Dear Readers
Whoa! It’s been longer than I intended. I successfully got married in November, and after a month of galivanting about with my wife in a new state, I fully intended to dive back into this newsletter with gusto. Only, I keep on having ideas for how to tweak it, and do it a little better. Iterative improvement, ladies and gentlemen!
In starting the Peasant Times-Dispatch, my goal was to use it to professionalize my writing and introduce the world to the Peasant Life. A great incentive to do these things is the golden carrot of making money from my writing. SUBtember, of happy memory, was incredibly valuable because it allowed me to ask the question am I reaching who I want to reach and am I talking to them effectively. In contemplating those questions, I have come to realize a lot.
First, I need a place to speak a little more casually. I have been writing on Wordpress and will continue to write there because that is where I let rogue thoughts out of my brain. It is a purely personal project, and any benefit any of you may get from reading there is a happy accident. Here, I am writing for, ostensibly, a customer—but in doing that, I have sacrificed a little bit of what I consider my voice. These letters to the editor are a great way for me to speak to you in my own voice and not as a teacher, philosopher, or whatever it is I pretend to be sometimes. I need a way to speak to you as me about the topics I care about and which I think you care about too.
Second, I really like writing about writing. I realized this on thinking about how to use the Chat feature Substack recently offered. Is it a good fit for my newsletter? What role does it fill? What kind of conversation do I want to have there? And this is the kind of thing I would enjoy talking to you about before I make any dramatic moves.
Third, I need to align what I am writing a bit. My fiction adventure has always felt a little bit out of place here, so it is worth it to find a home for that which makes sense.
Finally, I need to pace myself. I realized the writing schedule I set for myself is a little more than I can handle. I need to manage myself a little better, and in doing so manage what I am offering you and try not to do too much.
Under Permanent Construction
So here’s the plan, as I envision it now. It will definitely change and grow as I learn more, write more, evolve a bit.
I started a second Substack not long after I started my first. It’s called Gibberish, it was intended as a love letter to language. I love all languages and I even enjoy making my own for use in fictional settings, so I hoped I could periodically plug some posts there when the creative bug struck me. That particular field has lain fallow almost ever since I began it. So I am going to breathe new life into it. I am going to spruce it up, clean it up, and make Gibberish my home for writing, and especially writing about writing. I will speak in my voice, I will move the Adventures of Tylus Worran over there, I will begin writing exercises, and I will share worldbuilding snippets whenever the mood strikes me.
The second change is that I am going to change the posting schedule for the Peasant Times-Dispatch. Letters to the Editor will come on the First Monday, and my “conversational layup” triplet of posts will come on the second, third, and fourth Wednesdays of the month. I have a Catechesis project I have been stewing on, which I think I will merge into my existing monthly Edition of the Peasant Times-Dispatch.
With Gibberish as my home for writing about writing, I can keep the PTD my place to promote and cultivate the Peasant Lifestyle I think everyone can come to know and love.
The third change is that I am ditching Paid Tiers in favor of a Patronage model. Right now, I am very much a “new business”. Paid Tiers are great for enticing existing subscribers to upgrade, but right now I am swimming in free subscribers. It behooves me to follow advice I have seen frequently that suggests most of our best work should be out there for free. So, free it shall be! No comment restrictions, no hidden content. Just basic patronage: if you support me, if you support my work, if you would like to see more of it, please consider a paid subscription?
Pardon my Dust
These changes may sound simple but they are non-trivial. My goal is to professionalize which means it would be wise to take my time to make sure Gibberish is well set up before I start posting there regularly. You will know Gibberish is ready when I “recommend” it—which should push an email to all of you. I would like to spruce up my marketing materials and the overall look and feel of my newsletters just to make sure I am ship shape.
Getting everything ready will take time, so please forgive me that I will not be writing effectively through the rest of December—not least of all because the dust is still settling from the wedding and inter-state move, etc.
I really appreciate all of you and I hope you are doing well. I can’t wait to bring the Peasant Times-Dispatch back and better than ever!
God bless you all!
AJPM
Writing About Writing
Wonderful news about your wedding, congrats! Looking forward to the new direction here as well.