This is a thing I’m trying to get going this week in my online worlds, because my dream is coming true! I’ve been starting up a company for the past 2 years to help yoga teachers and healing arts professionals create online courses. It goes on sale July 23 (Join the mailing list at the website http://bit.ly/8min2nerPeas). I think it’d be fun to share what we’d like to do, whether it’s a professional goal or just, like, learn how to quilt really well.
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Congrats!! I signed up on the mailing list so I expect my inner peace any second now (don’t have 8 minutes).
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I wanna make a living as a screenwriter. I have a pitch meeting this Thursday (my very first), so fingers crossed it goes well!
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Thank you! (The inner peace in an instant course costs way more 
)
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Oh cool!!! Good luck!! Tell us how it goes.
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For small personal things? I’d like to:
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Recover from fibro and share whatever techniques help me in case they might help someone else, but you know, health evangelism often turns into victim-blaming, so I’d like to avoid hurting anyone else with that.
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Be able to support myself.
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Put together a roleplaying campaign, a tactical game, and a strategic game based on Spartacus’s revolts, and possibly another roleplaying campaign set beyond the Roman frontier centuries after a successful revolt. The last would allow more character variations than a strictly historical campaign, while staying more grounded than a fantasy campaign.
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As part of that, I’d need to address army sizes, population sizes, ancient armor effectiveness, and so on, where mainstream historians and game designers have rarely gone beyond guesstimates or very crude maximum estimates.
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cool. Make sure you put in cowbell…the people love cowbell!
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The one thing I would love to do is to make a living writing novels, stories, and essays/opinion pieces.
So far I’ve made a grand total of $100 from selling one story. And the past year or so, I’ve had an awful time writing anything.
I did have a first draft done people in my writer’s group told me to edit, with an aim to publish. In the process of doing this I learned I don’t really know how to edit. I also learned that most advice about editing is very vague. It also tends to assume the writer has overwritten. I do that, but I do the opposite – leave out needed details – more often.
And now I’ve got to the part where I fumble around in public for concrete next steps, which I will spare you.
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I’m sure some of us could copy-edit or comment on confusing parts if you want.
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Editing isnt just trimming. Sometimes it’s making a few passes over to see what you’ve missed. It can be about making something bland into something more evocative.
I wouldn’t mind giving something a beta read. If you want an idea of my style, you can check out the game threads.
We have some amazing writers in this community. I feel honoured to be able to see their work in some of these threads. And hey, you’re published. That is like Terra Incognita / Here There Be Dragons sort of thing, for me. I have been writing for most of my life. Finishing something to the point that I would be willing to take that leap is still a dream for me.
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Make a living by painting, writing, and the odd software contract instead of being stuck in the corporate lifestyle. What’s my plan? Well I’m stuck at this job until I’m done with certain medical procedures, but that’s probably still 2+ years to go. In the meantime I’m trying to prepare for my future life.
I’ve gotten acceptable at painting still life and and landscape, so I’m now working on human anatomy. I should also probably start figuring out how to sell my work; I have someone interested in displaying it in her shop but I haven’t made anything yet that seems well-suited for her venue – I do have some ideas, I just need to set aside time to flesh them out.
Writing is something I’ve not done much of in the last several years, but I still get new story ideas so I’m rearranging my schedule to take a couple nights a week to get something together, and see how it goes – this requires dropping out of martial arts, but I’ve generally felt physically safe lately, and I have other outlets for staying in shape, so I think it will be okay. I used to write a lot but I’m out of practice now, and it’s never felt quite as natural to me as art, so this is a more experimental pursuit for now.
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This was a tough one for me. Professionally, I’ve achieved my dream. I guess my next dream is to be able to retire while I’m still able to enjoy it.
Personally, I’d like to get back into artistic things - drawing, painting, sculpting, woodcarving. My wife and I have talked about maybe someday retiring and setting up an arts & crafts & new age & odd stuff shop. That may be a possibility.
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As pathetic as it sounds, I just want to earn enough to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. To be able to afford to go to the dentist and get my teeth cleaned. To get the car serviced. To buy a washing machine. To pay all my bills. And preferably without doing something I despise.
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I don’t think that’s pathetic at all. All the things you list – those are stressors. And running in place like that is a definite stressor.
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I keep telling people that I wish I could afford a house, because I would love such luxuries as a full-size dishwasher and my own washer and dryer.
But really, honestly? At this point I would settle for paying off my credit card.
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you and me both.
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