When Do You Write/Draw?

[Boozeathon4billion]

I've been working 3 jobs for the past two months, which adds up to around 60 hours of work a week, and that just got me to thinking about how busy most of us doing comics probably are. I do my comics in the early mornings on the day I'm supposed to update just to keep them fresh and relevant with whatever is going on around me. But when do you find time to update your stuff? Do you work ahead of your update schedule by writing out whole storylines first, or do you also start drawing in advance?

Just curious because I've been thinking about trying to get ahead by a few days and was wondering what works for you all.

[Dr Legostar]

on the weekends mostly, unless i can't get the time and then i just do a day and catch up during the week. I usually make a week of comics at a time, though the writing often gets done as I make the comics sometimes that gets done randomly ahead of time. For example the comics for my triumphant return next week and the week after got written in the last couple of days and I'm waiting on the rest of my bricks to make the comics for at least next week on sunday.

[May Day]

I do all my drawing really really late at night. I work messed up hours at the hotel (constant overtime ftl), so unless I can sneak in a fifteen minute break somewhere it leaves little 'real' drawing time until about 10:30 at night; after eating, bathing, feeding/walking/playing with the animals, and cleaning up. I kind of enjoy the satisfaction of knowing I drew, colored, and scripted a comic... and am still in bed before midnight^^ It just feels good

[Siabur]

Well, I write best when I am at a restaurant, must be my comfort zone. I always have a small notebook with me so whenever something hits me I won't forget it when I am trying to put the next order together after the server rang it in wrong. I think linear in terms of writing. I jot down a few plots, and then script it out. I will do up to 50 strips, 3 panel newspaper style, at the most depending on where I am going. I do long form as well as gags. As for drawing, I've lost interest in it. So I'm tinkering with photocomicking. I've actually gotten more satisfaction out of the photocomic then drawing. But when I did draw it was after midnight. It was cooler, nothing to distract me, put the 2 300 disc changers on shuffle, head phones on and go for it. Ahh, the past.

[Hogan]

When I scripted I almost entirely did it, due to work, kids and family, in the evenings, usually not getting things done properly before the house had quited down, which means that a lot, too much actually, of my work was done between midnight and 2 AM... and I'm afraid that showed at a good many points

When scripting nowadays, or making a rare drawing for the fun of it, its usually at the same times, though bringing the laptop to the garden gives some new possibilities...

[Montyandwoolley]

I don't script in advance, but i have a general idea about what the next comic might be about. Otherwise, i just sit down infront of the computer and stare at the screen until i think of something worth doing..

[Kris X]

I don't normally plan my drawing times, though I should.

I usually have the habit, however, of drawing on the couch at random point of the day. I just need to get an idea popping in my head and I'm good to go.

[Phact0rri]

I try to shove drawing into what ever little time I have on the side, during the day. be it before or after work. I tend to ink at work during lunch.

Writing on comics usually falls into the "write comic instead of drawing" situation. I also have like two hours in the morning or an hour at night in which I work on something but that bit usually goes in periods where I'll use that time for writing music, working on a novel or drawing stuff.

[Neonoen]

My schedule isn't the busiest - at most, my work gives me 20 or 25 hours a week, and I'm taking two online classes at the moment that require only about an hour or two a day of dedication. Other than those obligations and maintaining a healthy social life, I don't have much going on, and my schedule for work changes every week, so I'm really able to fit in drawing and writing time any time the fancy hits. Even so, I generally draw during the afternoon or late at night. Inspiration rarely hits during the morning.

[RobertBlake]

I try to write a couple of hours each day, usually late morning or the afternoon. Of what I have written, if anything, I take the gag I like best for drawing and file the rest. If I ever get stuck for ideas, I can always pull something from my files.

I usually draw each comic the day before it's goes up, but sometimes when I'm feeling ambitious I will draw another. I really should work on getting a buffer up, but I'm comfortable doing it the way I do now.

[Wadefade]

I don't write/draw... but I do work on the things I do mostly between 10pm and 2am (after the lady goes to bed)

[Killbert-Robby]

Whenever the mood takes me. If I'm inspired, I'll pounce.

But I find if I have to make myself work, its usually better late at night. Hence why I'm up til like 5 every night.

[Phact0rri]

Whenever the mood takes me. If I'm inspired, I'll pounce.

best way to do it really so it doesn't feel so much like work. when you get to forcing yourself it looses its fun rather quickly I've found.

[Eve Z.]

whenever i have the ambition. not now, though.

[Eve Z.]

NOW I finished drawing the next page for SL.

[Laemkral]

I write in my head. The whole damn story from my blog is up in my head and always being written when I've got a free moment to think. Right before bed, to help me fall asleep I just start playing it out so that when I get the time to sit down and put it on paper (well, digital paper) all that's really happening is editing and detail checking. This helps me maximize my free time so that I don't just sit around and go "Think of something, damn it!" The best part is that revisions are much faster since everything changes as fast as I think so if I don't like how something is going I'm not going back through paragraphs to make changes.

[McDuffies]

Lately - Very rarely.

[Takuun]

I tend to draw after I get home and have eaten, (something about trying to draw while hungry makes me fail horrible and draw flying hams the whole time), usually between 9 and midnight. Now writing... I dunno something about doing menial jobs tends to make my brain run through ideas till it screams, "FUNNY JOKE WOOT WOOT FUNNY JOKE!", and then I'm reaching into my pocket for my pen and pad.
As for story Ideas... I dunno I didn't really have a story till I tried to expand on my characters and make them more real. Now it's more like I ask them what will happen next in their life.

[Metruis]

My entire thing is written already almost to the end, so any "writing" is changes done directly on the pages. Which has unfortunately been a lot, I've done short scenes without scripting... it's fitting in the drawing that's fun. My pencils are almost perpetually done at very late times. I found that if I'm nearly falling asleep, I can produce roughs about 7500% faster than normal because I don't get hung up on details. I'll fix my pencils in the morning when I'm alert and capable of thinking about it, or in the afternoon or right before inking and I color while chatting with a friend, and ink while chatting too, since I've found that as we write daily together, I can double task between paragraphs with my stuff on my computer desk.

So, uh, my pencils are usually done in batches of 2-5 at around 5 in the morning... then I'll fix them up in the afternoon during lunch or whatever, or on Sundays and ink then too, or I start up again sometime around 6-12/1ish and yep.

So yeah, I'm working ahead of my update schedule. I currently have three penciled pages and two finished ones cued. I'm trying to get a larger buffer. I'm also working to a set 'the end' which helps.

[Nikara]

well as I mostly work in museum education, my job often ends at 4:30 (unless I'm preparing a lesson or working overtime). This gives me the rest of the night to draw as much as I want