Advice on Pacing and Maybe Restarting My Comic

[Acersecomic]

Well I hope this is the right place to put this, but I've hit a wall with my comic Spellbound.

Spellbound | Tapas

I feel like I lost a handle on the pacing of the story a while ago. I don't want the story to drag, but I don't want to jump ahead so far to the good stuff that I confuse my audience.

I'm tempted to restart it, not getting rid of all the past pages, but a new series beginning jumping ahead in time and starting from there. Of course I'm worried about alienating my readers by doing that. Do folks have any advice? Thanks!

[feardeer]

Just a heads up, your link leads to the wrong comic. You'll need to delete the space between "Spellbound" and "Comic" for it to work. :>

Spellbound | Tapas

As for whether or not you should restart, I'm going to echo advice I see other creators give on this subject constantly: restarting is a temptation best avoided because it tends to perpetuate a cycle. You'll constantly go back to try to fix perceived flaws in your comic, and be stuck in the past instead of chugging on ahead and getting to all the juicy plot points down the road. Try to view your comic as a living thing that grows and matures over time. It will have its ups and downs, but most readers will understand.

Rather than start over from scratch and potentially lose some of your readers, consider taking some time off to rework the pages to come so that you can improve your pacing without sacrificing the work you've already done.

It feels much more satisfying to move forward rather than backward. Restarting is an easy way to kill your motivation to see a project through to the end.

[Acersecomic]

Ah! I'll fix that link thanks! It's not that I want to go back to the beginning and start all over, but sort of drop the story where it is in the current timeline and jump ahead. Like jumping forward a few months for the characters.

[feardeer]

Oops, sorry I misread a bit. Although I still think you could avoid that by trying to fix your pacing problems rather than avoiding them! The best way to do that is to start trimming the fat. Look at your script or outline with a super critical eye and try to find pieces that aren't really required to move the story forward. Don't be afraid to throw out or rework entire scenes. It's possible you might even find a seamless way to jump forward in time without starting anew.

It sounds like your new comic will still require people to read the first series, which will be confusing for new readers and jarring for old readers. Correct me if I'm wrong and you plan to make the second series a standalone entity.

Ultimately, you gotta do what feels right for you and your story. But I would hesitate to call your comic doomed. Pacing issues can be resolved!

[kytri]

I don't see any reason you couldn't just jump forward in the same series? As long as it's clear that's what's going on. Maybe throw in a page or so of montage to show a bit of what's happening in the interval? Lots of stories do timeskips and it's generally fine.

[PaulieBlade]

I recommend not being afraid of "dragging" the story. In my humble opinion the best stories are those which are carefully prepared with a long setup which leads to a rewarding conclusion.

[fleohr]

I didn't read your comic, but to me dragging would be showing something that is not too relevant to the story, or too repetitive situations

You can make a couple episodes to better show your characters personalities, but if you go with something like, the character wants to do something, and every episode they change their mind, it can be too predictable and boring...
There should have something that makes the character take the lead and just do it for his own sake

[Acersecomic]

Yeah I could go for that. I'll just have to figure out the best way to transition the jump. Wordless montage panels for passing of time maybe?

[kytri]

Something like that could work. I haven't had a chance to read your comic so far but so long as the transition is clear it should be fine.

[mpiradarada]

For what it's worth, I don't feel like your story is dragging at all. On the contrary, I think we're entering a cool and interesting stage (new characters!!)

That being said, I'm certain there are number of ways to skip the story ahead a few months if that's what you really want. Personally, I think webcomics are about having no constraints and doing what you want to when you want to. Of course, you can always become your own worst by being too critical and unreasonable with yourself.

I guess my advice is don't overthink it too much and do what feels right to you.
Hope that helps!

[Croik]

Well to start I love your comic and I wouldn't have said anything was off about the pacing!

If anything, from the last few pages I figured we were in for a lore dump. You've just introduced several new and returning characters who haven't been around for a while, a time skip is about the last thing I'd expect. Unless you mean you're planning it after this scene/event wraps up? As long as there's sufficient closure to the current goings-on, I don't think a time skip would be a bad idea, but it depends on why you think what comes next needs to be skipped. Why does time HAVE to pass? What changes in the characters/world between now and "the good stuff" and is it stuff that the audience would rather see evolve?

If you need someone to bounce more specific details off of feel free to hit me up on PM, I love the nitty gritty of plot construction!

[DiegoPalacios]

The two questions for pacing that helped me are these:

1-Is this update relevant? This can be from build up(as long as the build up leads to something), foreshadowing and/or something important for the plot and/or characters.

2-Is this entertaining? Entertainment comes in many forms, from moments of awesomeness, funny, heartwarming or even moments that hit readers in the feels. Even some nightmare inducing moments can work. (which ones fit depends of the kind of story and the current scene)

If all or most of your updates answer yes to both questions, then you have a great pacing.

Some updates are entertaining but not relevant, this is entertaining filler. (it can happens sometimes but make sure it`s not something constant or you may lose engagement)

Some updates are relevant but not entertaining, like an info dump. Some info can be shared more organically when you show it in chunks.

If an update is not entertaining and not relevant, then that update is not necesary and completely skippable.

Hope this helps!

[solhawthorne]

Joining the chorus that I also really enjoy your comic and haven't found pacing an issue at all! Maybe what you're bumping into is how long it takes a comic to hit a critical scene in real-world time? Since your comic focuses a lot on character dialog and most pages only have a few panels, it can feel like it's dragging even if it isn't. You have to remember that on a once a week or longer schedule, ordinary scenes can unintentionally turn into cliffhangers. I believe most readers who use Tapas are already aware of how update schedules can skew a story a bit. If that's the case, then perhaps taking a break, building a buffer, and lengthening/putting more content into your pages a little bit can help.

[Misscoveredinpaint]

Hey, I think the story just took an odd turn. I wouldn't jump it right now. My biggest questions are, What the heck happened with the tree cage? What happens to Cygnus and Gris' clothes when they touched hands? Is Miss Souris a third main character? How does she fall in to this magic community service thing? Finish up the scene you are in, answer those questions, and set the scene to end with a time skip or montage.

I want clarification for what just happened in the story. Then I'll be interested in what will happen next.

If you skip ahead right now the questions you leave us hanging with make me feel unsatisfied. Especially because I don't think they'll be answered in the future.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions or need me to clarify. Feel free to text me and we can chat if you want to talk about your awesome ideas.

[Acersecomic]

Thank you everyone for the great advice. I'll resist my urge to jump ahead and throw down some lore and hopefully tie up loose ends. I'll do my best to make a nice meaty chapter and then next chapter can jump ahead a bit. But again it means so much to me to get all this feedback, now I feel like I've got definite direction where before I didn't.

[Lunius]

It's just really funny that your profile pic is a snail and you're asking advice on pacing