Introduction: Annariel

[annariel]

I Am: annariel (also purplecat) people refer to me variously as Annariel, PC, Cat, lsellers, and Louise depending mostly on context and how we met. I'm happy with all those labels. Female pronouns.

I Make: I write fanfic mostly though I've dabbled in original fiction. If backed into a corner and forced to write NC-17 rated stuff I often resort to comic verse. I also make icons and other graphics (and ever so occasionally actual hand drawn art). I try to rec a piece of online writing (mostly fanfic) once a week. I also code.

I Like: I'm a bit of a fan of long plotty stories of the case/mission fic style and AUs with imaginative worldbuilding (though, since I'll also back button out of long fic that isn't grabbing me I probably end up leaving more comments on kudos on shorter stories even if, when I like long fic, I like it more than short fic). I do also love a well written character vignette. I'm definitely mostly a genre fiction person. I've enjoyed material in all styles and of all ratings though there are some labels I'm more wary of (e.g., torture and non-con) than others. At the moment the fandoms I'm mostly reading are Avengers, Sherlock, Primeval, Dr Who and Firefly. I write a lot of Primeval fiction (partly because the fandom has a very active drabbling community) but there are several fandoms I'd like to write more of this year, including smaller ones such as Sapphire and Steel, Robin of Sherwood and The Queen's Thief series.

I Play: In the past I've played origfic_bingo and created my own bingo cards, mostly to help with the worldbuilding around my two original fiction settings. However, in both cases, I want to do some reworking of the settings and that has pretty much put everything on hiatus - it's probably a year since I wrote any original fiction.

I also run genprompt_bingo and help run ladiesbingo (wearing my purplecat hat) and over on LJ I run a quarterly bingo challenge for the primeval_denial community. I have a couple of online bingo card and prompt generators as well (though its a while since I did anything with them and the interfaces are pretty basic) - Prompt Me, Bingo Cards, All singing and dancing.

Find Me: On DreamWidth I'm annariel for anything to do with creative stuff and purplecat for everything else. On LiveJournal I'm lsellersfic (for creative stuff) and louisedennis (for everything else). I'm annariel on AO3.

About Me: I'm a computer scientist by day, working on autonomous robotics and the verification of agent based systems. I'm female, in my 40s, married with a little one and live in the North West of the UK.

Comments

Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy to see you here. Thanks for joining this community.

>> I also make icons and other graphics (and ever so occasionally actual hand drawn art). <<

allbingo does not yet have any icons, badges, banners or anything like that for promoting the community or rewarding people for making a bingo or achievement. If you'd like to make anything along those lines, that would be awesome.

>>mostly to help with the worldbuilding around my two original fiction settings.<<

I have listed worldbuilding as a good application of creative bingo. Hm, I should make a list of worldbuilding prompts.

>> I have a couple of online bingo card and prompt generators as well (though its a while since I did anything with them and the interfaces are pretty basic) <<

Thank you for all your hard work in the bingo fests and for the coding. I have updated the "Get a Card" post to include your tools.

It occurs to me that if you add a list of actions or plot twists, you could create a three-part prompt "X does Y at Z." I also think the three-part prompts (both this one and the character pairings) would work great in a bingo card format if that's feasible.

Re: Welcome!

[annariel]

Thanks for setting up the community, it looks like a really cool idea. I'm looking forward to maybe using it to get back into the original fiction stuff I was doing, or maybe as warm-ups for some of the fandoms I want to move into.

That's a good idea about the online prompts and the various lists etc., on there could definitely do with an overhaul I'll have a fiddle... ummm soon? *eyes to do list*. I'll also put some thought into banners and icons and the like!

Re: Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Thanks for setting up the community, it looks like a really cool idea. <<

You're welcome!

>> I'm looking forward to maybe using it to get back into the original fiction stuff I was doing, or maybe as warm-ups for some of the fandoms I want to move into. <<

I would love to see that. It's exactly the kind of activity I was hoping to encourage.

>> That's a good idea about the online prompts and the various lists etc., on there could definitely do with an overhaul I'll have a fiddle... ummm soon? *eyes to do list*. <<

If you need help generating prompt lists, I'm good at that, although -- like you -- my availability varies.

Here's an idea that might help with scheduling: put a donation button on your generator site. (It would also help to link your other prompt tools from that page, so people can easily find them all.) If you figure out how long it takes you to do a certain kind of thing with coding, then you could price that, if it's something more elaborate or individual than just uploading new prompt lists that would probably appeal to a lot of people. Projects that generate even a bit of income are easier to bump toward the top of the priority stack. Plus it's nice to be able to give back to people who make awesome tools, even if it's just "I used your generator to make the characters in my new story so here's $5."

>> I'll also put some thought into banners and icons and the like! <<

Yay!

Re: Welcome!

[purplecat]

Hmm… I'll think about the donation button. Time is far shorter than cash is (though cash isn't boundless) so I gain a certain psychological benefit from recognising that hobbies are hobbies (not work or chores) and treating them as something I primarily do for myself.

Also, professionally, my time is worth at least $30 an hour (based on a quick back of the envelope calculation) which prices it way beyond what I'd expect crowd funding to be able to raise for this kind of thing. Though I suppose that gap might pave a way to crowdfund the hobby coding a little while keeping it clearly a hobby that is done for relaxation.

Like I say, I will think about it.

Re: Welcome!

[annariel]

*sigh* wrong browser, therefore wrong account.

Re: Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Hmm… I'll think about the donation button. <<

Okay.

>> Time is far shorter than cash is (though cash isn't boundless) so I gain a certain psychological benefit from recognising that hobbies are hobbies (not work or chores) and treating them as something I primarily do for myself. <<

That's an important distinction, and if you want to stick with that, by all means do so. Hobbies are valuable.

>> Also, professionally, my time is worth at least $30 an hour (based on a quick back of the envelope calculation) which prices it way beyond what I'd expect crowd funding to be able to raise for this kind of thing. <<

Lots of thoughts here ...

1) Do not underestimate the power of crowdfunding. I never thought I'd get anyone spending $100/year on poetry, but I do, and some of them spend way more than that. Conversely I've had people totally ignore fiction. You just never know what people will go nuts over.

2) I have years of experience in editing and writing. The only places I make what my skills are worth is private work, crowdfunding or freelancing. If I average out an hourly rate from my fishbowls, it's usually in the 30s or 40s these days. That's about what a professional calculator pegs my worth at.

3) Consider size of project. Things that take only a little while don't cost much. I have short ($5) and medium-short ($10) poems as well as epics ($31.50+). If it only takes you twenty minutes to add on a tidbit of code, $10 is perfectly reasonable. If you're looking at something that would take several hours, well, maybe more than one person would like to chip in. Some of my fans buy whole epics, but they're more often microfunded. Most crowdsource/crowdfunded code projects -- and there are whole websites devoted to this -- have multiple backers.

4) Consider what you can get. My editing rates are cheap because, despite the prevalence of more expensive offers online, people just don't want to pay much for it. So, I charge what the market will bear. It's not as much as my skill is worth, but it's enough to make my time worthwhile.

>> Though I suppose that gap might pave a way to crowdfund the hobby coding a little while keeping it clearly a hobby that is done for relaxation. <<

If you want to explore whether to do a particular activity for fun or profit, a single project is a very good way to test the waters. And of course, if all you do is put a PayPal button at the bottom of the page, it requires no extra effort from you, it's just there in case anybody wants to throw money at you.

Re: Welcome!

[annariel]

Of course, now my brain wants to figure out a way to set this up so that adding new lists only takes minutes (which really it should and I'm halfway there since I've now set up the offline version so adding new lists is trivial) in which case they really could be offered for trivial sums or perks, and also figure out a way so that more significant projects could be sensibly specified and estimated by non-experts. One problem is I'm much more used to estimating projects in terms of days and weeks rather than hours, so I'll need to figure that out as well.

of course, if it starts earning significant sums, I'll then have to figure out tax! There's a reason I like being a salaried minion... but let's cross that bridge if and when we come to it, eh?

Since "overhaul online bingo generator" is now on the to do list I'll consider all this when I get to it!

Re: Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Of course, now my brain wants to figure out a way to set this up so that adding new lists only takes minutes (which really it should and I'm halfway there since I've now set up the offline version so adding new lists is trivial) <<

Good idea. Programming is all about efficiency and elegance. No matter what you're building, if you're practicing that, you're developing a useful skill for any kind of codework.

>> in which case they really could be offered for trivial sums or perks, <<

One thing to consider is relative worth. Frex, is a prompt list valuable content unto itself, because it takes work for someone to assemble, which is work you don't have to do and is content that will help attract people to your generator page? Or is adding a prompt list to the site a service that you provide, because it takes time for you to do?

The more time and effort it takes to add a new list, the likelier it should cost something. The easier it is to add, the more credit should go to the creator. If you can make it easy, then yes, either charge a cheap rate to upload a list or make it a perk. One obvious way to earn list-upload rights would be by writing a review of the generator, or making a certain number of linkbacks. You'd be building traffic among the very people who want to use the thing, because nobody else would care about what's in it.

Also think about target audience. A list relating to someone's proprietary work will interest only that creator, unless they have a big fanbase. A list for a shared world has rather more potential. A list for a popular fandom would raise interest among quite a large pool of fanwriters. Lists for broad categories like "fantasy character types" would also be very handy. With that "A meets B at C" formula, you could get a huge benefit from any list taken from a popular fandom; and that's exactly the kind of work you should be farming out to other folks instead of doing it yourself. Only you can upgrade the code, but anyone can make a character list.

So for instance, you might charge a small fee to add a list that's just a timesaver for one person, make shared world or small fandom lists a perk that doesn't cost anything, and make popular fandom lists "make me one of these, and get a free list of your own choosing."

>> and also figure out a way so that more significant projects could be sensibly specified and estimated by non-experts. <<

Just writing a good how-to document for that would a Very Useful Thing. I would happily link the heck out of that. I'm certain I have readers who'd want it.

>> One problem is I'm much more used to estimating projects in terms of days and weeks rather than hours, so I'll need to figure that out as well. <<

Changing scale takes practice. I recommend that since you're already working on this stuff free as a hobby, just keep doing that for a while, but clock your time. Use that to backtranslate how long it takes you to accomplish tasks. When you have enough data, then you can start pricing things, and be confident that you'll get the numbers in approximately the right place. You can tweak from there as needed.

I've done this with my wordsmithing. My first professional editing gig paid by magazine issue. Consequently I had no frigging clue how long it took me to do things. When I went freelance, I did some research and some practice work in order to estimate my workspeed and set prices. Much the same with fiction, I had need to check speed on that because I was trading hour-for-hour with someone; comes out to roughly 1,000 words per hour, although research-heavy writing will slow me down. About the same rate for nonfiction if I can write it off the top of my head.

>> of course, if it starts earning significant sums, I'll then have to figure out tax! There's a reason I like being a salaried minion... but let's cross that bridge if and when we come to it, eh? <<

Sole proprietor with a Schedule C is what most writers, creative people, and freelancers use. Remember that most expenses related to your business activities will be at least partially tax-deductible, so save receipts. Find a friend who knows taxes, or hire someone if necessary, to figure out what will work for you. Do this when you start making a little money, before it becomes significant income. It's not a task you want to do at the last minute, nor after you've gotten into habits that are counterproductive in some way.

>> Since "overhaul online bingo generator" is now on the to do list I'll consider all this when I get to it! <<

Great! While it's fresh in your mind, you might want to make notes about the concepts desired for the project, any specific tasks you know you'll need to do, and things you want to think about. Then it will all be in one place when you've got the time to work on it.

[annariel]

Sole proprietor with a Schedule C

I've just googled that and it looks like a US thing (maybe equivalent to Sole Trader over here?). I think initially it will be knowing at what point any income may have reached the level where the taxman may take an interest because, at the moment under the UK's Pay As You Earn scheme, I don't have to file a tax return. I did submit returns for a couple of years after I did a week's freelance work for a charity my mother was involved with but I really wouldn't want to get into it for something in the region of tens of dollars a year. I know someone who works in tax so I may ask him next time I see him. I'm sure technically you're supposed to declare any income at all, but I don't suppose anyone wants to actually know that someone gave me $5 via paypal.

I doubt I'd ever have enough time to make serious money at this (realistically we're talking a handful of hours a week for all fandom related activity though that isn't necessarily evenly spread) - there are some complications about my current work contract which might mean it could all vanish in a few years time, and then I might be looking at freelance programming as a separate career (assuming I couldn't get another research or lecturing post) but setting that up would be a much more serious proposition and, yes, financial advice would be needed since I know the tax rules around contracting as done by freelancers keep changing.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I've just googled that and it looks like a US thing (maybe equivalent to Sole Trader over here?). <<

Sorry, my minimalist tax advice only applies to the United States.

>> I think initially it will be knowing at what point any income may have reached the level where the taxman may take an interest because, <<

You need to identify that threshold. Many countries have a "hobby" category where you're allowed to make a certain amount on something before it's expected to shift to business (and vice versa, businesses have to make a certain time or level of profit, else they're hobbies).

>> at the moment under the UK's Pay As You Earn scheme, I don't have to file a tax return. <<

Lucky you!

>> I did submit returns for a couple of years after I did a week's freelance work for a charity my mother was involved with but I really wouldn't want to get into it for something in the region of tens of dollars a year. <<

I have thought of a possible solution! Instead of accepting cash donations yourself, point the crowdfunding button somewhere else. Maybe pick a favorite charity or funnel the money into a website that uses crowdfunding, or whatever else you want to support. Some places will let you put up a button of theirs. Others you might have to say, "If you like this work, rather than sending money directly to me, please make a donation to Cause X (link) and send me your receipt to active Perk Y."

No tax hassle, and you get to support a favorite cause.

>> I know someone who works in tax so I may ask him next time I see him. I'm sure technically you're supposed to declare any income at all, but I don't suppose anyone wants to actually know that someone gave me $5 via paypal. <<

That makes sense.