Contemplating doing a reboot

[DualDragons]

Hiya guys, it's been a while since I stopped by here. Been taking a hiatus for a long time because of a fakemon related project over on instagram which is coming along nicely.

I was thinking. When I'm done with my side project I was planning to go back to working on my comic. But the truth is I have kinda been considering stopping on this version and doing a reboot of it.

Now I'm not the type of person who wants to be in reboot hell. A story does not have to be perfect so this is not the reason I wanna reboot. The reason I do is because as it is, my current comic does not bring me joy anymore in writing and drawing it. Most likely because it contains a lot of things a younger me came up with and that I don't identify with anymore now that its been 6 years. Therefore I've been considering doing something else with my concepts.

What do you think? Have you been in a similar spot? Did you go through with it or stick to what you have?

[Chronomel]

Yeah this has happened to me before! Usually tho, when I re-read the story I do find some things I like about it, enough that It gives me motivation. But also it might still be possible to change/add the newer ideas that you're interested in. You should let your story evolve with your interests. Add an arc that shakes up the status quo, give a reason to give some characters redesigns etc

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Yo Dual!
I'm in a reboot kind of situation right now with DS. I don't really suggest doing reboots unless you're intending to change the story into something different from what you started before.

But one of the pitfalls I've found is that when reapproaching old stories is that I get tired of redrawing scenes, so I'm at the point of making an entirely new story evolving from the first couple of pages.
Maybe what you could try is just a new storyline reintroducing the characters rather than a full reboot?

[BoomerZ]

I kinda did a reboot when I when from trying to make it a comics to making it a webcomic. The format had to change to scrolling so redrew it. It allowed me to change some minor stuff I didn't like in the original too. Overall, pretty happy I did.

[droidmonkey1]

If you find a way to do a soft reboot or make the reboot part of the story.
but becareful from "jumping the shark".
for refrance. There was An old show in the 80's called Dallas. one of the main characters decided to leave the show. the killed the character. when he wanted to go back they made the character's wife wake up to see her husband taking a shower. the entire year/show seasons was nothing but a dream. don't do that.

[Rai_Muffin]

It's a slippery slope.
I did reboot after reboot for about ten years because they were never good enough.
At some point you need to make sure you commit, or the story will never get done, you know?

Please don't mess up like I did!

[DualDragons]

Yeah reason for a potential reboot is that I don't really like where and how the story is going tbh. It's because I've been taking a break that I noticed.

I wanna go with a possibly more "episodic" approach for a reboot if that makes sense, as right now it's written like this long epic story that I lost motivation for. Plus, I think the episodic approach might help me out with introducing characters.

Idk, I think I'll figure it out once I'm done with my current project

[nathanKmcwilliams]

That makes sense! Doing a massive storyline sounds so appealing at first, until the reality of scope sets in. I'm also in the same boat, doing different stories once I finish this one. I've had characters in the background for years that I haven't been able to introduce, it sounds really nice to get to that at some point lol

[KennethLopezJr921]

I have a complicated history with reboots. Back when I was trying to write my first chapter, any rewrites I did basically acted as soft reboots to the story where any chapters I wrote after the first draft not being canon. That's something, in hindsight, I realize overcomplicated the simple act of rewriting the first chapter and made that whole process as annoying and frustrating as it ending up being. It did lead to the current version of Crescent Blue I have now so hey, at it wasn't entirely a waste.

But I think the first time in recent memory I ever considered doing a legit reboot was in early 2021 where I was feeling the effects of burnout from my comic. I had started working on the first Chapter back in August 2019 and out of the nearly 200 pages that chapter required, I had only gotten up to 29 pages at the end of 2020. I did put in the effort to increase my output but nothing to where I would be able to close the book on Chapter 1 by year's end. You could say I was emotionally done with that chapter and wanted to move on to the other chapters I had written, and do more but I couldn't because I still stuck in the first quarter of the first chapter. It was around this time that I considered scrapping what I had to do a complete reboot of the series, but not just with the same characters and world, but in a different setting more closer to real life with actual dogs. I would brain storm ideas, new characters, revisiting old ideas I had scrapped long ago, and I felt a level of enthusiasm and excitement I had not had with my current story in a long time. But I didnt end up scrapping what I had of Chapter 1 to focus on that new reboot concept as you can see, mainly because I saw that as giving up my goals I had set for myself that year. My new years goal of 2021 was to draw more pages than I had in 2020 and 2019 combined, just so I could finish Chapter 1 sooner rather than later, and so I could draw out the chapters I had written ahead of time and get to the story beats I had envisioned. Nearly 4 to 5 years of hard work, and scrapping all of that in order for that one reboot idea kinda felt like a spat in the face if I did that. I didn't entirely scrap that reboot idea and will want to revisit it in the future but not to the detriment of my main comic

[DualDragons]

I kinda get that. What I have is about 5.5 years of work I have put in my current comic. For me it's not so much that the start of my comic is troublesome (though if I were to redo it I would make some minor changes), it is moreso how the story progressed. It became way too complicated for me with every chapter making things more complicated. And I realised if I'm rebooting I wanna change up the format a bit that gives me peace of mind. I kinda want to go for a episodic kind of structure, maybe like a villain or adventure of the week kind of progress. I feel like that would be fun to write and draw.