Promptober's On Hold

Current Mental State

I have 6 prompts left to go for the month, and 2 days to get them done. I'm knee deep in an editing gig, I'm driving my mother to surgery and a follow-up appointment over the next 2 days, and it's Halloween. Suffice to say I'm not finishing before the end of the month unless I really phone it in. And I'd rather wait to produce something decent than hit an arbitrary deadline with creations that fall short of my own expectations.

Cranking out 25 of 31 prompts isn't a bad thing, but it's not the full challenge. Still, that's 25 things that didn't exist before I signed on. I'm mostly sticking with a fantasy setting, which makes some of the prompts more challenging. I'm probably going with another piece of futuristic fiction for Found Footage, though. Stay tuned.

Paying work wins the competition for my attention at the moment. I've been out of work since early April. Between the generosity of family and the unexpected severance package that arrived at the beginning of October, we'll be OK through the end of the year, barring unforeseen calamities. I've got a solid prospect for a remote contract gig that should keep the lights on, but the interview got pushed out to sometime in November. Hopefully it comes through without disappearing like so many other positions have done recently.

Fingers crossed, folks.

Why am I not striking out to make and edit on my own? I don't have a solid community at the moment. I've got a few places to hang out, and I'm thinking in that direction, but building bridges and helping others out takes time. 

I wanted to publish something every month starting this summer, and October will be the first month I haven't done so since June. (Shout out to game jams on Itch.) Promptober filled my creative time this month, and I've still got a few larger games to write. I'll get back in the publishing saddle for November and get something finished.

But again, producing things without an audience is merely an exercise in building a back catalog. It's not useless, but it's not producing the steady income that modern life requires. And replacing a senior-level IT salary with Pay What You Want zines will take a hell of a ramp-up. Not this year, and probably not the next few years. But it might happen with enough attention. Just not with DriveThru in the mix taking their pound of flesh.

Enough rambling. Off to bed for more editing and chauffeuring tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, y'all.