Do you have someone to talk to about your story/comic?

[Lensing]

Do you have an on or offline person you talk to about your art?
+ do they actually listen, ask you things or give advice?

I´m a very communicative person and that´s why I struggle a lot with
having nobody to talk to about story writing, my comic creation process
etc

It´s to nerdy or boring for normies and other creators are not interested
because they only care about their project.

I don´t have the problem with song writing and music related things because
musicians talk about that stuff all the time.

Is this a general thing about writers and artists that they don´t like to
talk to each other?

[GothickangelStudios]

I do. On Fables Pro Discord server (a new comic platform for indie content) and I do talk to other studios as small as mine who either write the comic /manga or do the artwork. On Discord too but as friends.
I also talk to my friends on Line messenger who like manga / anime and I can get feed back either for the written short stories or for my animated shorts or pages I release.
Some connections do voice acting for animation or anime.
FB messenger is soo buggy and laggy so we use Discord its more reliable. Especially when we screen share content.
I'm always up to meeting new people to talk to. ^.^ Feel free to friend me.

[KevinReijnders]

Yeah,

At the moment I have two people I can rely on to talk about my project.
Or well, one is more active the other is someone I tend to send my scripts to to read 'em over for feedback.

I used to have more people to "talk shop" with though and I kinda miss those days.

Tbh the lack of active creatives in my immediate surroundings do make me feel like I'm losing touch with my creative self a bit.

[BabanIllustration]

I tend to blab on stream about stuff (loosely), spilling ideas makes me lose the will to work on them. I have some people I will talk to about it if they have time, but I find it difficult to find people who really wanna get into discussing stuff mutually.

[NOOR_ASAKZ05]

I have a friend named Nargis who loves listening to my manga story (Nadezhda) and wishes that I would turn it into a novel as soon as possible so that she can immerse herself in it. We have been discussing the story for a year and her opinion is good because she is very frank about what she likes or dislikes

Regarding the novel "My Beautiful Illusions," I can't share it with her, so I'm talking to Gemini about it and some other ideas, and honestly, his opinion is similar to hers.

Oops, I forgot Ruqayya and G-san (nickname). They're my online friends and they liked Nadezhda's story.

[kyupol]

A few discord servers and irl, some coworkers.

[Yusuf]

Outside of the internet, I discuss my comic with my older sister who's also a writer and a lot more skilled than I am. She'll occasionally come to my room to critique my current episode and share her own novel with me. She has a lot of good advice

[ShidoDraws]

A few friends, one is a game developer, one is a writer, and some are co-workers. But I always share every single idea with my partner, they're not a writer, but they do help me process my ideas better. It is one of my favorite things to talk about with them, it also helps to know that they are honest and makes me go back to the drawing board to come up with a better way to write stories. In fact, they're the reason why I almost turn my story into a game instead of a comic, but I didn't because my idea was too ambitious. xD Sometimes, you just have to settle for something less ambitious.

[jwabeasley]

I talk to my editor about all my many story and art ideas. She's very good at analyzing and keeping me on-track, pulling me off of bad ideas and helping refine the story elements.

Most of the time, it's tough for us artists to talk to each other, at least about each other's work. Could you imagine Bill Watterson and Miyazaki working alongside each other and providing feedback? Both are top of their respective crafts, both have had spectacular success with significant artistic integrity, and yet I can't imagine each one's peculiar perfectionism rubbing the other one well.

I also have this problem, to a lesser degree - when I talk about other people's stories or art, I have a hard time navigating the difference between what I would like done and respecting both the creator's unique vision and their skill level. Especially with stories, I am a relatively skilled literary critic and analyzer, and the level of analysis I bring to bear is more than most professional works can withstand well, let alone fellow amateur works. I have been working to improve this skill over the past five years, though!

On the other hand, I have found at least a few people who are good to talk to here on this forum. If you like, we can connect on Discord and chat there. I'm always up for story ideas and art concepts.

[NickRowler]

Not really. I am sort of lonely and don't really have people to talk to in general. Usually I talk about current events and such with my family members and coworkers. But I don't really have anyone in my life who would be interested in my comics.

[tiff524]

I have to say, this is a big area that is needed whenever you're being creative. You do need other like-minded people to bounce ideas off of, especially through the writing process. It is so important, it's often considered a step in writing. I belong to different types of groups for this.

For one, I have a monthly writing group I attend at my local library. I actually started it, because I wanted a local writing group to get feedback, and it has been going now for 2 years. I just shared a current writing project, a 10-Minute play for a festival, and they did a full read-through which helped to see that my dialogue was solid most of the time. And yes, I have been bringing episodes of "Love Over Kpop" to the group for feedback, especially when I was working on finishing it when it was on Radish Fiction. I'm now sharing with them my Tapas experiences.

Another writing group I belonged to were meet-in person groups. These writing groups can be for writers in general or by genre. I met a few of the general writing groups by the MeetUp app. I was in two, one for general writers and one for Indie Authors. Unfortunately, I moved during the pandemic and they met in my old town. Thus, why I wanted a new group which I started at the library.

But I've belonged to a groups online, especially genre groups. I'm in a romance writing group now, since 2015. I've been the communications director, president and now am the program director. It's a nonprofit group that helps support romance writers online. I will give a shout out if that's allowed: Golden State Romance Writers. We are centered on the US West Coast, mostly in California. But do welcome romance writers worldwide. The romance genre sometimes needs specific support for its writers.

Golden State Romance Writers

There are online groups for Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, and other genres too. The ones I know of, like Mystery Writers of America and Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writers Association are by genre. I belonged to the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators when I first started off writing children's books professionally in 2007. They are more centered in the US, since this is where I live. There are likely other global writing groups, but I am most familiar with these. They are a great start to helping with all sorts of writing problems and support.

Also, going to writing conferences can be a big help, but it can be expensive. But there are quite a bit of writing cons available online that are reasonable.

Okay. That's my 2 cents. I hope it helps with writer support that is out there in the world. If you have any questions about any of what I've pointed out, feel free to ask questions.

[VibrantFox]

I would like to but I don't.

I think I'd made attempts here on the forums but discussions either fizzled out or there was a lack of balance but either way as the landscape and attitudes changed I no longer wanted to bother. I've wanted to attempt participating in discord servers but the flow moves to quickly to keep up and visibility on most social media was difficult in the past.

The idea of attempting to talk to anyone irl about it makes me laugh because even though fam knows about my doing art the details of whats in my work is unknown and I'd kind of prefer to keep it that way and as for coworkers it's more effort getting them to understand the craft or respect it than even having conversations about it (especially concerning anthro comics and explaining furries)

I will say I am going to be making new attempts on social media, particularly Bluesky since they've got a pretty active ocsky tag and i've found more than a handful of daily or weekly oc questions pages so from there it's just the doing. That's like I'm hoping to get at least a little more active in seeking out creative spaces in my own city since we already have a small annual convention and the library has a program for authors that I'd heard about so it gives me some hope that those communities probably are out there it's just finding and engaging with them.

But it's definitely been lonely as it is lately just wanting to talk to people but not having folks to interact with outside of opinion pieces or current global events, which I'm fine for staying informed about stuff but having creative convos would be nice.

[ShidoDraws]

Funny you say that, but the reason I personally stopped interacting with the creative threads is cause you can only say so much about your stories/ideas before everything becomes very scripted. The act of interacting with people that way becomes repetitive, which in my opinion, is the reason why any art video content creator's channels with exponential growth "falls off." You kind of have to divert your content away from art to keep your audience interested. In a way, the tapas forum, or social media in general, seems to kind of have that energy about it.

Perhaps I've seen/done everything there is, or I became comfortable with not talking about my comic to people on social media. Either way, I feel you, @VibrantFox

[wolflu66]

I have a friend who often discusses the comic I'm working on with me, which sometimes helps me notice blind spots I hadn't seen before. Plus, he's crazy about my OC Toorei, which makes me really happy.

Other than that, I rarely discuss my work in depth with anyone else.

[VibrantFox]

i guess what i miss most in interactions is mutual interest in each others works like i've seen or gotten like on old deviantart or tumblr. where people are having and forming actual discussions about their approach to worldbuilding or details about their characters and so on but instead these days it feels more like people just trying to advertise to each other or limiting what they share because "one day this is going to be a comic or animation or etc" or because it's in the thing they're working on

and to a degree i get it but also i've had the most fun when i'm just yapping with other people about our projects even if we might not read them or interact with them but just because it's fun sharing what we're working on or stuff that might not end up in the final product or brainstorming and bouncing ideas off one another. like the kind of stuff i remember doing when i was still in school which bled into online interactions and building those connections was fun. plus i think it's the fact i've seen other people do it and not just with fandom characters but their own ocs even if they hadn't been put into a full proper comic but just illustrations or drabble and things like that. so i know it's not impossible it's just felt incredibly and painfully hard to find

there's also the bit of advice i'd seen somewhere that was like even if you do make that comic or cartoon or whatever there's also the chance it doesnt happen or maybe not how you planned and there isn't really any gaining interest in those projects if you don't talk about them and show that passion so it's like idk...ive seen community formed and been a part of it so to fall out of it and now be struggling to get back in feels painful

[Jalvin]

I'm the only one who knows the story I'm writing. My IRL friends knows nothing about writing let alone if they're even interested to hear me blabber about the joys and difficulties of writing a novel/story.

I do send my work for beta reading but that's the extent of people I talk to as far as my story is concerned.

[Jalvin]

Interesting. I think this is the first time I've heard of OCsky tag. I'm gonna check it out, thanks!

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

No, I do not have anyone like that. Even the two or three family members to whom I've revealed my writing & pen-name had no interest in even looking at it.

[jwabeasley]

I've wanted to attempt participating in discord servers but the flow moves to quickly to keep up and visibility on most social media was difficult in the past.

For sure, all the big discords are like trying to have a quiet conversation in a huge babbling crowd, I don't get the appeal. Small private discords are much better though. I was fortunate to be able to join a few this year.

as for coworkers it's more effort getting them to understand the craft or respect it than even having conversations about it

For sure! I work in a place full of nerds, and it's like, "Oh, that's cool, I guess." But I definitely can't talk shop or talk about exciting indie art styles or anything comic-related. I suppose it would be the same if I were a director of indie arthouse short films, or any other creative hobby.

[MK_Wizard]

I have a community online to talk to about on Discord and I also have my husband who is my unofficial editor. I run ideas by him and he gives me feedback on them.