Commission Writing

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

Can be quite a pain in the a**. It's what I do for a living, since getting a job in the particular state of the economy isn't all that easy. But honestly... anyone who has done it - I've been doing it for about a year, and I'm getting to the point where I'm hitting a wall. A lot of the commissions are the same ol' same ol'. Any idea how to either push through that and keep going, or where a good place for me to get fresh commissions would be?

[Goddess Rukus]

I'd love to know how to get into something like that. Getting paid for my writing? s**t, I wouldn't care what I had to write. But I would imagine that hitting a wall for commissions is much the same as hitting one for your personal stuff.

Maybe treat them as exercises? Sure, you've gotta do what the client wants, but that doesn't mean you can't keep trying to get better while you do so. I dunno. I'm still trying to get over the hurdle of finishing things with my writing, so I'd imagine you're past that if you're commissioning... take a walk and come back to it? Or something?

Is there something specific that's bugging you about this or just the fact that it's becoming formulaic?

[princessMeep]

How do you get a sweet gig like that? I'd love to get paid for my writing.

What kind of writing do you do? Fiction? Technical? Journalism? Is there any way you can branch out and get new readers/patrons with different tastes and interests? Have you tried crowdfunding? It might not pay the bills, but it should at least earn you a little pocket money and show your work to a different audience.

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

A lot of what I write is actually smut writing, that's what is so grating about it. People want pointless smut without any depth or real meaning behind it. It gets to be grating on the nerves because I'm so exhausted from writing a 10k smut story that I get to the point to where when I sit down at the end of the day, I don't have the motivation to write for myself.

And the easiest way to get clients is to find a smaller community, because you can really network and reach out to them all. I really do wish that I could branch out from that though... I am getting to the point that I honestly just don't want to write, and I hate that.

[princessMeep]

Where do you even find clients? What sort of community?

I'd definitely suggest checking out that link in my last post - there are lots of artists and writers who use it to advertise their work, so if you poke around you can get an idea about the going rate for stories and poems, mostly, but sometimes people do art or tarot reading, too. It might be awhile before you start making any money there, since you'll probably need to build up a fanbase before people want to fork over their hard earned cash. On the other hand, I've seen some beautiful prompts and requests, but nobody (afaik) has ever asked for smut. Elizabeth Barrette and KA Jones are particularly successful crowdfunders, or at least, quite well known within the community, so a look at their journals might give you an idea how to run things if you want to give it a try.

I'm rather partial to participating in free tarot card drawings, sometimes with a story and sometimes not. The scheme there is usually one free card, sometimes accompanied by a drabble, and people can ask for more and more elaborate card spreads and more and more story by paying extra.

For your immediate problem, can you write something a little bit deeper, but still make it smutty so it sells?

[Silently Wishful]

Ego Dominus Tuus

"Any idea on how to either push through that and keep going..."

What helps me the most is stopping for a while and then start back up again.

And I've been wanting to do it for a while (just now opening a "shop" here on Gaia) and I haven't really been able to get people to do this for. How do you get them?

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

It's just a smaller site than DA, cause I noticed that you really have to bust your a** to get noticed on there. I will certainly check out the things that you were talking about... the ability to broaden my client base would be amazing. I was thinking of even getting writers from here to just start my own writing commission site.

I do wish that I could expand more on their smut, but they want their smut, and not for me to waste their purchased words on fluff, as they call it razz

princessMeep

Where do you even find clients? What sort of community?

I'd definitely suggest checking out that link in my last post - there are lots of artists and writers who use it to advertise their work, so if you poke around you can get an idea about the going rate for stories and poems, mostly, but sometimes people do art or tarot reading, too. It might be awhile before you start making any money there, since you'll probably need to build up a fanbase before people want to fork over their hard earned cash. On the other hand, I've seen some beautiful prompts and requests, but nobody (afaik) has ever asked for smut. Elizabeth Barrette and KA Jones are particularly successful crowdfunders, or at least, quite well known within the community, so a look at their journals might give you an idea how to run things if you want to give it a try.

I'm rather partial to participating in free tarot card drawings, sometimes with a story and sometimes not. The scheme there is usually one free card, sometimes accompanied by a drabble, and people can ask for more and more elaborate card spreads and more and more story by paying extra.

For your immediate problem, can you write something a little bit deeper, but still make it smutty so it sells?

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

Silently Wishful

Ego Dominus Tuus

"Any idea on how to either push through that and keep going..."

What helps me the most is stopping for a while and then start back up again.

And I've been wanting to do it for a while (just now opening a "shop" here on Gaia) and I haven't really been able to get people to do this for. How do you get them?

I cater to a smaller community and pay for an advertisement (30 dollars a month), until I got my client base, then I just went from there... word of mouth. I really wouldn't mind to open up a shop here if I thought I could get some help/get some customers who wanted different stories.

[Silently Wishful]

Ego Dominus Tuus

Silently Wishful

Ego Dominus Tuus

"Any idea on how to either push through that and keep going..."

What helps me the most is stopping for a while and then start back up again.

And I've been wanting to do it for a while (just now opening a "shop" here on Gaia) and I haven't really been able to get people to do this for. How do you get them?

I cater to a smaller community and pay for an advertisement (30 dollars a month), until I got my client base, then I just went from there... word of mouth. I really wouldn't mind to open up a shop here if I thought I could get some help/get some customers who wanted different stories.

Ah.
If you want to open up a shop or aren't exactly sure yet, I'd be happy to do a joint shop with you.

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

Silently Wishful

Ego Dominus Tuus

Silently Wishful

Ego Dominus Tuus

"Any idea on how to either push through that and keep going..."

What helps me the most is stopping for a while and then start back up again.

And I've been wanting to do it for a while (just now opening a "shop" here on Gaia) and I haven't really been able to get people to do this for. How do you get them?

I cater to a smaller community and pay for an advertisement (30 dollars a month), until I got my client base, then I just went from there... word of mouth. I really wouldn't mind to open up a shop here if I thought I could get some help/get some customers who wanted different stories.

Ah.
If you want to open up a shop or aren't exactly sure yet, I'd be happy to do a joint shop with you.

That might be fun. :3 It'd be nice to be able to equal out the load of work. I know in my commission shop on my other site I do paid commissions/CYOA(Chooseyourownadventure)/RP/Livestreams/Readings, etc.

[princessMeep]

Ego Dominus Tuus

Silently Wishful

If you want to open up a shop or aren't exactly sure yet, I'd be happy to do a joint shop with you.

That might be fun. :3 It'd be nice to be able to equal out the load of work. I know in my commission shop on my other site I do paid commissions/CYOA(Chooseyourownadventure)/RP/Livestreams/Readings, etc.

Could I jump in on this or affiliate or something? sweatdrop I just started up my own shop in the marketplace, but I'd love some people to work/commiserate with.

[Goddess Rukus]

In light of snooping on the rest of the thread, have you tried writing smut that both you and your clients would enjoy? Or are the clients' tastes and your tastes so different that it would be a wasted effort? I don't understand why you wouldn't be able to make something deep and smutty. Most of the readers I know want deep stuff.

Unfortunately they aren't willing to pay me to write it, either...

And I always thought "fluff" was just another way of saying something had a lot of purple prose describing things that don't have to do with the plot. Have I been wrong all this time?

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

princessMeep

Ego Dominus Tuus

Silently Wishful

If you want to open up a shop or aren't exactly sure yet, I'd be happy to do a joint shop with you.

That might be fun. :3 It'd be nice to be able to equal out the load of work. I know in my commission shop on my other site I do paid commissions/CYOA(Chooseyourownadventure)/RP/Livestreams/Readings, etc.

Could I jump in on this or affiliate or something? sweatdrop I just started up my own shop in the marketplace, but I'd love some people to work/commiserate with.

Maybe we can all get together and do something? It might be fun!

[Ego Dominus Tuus]

Goddess Rukus

In light of snooping on the rest of the thread, have you tried writing smut that both you and your clients would enjoy? Or are the clients' tastes and your tastes so different that it would be a wasted effort? I don't understand why you wouldn't be able to make something deep and smutty. Most of the readers I know want deep stuff.

Unfortunately they aren't willing to pay me to write it, either...

And I always thought "fluff" was just another way of saying something had a lot of purple prose describing things that don't have to do with the plot. Have I been wrong all this time?

Most of the time I take specific orders - when I say that I cater to a smaller crowd, it means that sometimes their fetishes aren't exactly the norm.... so a lot of the time I don't enjoy it. And when I say fluff, I mean things that fill the story out other than, "Oh, Jack and Jill met." Now let me describe in complete and utter detail how, without ANY backstory, they had hot, vulgar sexual encounters. People don't wanna pay the extra for the backstory. Some people commission awesome stories... but for the most part the smut ones are all like that.

[Goddess Rukus]

Ego Dominus Tuus

Most of the time I take specific orders - when I say that I cater to a smaller crowd, it means that sometimes their fetishes aren't exactly the norm.... so a lot of the time I don't enjoy it. And when I say fluff, I mean things that fill the story out other than, "Oh, Jack and Jill met." Now let me describe in complete and utter detail how, without ANY backstory, they had hot, vulgar sexual encounters. People don't wanna pay the extra for the backstory. Some people commission awesome stories... but for the most part the smut ones are all like that.

In that case, I can see how that would be frustrating. If it were me I'd end up putting references to a possible back story into the scene anyways, like accidentally, but I don't write smut and that's probably why. I end up focusing on the relationship instead of the act when I write sex scenes, mostly.

Uh... eat a jolly rancher every time you finish a paragraph? Yay positive reinforcement, right? I'm sorry, I'm being terribly unhelpful. sweatdrop