What's up? Don't actually look up. Someone wrote gullible on the ceiling.

ANYWAY! Look at that, I'm practically doing monthly Journals now! The title's ominous, so let's get on with the goal here.

As I'd like to imagine, many of you might be familiar with my current state from the previous Journal. I've been balancing quite a bit lately outside of just work and drafting personal stories, that much I can say. I'm eager to state that I've finally started actually drafting some first pages for one of my own stories I look forward to sharing more about down the line. Possibly within this year, but I wouldn't put it past me that perfectionism pushes that to 2027 instead. Some friends may have heard bits and pieces for characters or contents, so they're the ones who know the most right now. And if any of you leak a DAMN thing... I know exactly WHO I shared WHAT to... long glare emoji.

So, tests. What a stupid word. It almost sounds like that other one for balls. Haha. Balls. I'm hilarious. Right, but, WHAT am I testing, you might be thinking. Well, my dear reader, the answer to that... is I'm taking ANOTHER crack at how I handle commissions!

"Christ Almighty, Derpy. You've done this at least six times now."

Nine. Nine times. I counted it. Obligatory sex joke here.

While I pride myself at the amount of time I DO have open, I want to be mindful of what I can do with that. On top of that, lately, I've been feeling like I'm not pushing myself far out there in the creativity bubble while working on my standard commissions that I'd like to have a go at something that gives me more freedom to get wacky or surprise a client with a result they'd like to somewhat guarantee. Not in a gamble, just in that they're getting the general premise of what they want but with my spin on things instead of spending an hour going back and forth to finalize an entire outline.

Is this just my way of saying I spend more time discussing and trying to get everything settled with the client rather than actually WORKING on the stories I make? Well, I think you can judge the average person I deal with by how often I need to clarify that I need both a platform for communication and an email for invoicing by the fact I had to edit that section a total of 16 times.

NO SHADE TO Y'ALL! I'm just... incredibly surprised. Dunno what forms or all you guys fill in that make you do what you did, but I know I'm having a crisis on the average person more than I usually do.

This is all to say that I am going to be trying out Vignette Commissions as my main option for the remainder of this, and the coming month. Just to see how I feel about it and if it's any better than what I'm used to with the other option. I think this is a positive outcome to begin with since it's a much cheaper option anyway. I want to be mindful of how much I'm earning now since I actually have a job that allows me to not scrounge up change in my home for a bag of chips and all. Considering the state of the world as well... I think €25 for 2K words is a fair amount with the guarantee of getting your general keywords in there.

That's about all there is to be said for this one. I'd appreciate thoughts or feedback if possible, since that's always a handy thing when it comes to developing and building. Talking like I'm some programmer, but I think y'all have a good enough mental image that I am just not satisfied with what I am doing until someone whispers a positive affirmation.

Fishing for attention much?
Derpy