Source: Pakutaso
It’s the blog’s 10 year anniversary this month. But I’m just too busy to celebrate!
Classes only finished at my university a few days ago. My Gender in South Korea courseĀ starts at HUFS in less than 3 weeks. Then I’ll be in Seoul teaching that for 4 weeks, then I’m going on a quick holiday to the UK for 2 weeks (our family’s first overseas trip in 9 years!), then it will be the next semester already, and then my mother will be staying with me for 2 weeks.
So, if there was ever a good time to take a break from blogging, now would be it. And I deserve one after 10 years too!
Don’t worry though, I’ll still be very much around, posting links on Twitter and on the blog’s Facebook page as per usual, and responding to comments. But the next post won’t be up until mid-September.
Until then, thanks very much for reading and for all of your comments over the years, and I hope you all have a great summer. Also, please consider helping me keep the blog going for another 10 years, by clicking on the button below and making a small donation. I do hate to ask, but then keeping the blog going at all costs me $78 a year, andāwell, I only received $5 in donations last year, and in the year before that too. So not asking doesn’t seem to be working much! :D
Thanks again!
The Grand Narrative 
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Thanks for the suggestions. But frankly, it’s probably too late to find any arrangement that’s really viable.
To cut a long story short, if many years ago I *had* set up a system whereby patrons gave me regular micro-payments in return for regular, quality content, then I would a) have started providing that, and b) by *now*, might finally have gained enough patrons to continue doing that. Starting from scratch at this late stage though, when I’m 41, am in a non-advancing job in a declining industry (ESL in Korea), have absolutely no savings, but somehow(?!) may be briefly moving to the UK in 5 years for the sake of my daughters’ futures (or may not, given BREXIT and the draconian, unbelievably expensive immigration requirements for non-EU spouses!), then unfortunately I just can’t keep writing for essentially free.
I say essentially free, because unfortunately again, most non-writers vastly underestimate how much work is involved in producing what they read. (For example, my last post took 16-24 hours over 2 weeks, and a book purchase.) So, even in the wildly optimistic case that I secured $100 a week from 30 patrons say, which sounds just great at first, for the actual hours worked it would still only amount to barely more than minimum wage.
Five years ago, my sheer love of writing and learning could have made up–did make up–the difference. But it’s just not enough anymore.
Anyway, sorry that your comment has made me open the floodgates so to speak! Trying to wrap this up then, it’s very important that I recharge my batteries and see how I feel in September before making definite plans about the blog, so I’ll make sure to do that. But still, the most realistic scenario is that the bulk of my efforts will go into freelance writing from now on (something else I should have started years ago!), with the blog reserved for things that are still cool and interesting, but not necessarily suited for paying articles. Or in other words, it won’t be that different at all really š, but just a bit more infrequent, with shorter articles on paying sites to compensate!
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Happy 10 year anniversary and the best for everything you mentioned you are going to do, please come back in September! :) I wish I could take the course but well, I’m in Buenos Aires.
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Thank you very much, and don’t worry–I definitely will come back. I just love writing this blog too much!
I’ll only forgive you this time for not taking the course though! ;)
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