Do you ever stop wanting to redraw/rewrite published chapters?

[leusyth]

I guess this question is for people who've been working on their comic for a long time,but does that feeling of constantly wanting to change your first chapters ever stop? Should you listen to that feeling or keep going no matter how bad you might think it is?

For me,my comic started over a year ago but i completely redid it and started it again around September. I feel A LOT better now that i've redone it,but i still get that nagging feeling like i need to change it again (though not as badly as before.) I still make little text edits here and there,but i'm wondering if i should stop trying to do that and just focus my energy on improving the upcoming chapters. I've been working on my story for WAY too long,about 4-5 years before i decided to buckle down and quit rewriting,and it feels uncomfortable that i'm finalizing it,i guess.

Do any of you deal with the same problem?

[blackopsracing321]

Yes! I wanna redraw my series every time I reread it or link people to it's beginning. I honestly hate the look of my early pages ESPECIALLY the very first like 10 pages.
When I started ABDUCTED ( https://tapas.io/series/abducted ) I was just starting the my transition from traditional to full digital art and getting used to my graphics tablet, so the very first few pages just look so bad.
But with that being said, I don't think I'll ever go back and redo those pages (unless I decide to try and get the series printed). Mainly because I barely have time to finish new pages, so to redo the old ones would mean I'd have to take several months off from new content, which I don't wanna do (would like to finish the story in like 2 years). Plus I've seen some people say that they actually enjoy seeing an artist improve their craft over time.

[XzynderVexymous]

I did twice. I want to again. But I just remember that I’m improving and the only way to improve well is to draw the next thing.

[zappy94x]

Yeah, every time I looked back at my earlier chapters it makes me want to redraw it and rewrite it, but in the end I rather keep it, as its a reminder to improve my drawing in later chapters and it shows in the latter.

[punkarsenic]

ughghughhghghghgh all the time

i think its inevitable, especially for a first webcomic. your first is largely a learning process, and theres a lot of learning done on the job, so by a year in youre bound to want to torch it. imo, finishing is more important than it being perfect at this point. serialised media doesnt exactly have the benefit of a first draft, and tv shows and comics have dealt with fixing their past mistakes for decades (see: marvel and dc have basically thrown out the concept of continuity.) the importance of finishing is... idk. a large part is that learning process element - if you keep working away at the same project until its done, youre kinda stacking up and stacking up your improvement. theres also the fact its satisfying to finish, and disheartening to restart or quit. and theres the idea that making it in webcomics is like queueing - if you decide to restart, youre dragging your arse back to the end of the queue. best not.

i have a bit of an issue in that where my story started is by no means where i want it to go, which bothers me a lot more than the art. theres something thrilling about having to jump through your own hoops and fill in your own plot holes - but not publicly. it helps if i consider it like cells. i start with my webcomic's pilot, the original bundle of cells, and then slowly they split off into two different bundles of cells that can develop both into perfectly good comics - so in one bundle i have a story i want to tell instead, someday, and in the other i have the good story im gonna make out of what ive started. idk if that makes sense.

[Rhombik]

Sometimes, I keep myself up doing silly re-touches. The only way to avoid it is to keep moving and forget about it.

[Doubtcent]

Believe me, I've done this practically every time my art does a level up. However, I've realized that the more I work on previous chapters, the less time I have on current ones. Maybe if I'm not working on anything I'll rework an episode or chapter, but if I have to update the first chapter, I'll have to update the second. And the third. All the way back up to the current one. Which in turn will improve your style, which will make you unsatisfied with the first, and the process starts all over again.

Best not to dwell too long on the past unless it's so inconsistent with the current story.

[sarrowsmith10]

Yes, but you have to keep moving forward or you get in the endless loop of wanting to redoing old things. I've been working on my comic for almost 6 years now and the feeling of wanting the start to look better never goes away. But I also want to finish what I started and my excitement for what comes next in my story is more motivating than slogging through edits on old pages.

I also put a lot of time and love into my early pages, and even though they don't look as good now, I try to hold on to the memory of how hard I worked and the nostalgia of the old pages and it gets me through some how.

[spadesart]

oogh......i wanna redraw stuff from just two weeks ago :^/ i did spruce up my chapter 1 just a little when i went back to redo the speech bubblees

[akemikae]

Oh god yes. My first like 3 updates look horrible to me, and I want to fix them SO BAD. I intend on doing it at some point ,but then I feel like I'm just gonna be in a never ending cycle of fixing things, so I haven't done it yet. Though, it's really hard not to, knowing that that is gonna be the first thing that people have to read before they get to the stuff that actually looks alright. ;^; I think that's the hardest part about it.

Maybe when I actually have a page buffer that lasts, I'll have time to properly update my art. Till then, it would take too much time away from current updates.

[joannekwan]

A little bit at the beginning, but I have so many things to do with multiple series going on at the same time all I can do is press forward.

I'll only go back to make adjustments if I'm preparing for print, or if there is a glaring error, and usually these adjustment take little time out of my day.
Sure things may not be stellar at the very beginning of a project, but unless it's completely illegible visually, I won't redraw it and I'll let it stand as a marker of my past and how far I've come.

[joe_galindez]

It got easier after I decided I didn't want to spend my career writing and rewriting the same damn story.

[shaylafarley5]

Yes! mainly the first 2 chapters, but then I think

If I redraw this then the art style will go good, bad and then good again. So I leave it be and it also shows me how much progress I've made along the way.

As for writing this is the 8th version of my story. The first 4 chapter are from the original back in 09 because I suck at starting stories off. I even dislike it but I keep it as is. I'm about 45 chapters into my story while at the same time adding and removing chapters that I feel don't fit or just drags on to long. So far I love my story the only problem I have is executing it right.

[VikiKuli]

Yes! I've had such an itch to redraw the first chapter of my comic, like not new paneling but cutting panels and in my better art now (at least in my opinion haha). But then I remember it's going to get better as I keep going, so there's no going back! Maybe if you feel a bit unmotivated rework a few pages but generally I wouldn't go back.

[dawgofdawgness]

Ughhh definitely.
I don't even want to reread my own comic because of how choppy and unnecessary some parts are in the beginning. There are so many scenes that aren't necessary to the plot or characters and they just slow it down...

If you have this problem I would recommend at least making a few more pages until you decide to actually redraw/fix it. If you change the pages in the beginning when you only have a few pages, you might come off as indecisive and you might get sucked into the hole of constantly wanting to change it because you're improving so fast!
Howeeeeever, if you noticed a really bad mistake in your earlier pages and you haven't gotten too far yet, you should probably fix it now before it's too late.

[KoreanTacos]

I'm my worst supporter... I'm always judging my older strips and it always bothers me that they never got a chance because I was learning at the time and the art wasn't good (hell somedays I still feel like my works not good enough). But I generally leave them the same as a reminder to myself that I'm always slowly (like molasses) improving. I take the South Park approach of not altering what I originally thought was good because all it will do is hold me back from creating something new. During 2017 I tried remaking a small handful of strips and it didn't really feel right and didn't have the same feelings as when I originally made them.

[Pandastrophic]

I actually don't get this feeling a lot, I get it sometimes but it's mainly bc I get new ideas that I wish I did instead but I write those down incase I go back to the start of the comic after I finish it and make edits. I feel like I'm generally happy with the start of my comic, my art wasn't perfect and I had a lot of anatomy mistakes but I feel like it's worth keeping especially for the "Your art improved so much" comments I've been getting now. I also feel like this is how webcomics are, they're not supposed to be completely consistent and it's great seeing artists improve through their comic.

[Tanisha]

I like embracing my mistakes! My prologue and first chapter were rushed for the most part since I wanted to push myself to get something done for once. It definitely shows but seeing the improvement with each page,chapter volumes, just feel like such an accomplishment to me!

[SynCypher]

I think you'll always want to look back and wish you could improve. When I started uploading to Tapas, as a reward for myself and as a hello to any new readers, (as well as a reward for my old ones) I re-drew the first 18 ish or so pages of my comic. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to update a page, however, I think if you spend all your time updating what is old, you'll not get to what is new. I've been working on my comic since 08 (writing, designing characters, hashing out scenes) and only started posting in 2014. My old art is not the best, but it's a road map of where I've been.

I like to think that the journey and the growth is part of the comic too and helps make your comic a character of its own. As much as some old pages might embarrass me, they're just part of my adventure and I love sharing that. Even if older pages are different than newer ones, don't forget they're your stepping stones and people will find the merit in your work and your progress.

[chaoticallywonderful]

I'm currently on the fourth redraft of a novel I wrote over the summer. I sure hope it ends. 0.o