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Status Update
Posted a month agoIt has been nearly seven months since I went on hiatus, and I am sorry to say that I feel no closer to being ready to start back up today than I did on the day I started the break. After trying for months to get back in the mood, I think it's time to finally face reality: I am not going to do any more commissions. I apologize to those who have been waiting.
-Jack
-Jack
Current and Future Projects
Posted 9 months agoHey, all. It's come to my attention that I'm not doing a very good job of communicating the different projects I'm working on, and I wanted to address that. Admittedly, I feel a little dirty (and not in the fun way) for posting this, but at the same time, how else are you guys gonna know?
Of course, my main project is commissions. I know I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I am still churning through them slowly but surely. As of this writing, I've got two more in the queue. In addition, I've got a couple of ongoing commissions I work on every other week. I post The Fallen Druid here, but Revenge of Age has content that can't be posted here, so I post it over on IB. All of the commissions I've done are also posted to my commissions page.
The thing that really inspired this journal, though, is that I've had two clients this week who didn't know about my Jack's Blacks series on Amazon. These are relatively short stories (6k–55k words) on a variety of kinks, available for $0.99 each. Links are available on my website. You guys can request them if you like; it provides a much less expensive alternative to a commission if the exact details don't matter too much. I'm actually working on one of these requests right now.
Lastly, I've got a pet project I'm considering, though I haven't seen much interest in it, yet. It's not exactly furry-themed, which is why I haven't advertised it here before, but the concept is a semen-collection farm for humans treated as different types of animals based on how well or poorly they behave. I'm calling it Animal Farm (apologies to George Orwell). More details available on the about page.
For any of these activities, there's opportunity for you to get involved! Have a look at my Request Work page to request a commission or Jack's Blacks story, or to discuss Animal Farm!
A question for you guys: is there a series or topic you'd like me to write when I come up for air? No promises, but just gathering ideas and interest.
Lastly, it's come to my attention that in light of the more taboo kinks I write, some people would rather not associate publicly with me. I get that. But, it's good to hear from you guys, so if you're not comfortable replying here but want to reach out, that's fine! Feel free to shoot me a note or hit me up on one of my messengers.
-Jack
Of course, my main project is commissions. I know I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I am still churning through them slowly but surely. As of this writing, I've got two more in the queue. In addition, I've got a couple of ongoing commissions I work on every other week. I post The Fallen Druid here, but Revenge of Age has content that can't be posted here, so I post it over on IB. All of the commissions I've done are also posted to my commissions page.
The thing that really inspired this journal, though, is that I've had two clients this week who didn't know about my Jack's Blacks series on Amazon. These are relatively short stories (6k–55k words) on a variety of kinks, available for $0.99 each. Links are available on my website. You guys can request them if you like; it provides a much less expensive alternative to a commission if the exact details don't matter too much. I'm actually working on one of these requests right now.
Lastly, I've got a pet project I'm considering, though I haven't seen much interest in it, yet. It's not exactly furry-themed, which is why I haven't advertised it here before, but the concept is a semen-collection farm for humans treated as different types of animals based on how well or poorly they behave. I'm calling it Animal Farm (apologies to George Orwell). More details available on the about page.
For any of these activities, there's opportunity for you to get involved! Have a look at my Request Work page to request a commission or Jack's Blacks story, or to discuss Animal Farm!
A question for you guys: is there a series or topic you'd like me to write when I come up for air? No promises, but just gathering ideas and interest.
Lastly, it's come to my attention that in light of the more taboo kinks I write, some people would rather not associate publicly with me. I get that. But, it's good to hear from you guys, so if you're not comfortable replying here but want to reach out, that's fine! Feel free to shoot me a note or hit me up on one of my messengers.
-Jack
Status Update 2024-01-28
Posted a year agoJack's Snacks
Some of you might have noticed my newest experiment: Jack's Snacks. I was inspired the other day when I read a particularly short story (under 350 words) that managed to actually tell a whole story with enough details to be interesting, but without the usual, large investment in building up to "the point". While I am not striving to be under 350 words, my goal with the Jack's Snacks series is for each story to be under 500 words. That substantially reduces the amount of work I have to put into it, and for those who (like me) don't particularly want to try to read a 10,000-word story while trying to get off, Jack's Snacks offer "just the tip"—the smutty tip with all the creamy story juice.
Jack's Snacks: Skip the setup; straight to the smut.
Because these will be so short, I can't in good conscience publish them to Amazon, so these will be an "as I have time and inspiration" kind of thing. Who knows? Once I get enough of them, maybe I'll turn them into an anthology.
I don't have a form for Jack's Snacks, but feel free to shoot me a message if you have an idea for something you'd like turned into an ultra-short story.
Animal Farm Anthology
Speaking of anthologies, I have not seen much interest in the Animal Farm anthology. I'm not sure whether that's beause people don't know about it or because they just aren't interested. So, here's another shameless plug for it. I am kinda itching to write some humans-treated-as-animals smut...
Commission Status
So, I've drafted all but one of my commissions and am hoping to get that one knocked out in the next week or so. If you're itching for a commission, now's a good time!
Experimenting with Anthology
Posted a year agoA new year, a new harebrained scheme...
First off, I have not forgotten the folks who have submitted commission requests; I am going to get those done before starting this. But, I had a moment of inspiration last night and thought it might be fun to try an anthology. Note that the characters in this anthology are all human, non-furries, but since there's a lot of overlap between furries and the types of kinks and headspaces involved in this story, I figured this would be an appropriate place to make the announcement.
The premise is that Hidden Ranch Collection Center prides itself on providing only the best-quality semen for use in making ranch dressing. In this anthology, I hope to explore the lives of various staff and (human but treated like animals) livestock as they go about their days at the Center, from the owner taking his best cowboys to livestock auctions, to the life of the auctioned pony-to-be. Will he be a good pony and rewarded with some time in the bull barn, or will he displease his new owner and be sentenced to hard time in the pigpen?
Further details are available on my website.
First off, I have not forgotten the folks who have submitted commission requests; I am going to get those done before starting this. But, I had a moment of inspiration last night and thought it might be fun to try an anthology. Note that the characters in this anthology are all human, non-furries, but since there's a lot of overlap between furries and the types of kinks and headspaces involved in this story, I figured this would be an appropriate place to make the announcement.
The premise is that Hidden Ranch Collection Center prides itself on providing only the best-quality semen for use in making ranch dressing. In this anthology, I hope to explore the lives of various staff and (human but treated like animals) livestock as they go about their days at the Center, from the owner taking his best cowboys to livestock auctions, to the life of the auctioned pony-to-be. Will he be a good pony and rewarded with some time in the bull barn, or will he displease his new owner and be sentenced to hard time in the pigpen?
Further details are available on my website.
Our Survey Says...
Posted 2 years agoHey, all. I experimented with replacing commissions with Jack’s Blacks prompts, and the results are in: I miss doing commissions.
Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping an eye on the competition, and I’ve noticed that some people are charging crazy-high prices for writing commissions. While I’m tempted to join that bandwagon, raising my prices has historically led to a steep drop-off in the number of unique commissioners who can participate and a corresponding reduction in the variety of stories I get commissioned to write. So, I’m experimenting with yet another idea: letting you guys submit both the story idea and a price per word you’re willing and able to pay. That way, I can choose which stories I want to work on based on my interest in writing them and the income to be made. I will be reopening commissions with a minimum $0.01/word rate, but you will be able to specify what you want to pay per word on my newly revamped Commission Form. Please submit all commission requests via this form so I can keep them all organized.
I’ll let you know when I’ve gotten your submission, but I won't be able to give any estimate of when I’m going to work on it since that’s dependent on a lot of factors like how interesting or lucrative your story is relative to others and how much stuff I’ve got going on in real life. For the record, “real life” has been extremely busy, stressful, and draining for the last year or so, so please don’t expect me to get through these quickly.
When I’m ready to start working on your story, I’ll reach out and ask whether you’re still interested. If so, we’ll work through all the details that we would normally go through with me asking questions to clarify your story goals. The rest of the commission process will be the same as it was before: I’ll get started on the draft, invoice 90%, share the draft, get feedback and make corrections, invoice the remaining amount based the final word count and any applicable change fees, and then share and publish the final version.
For those wanting more details on how I got here, one of my friends suggested auctioning off a limited number of slots, letting people bid on price per word and then taking the highest ones. There’s a lot of merit to that; making it competitive would almost certainly result in making more than I currently am (and possibly even more than the “crazy-high prices” some of my competition is charging), but at the same time, I saw a sharp reduction in the variety of stories I was commissioned to write when I raised from $0.01 to $0.011 per word, and an even sharper drop when I jumped to $0.02 / word. What I don’t want to do is get pigeonholed into just writing the same story over and over for the one or two people who can afford to pay an outrageous price. I am motivated by money—quite so—but also by variety, so I figure doing it this way instead gives me the option to choose from a more varied pool of commissions while still having some highly lucrative ones to drive business.
As with all of my experiments, this policy is subject to change on a whim, but this is the policy for now. You guys can start submitting topics as soon as you like, though it will take a while for my website and various accounts to reflect my newly open status, and since my (day job) company is in the process of launching a product we've been working on for over a year now, my availability to write is likely to be limited for a little bit longer. But, I wanted to get the word out since I've been looking forward to making this announcement for a while now.
Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping an eye on the competition, and I’ve noticed that some people are charging crazy-high prices for writing commissions. While I’m tempted to join that bandwagon, raising my prices has historically led to a steep drop-off in the number of unique commissioners who can participate and a corresponding reduction in the variety of stories I get commissioned to write. So, I’m experimenting with yet another idea: letting you guys submit both the story idea and a price per word you’re willing and able to pay. That way, I can choose which stories I want to work on based on my interest in writing them and the income to be made. I will be reopening commissions with a minimum $0.01/word rate, but you will be able to specify what you want to pay per word on my newly revamped Commission Form. Please submit all commission requests via this form so I can keep them all organized.
I’ll let you know when I’ve gotten your submission, but I won't be able to give any estimate of when I’m going to work on it since that’s dependent on a lot of factors like how interesting or lucrative your story is relative to others and how much stuff I’ve got going on in real life. For the record, “real life” has been extremely busy, stressful, and draining for the last year or so, so please don’t expect me to get through these quickly.
When I’m ready to start working on your story, I’ll reach out and ask whether you’re still interested. If so, we’ll work through all the details that we would normally go through with me asking questions to clarify your story goals. The rest of the commission process will be the same as it was before: I’ll get started on the draft, invoice 90%, share the draft, get feedback and make corrections, invoice the remaining amount based the final word count and any applicable change fees, and then share and publish the final version.
For those wanting more details on how I got here, one of my friends suggested auctioning off a limited number of slots, letting people bid on price per word and then taking the highest ones. There’s a lot of merit to that; making it competitive would almost certainly result in making more than I currently am (and possibly even more than the “crazy-high prices” some of my competition is charging), but at the same time, I saw a sharp reduction in the variety of stories I was commissioned to write when I raised from $0.01 to $0.011 per word, and an even sharper drop when I jumped to $0.02 / word. What I don’t want to do is get pigeonholed into just writing the same story over and over for the one or two people who can afford to pay an outrageous price. I am motivated by money—quite so—but also by variety, so I figure doing it this way instead gives me the option to choose from a more varied pool of commissions while still having some highly lucrative ones to drive business.
As with all of my experiments, this policy is subject to change on a whim, but this is the policy for now. You guys can start submitting topics as soon as you like, though it will take a while for my website and various accounts to reflect my newly open status, and since my (day job) company is in the process of launching a product we've been working on for over a year now, my availability to write is likely to be limited for a little bit longer. But, I wanted to get the word out since I've been looking forward to making this announcement for a while now.
Trying Something Different
Posted 2 years agoHey, all. Tl;dr: I'm stopping commissions (except for ongoing commissions) in favor of Jack's Blacks prompts. If no prompts come, well, I've got a number of my own to work on. More details on my website.
Slow, slow progress
Posted 3 years agoHey, all. So, I gotta confess that commissions have been going excruciatingly slowly. I’m not exactly closed or on hiatus, but I’m also not making nearly as much progress as I'd like to be. Management has proved to be a time– and soul-sucking endeavor that has left me less time and energy than ever to work on commissions. So, I just wanted to let everybody know in case any of you were hoping for me to start on your commission soon. Sorry for the bad news, but I figured I ought to come clean. If any of you want me to take it off the list, just let me know.
Best,
-Jack
Best,
-Jack
Jack's Blacks: The Service & Cattle
Posted 3 years agoHey, all. It's been a while since I published a Jack's Blacks installment, so I figured I'd share. I've posted two new ones that are now published on Amazon. Here are the details:
The Service
Tobias is the model student: athlete, scholar, volunteer, musician, everything a mother could want. Is it any wonder his mother isn’t ready for him to graduate, yet? Hoping to hold onto her little boy just a little longer, she enlists the help of The Service.
Kinks and topics include: age-regression / adult-baby, omorashi, humiliation, catheterization, diapers (wearing, wetting, messing), hypnosis / behavior modification, gaslighting, and some mom/son non-penetrative incest.
The link is here.
Cattle
Darius travels to a remote tribal village to close a deal on behalf of his employer, but little does he know that the chieftain intends to make his stay there a long-term contract.
Kinks and topics include: gang-rape, castration, prostate milking, male pregnancy, birth, and an enema.
The link for that one is here.
The Service
Tobias is the model student: athlete, scholar, volunteer, musician, everything a mother could want. Is it any wonder his mother isn’t ready for him to graduate, yet? Hoping to hold onto her little boy just a little longer, she enlists the help of The Service.
Kinks and topics include: age-regression / adult-baby, omorashi, humiliation, catheterization, diapers (wearing, wetting, messing), hypnosis / behavior modification, gaslighting, and some mom/son non-penetrative incest.
The link is here.
Cattle
Darius travels to a remote tribal village to close a deal on behalf of his employer, but little does he know that the chieftain intends to make his stay there a long-term contract.
Kinks and topics include: gang-rape, castration, prostate milking, male pregnancy, birth, and an enema.
The link for that one is here.
Commission Details
Posted 3 years agoHi, all. I've streamlined this journal to keep it short and sweet.
You can submit a commission request here, including the topic, characters, and what you want to pay.
I will let you know when I've received your request, but since I do them as I'm able and feel like it, I can't offer an estimated start/completion date.
When I'm ready to start your draft, I'll reach out to make sure you're still interested and to get more details.
Once I have a draft ready, I will invoice 90% of the draft word count based on the price you specified. Once you pay the invoice, I'll send the draft.
There will be one round of revisions and opportunity for feedback. Changes should be minor. Onerous changes might incur a fee (on a case-by-case basis), or I might decide that it's not worth the hassle and let you keep the remaining 10%.
Assuming we agree to make the changes, I'll make those and do my own revisions and then invoice for the remainder. This should be roughly the remaining 10% unless the word count increased due to requested changes.
Once you've paid the final invoice, I'll send you the final draft and upload the story to my blog, FA, and IB (as allowed per their acceptable use policies).
As always, feel free to reach out to me here, on IB, or via one of my social media handles for questions or concerns.
You can submit a commission request here, including the topic, characters, and what you want to pay.
I will let you know when I've received your request, but since I do them as I'm able and feel like it, I can't offer an estimated start/completion date.
When I'm ready to start your draft, I'll reach out to make sure you're still interested and to get more details.
Once I have a draft ready, I will invoice 90% of the draft word count based on the price you specified. Once you pay the invoice, I'll send the draft.
There will be one round of revisions and opportunity for feedback. Changes should be minor. Onerous changes might incur a fee (on a case-by-case basis), or I might decide that it's not worth the hassle and let you keep the remaining 10%.
Assuming we agree to make the changes, I'll make those and do my own revisions and then invoice for the remainder. This should be roughly the remaining 10% unless the word count increased due to requested changes.
Once you've paid the final invoice, I'll send you the final draft and upload the story to my blog, FA, and IB (as allowed per their acceptable use policies).
As always, feel free to reach out to me here, on IB, or via one of my social media handles for questions or concerns.
Sorry for the Post Notifications (If You're Getting Them)
Posted 3 years agoHey, all. I've been working on an integrated commission management tool that will let me brainstorm, write, invoice, send out, revise, export, generate thumbnails for, and post commissions to my blog, FA, IB, Telegram, Discord, and email. It's been a beast of a project, but I'm making amazing progress. Unfortunately, FA's proved to be by far the hardest of the interfaces to automate, so there have been a lot of false posts that I've then gone back and deleted. The good news is, I think I'm finally done doing those. so hopefully any notifications you get from me going forward will be real ones. Not sure how many of you guys actually saw the notifications, but I figured in case they were bothering you guys, I'd fess up to what I've been doing. More good news (for me) is that the only two interfaces I have left are Discord and Word. I've automated Word a lot in the past, so it's mostly a case of pulling over the code and tweaking it. Discord is completely new for me, but at least at first glance, it looks far less onerous than FA (IB, for the record, was stupid easy—except assigning to pools, which I don't think their API supports). The remaining stuff is just hardening it against ID10T errors, some GUI improvements, and a few workflow-guiding steps (nothing technically required, but because I'm lazy, I'll take all the automation and hand-holding I can get!). Then I'll be eager to try it "for real" and see how it handles on an actual commission.
Speaking of, commissions are still open; the app has taken a fair bit of time, but admittedly a break from working on it to write something sexy in a language other than C# would be nice.
-Jack
Speaking of, commissions are still open; the app has taken a fair bit of time, but admittedly a break from working on it to write something sexy in a language other than C# would be nice.
-Jack
[Updated 2022-02-01] (Very) Limited Comissions
Posted 3 years agoHey, all. The last almost-year off has done wonders for my psyche. New job, new lease on life, so to speak. It's amazing how much a job you hate can get you down. Anyway, it's taken quite a while since I started the new job to get back to having any interest in writing, but I've noticed a pretty substantial uptick in interest level lately; I even published a new Jack's Blacks.
I had started a really long post to describe how I arrived at the decision to offer limited commissions, but the more I wrote, the more brevity I craved. That wall of text will get posted to my blog at some point (or not), but the key points are as follows:
* No more queue. If someone reaches out and wants a commission, it will be a "yes", "not now", or "not interested".
* "Yes" means I'm ready and able to do the commission right now and have enough inspiration to think that I can actually knock it out.
* "Not now" means I'm already working on a commission, am on hiatus, or don't have time/energy/motivation/inspiration to work on it right now. Generally take this as a "no" and feel free to reach out to someone else to do the commission. If I'm interested enough, I might reach out when I'm able to work on it, but don't count on this!
* "Not interested" means this isn't a commission I want to do and am unlikely to change my mind on that in the future. Definitely reach out to someone else to do it for you. Note that this isn't meant to be an attack on you or your commission; it's just not something I think I'd enjoy writing, and since the theme of commissions this go-around is "have fun", that's got to be part of it.
* There will likely be a lot of the "not interested" responses. This isn't about money for me but for fun, and I want to write stories that are fun to write and leave me feeling pumped and ready for the next one.
* Send inquiries via a note on here or via my usual social media channels; since I'm doing these commissions one-at-a-time, I want to get away from using the form (though I might bring it back or modify it to only capture the logistical stuff; we'll see) in favor of a more dynamic, back-and-forth experience.
As a bit of guidance on likes / dislikes (to help decide whether to submit an idea or not):
Likes (these improve the chances of but don't guarantee getting selected):
* Stories focusing on more than just the kink: writing a vivid story with some kink means that even if I'm not into the kink itself, the story as a whole is fun to write.
* Flexible word count: a hard minimum makes it hard to add filler; a hard maximum can mean loss of interesting / fun details and increases stress trying to decide what to remove. Flexibility with a general ballpark sets expectations while letting me see where the story goes.
* Kinks I enjoy writing (this does not mean I like them in real life; know the difference!): kinks that dehumanize, humiliate, take away control, or result from loss of control, e.g., babyfur, bestiality, watersports/omorashi, castration, forced orgasms / impregnation / milking, transformation, loss of control due to musk / pheromones, etc. Incorporating ritual or punishment into any of those is icing on the cake.
Dislikes (these aren't inherent disqualifiers but do reduce the likelihood of getting selected):
* Character aggrandizement / "Mary Sue": I'm happy to follow a character through a sequence of events, but talking about how exceptional a particular character is without that somehow tying into the plot just feels icky.
* Very long stories (20k+ words): I can do these, but they require a lot more care to maintain consistency and avoid plot holes. They'll be met with skepticism but considered on a case-by-case basis.
* Picky, rigid or very detailed outlines: I enjoy the creativity of writing more than playing plot-point-Tetris. If you have a very specific story in mind with lots of specific plot points that must happen in a certain order under specific circumstances, I'm probably not going to enjoy writing it. Having lots of kinks / activities is fine as long as I'm free to fit them in where they work. Essentially acting as a tech writer to squeeze a bunch of information together into a story, though, is not fun for me; I got plenty of that at my last day job to last me a lifetime and don't want to do it anymore. If your outline and character notes are as long as the commission itself, that's probably an indication that I'm not going to have fun (yes, this has happened).
* Kinks I have trouble understanding: writing is very psychological for me, and to be able to write a compelling story, I have to be able to understand both the commissioner's interest in a kink and how the characters would plausibly think and act to cause that kink to happen. When something happens to a character, it's a lot more lenient than when a character actively seeks a kink that might be counterintuitive (e.g., death happening is one thing; actively seeking death without any particular physical/mental ailment to explain it is hard to make plausible). A commissioner who can help me understand the interest in the kink and how the characters could end up engaging in it (if I can't figure it out on my own) can be the difference between a hard commission and a fun one.
* Stories requiring a lot of research or in-depth knowledge: I've got a wide breadth of interests, but if I have to research something I otherwise wouldn't be interested in, that's not fun for me.
* Kinks I don't enjoy: Not kink-shaming; these kinks are just such turn-offs that they distract me when I try to write them: farting, breasts in general (big breasts, breast insertion, breast vore, etc.).
* Unclear / rude / no communication: If I'm having trouble understanding you and and ask for clarification, it's because I'm trying to make sure we have the same idea of what the story will look like. Failing to clarify or acting as if I'm stupid for asking is not a recipe for success (fortunately, this hasn't happened much). Also, I know we'll often be in different time zones, but getting back to me within a day or so is helpful so I don't lose whatever momentum I've built up.
Pricing and terms remain the same as they used to be:
* $0.02 / word
* No payment upfront
* 90% payment due upon draft completion (prior to delivery)
* One round of revisions
* I reserve the right to reject changes (and forfeit the final 10%) or to charge a change fee (beyond the change in word count), depending on how onerous the changes are. We'll discuss those changes and any applicable fees before changes are made.
* I'm not going to slap a bunch of fees on just for the heck of it, but do bear in mind that the initial discussion should identify all important plot points, character traits, kinks, etc. so that changes after the draft is complete are minimal.
* Final pricing is based on the final word count and any change fees incurred, so the final payment will vary somewhat depending on what changes are made. This is due before the final version is delivered.
We'll give this a try and see how it goes. Feel free to note me with questions or reach out via my other social media handles, and I'll clarify as best I can. As always, I don't bite, so if you want to run an idea by me, feel free; worst thing is I'll say I'm not interested.
Update 2022-02-01:
Welp, within an hour of me posting this journal, someone broke the "no queue" model. I thought I'd resolved it, but then it got broken again today. So... it appears I can't escape the queue. But, rather than give up, I'm gonna call it a "pile" instead in that there's gonna be a pile of commission ideas, and I'm going to pick the one that sounds interesting at the time when I'm ready to start something new. What this means is that delivery times will be even more unpredictable because I'm deliberately avoiding the first-in-first-out (FIFO) mentality (unless interesting stories just happen to show up in that order). What I said above regarding "yes", "not now", and "not interested" still stands: if I say "not now", it means that I have interest in it and will add it to the pile, but it could be weeks or months before I get to it, depending not only on what I'm currently working on and whether my outside life is busy but also on whether there are other stories in the pile that look like more fun. So, if you're wanting the story soon, definitely go to another writer. If there's no real urgency and you're willing to be happily surprised (well, hopefully happily) at some indeterminate time in the future, then feel free to hold out; it's totally up to you.
I really want to stress that favoring one commission over another is not meant to be a personal attack or anything like that; I'm just picking what sounds like fun and I feel inspired to do, kind of like I do projects around the property when I feel like doing them. I've struggled with this a lot over the years because I wanted to be fair to everybody, but reflecting on it over the last year, I think it's better to do the ones I enjoy and can knock out and move on to the next one rather than holding everybody up (sometimes for weeks or months) because I'm stuck on a particular commission...especially if getting stuck on several stories back-to-back burns me out and makes me need to disappear for the better part of a year again. In any case, I hope nobody takes it personally. It's not meant that way.
-Jack
I had started a really long post to describe how I arrived at the decision to offer limited commissions, but the more I wrote, the more brevity I craved. That wall of text will get posted to my blog at some point (or not), but the key points are as follows:
* No more queue. If someone reaches out and wants a commission, it will be a "yes", "not now", or "not interested".
* "Yes" means I'm ready and able to do the commission right now and have enough inspiration to think that I can actually knock it out.
* "Not now" means I'm already working on a commission, am on hiatus, or don't have time/energy/motivation/inspiration to work on it right now. Generally take this as a "no" and feel free to reach out to someone else to do the commission. If I'm interested enough, I might reach out when I'm able to work on it, but don't count on this!
* "Not interested" means this isn't a commission I want to do and am unlikely to change my mind on that in the future. Definitely reach out to someone else to do it for you. Note that this isn't meant to be an attack on you or your commission; it's just not something I think I'd enjoy writing, and since the theme of commissions this go-around is "have fun", that's got to be part of it.
* There will likely be a lot of the "not interested" responses. This isn't about money for me but for fun, and I want to write stories that are fun to write and leave me feeling pumped and ready for the next one.
* Send inquiries via a note on here or via my usual social media channels; since I'm doing these commissions one-at-a-time, I want to get away from using the form (though I might bring it back or modify it to only capture the logistical stuff; we'll see) in favor of a more dynamic, back-and-forth experience.
As a bit of guidance on likes / dislikes (to help decide whether to submit an idea or not):
Likes (these improve the chances of but don't guarantee getting selected):
* Stories focusing on more than just the kink: writing a vivid story with some kink means that even if I'm not into the kink itself, the story as a whole is fun to write.
* Flexible word count: a hard minimum makes it hard to add filler; a hard maximum can mean loss of interesting / fun details and increases stress trying to decide what to remove. Flexibility with a general ballpark sets expectations while letting me see where the story goes.
* Kinks I enjoy writing (this does not mean I like them in real life; know the difference!): kinks that dehumanize, humiliate, take away control, or result from loss of control, e.g., babyfur, bestiality, watersports/omorashi, castration, forced orgasms / impregnation / milking, transformation, loss of control due to musk / pheromones, etc. Incorporating ritual or punishment into any of those is icing on the cake.
Dislikes (these aren't inherent disqualifiers but do reduce the likelihood of getting selected):
* Character aggrandizement / "Mary Sue": I'm happy to follow a character through a sequence of events, but talking about how exceptional a particular character is without that somehow tying into the plot just feels icky.
* Very long stories (20k+ words): I can do these, but they require a lot more care to maintain consistency and avoid plot holes. They'll be met with skepticism but considered on a case-by-case basis.
* Picky, rigid or very detailed outlines: I enjoy the creativity of writing more than playing plot-point-Tetris. If you have a very specific story in mind with lots of specific plot points that must happen in a certain order under specific circumstances, I'm probably not going to enjoy writing it. Having lots of kinks / activities is fine as long as I'm free to fit them in where they work. Essentially acting as a tech writer to squeeze a bunch of information together into a story, though, is not fun for me; I got plenty of that at my last day job to last me a lifetime and don't want to do it anymore. If your outline and character notes are as long as the commission itself, that's probably an indication that I'm not going to have fun (yes, this has happened).
* Kinks I have trouble understanding: writing is very psychological for me, and to be able to write a compelling story, I have to be able to understand both the commissioner's interest in a kink and how the characters would plausibly think and act to cause that kink to happen. When something happens to a character, it's a lot more lenient than when a character actively seeks a kink that might be counterintuitive (e.g., death happening is one thing; actively seeking death without any particular physical/mental ailment to explain it is hard to make plausible). A commissioner who can help me understand the interest in the kink and how the characters could end up engaging in it (if I can't figure it out on my own) can be the difference between a hard commission and a fun one.
* Stories requiring a lot of research or in-depth knowledge: I've got a wide breadth of interests, but if I have to research something I otherwise wouldn't be interested in, that's not fun for me.
* Kinks I don't enjoy: Not kink-shaming; these kinks are just such turn-offs that they distract me when I try to write them: farting, breasts in general (big breasts, breast insertion, breast vore, etc.).
* Unclear / rude / no communication: If I'm having trouble understanding you and and ask for clarification, it's because I'm trying to make sure we have the same idea of what the story will look like. Failing to clarify or acting as if I'm stupid for asking is not a recipe for success (fortunately, this hasn't happened much). Also, I know we'll often be in different time zones, but getting back to me within a day or so is helpful so I don't lose whatever momentum I've built up.
Pricing and terms remain the same as they used to be:
* $0.02 / word
* No payment upfront
* 90% payment due upon draft completion (prior to delivery)
* One round of revisions
* I reserve the right to reject changes (and forfeit the final 10%) or to charge a change fee (beyond the change in word count), depending on how onerous the changes are. We'll discuss those changes and any applicable fees before changes are made.
* I'm not going to slap a bunch of fees on just for the heck of it, but do bear in mind that the initial discussion should identify all important plot points, character traits, kinks, etc. so that changes after the draft is complete are minimal.
* Final pricing is based on the final word count and any change fees incurred, so the final payment will vary somewhat depending on what changes are made. This is due before the final version is delivered.
We'll give this a try and see how it goes. Feel free to note me with questions or reach out via my other social media handles, and I'll clarify as best I can. As always, I don't bite, so if you want to run an idea by me, feel free; worst thing is I'll say I'm not interested.
Update 2022-02-01:
Welp, within an hour of me posting this journal, someone broke the "no queue" model. I thought I'd resolved it, but then it got broken again today. So... it appears I can't escape the queue. But, rather than give up, I'm gonna call it a "pile" instead in that there's gonna be a pile of commission ideas, and I'm going to pick the one that sounds interesting at the time when I'm ready to start something new. What this means is that delivery times will be even more unpredictable because I'm deliberately avoiding the first-in-first-out (FIFO) mentality (unless interesting stories just happen to show up in that order). What I said above regarding "yes", "not now", and "not interested" still stands: if I say "not now", it means that I have interest in it and will add it to the pile, but it could be weeks or months before I get to it, depending not only on what I'm currently working on and whether my outside life is busy but also on whether there are other stories in the pile that look like more fun. So, if you're wanting the story soon, definitely go to another writer. If there's no real urgency and you're willing to be happily surprised (well, hopefully happily) at some indeterminate time in the future, then feel free to hold out; it's totally up to you.
I really want to stress that favoring one commission over another is not meant to be a personal attack or anything like that; I'm just picking what sounds like fun and I feel inspired to do, kind of like I do projects around the property when I feel like doing them. I've struggled with this a lot over the years because I wanted to be fair to everybody, but reflecting on it over the last year, I think it's better to do the ones I enjoy and can knock out and move on to the next one rather than holding everybody up (sometimes for weeks or months) because I'm stuck on a particular commission...especially if getting stuck on several stories back-to-back burns me out and makes me need to disappear for the better part of a year again. In any case, I hope nobody takes it personally. It's not meant that way.
-Jack
No More Commissions
Posted 4 years agoEffective immediately, I will not be taking any more commissions. Apologies to those on the waiting list, but after struggling off and on for years with burnout, it's time I faced the fact that I'm not getting the spark back that I had in 2018. I'm thankful to everybody who's put their trust in me over the years to bring their commissions to paper; I've definitely learned a lot about a bunch of kinks that I didn't even know existed and had the opportunity to write somewhere around a million words of fiction over the last few years, and that's nothing to sneeze at. Best wishes to everybody in their fantasy pursuits.
-Jack
-Jack
