Fictional Influence on the TV

What's coming next

Yes, you can leave your wife.

You can take your young, hot girlfriend on an isolated vacation with your kids

You can tell your kids not to show how much they hate her

But you probably shouldn’t.

So went the brief announcement for the inaugural video for the Fictional Influence YouTube channel.

I’m happy to say it was a hit, with over a thousand views, which is highly unusual, I’ll be honest.

But looking at those numbers pulled a weight off my chest because THIS is what I actually want to be doing.

Writing my blogs here on Substack and making similar-themed videos on YouTube. That’s where I want to spend my time. That’s how I want to make my money.

The editing/ghostwriting was always a job. Not a necessity, mind you. I still have my soulless government income (and admittedly amazing medical insurance).

But the writing… that’s my passion.

My second video, posted last Saturday, had much more normal views for a newly-active channel, coming in at around 60 views for the first 24 hours, which is still really good. And I have three more waiting in the hopper, all based on previous blogs.

Coming soon

It’s unlikely I’ll ever make enough money from the writing for it to be my sole income. Not to be a braggy braggerton, but I make a lot in both the editing and the government job, so replacing them with Substack and YouTube income would be borderline delusional.

The goal is to make enough from the writing and videos that I can just manage the editing business, only rarely doing the editing or ghostwriting myself.

I have good people working for me and I’d like to hand off every job that comes in, rather than just some.

I have big plans for the channel and a lot I want to talk about. A lot of books and movies I want to watch (or rewatch) so I can add my curated recommendations to the mountain of content you all swim in.

What’s Next?

After the current crop of videos goes live, all new videos will be entirely original. No repeats from Substack articles.

I’ll be appearing on camera too. A real camera, with a teleprompter and a green screen. No more webcam like on my Nonsense-Free Editor channel.

The first planned video is a retrospective of Z Nation, a post-apocalyptic show that was briefly the best thing on cable before the writers clearly started taking acid. I’ll be going through all 5 seasons, with the video probably coming in around an hour. It’s going to be a chonker.

The next one on tap is the one I’m most excited about. It involves the Unwind book series by Neal Schusterman, specifically the dystopian civilization it takes place in.

It’s really something, and I’ve seen parallels in our current society that just might-could lead to that dystopian world where the young are stripped for parts to prolong and enliven the old.

Who says youth should be wasted on the young?

If you want to support the channel, watching the videos (plus like, share, and subscribe) is the easiest way to do it.

If you decide to offer a one-time tip on an article or video you especially loved, that’s another way.

And of course, you can become a premium subscriber, which helps me grow, gets you early access to all videos, and you can send me topic suggestions (for videos AND articles).

Since next week is Christmas, there won’t be an article, but I just might be sending you a present.

Maybe 😊

I’d love to hear what you think of the YouTube channel and the videos posted so far. And as always, thank you for hanging out with me.