How do you feel about Update Schedules?

[Flames05]

i've just set one but for someone who lives in procrastination land like me it's difficult to meet it but i'll try my best, since i've actually set one up just yesterday >_<

[Levi-chan]

I'm actually quite ashamed of it.

Hah! Who isn't ashamed of their comics?

Popular gag cartoonists with a huge fanbase, those with good writing, those with exceptional art, and those who advertise.

Also, "avant-garde" comickers who venture way beyond "pushing the envelope" and actually end up in absurdity. More specifically, the sub-genus impenetrable to criticism of any sort.

Then there's the hentai scheisse-porn webcomics...

[E]

one or two minor layout changes with no real content every two years. see you in 2009, pralaimėtojas.

[Jackhass]

I think it would be lovely if Comicgen's servers would let me keep a schedule!

[BoShek]

I haven't broken schedule in all my three weeks... but uinless I dust off page 12 before midnite... I will.

[Corgan_dane]

Sorry if this is considered thread necromancy, but I haven't been around for a while, and wanted to throw in my two cents...or three, depending on how long I blather on...

I think a schedule creates a sort of double-edged sword when you have one for your first comic. When I started MTG, I was making it up as I went, and scratching together using very limited skills, scanning in pencil drawings and generally making a mess of things...but I always updated on time.

As time passed, and my artistic skills improved, I found that I couldn't be satisfied with simple grayscale anymore. Then I added shading, tweaked character designs, actually started adding backgrounds, etc...

Unfortunately, creating a better looking comic took longer than it used to in the flat, crappy grayscale days, butI felt guilty toward my budding fanbase at the thought of changing my schedule. I liked updating that often. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it anymore.

I'm not saying a new webcomicker should have no schedule. You need one, if only to give your readers an idea of when to look for updates, and to show them that you're not going to just quit doing this. You have to show a commitment.

However, I highly suggest dealing with the fact that your first comic is just that, and as your skills increase, you're going to have to break that schedule (unless you're a webcomicking deity who never needs sleep or who desires to have any sort of life at all).

[That guy]

My story is much like yours, Corgan.

I tend to recomend that newbies start with a less frequent schedule than they are capable of producing. Reliability is more of a draw than frequency (especially is frequency decreases quality). If you can make a comic EVERY day, update every other. If you could update every other day, then DO update just once or twice a week. That way when you inevitably hit a snag, you have a buffer and you can recoup. Otherwise you start to resent the time instead of enjoy it.

I keep thinking of stopping my comic entirely because I have too many other projects I ought to do first. I still post occasionally, but no longer on any schedule. I'm not worried about attracting new fans or watching my numbers any more, but sometimes I think of a joke and I just want a forum in which to share it, so I post a strip.

[Sorcery101]

(unless you're a webcomicking deity who never needs sleep or who desires to have any sort of life at all).

Sleep is for the weak.

[NakedElf]

Or the dead.

[Sorcery101]

No, the dead don't sleep. Just ask the cast of BPRD.

And since my stance on schedules should be pretty obvious since I have only missed an update once. And the way I see it, whatever you hate about webcomics you should do the opposite. So since I hate being lied to about when stuff will update or not knowing when to come back, I update when I say I will update and do it often.

[Ripps818]

(unless you're a webcomicking deity who never needs sleep or who desires to have any sort of life at all).

Sleep is for the weak.

Or the comatose from having a diabetic shock from drinking too much Jolt.

[That guy]

(unless you're a webcomicking deity who never needs sleep or who desires to have any sort of life at all).

Sleep is for the weak.

Or the comatose from having a diabetic shock from drinking too much Jolt.

Do they even still sell Jolt?

[Black Sparrow]

Sorry if this is considered thread necromancy, but I haven't been around for a while, and wanted to throw in my two cents...or three, depending on how long I blather on...

I think a schedule creates a sort of double-edged sword when you have one for your first comic. When I started MTG, I was making it up as I went, and scratching together using very limited skills, scanning in pencil drawings and generally making a mess of things...but I always updated on time.

As time passed, and my artistic skills improved, I found that I couldn't be satisfied with simple grayscale anymore. Then I added shading, tweaked character designs, actually started adding backgrounds, etc...

Unfortunately, creating a better looking comic took longer than it used to in the flat, crappy grayscale days, butI felt guilty toward my budding fanbase at the thought of changing my schedule. I liked updating that often. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it anymore.

I'm not saying a new webcomicker should have no schedule. You need one, if only to give your readers an idea of when to look for updates, and to show them that you're not going to just quit doing this. You have to show a commitment.

However, I highly suggest dealing with the fact that your first comic is just that, and as your skills increase, you're going to have to break that schedule (unless you're a webcomicking deity who never needs sleep or who desires to have any sort of life at all).

I agree with just about everything Corgan said. My experience with Operation:NEKO is that, in making the comic look better, I was sacrificing a lot more time for every page, and I struggled to keep updates consistent.

Therefore, I'm of the opinion that, while update schedules are good for your reliability rep, you shouldn't choose an update schedule that you can't handle. If you need to drop it down from every day to three times a week, it's fine, as long as you stick to that once you've put it in action. Sure, teh fans will be disappointed, but it'll save your own sanity.

[McDuffies]

I agree with just about everything Corgan said. My experience with Operation:NEKO is that, in making the comic look better, I was sacrificing a lot more time for every page, and I struggled to keep updates consistent.

Buy, do I have a comic idea that you could use.

[Rkolter]

I feel that a comic should have, and should try to stick to, an update schedule. If the artist can't stick to the schedule they selected, they should revise the schedule based on their experiences, and then stick to the new schedule.

I would always, ALWAYS rather have fewer, scheduled updates, than more unscheduled ones. I even prefer it that if you miss an update date, that you not post the next day "just to get it in" and rather just wait until the next date on your schedule.

I know this is a strict viewpoint, please let me explain -

When you update irregularly, I have to check more often for updates - I never know when you'll update. I also have to regularly go to the previous comic. This is because if you change to another location in the story, I don't know whether or not I missed an update!

That regular visiting just to not see an update, and having to drop out of the story to hit the back button all the time to see if I missed an update, really makes me enjoy the comic less. It doesn't INFURIATE me. But it does annoy me. And if I'm being annoyed semi-regularly, it won't take much more than a few missed updates or a few strips that aren't really that interesting (and we all have those) for me to say "blah, I'll just stop reading this all together".

This is why Sabrina Online, which updates only once a month and I find mildly amusing, is still in my list of comics to read, while Hellbound, which updates irregularly but that I laughed at, is not.

[Dark Spider]

Based upon my own personal experiences, having a regular update schedule was more of a bad thing than a good thing. A regular update schedule would put an unfair ticking clock factor into my creative process. I need that freedom of time so I won't feel rushed into picking lousy writing and art choices.

For example, It took a whole month to write, plan, and revise a whole 40 page comic story. Then afterward, I realized that I didn't put enough character conflict and I tried to cram too much story info into that one section. I wasn't happy, so I scrapped that whole story and started over. It took another month to come up with another story, but this time I'm completely happy with it. I hate to what I would've done under the ticking clock of a regular schedule.

When I come back to the webcomicking world with my new story, I came up with a compromise to the updating schedule. With each new update, I will tell my readers when to expect the next update. Like a specific date, such as July 27th. That way I can calculate how much time I need on a case by case basis, and the reader can still know when the comic will update and hopefully show up for it.