Anyone here ever soft rebooted their work? Been leaning towards it after a major hiatus

[Bokyongyo]

Hey yall,

So it's been a bit of time since I've actually uploaded my own comic but because life has been alot more stable and clear recently it's started to wake up that creative part of my brain again to actually go back and work on things.

But the problem is when I actually tried to go back I kind of realized how much my own view of the story has kind of shifted and changed alot. Love the work thats there and this isn't a "I don't like my old art thing" but more so the core of what the early story will be about and setting up better foundations at the start.

Also just on a more personal note, found it harder to return to headspace I was at with the narrative I was telling 4 whole years ago, if that makes sense.

So honestly was just wondering who else has done something like this and how did it work out?

[KevinReijnders]

I kinda did a soft reboot with my story. Pretty much for similar reasons to you, in the years I changed as a person so naturally my writing started to go in a different direction. But I used the foundation that was there and restricted myself in that process to at least make it seem like it was still a cohesive whole.

One advantage I had was building the ability to shift course into the first chapter, giving me enough to work with, but leaving out specifics to be filled in later. So now Chapters 3, 4 and 5 will feel like one connected narrative with Chapters 1 and 2 being a bit more episodic in nature to the grand narrative.

[Bokyongyo]

See I love that and i could see how that could work.

But on my end there’s an issue of realizing that I think the main protagonist of my current version of my comic isn’t the one I want to write anymore.

I love her, and been drawing her for a long while but apart of me knows that she doesn’t fit this version of the story in my head, at least not as the protagonist as well most of her supporting cast.

[KevinReijnders]

I don't know the specifics of your story but maybe you can write an episode where you shift focus from your current protagonist to another one, or maybe do something with a timeskip as a way to re-arrange the status quo.

[ArtGremlin]

I actually did this twice. (But it was very early on in both comics.) the reboots resulted from a lack of planning on my part. If you don’t like the protagonist anymore, I personally would not be able to continue, since making the whole comic in the first place starts with a passion for the main character. Create what you love. I don’t know how far along your work is, but you probably shouldn’t drag yourself along doing something you don’t want to, or you could end up giving up on it entirely.

[Rai_Muffin]

I'm in the middle of one right now.
I felt demoralised after a failed kickstarter (nice way of describing a literal mental breakdown), like my entire comic had been publicly rejected.
Starting my first story arc again felt like the only way I could move on, keeping me creative and getting me to stop wallowing.
Basically it was soft reboot or not draw anything.

I recommend just moving on and accepting your old stuff sometimes, it's probably way better than you think it is,
but it would be hypocritical if I didn't say it's sometimes necessary.
Just make sure it actually is necessary

[ThunderChicken]

I did a soft reboot for Finding Daecon’s Way, mainly changing the POV from third person to first, which really allowed me to get into my MC’s mind and explore his personality (he’s a bit of a jerk, but he’s working on that). I even renamed it to Defining Daecon.

Now I’m in a slump and may go through it and clean it up again

[kyupol]

Never did a soft reboot. Just ended up rushing things or abandoning completely.

I understand those feelings everyone here mentioned. As you get older and learn more life experiences, it does alter your mindset and with that comes whatever it is you're working on.

[BoomerZ]

Did one on Little Ball of Hate, which was published first on Kindle. Didn't get any traction there (at one time kindle had 2500 books a day being published, good luck being found.). I decided to make it a web comic so started over as a scrolling format. It was about 25% into the story so wasn't that bad. I thought it was a good thing as I could change some of the look of the characters as I became more comfortable drawing a comics. I saw the mistakes as it was my first comics. Over all it was a good thing for me.