A strange (and very unlikely) commission opening

CW: Suicide, abuse, mental health

As I've mentioned in patreon updates this year, My long-distance girlfriend and I are not in good health, both mentally and physically. We have been dating for years now, but have never actually been able to meet in person due to monetary reasons and of course the pandemic. We're both disabled and can't do any """real""" jobs (as defined by ableist assholes) that we otherwise qualify for. Writing and drawing is my only source of income - I don't qualify for disability because I live with my parents. The government assumes that must mean they're both rich enough and caring enough to be supporting me, but they're abusers who, among other things, steal from me.

My girlfriend has had multiple suicide attempts this year. We want to be able to get away from our abusers and be together, even if for just a few weeks or a month. And honestly, I'm horrified we might not get the chance to be together if we don't act fast. I don't want to lose her before we get to be together in person. It would be the biggest regret of my life.

But I'm hoping that such a visit will be the boost we both need to keep going until we can live together, or at least until our next visit.

And to be clear, I live in Canada and I want to visit my girlfriend where she lives in the UK, so it's not like we're even on the same continent. Point being, this is going to be expensive.

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This brings me to the strange commission opening. I am willing to open up a slot for a 100 000 word novel, including cover art, three concept art sketches of characters, and a fully rendered fullbody drawing of the protagonist (or other character of your choosing), for $3000 USD (all to be paid up-front, so that I can use it to spend time with my girlfriend as soon as possible). My usual rate for short stories is $30 per 1000 words, so even though the per word price scales perfectly, you'd still get bonus drawings. Beyond that, I'd need to do more extensive work for storyboarding, planning, characterisation, setting, and other factors that are easier for short stories, especially compared to fanfic where the world and characters are already pre-established. So what I'm getting at here is that $3000 is a significant discount when taking into account my actual workload.

This project would also take significant time: I'm estimating it would take at the very least one year to complete, though almost certainly more than that.

Alternatively, If you don't want a full novel, the 100 000 words could be split into a few novellas or a larger collection of short stories if you so desire, and you would still get the cover art, sketched concept art, and fully rendered fullbody drawing.

Honestly, I don't anticipate anyone actually commissioning this from me. $3K USD is a lot, especially to have it all paid up front. And besides, though I am decently experienced as a writer now, I've never completed a story this large before and I'm not kidding myself into believing it will be easy. That being said, I'm determined to be with the the people I love and will do whatever I can to help make them happy. If this is what is necessary to be with my girlfriend for even just a month, this is what I'll do.