll have to shut things down for mental health reasons.

As such, starting February, I will be writing Bad Ends and Bonus Pairings less regularly. A few other tiers have been changed as well--see below for more information!

To Explain Further

It came in bursts. I'd have slumps punctuated by periods of hyperproductivity--valleys and mountains--and when I was on the mountains, I'd be on top of the world, and I'd take on even more work. "Hey, sorry I missed a Bonus Pairing. Next month I'll give you two Bonus Pairings!" And then the slump would hit, and I would regret everything.

I've been cutting back everywhere. Believe it or not, I'd love to be able to finish Intrepid Pawns before the year's end! Bonus Pairings and Bad Ends are basically the two most irregular and high-workload Patreon perks I offer. When I started on them, I wasn't getting many or even any commissions, and balancing them with the series was relatively easy.

Here's a fun fact: It is often much easier to write one 18k story than two 6k stories when your productivity comes in bursts.

Bonus Pairing Changes

From now on, starting February, a new Bonus Pairing will be written once every three months, instead of monthly, and follow a "tournament" model. Polls will continue to be monthly. Here's an examine of how it will work:

February, we'll have a requests post and a "first bracket" poll for them, picking 2-4 finalists.

March, we'll have another requests post and a "second bracket" poll for them, picking 2-4 more finalists.

April, we'll have a third poll, pitting the February/March poll finalists against each other. There'll be one winner and one runner-up--the runner-up gets a flashfic written for it. The requests post for the first bracket of the next BP will be posted in April, but the poll for it won't be held until May (and the second bracket in June, and the final poll in July, etc).

Bad End Changes

This is a simpler change. Basically, sometimes I don't have enough new stories to give Bad Ends for in a given month, so instead of it being monthly, starting this February, it's going to be "every five suitable stories I post, I post a Bad Ends poll" from now on.

This will save me from having to make up wacky Bad Ends for tiny flashfics or stories that already end with Bad Ends or individual chapters of a single series. I'll be able to wait until some stories have emerged that I have good Bad End ideas for.

As a bonus, I'll only be obligated to post a poll when I'm already being pretty on top of things by default. :P

Flashfic Changes ($13+ tiers)

Currently, at the $20+ tier, you're entitled to request one small flashfic per month, and I'll add it to a slow-paced queue. This is less a change so much as making it official: I'm no longer going to be making a post for this tier every month. Instead, those pledging at $20 and above will be prompted by private message each month, and can message me themselves if I forget.

I will also be removing the $13 "vote on which flashfic comes first" perk, at least for the time being. $13 pledgers will otherwise be unaffected.

Basically, I just need a little less bookkeeping in my life.

Misty Lounge Regular Changes ($25+ tiers)

While the Misty  Lounge Gamebook is something I eventually want to get to, it's very far backburnered and I won't be getting to it for the foreseeable future. It's a lot of work for very little reward. Morning Sprints just don't match my use of the Alphasmart (which is all offline, after all), so I can't offer those, either. I will be Unpublishing this tier for the time being.

Overall, I feel certain these changes will really help me. January will proceed as normal with polls and the like, and $25 pledgers will be refunded just for the sake of fairness.

See you Friday!

Oh, also, I'm going by Lorelei now, instead of Nicole! GigglingGoblin still works best, of course. ;)