And just how are you going to raise revenue from your website? When cornered with this question I usually find best evaded with some theoretical notion; that this minor consideration will surely take care of itself once the artistic and creative parameters have been set. Several weeks ago, after a meeting with David, a financial mentor from the IDI, came the reality check (Counting the Cost 18 August 2009) After that I got down to flow charts of potential income streams and it all looked very promising. Promising - but still theoretical. I know that Bank of Wonderhubby is not a bottomless treasure chest – the Teens want school trips to Germany and University accommodation. David then follows up with a long phone call and turns everything we discussed on it’s head. He suggests the idea of listeners pledging funds towards making a production. This production e.g. an audiodrama would then be sold per download with those backing it receiving a share of the profit. The idea is exciting, as we bat it back and forth between us, it swells and flows over like a barmaid overfilling a pint. It’s seems the best way forward and would surely satisfy most of the stakeholders - at last, I’ve cracked it. So why when I put the phone down do I suddenly feel like having a good cry?
I’ve visualised this idea for nearly 2 years now, working hard especially this last few months, too many early mornings to count; yet I’ve never felt emotional. I try to analyse why I feel like this – it seems so illogical. Perhaps this pledging idea is too big, the sheer scale of management and machinery to get it into place and bring people on board with the idea. A big idea and a very small person. But I think it’s something more – perhaps for the first time I realise that it’s my baby and soon I may not recognise it as my own; it’s already getting too big to contain. Perhaps it has grown up quicker than I expected and do I love it enough to let it go? Perhaps for the first time I realise how much I really care about it.
A new development - Clive a lecturer who was on my interview panel for the IDI Fellowship offers to read and record for me some of the book that he is writing. We discuss how things are progressing; he thinks that once I get going, there won’t be time to record everything that goes onto the website, I’m going to have to open it up to user generated content. My heart sinks – that’s exactly what I don’t want to do, quality is key, but I know its going to be difficult to keep control.
Then a last formal meeting with Jan my mentor from Creative GLEAM although I hope we continue to meet up – she’s been a great support and a mine of information Our ‘formal’ meeting is a couple of hours in a sheltered spot in Jan’s back garden enjoying the last dregs of warm sun before Autumn becomes established . Then over a pub lunch in her village local, Jan helps me to reflect what I really want, personally, from setting up this website. What sort of image do I want to project? It’s my call. More things to contemplate.
I meet up with Mark, the tutor from the IDI, he thinks these things can be achieved, but it will be more realistic to do them in stages. Lets think about specifications for the website and doing a pilot.
Time to take a breather. A walk in Allendale in the North Pennines with Wonderhubby. Another place in Northumberland that time forgot. On a sleepy Sunday afternoon we set off from The Market Square, with 5 public houses within a stone’s throw of each (one sadly boarded up). We make our way across fields and woods on the banks of The Allen overlooked by the remote and brooding moors; it’s so peaceful and has probably remained largely unchanged for centuries. The leaves are just starting to turn and despite the sun, the atmosphere has a mist-like quality. I romanticise about treading in the footsteps of the leadminers, who upto the beginning of the last century belonged to a once thriving industry, sadly declining after the introduction of cheap imports (sound familiar?) We find plentiful remains of the industrial past, now returning to nature.
I love walks like this, being part of the continuity of nature helps me to realise what’s really important in the larger plan of life. It helps me to decide that I want to keep this website personal. I want its visitors not only to enjoy the content, but also to have an interest in how writers and their work are developing. David’s system of pledging can be an integral part of building up that community, it doesn’t have to be a conflict. The uploading of user generated content is something I may have to consider for the future – but under my terms. I realise how important this simple walk has been to help me reach some sort of resolution, much more important than an afternoon at the laptop. Late afternoon, we turn back into the Market Square as the air is starting to chill. I notice a fascinating hotchpotch of Georgian facades. We find a cafe and I enjoy a steaming mug of hot chocolate and toasted teacake and feel at peace with it all – at least for now.
