How do you maintain interest?

[Ripnormality]

Deliberately long... or procrastination so you don't have to get into the meat of the writing? If, as you say, you've drawn things that went 2-3 pages before you realized you had nothing else to say, then I think scripting is DEFINITELY one of your problems. Your biggest, most likely.

Story is #1 in a comic. Art is #2. If you're posting deviant art images or putting together a portfolio of your images, then art should certainly take a front seat, but with comics it all comes down to the writing. You're telling a story, be it a short, funny story or a long, drawn-out epic, it's a story. If it's written poorly - not planned out - and not coherent or consistent, it's not going to do well.

ACK - No! Don't develope the characters and THEN go back to change what they say! That's silly. Develope the characters in your mind. Make bio sheets that the public will never see, get to KNOW them, and then start writing for them.

If you have a story arc plotted out, individual segments fully scripted, and a solid concept of each of your characters' personalities, you will not have consistency problems, and the comic will have the momentum to carry itself forward.

No, not procrastination. That's one thing I'm sure about...the stories I didn't get far into were primarily dropped because, after a good night's sleep, they didn't seem like very good ideas anymore. I don't post story pages until I've figured out how the story is going to end.

Aah...true, true. But it seems like a comic should rank art and story equally; isn't that what makes it unique compared to a single illustration or a written piece?

In terms of dialogue tweaking...I was referring to minor details. Changing the dialogue because of a personality change would be atrocious.

The comic might have momentum, but would it have enough to knock down a wall of standards? I've found that most things I write or draw lose their appeal after two weeks. So what for me causes the loss of interest is having a better idea or coming to the decision that the current story isn't all that interesting. In which case...is it better to drop the story?

[Adobedragon]

If you have a story arc plotted out, individual segments fully scripted, and a solid concept of each of your characters' personalities, you will not have consistency problems, and the comic will have the momentum to carry itself forward.

I agree. But, as I posted above, I can't imagine working without a script, at least not on a story-based comic.

That's one thing I'm sure about...the stories I didn't get far into were primarily dropped because, after a good night's sleep, they didn't seem like very good ideas anymore.

Hmmm. Could this be a form of perfectionism?

I have trouble with both my short attention span and being a perfectionist. The first (attention span), I work around by treating the comic a bit like a part time job. (Sigh. Here's where someone complains that that "Sucks out all the fun." No. It really doesn't. So people actually love their jobs.) By "job," I mean, setting up a schedule/routine and sticking to it.

My tendency to be a perfectionist and over-analyze everything, however, does suck the fun out of...well, lots of things. I haven't even told anyone I know about my comic, because I'm waiting for the day when it'll be "good enough." Whatever that means. Ugh.

Anyway, I don't have a good way of getting past that issue, except to continue on with an idea, and not let the need to be "perfect" get in the way.

For me, it's been a matter of establishing good patterns (habits) and pushing past the old (bad habits). Ultimately, it has been about plain old willpower.

Probably not what you want to hear. Heh. Sorry.

[Noir]

"You've got a really good point. Me being me, I've gotta ask--is there anything specific you could offer me in terms of advice? "

Yes. Whether or not you take it is up to you (after all it might not be very good advice).

"About the art not being 'that' important--really? I could write a short story far more easily (and probably much better)...honestly, the webcomic is partially a way for me to keep up with some drawing basics."

You will find people who defend the idea of narrative and art having equal footing but I just don't think it stands up to inspection. I have enjoyed many, many comics with good writing but poor/bad art, I've never enjoyed a comic with bad writing but good art.

"I'm not sure, though, if it's a good idea to spend two months on 8 pages and then find out that there isn't much of a story to keep going with."

I think it is, even if you don't follow through the extra effort will make it a more productive learning experience. Besides a month on 8 pages is still 1 page a week, which if you are doing writer, pencils, colour, letters, upload is actually very quick.

On to my specific suggestion. Write a short story, a very short, short story. The sort of thing that could fit in a single issue of an old fashioned comic (24 pages), maybe even shorter. Re-use an old idea if you have one. This is playing to your strength, which by your own admission does not seem to be towards longer continuous narratives.

Then adapt that to a comic form. This will challenge your artistic development, because you will avoid the problem of writing to your artistic limitations. As you do you will become more aware of some of the ways prose and comic narrative differ. Also there will be a definite finish point, which also stretches you (being 16 pages further away than you have previously gotten) so it gives you motivation and teaches you discipline.

At the end of it you have a single short story webcomic on CG. At the very least you can be proud of the effort and achievement, but I suspect it will also be quite good.

After that you can do another short story, or a slightly longer one, but initially at least play to your strengths while you are developing the skills (discipline is a skill just as much as drawing) and give yourself a goal that is achievable (I suspect maintaining a continuous long-form multi-chapter comic just isn't for you at this stage).

Anyway that's my specific advice, you can take or leave as it pleases you.

[TBAC]

I'm thinking you just haven't been nabbed by the right idea yet. I would love to quit my strip, but it. keeps. itching. me. until. I. draw. again.

Or--maybe that's your hook, make your short interest work for you--have a strip that changes say, every other month or so. Then you can save characters that you like and have new characters that hold your interest.

Or just wait until that one idea takes hold and won't let you go. Either way, I figure you're learning and getting better and maybe more so than everyone else because you're revamping stories, characters, perhaps drawing styles, etc.

Of course if you're already better than me, then I officially hate you. No kidding. I've got quite the Un-fan club going.

tbac

[NakedElf]

Besides a month on 8 pages is still 1 page a week, which if you are doing writer, pencils, colour, letters, upload is actually very quick.

Actually, that's 2 pages a week.

[Noir]

Besides a month on 8 pages is still 1 page a week, which if you are doing writer, pencils, colour, letters, upload is actually very quick.

Actually, that's 2 pages a week.

Oops. Which is even worse, I don't know any single person full-page comic that manages that.

[NakedElf]

If you're otherwise completely unemployed, it's possible.

[Ripnormality]

Besides a month on 8 pages is still 1 page a week, which if you are doing writer, pencils, colour, letters, upload is actually very quick.

Actually, that's 2 pages a week.

Oops. Which is even worse, I don't know any single person full-page comic that manages that.

Wow, that's actually a major relief to find out. Though I assume you're referring to carefully edited, full-color or at least greyscale pages....

Thanks for the advice! I really, really shouldn't be adapting everything to suit any sporadic fits of laziness.... It does, though, take me some time to adjust to whatever character style and to drawing, so I'll have to first get through a short comic (24 pages, huh?) and then go revise the beginning.

[Bustertheclown]

Since the question originally poses was how do *we* maintain interest, I'll answer that. Frankly, up until recently, I haven't maintained much interest in anything I've ever done. You have no idea how many scripts and storyboards I'd created over the years. I work constantly. However, I also draw using a very time and energy consuming manner, so the though of drawing a long-form story, putting so much time and work into one single project for so long (we're talking years, here) well, it's a daunting prospect. It's especially daunting, considering that I have material floating around my imagination (and filling concept books) that can would take three lifetimes to finish.

So, here has become my solution. I have given up the ghost on my more ambitiously long projects, and even set aside some of my more manageable projects, in order to work on wholly short-form stories. I'm talking about stories that are 30 to 50 pages, tops. I'm not talking about arcs, either. I'm talking about stories that only last a few dozen pages from beginning to end. Then, when it's done, I don't ever have to worry about it again. I've found that when I have a foreseeable goal to fully completing a work, and that goal is weeks away, not years or decades, it's not so scary for me, which makes it easier to maintain focus.

My hope is that, after awhile of actually doing short works like this, I might be able to move on to longer and longer works as time passes. However, even if that doesn't happen, I can be happy with that. After all, I began this method recently, after reading a short story by Junji Ito, and realized that comics DO NOT have to be either single-paged, or marathon endeavors, with no middle ground. In fact, looking at the works of some of my most worshiped comic gods, I've realized that almost all of them work short, for the most part. Somehow, I feel like it enables them to maintain such incredible levels of quality.

I don't know if that helps at all, but that's my approach.

[Fabio Ciccone]

Whenever you feel creative, when you begin to have many ideas about anything, force your mind to think about your comics. It works.

[Ripnormality]

Whenever you feel creative, when you begin to have many ideas about anything, force your mind to think about your comics. It works.

Personally, that's exactly what I don't want to do: funnel all my ideas into comic projects, simply because not all of them are meant for that medium and because I'd rather not forget how to do everything else.

[Fabio Ciccone]

Whenever you feel creative, when you begin to have many ideas about anything, force your mind to think about your comics. It works.

Personally, that's exactly what I don't want to do: funnel all my ideas into comic projects, simply because not all of them are meant for that medium and because I'd rather not forget how to do everything else.

I didn't mean people should use all their ideas into their webcomics, but to use the "creative energy" they're having to that.

Say you find yourself having ideas about a new Super-Heroes TV series. What you do is channel this creativity into a fantasy webcomic. Not the ideas, the creativity itself.

I lost the count of how many times I say to myself "no, no, stop thinking that, think about M&B instead!"

[Ripnormality]

Whenever you feel creative, when you begin to have many ideas about anything, force your mind to think about your comics. It works.

Personally, that's exactly what I don't want to do: funnel all my ideas into comic projects, simply because not all of them are meant for that medium and because I'd rather not forget how to do everything else.

I didn't mean people should use all their ideas into their webcomics, but to use the "creative energy" they're having to that.

Say you find yourself having ideas about a new Super-Heroes TV series. What you do is channel this creativity into a fantasy webcomic. Not the ideas, the creativity itself.

I lost the count of how many times I say to myself "no, no, stop thinking that, think about M&B instead!"

Aah--I'm actually also trying to avoid doing that as well...which sounds a bit contrary to my intention of keeping one comic storyline running, but I'm the type of person who needs to multitask else become bored with the limitations of the current storyline.

[Bustertheclown]

Personally, that's exactly what I don't want to do: funnel all my ideas into comic projects, simply because not all of them are meant for that medium and because I'd rather not forget how to do everything else.

I didn't mean people should use all their ideas into their webcomics, but to use the "creative energy" they're having to that.

Say you find yourself having ideas about a new Super-Heroes TV series. What you do is channel this creativity into a fantasy webcomic. Not the ideas, the creativity itself.

I lost the count of how many times I say to myself "no, no, stop thinking that, think about M&B instead!"

Aah--I'm actually also trying to avoid doing that as well...which sounds a bit contrary to my intention of keeping one comic storyline running, but I'm the type of person who needs to multitask else become bored with the limitations of the current storyline.

You have to be careful of that. That leads to creative ADD, believe me. If you can't remain on task, even when you don't necessarily want to be working on a certain project, you'll have a lot of projects started, but not ever get anything done. It's the whole "grass is greener" thing. You start to work on a project, and then, as you dig in, you start to feel bogged down and daunted by the work ahead of you. So, you start saying to yourself, "I wish I had gone with Idea X, instead." Of course, Idea X is fresher and more exciting. You haven't just spent the last days/weeks/months burying yourself in the Idea X project. Avoid that temptation, because once you start burying yourself in the Idea X project, it will also begin to feel stale and daunting to you, and you'll want to move onto Idea Y. And on, and on.

I like Fabio's suggestion of channeling energy to a single project. It's sound advice, and I'm actually going to try to take that advice to heart.

If you need to multi-task, then find a way to multi-task within the same project. For example, when you get bored with laboring over finished pages, and want to focus on something else, work on character designs, or outline future arcs. Give yourself some time to write scripts or storyboards for upcoming pages. The intent, though, is to maintain focus on the many facets of a single project, and not to be side-tracked by many half-applications to multiple projects.

[Duralict]

Besides a month on 8 pages is still 1 page a week, which if you are doing writer, pencils, colour, letters, upload is actually very quick.

Actually, that's 2 pages a week.

Oops. Which is even worse, I don't know any single person full-page comic that manages that.

I do it. I mean, I was out of the country for two and a half months this summer, so there was a hiatus, but I went close on six months on a biweekly schedule without ever missing an update, and I do full-page, full color artist stressbomb pages, twice a week. Hell, there were two weeks at the beginning where I was writing, drawing, and uploading a full page every *day.*

I'm a college upperclassmen taking a full course load with a part-time job and a social life, so it's definitely possible. I think it's mostly a question of how willing you are to take risks - I end up throwing out a lot of panels and sometimes entire pages because they aren't going where I need them to, but I think it's better to jam stuff out constantly and cut the bad out than it is to plan the perfect page and end up getting frustrated because you can't get tiny details right. And from my experience reading webcomics, you can get away with bad art once in a while, or even bad writing, once in a while... as long as you update reasonably often and very reliably. Save the perfectionism for your portfolio - you can always go back and tweak old stuff if the art's not up to snuff.

As to project ADD - I have real ADD, and have found that it's actually hugely helpful for doing project work of all kinds. My trick is to limit myself to two or three projects at a time, at most, in wildly different mediums - if you keep yourself only actually WORKING on one at a time, you can think about the others as much as you want, and it might lead to some great insights into the project at hand. You can even do sneaky workarounds - when I get bored of thinking about the comic, I draw pinups and extras for the website, and when I get bored of drawing I write out elaborate charts for the plot progression and character bios. It's a good way to stay in work mode without getting bored as well as distracted.

[Fabio Ciccone]

I like Fabio's suggestion of channeling energy to a single project. It's sound advice, and I'm actually going to try to take that advice to heart.

If you need to multi-task, then find a way to multi-task within the same project. For example, when you get bored with laboring over finished pages, and want to focus on something else, work on character designs, or outline future arcs. Give yourself some time to write scripts or storyboards for upcoming pages. The intent, though, is to maintain focus on the many facets of a single project, and not to be side-tracked by many half-applications to multiple projects.

You might also try creating subplots, new storylines and characters, like another story, but inside your main one. Or maybe add some drama to your comedy comic or comedy to your drama comic

I'd add to that that if you really, really want to create another story, don't do another comic. Try shortstories, romance, video... I dis that, and I think it works... of course, I update the blog less than once a month, because if I have the time, I'd rather spend it in my webcomic.

[Kaloo]

I have to say... I couldn't make a comic if I had the whole thing scripted before I started. It's funner when you make it all up as you go. Though if you do this about half your strips will be things you decide were a waste of time, and toss 'em out.

[Ripnormality]

Actually, that's 2 pages a week.

Oops. Which is even worse, I don't know any single person full-page comic that manages that.

I do it. I mean, I was out of the country for two and a half months this summer, so there was a hiatus, but I went close on six months on a biweekly schedule without ever missing an update, and I do full-page, full color artist stressbomb pages, twice a week. Hell, there were two weeks at the beginning where I was writing, drawing, and uploading a full page every *day.*

I'm a college upperclassmen taking a full course load with a part-time job and a social life, so it's definitely possible. I think it's mostly a question of how willing you are to take risks - I end up throwing out a lot of panels and sometimes entire pages because they aren't going where I need them to, but I think it's better to jam stuff out constantly and cut the bad out than it is to plan the perfect page and end up getting frustrated because you can't get tiny details right. And from my experience reading webcomics, you can get away with bad art once in a while, or even bad writing, once in a while... as long as you update reasonably often and very reliably. Save the perfectionism for your portfolio - you can always go back and tweak old stuff if the art's not up to snuff.

As to project ADD - I have real ADD, and have found that it's actually hugely helpful for doing project work of all kinds. My trick is to limit myself to two or three projects at a time, at most, in wildly different mediums - if you keep yourself only actually WORKING on one at a time, you can think about the others as much as you want, and it might lead to some great insights into the project at hand. You can even do sneaky workarounds - when I get bored of thinking about the comic, I draw pinups and extras for the website, and when I get bored of drawing I write out elaborate charts for the plot progression and character bios. It's a good way to stay in work mode without getting bored as well as distracted.

Yeah...I'm amazed as to how you managed to find the free time....I'm generally out from 8-5, and when I'm not, I have readings and other things to take care of, which is actually proving to be really bad because I've had so much time to come up with other ideas that seem better (and that I'm only managing to avoid starting because I know I need a higher degree of practice/skill to make them come out the way I want them to...).

In terms of thinking of future storylines...I've already thought this one out through 7-8 chapters (that is, to the end). I actually selected this specific storyline because the chapters would be set up so that only one or two main characters would be maintained in different surroundings with different side characters. It's actually working relatively well, though I wish I'd gone with something a bit...prettier.

[Levi-chan]

I'm 5 pages from the end of my comic, and I have to say: there is nothing at all like the feeling of rushing towards the closure of something you've done for years; the high of knowing that you finished something.

It's not much, but it's something to add to your "Why Go On?" list.

[Chelsee]

One problem I've seen in both myself and a hundred other people is that sometimes, drawing a comic is tedious! In a written story, you can just say "He crossed the dirty street, stepping over a puddle"... but in a comic you have to draw the street, the filth ON the street, the puddle, the person stepping over the puddle...

The thing is, you have to find what you ENJOY drawing, because this is just something all artists must deal with. If you don't like drawing technological things, maybe avoid sci-fi. If you like drawing the human body, find a way to 'work into the plot' various excuses to have limited clothing ^_^. We all have our happy place in our work. The key to keeping interest is constantly stroking that little node in the right spot. Draw what YOU want to draw, even if it seems random in the comic. Look at published works and you'll find even professional comic artists will sometimes sacrifice 'logic' to include a few more drawings of what they love.

Added bonus- if you're enjoying yourself, it really shows in your work and your readers will enjoy themselves more as well.