Am I making my comic wrong?

[roddelrosario23]

I'm currently making a webcomic https://tapas.io/series/Ace--Trial and I'm uploading every week, during that week I draw, scan and edit just in time to post the latest episode. A friend told me that I should've finished making everything then schedule it to be posted every week. Should I? That means I would be on Hiatus indefinitely but once I come back everything would be finished. Would being on hiatus bad for me or negligible because I only have a few subs/ viewers and I would like to have more.

[imiogri]

All up to personal preference. If that works for you nobody should have to tell you to do otherwise. The reason I make buffers is because my episodes take a long time to make, but to keep posting consistently I schedule ahead of time. I go on hiatuses once in a while when I can't keep up with my schedule to lighten the pressure. You do you!

[Likri]

I'd say that you can make some episodes to stock up, but if it's a long story - I wouldn't recommend doing in all before uploading, since the attention might not live up to your expectation, or you'll want to change stuff in hindsight.

[BlueDragon]

I agree.

I think maybe completing one chapter at a time and then scheduling that would give you a nice buffer. Lately I've just been trying to get a month's worth done (about four pages for me) so I can keep ahead that way.

It doesn't always work, though, 'cause I've spread myself a little thin with other projects and things I work on XD

[azzy-m]

There isn't a "wrong" way to do comics, imo. You just do whatever works for you.

What I recommend doing is that you at least have a general outline of where your story goes and put it on a doc, and then draw a buffer, especially since your comic is updated weekly. It's less stressful and you get more time to yourself if you have a backlog of episodes (don't be like me, I lost my buffer because I fucked my computer up, and I ended up starting my comic anyway, and now my most recent episode is 4 days late, lmao.)

How big your buffer will be depends on you and how busy you are, though- the usual number I hear is about 7 pages/episodes, but if you're really busy I recommend something a bit more than that, maybe 10.

[ble]

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[Rhonder]

I almost wonder if your friend maybe meant get everything done for each individual episode ahead of time to schedule it, rather than the whole series? But then again I'd have to see the context xD I too am guilty of often finishing pages the day they're supposed to go up... always a treat when I finish early!

As for work flow tho, there's no wrong way to do it, just whatever works for you. As I said above I'm currently doing a similar style as you it sounds like, I start penciling tuesday/wednesday and just keep chipping away at the different steps each day after work until Sunday when I get finished usually and is my upload day.

Buuuuut I'm starting to resent this workflow a bit... for my next season after this one ends in a month or two, I'm gonna draw the whole "chapter" up front and then upload afterwards (or at least get most of the way through and have a very hefty buffer). I dislike the stress of drawing for my life every week xD

[tchotchkeco]

I do it the way you do it too (well. Not exactly but we do it weekly and just in time). Personally do what’s best for you.

We found doing this way works best for us as we don’t want to take a break to make a buffer. While buffers can be helpful if you need time away, for us doing it this way as worked out well for us. If you’re okay with it then there’s nothing to worry about.

[roddelrosario23]

I feel the same, not that I assumed that I'll have a ton of readers or subs but I assumed more would see my work. It feels like my hardwork doesn't pay off. Though seeing my work appreciated a few people is kinda nice.

[roddelrosario23]

Oh... I'm sorry for being a bit confusing my friend meant to finish the chapter first.

[zkorejo19]

Completely off topic but I suck at paneling.. is that okay too? It has been messing with my head recently.

[PabloRomero]

You already started it, if you can keep up just continue doing the way you are doing it. I did the same with the first chapter of my comic but i wasn't able to do a page a week.

Here you can see the dates between each page.

With the new chapter i already have some stuff done, not all but enough to give some time and be able to publish weekly

[roddelrosario23]

here's mine the first two is before I discovered scheduling as you can see I'm just starting.

[PabloRomero]

Yeah i also discovered that tool recently. Like i said keep working and don't worry too much to keep a weekly schedule. Take the time you need to do your stuff.

[punkarsenic]

a middle ground: put your comic on hiatus for a month, but keep making your comic like normal. when you come back, youll be a month ahead - this means that if you want to go on holiday or if theres a delay in production ever, your ass is covered, and youre less stressed! it can also mean you get to put more time into making your comic the best it can be, because youre less burdened by deadlines.

[roddelrosario23]

Yeah I'm thinking about doing that.

[Kittosaurus]

I have been doing my comic for a year without a buffer, while yes it is possible, in hindsight I really wish I had taken more time to create one. I am just about to finish the first 'book' of my comic and then I plan to take a break and hopefully have at least 3 weeks worth of updates ready so I won't have to be constantly stressing - but I am also a major procrastinator so I don't know how long a buffer will last lol

As many have said before me - just work at the pace that works for you!

[Darth_Biomech]

I discovered that for some weird reason juggling several pages at once actually makes me finish them all faster than otherwise (roughly speaking, if it makes me finish one page in a week, it took me only two to three weeks to finish four pages, leaving spare time that I can use to start another batch). The best would be to go on a hiatus for a while and build up a buffer of some amount of pages (At least as much pages to last you while you are doing another batch), then start releasing them while continue doing new ones.

[roddelrosario23]

I'll give that some thought.