My time away from writing on a schedule has revealed some things:
Without obligations, stress doesn’t disappear—it changes.
Spending time with my family is actually quite nice.
I need all of my internet friends to maintain sanity.
The stress haunting me through all of 2023 (and to be fair, for at least the two years before that as well) isn’t caused by having too much planned; I plan too much because of the underlying stress eating me alive. When I’ve planned out all the hours of my day to an insane, restrictive degree, it’s definitely stifling. Getting overwhelmed by a jam-packed planner makes perfect sense, and it’s definitely a factor in my anxiety issues. However, underneath that is a solid base of frantic helplessness struggling desperately to find something—anything—that will chip away at the root.
What is that root? Money, of course.
After a lot of thought, I’ve made some important decisions about how this upcoming year is going to go. And it doesn’t involve hustling harder to make ends meet—at least not the way you might imagine.
What I Plan NOT To Do
Before launching into the next stage of plans and projects, it’s important to digest the lessons from December and make some new guidelines to follow for 2024. First off, I don’t think I want to worry much about making money off the TAM side of things right now. Maybe one day it will be monetizable, but the desperate energy doesn’t work so well here. There’s no clear genre to anchor the creative energy, so I end up flitting around from one topic to the next in a chaotic and confusing way.
Which is fine, but doesn’t lend well to monetization.
Everything I do on TAM needs to shift into a labor of love rather than helping others or myself. Maybe I’ll write on self care one week and the next I’ll gripe about taxes. After that, perhaps I’ll muse on the sanctity of marriage as a way to control people and property or rave about my new rock tumbler (yay rocks for Christmas!!). Whatever comes to mind and feels good to write about.
That also means I won’t be curating an ongoing story for the feel-good reading experience anymore. Of course, some amount of that will happen anyway because I’m me, but I’m letting go of the happy endings right now. At least on TAM. 😉 For the foreseeable future, I’m accepting the fact that I’m not at the end of the dark tunnel. What I have to offer is the perspective of someone still hanging on to hope during the long struggle, not the glamorous end anyone would want to work toward.
If that interests you, consider subscribing to the free stuff:
The paid version of Substack will remain available for those that are interested—details about what that means near the end.
What’s Next For TAM In 2024?
I’ve got a bunch of ideas, as always. Some of them might get done, most of them I’ll start and probably fall flat, and some may not get off the ground at all. But who knows? Maybe I’ll actually get all of them done. All I can do is plan and try my best along the way—we’ll tally the score 12 months from now.
Here are the general plans upcoming:
The Hidden Egg
Season four (whenever we start that), I’m intending to make into episodic articles again. Maybe here, maybe on Medium (maybe both?). The Patreon special version might be better suited over here for the paid subscribers, too—people have mentioned the convenience of it coming to them in email form. Or, in being able to check them out one by one on Medium. I like the idea of having things in one general place for people, though it’s sometimes difficult to decide where exactly that should be.
The how is also a concern, but I’m sure I’ll figure out a way to make it happen without bulking up my workload. Probably.
The Monster Alley
I really like the name and the concept, and I don’t want to walk away from it. The Alley has a publication on Medium, a website, and a Discord server. I’m not entirely sure what to do with the publication just yet, and the website could use some work in the coming months. The Discord server is still a great place to get people together in one forum/chat room, making it a good place to start rebuilding The Alley for the time being.
I’m on there a lot, too. Like, it’s on my phone and every computer I log into. So, out of all the ways to contact me, it’s the one that is typically the easiest and fastest for the majority of people here.
I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with these, but they are a definite focus. At the very least, I intend to promote the server more often and try to get people talking on there more. Fingers crossed (and maybe consider joining the server here).
TAMonster Reads
Soon, I’ll finish up the last of Will Brall’s Magitism for season 1. After that, I’ll be reading one of my favorite sci-fi stories and authors, Before The Shattered Gates of Heaven by Bryan Glosemeyer. Should be super fun, as I beta read the story years back and haven’t read the updated version. I’m really looking forward to it!
Check out TAM Reads on Spotify.
(I should really see if they’ll let me change the title to TAM Reads, too. It flows better.)
TAM On Medium
For now, I think posting random articles as I think of them suits me. I’ll shoot for at least once a month, but I’m a lot more interested in reading over there—I’m so behind on all the material!
TAM’s Substack Stuff
I’d like to continue posting here, both free and paid articles. The paid articles are more about community building, reaching out to those I’ve comped because they regularly reach out to me and less about actually making money. I don’t want to lose touch with the people I’ve met, and I’m sure there are some crazy stops left in this journey still to share.
The free articles will be tailored generally to everyone and anyone. You get the gist.
Frequency is up in the air. I intend to publish on Substack at least once a week. Maybe I’ll do three in a week here and there, maybe I’ll skip a week now and then. It’s going to get whimsical for awhile.
Why? Because TAM isn’t my main focus for 2024. It’s the anchor.
Instead of trying to build TAM into an income-generating empire, I’m going to switch to something that I know has earning potential right away. That will let me relax more here (I hope), and just be myself rather than try to write something that people might pay for.
The friends I’ve discovered through this pen name have been invaluable. And while I’m sure each and every one of you would love to support my endeavors here, I think my mental health is better served thinking of TAM as the face of my writing community rather than a best seller or influencer account. It falls in line with my aching desire to just give away subs for free here anyway—interacting with me long enough bestows the honor of being in the Monster Family. (Monster Fam gets comped the sub, because I can.)
The Monster Family has become something far more vital to me than a way to make money. They’re my friends, colleagues, online neighbors, and writing “siblings” of sorts. We were forged in the same fires on Medium and Substack, through the f4f wars, tag spam plagues, and algorithm hacks. The Monster Fam is my people.
If you are interested in being part of that- the Fam proper, or even a cousin- consider checking out the Discord server to strike up a conversation. I’m looking forward to it. 😉
For better or worse, we are connected by words and muses in this journey of writing online. I hope for all those that follow may benefit from walking the path with us in the coming year as well. Thank you to everyone that stuck with me so far. Seriously, I don’t know where I would be without you.
Until next time, remember to follow yourself, always!
I truly adore the idea of turning the pay wall into a friend wall! It brings me so many smiles! :D
Love you, TAM, and I wish you success AND smiles, cause you deserve both!! <3
Glad you are part of my family now 💕💕
I like the way you have this. No hard expectations or deadlines. Let it flow! I wish you success in 2024 and 2025 and 6 and 7....and so on. 🙃
Love ya!