Normally people do this kind of thing at the very beginning of the new year, when they reflect on the year that’s been and look forward to the challenges they are going to face, but it’s still January so I guess this still counts.
If you scrolled through my blog posts from last year you could be forgiven for thinking that I had a quiet year, that I didn’t get up to much and didn’t have a lot to write about. But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth! Throughout the year I undertook a number of projects which ate up quite a sizeable amount of my time and inevitably led to me neglecting my blog. This I realised recently, is a massive shame as writing stuff for my blog is up there as one of my favourite pastimes.
So what have I been up to that’s so important? Well one of the first things I did last year was to set up my very own Patreon. The intended idea was to run a slew of continuing stories on it that were aimed at a wide audience of people, but keep the price ridiculously low ($1) so that it was accessible to everyone. In theory it was a great idea, but the practicality of it turned out to be something else. I had three differing stories that I tried to update on a monthly basis, while working a full time job that was absorbing my time and at the same time I was penning the first manuscript for a novel I’ve been working on for some time. It all got way too much and before long my content output began to slip.
But fear not because I have no intention of letting my Patreon go to waste. Much in the spirit of this blog, I’m going to be repurposing my Patreon and allowing it to rise from the ashes of its predecessor. Instead of it being a place solely intended for the written word, it will become somewhere that I can share in my hobbies and let my creative side run a little wild. It might take the form of a short story every now and again when the mood takes me, but predominantly I think it’s going to focus on my gaming and hobby interests, with everything they entail. Still all for a single solitary dollar.
The biggest thing, which took up a sizeable chunk of my year was the creation of NerdInc’s very own apparel. It had been an idea I’d had for a number of years, to produce a very small number of t-shirts based around my logo. But I never had the money to start such a venture and so the notion always sat untouched. That was until I was introduced to Kickstarter and I found out how it worked and decided to run my campaign through that. I still can’t believe that I managed to reach my goal. It was a lot of hard work: creating the designs, finding a supplier and then trying to drum up enough business to make sure I reached the goal I needed to fund my project. In the end the whole thing took nearly three months to complete but for me, the end result was worth it. To be able to hold something that I had designed, still feels pretty unreal to think about even now.
But this success led to me being able to open NerdInc Apparel on Etsy so that I could sell off the remaining stock of t-shirts that I had. Feel free to check it out, there’s still plenty left for those that would like one. But even that still feels a little surreal, to be able to search my “brand” on a site like Etsy and have my t-shirts come up. I’m well aware my brand is only tiny but it feels like a step in a direction I never thought possible and that in itself feels like an achievement to me.
So what else have I been up to? After my t-shirts, the next thing actually involved my blog which was a welcome return to a medium I was all too aware I’d been neglecting. In my small hometown of Ossett the big news around August was that the two rival football teams had dissolved and created a new; Ossett United. Now I’ll admit, non-league football had never interested me in the past (too much standing on the side-line in the middle of a field in the freezing cold with not much of a spectacle going on) but it was hard to miss the effect that it was having on the surrounding area and before long I felt compelled to write a piece to celebrate the event. Not wanting to tread on any toes, I contacted the administration at Ossett United to see if they liked the idea and were ok with me using their marketing material in my article. The response I got was more than I could’ve imagined. Not only were they happy for me to write about them and use their material, I was invited down to the ground to watch a game and was gifted a football shirt for the work that I’d done. It was an amazing feeling for me to actually receive recognition for something I’d written and I realised just how much I’d enjoy that on a permanent basis.
At this moment it would be worth pointing out that none, and I mean none, of the projects I undertook last year would’ve come to fruition without the support and guidance of my other half. She was the one that introduced me to both Patreon and Kickstarter, realising that there was potential in the both of them. She encouraged me to get in contact with the chairman at Ossett United (mainly so I didn’t get sued) and she was the one who designed and implemented everything you see on NerdInc’s Etsy store. She’s been amazing over the last year and continues to be so, listening to every crazy idea I have and helping me sift through to those that are worth potentially investing my time in.
Which reminds me, that’s one of the other things I finally completed this year (again thanks to the support from my other half). I finally managed to conclude the first draft of my novel which has been in the works for almost two years now! Ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to write a book and it’s only in the last few years that I’ve been able to nail down an idea that I liked for the plot. Well towards the end of last year, with a massive sigh of relief, I finally completed my first draft. It’s nowhere near the end of the process, cos now I have to edit and make sure the whole thing is legible. But again, it’s a step in the right direction.
So what does the future hold? Well in truth I don’t 100% know? I’ve recently got a new job which means I (inadvertently) have a lot of spare time on my hands that I can devote to whatever I like and that room for freedom gives me the pleasant issue of deciding what I’d like to try and pursue. One of the more important things for me, is to try and refocus my efforts on my blog and to expand my readership. I’m not going to promise that there’ll be weekly updates or anything like that, but I will return to my blog with renewed vigour, to write about the things I really want.
The next thing will be to do a similar kind of job on my Patreon. To transform it into the hobby gaming hub that people can come to for guides, editorials, game reports and maybe even the occasional piece of fiction. It’ll be on me to try and organise myself so that there’s enough content to satisfy those that decide to pledge to me on a monthly basis but it’s something I’d very much like to try and commit to.
Not only that, but I’d quite like to get back into the habit of making gaming (and maybe hobby) videos for my channel. It’s not something that’s massively up there on my list, but I feel like it’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing when I get the time to do it.
So yeah, there’s a couple of things I’d like to focus on in the coming year and hopefully I’ll be able to pull them off. Obviously, the list is not exhaustive and there’ll be a ton of other things I get up to this year. Some of it I might share, some of it I might just enjoy the ride. But let’s see where 2019 ends up.
NerdInc 