WOO! October! Darkroom, Consultations, and why it's been so quiet

The Monster Hunt 6 video is out, SCP Vault is in video completion, Candy Bowl entries are finishing up this weekend, and Devil's Night is on track.

October isn't at stress point anymore. ::3

And now, with everything actually, finally manageable, let's breathe a moment and take inventory here.

Thank you for your patience and understanding over this time period since the new (true) vtuber model debut. It's been low on the Patreon front and high on one half of the video output front and I'm aware of it, and while there have absolutely been factors of life--hard and difficult factors--that got in the mix right in August that seriously complicated things, the balance being as it's been is due to the following:

1. Night Mind needed stabilizing: Getting a true NM classic style, long exploration video made, built for quality and experience, and doing it while no longer treating myself like a machine meant to only make videos and continuing streaming right after debut was a task. I had to get Field Studies Institute done and I couldn't wreck myself doing it, and since making Night Mind videos as you expect is the prime delivery result of being a Patreon supporter, this was the driving objective taking all my time outside streaming right after debut.

I'll put it very bluntly, since this is what it's always been to me: even as Patreon perks like Darkrooms and consultations are nice, if my main occupation in anything NM isn't making Night Mind videos, then what the hell are you even supporting, right? In any moment I've felt "you need to get a video made and it's got to be good," that has been the feeling: the prime reason you're here at all is to support that, and anything else is extra and can wait until things are stable, which I know you understand.

2. NM Live needed establishing and stabilizing to assist priority one, make NM happen regularly: While scripted videos are the prime NM experience, actually establishing the live side through streams and VOD edits was immensely important, because it allows me greater ability of time, energy, and effort on the scripted videos. I can work on longer pieces more often and do better work--I can make stuff like Field Studies Institute consistently, and that would be amazing! To even make this vision work, though, NM Live had to get its footing.

Making the VOD edit for Hiding in My Home, the very first NM Live upload, was agony--it was all me at that point, trying to stream and have the cornerstone of the Live side built while going through a very difficult August and feeling crushed by all the workload on me.

I am not kidding: it was the worst month of the entire year, it hurt a lot and I had to keep pushing through after several upsets that kept extending the workflow.

If I didn't get help, actual consistent and reliable help, I was never going to make things better. Getting that help meant time had to be invested in training and setting up a workflow, though, but...

I got Moon into the equation and he's not only worked out great on NM Live, I've just successfully begun training him for NM main work via October specials. Training someone into this and learning the workflow of working with someone yourself in a new capacity does take a whole system installation period and learning process, though. So, August through September, it was an act of getting NM and NM Live stabilized.

And then...

3. October had to happen on-schedule and occur despite an Astraline guest appearance to start the month: which, when I was told, "We've got an invite for a con in October," I was like, "Get the fuck out of here, I'm not leaving New England in October, it's October." I did accept it in the end because it was very early October and the time had come for me to figure out a true balance between things that ask time of me in this season and accomplishing the work, so instead of denying the challenge, I embraced it.

And you know what? This is it--October happens, on schedule, and I was a person this month. Actually. Finally. So now I can say...

4. I didn't torment myself to get it done: I got to enjoy processes more this year and I sit knowing I'm happy, even with a low streaming output. It did push things out of the picture to recalibrate--I haven't been able to do Patreon things, and my workouts ended cold in August during all the stress; I'm actually getting my re-entry exercises for autumn to winter started tonight, that's how much I didn't manage to keep up until I was settled.

And that's where we're at and why, everybody. Life, at times, will ask you to put what you're doing on hold in order to establish systems you've been in need of or restructure accordingly, and your patience and attention is the price paid for seeing things you've kept asking for delivered at last. If you want it, you have to build it--this takes time, it takes effort.

The result, though? You're going to finally be in that place you kept crying to get to and the stress will go away.

Patreon consultation is next weekend, November 2nd and November 3rd. I want a nice weekend of creative energy, let's take advantage of the occasion, it's a good time for it. Send me a message during that weekend if you're part of consultation tier, whether we've begun discussions or have to begin.

November 2nd, 7:00 PM EST, is the Darkroom on Discord. So, be there for some post-October talk! ::3

Will I be alright to do all this right off the heels of October work? Of course--Halloween and November 1st are all happy and work-free except for hitting publish on things, and I'd rather open November on a very happy note of homecoming and balance restoration.

As always, thank you all for your patience, support, and understanding. Let's enjoy Halloween and the start of November!