At the start of the year I was looking for ways to feel a bit more secure in my work. I’ve been writing full-time for the best part of a decade, but even so, a regular income from doing what I do has always felt like a pipe dream. When Glamour magazine stopped its monthly print edition at the end of 2017, I lost my regular column and I missed writing in that way. Columns are personal and fun, a great outlet for thoughts. I had my books and Instagram to express myself but there was nowhere to put anything longer and more intimate. The idea of blogging for no financial return didn’t work for me. I see the Internet as a place where artists largely work for free, and at forty-one I was done with that. I needed a secure and regular income, but I also didn’t want to be beholden to brands. That’s when I discovered Patreon. It’s a slightly terrifying concept whereby people subscribe online for a fee and I write for them. I set up my account, feeling like a real dick for even trying, but wondered if anyone might be up for it. I kept the price low: $4 for all. There’s a tier system on Patreon where subscribers can access more or less content depending on how much they pay. I felt weird about that, so kept the fee low for everyone. My goal was for more people to pay less, rather than have a few people paying more. I am no businesswoman, but that felt like a good plan. I set up the page and posted about it on Instagram, then went and hid in a cupboard because I was so scared.
When I emerged, I had a few hundred subscribers. This was enough to justify my time. So, I started to write. Every time I posted that I had written something on Instagram, lots of people got mad at me asking why they should pay ‘for my crap’. Or telling me I didn’t need the money so why was I charging for my work? This reaffirmed that I was doing exactly the right thing. I saw it more like, how had I NOT been charging for my work for so long? I quickly realised that as long as I delivered on the content, the transaction was a fair exchange. My promise was a blog post a week plus lots of other bits and bobs – a podcast, occasional videos, giveaways and more, but mostly words. Lots and lots of words. As more and more readers signed up, all that worried me was that I wouldn’t have enough to say.
For this reason, and this reason alone, I would like to thank 2020 for the unrivalled amount of material it has offered me. When lockdown started and I had no childcare, I couldn’t write the novel I was about to start – my head was miles away from that focus. But I was feeling feelings I’d never felt, living a life I’d never lived. I had so much to say and, with the Patreon platform, I had somewhere to say it. So I wrote and wrote and wrote. When the kids were in bed, I wrote. When they were watching TV, I smashed out an ‘Isolation Update.’ While I watched them eat, I made notes on my phone. It became an obsession. I spilled some milk, my subscribers needed to know about it. I wrote about everything from parenting and cooking to grief and the TV we watched. The tiny aspects of life became each day’s top story. And this is how Life in Pieces had its early origins.
The Patreon community grew and grew and became a place of solace for me. After Caroline died, I found the Internet a terrifying place to be. I didn’t want to put myself out there if I was only going to be met with negativity. So I created my own little corner of it, where I could be entirely myself and write for a group of people who all wanted to be there. It’s SO nice. I do hope you’ve enjoyed the book that has come out of it. And if you are so inclined, feel free to sign up to my blog on Patreon. It’s fun, and as you will see, I work very, very hard for it.