Doing multiple comics at once?

[Darth_Biomech]

Is it a good idea? Counter-intuitively, working on several pages at once actually speed up my process instead of slowing it, so I'm not so sure that also juggling multiple projects is a bad idea anymore.

Just recently I had very vivid idea come to me after listening to some music, that would be quite good as a short (maybe no more than 20 pages, although I'm not sure yet) comic story. My main comic project is on a short hiatus while I gathering material to start second chapter, so I have three options, and I'm unsure which it would be best to follow:

1. extend hiatus and proceed with this new idea, that would take several months to finish, then return to main comic and pray that readers didn't forgot about it and aren't angry at me for extending the hiatus in order to do something unrelated.
2. Try to do both things simultaneously.
3. Put the new idea in a waiting box for time when I will be absolutely certain I can handle two projects at once. The box already have one other concept, which would be a big comic as well.

[mariusthered]

if i were you I would opt for 2 or 3

extending your hiatus will just upset some of your readers or they will forget about your comic all together (fickle humans!)

I have a scheduled work plan for my projects setting my self tasks to work in between them and thus always working on new stuff, never getting bored with one project dragging while advancing all the projects each week. just be realistic when you sit down and work out your scheduled. ( remember sleep, food, walking the dog, talking to (whats them things?) Friends!)

[ZatchZ]

Don't.
From my experience, doing multiple projects at once can take away quality. That's why I work in seasons.
I have so many comics on hiatus due to lack of motivation or because I want to other projects.
https://tapas.io/ZatchZ/series

[rajillustration]

I think it depends on the person, but it can work. I always juggle projects. I go spare if I don't. (My current comic on Tapas is very much my side project right now) If you do go the multitasking route, I would look into learning Asana. It's reallllly good for breaking down tasks, and having realistically small enough tasks that will repeat that you can set on a schedule. So you might make a reminder to do 1 hour of drawing every other day for one comic and 1 hour of writing every other day for another. I also make sure any update schedules are set to a timer through Asana. As well as schedules for which marketing campaigns to do on what day.

I really think that when you get an idea for something, you have to do that thing when it's still exciting for you, otherwise you will sort of miss that window of opportunity. Most of my projects I start, I will shelf halfway through because they ended up not being great on execution, but I've always been satisfied that I gave it a shot. Otherwise, they'll get stuck in your head and drive you crazy till you get it down on paper.

[joannekwan]

I'm doing 3 on-going comics right now simultaneously.
Wish it were 2.

Mind you I don't have a day job, this is my job really. I used to be able to keep up fine, but lately I've been hit with medical issues so that has impacted my productivity A LOT.

My advice is to keep it to 2 at most if you are going at it solo. You keep your brain interested by jumping back and forth, but it's not too overwhelming, at least for me.

Even if you don't want to jump into your new idea immediately, you could slowly work on it and not release any pages until you have a good buffer. Heck, you could even try juggling 2 projects for a couple of weeks and see how it fits your lifestyle as a trial period, you don't have to publish the new one right away.

[ZatchZ]

Technically you can call what you do is a job.

[dawgofdawgness]

I'm doing 4 at the moment, 1 being my own, 2 being collabs, and 1 being a one-time paid thing. I'd say definitely don't take more than you can handle, especially long-form stories and stuff that you have to commit more time to. I have a pretty good balance of stuff right now since I'm on hiatus, and the other 2 long-ish collabs are one-shots and with simple/no coloring. It's actually a good way to keep up the momentum and manage your time more when you're working on more than one projects. And that way you don't get burnt out from doing the same thing over and over again.

tl;dr: Aim more for one-shots and short stories. That way you can get a taste of things and if it doesn't work for you, then you can get it over with pretty quickly (depending on how long the project is)

[BlueDragon]

I've found that I'm personally not capable of doing more than two at a time. Once I started redoing my main comic to improve the art (and flip the way it's read,) I had to stop working on my side project 'cause I was stressing myself out with it.

But I think it varies from person to person, and you'll have to find your own comfort zone by experimenting. I do agree with some of the others that extending the hiatus, especially on a newer comic, might alienate your audience a bit. So if it were me, I'd either work on both simultaneously, or maybe set aside the other project and perhaps write notes on it when inspired, or maybe do a page or two until I had some sort of buffer to post.

That's just how I'd handle it, though :3

[ble]

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[Cavechan]

I think it depends on what you want to do. I have two comics ongoing right now and they leave me for very little time to do anything else, even just making a quick extra doodle is something I rarely have time for.

I really want to just blow through the relatively quicker/shorter one, but it's still got 3 or more years left to go at the current pace. ._. I want to have time to work on other stuff, like more mini comics and illustrations.

I've seen contests pop up that I'm interested in but I can't enter them because of time. I can't take on any additional projects.

And for the shorter comic, I even have to half-ass things sometimes.

So yeah, just try and think about how you want to balance things. I do think it's better to work on both things to keep your audience happy. Maybe build up a buffer of one and spread the updates out more so you can focus a bit more on the shorter one and get it done sooner to then go back to the other one and concentrate on it more.

[Likri]

I was also thinking on an experiment with a second title, but the way I thought it should go, not to stall my main comic would be:

• a one shot - a short finished scenario

• a simpler color scheme

• make a buffer of pages when I can before any uploading

• shorter updates - if my current comic is 7-8 pages on average, the next might be a per page update

All this seems reasonable to balance with my main story and not overwork myself.

[Darth_Biomech]

Okay, so the feeling I getting is that it's a bad idea if you don't know what you are doing (and I don't). Thanks!

[danitasibert]

I say do whatever works for you, if you feel you can then do it i say go for it, (if you have the time!) of no then just focus on one.
I am working on 2 for the moment maybe I'll add another one some time soon, but its nice to juggle the 2 projects for me. after work i have something to look forward to!
I normally work on the whole chapter before uploading it, but I'll have to change my approach since I'm working 2 jobs now.

[irene_addler]

I wish I could do two at once so freaking bad. I have this fantastic idea that I love so much and it would look great as a comic, if I could get my act together and figure out how to do the style I'd like to see it in, but I'm working on one comic already and it's basically a part-time job and I already have a full-time job and just picked up a seasonal part-time job recently that will likely make me late/behind for the comic I'm already making lol

[BlueWorldComics]

It has positives and negatives.

For one, if you get bored working on one comic, you have options. And if you're the type of person that thrives on that, have at it.

Personally, I need to focus on one thing at a time. Sometimes, if I finish a chapter or a few pages of one story, I will work on the other story, but I pretty much have to completely switch my momentum over to the new story.

I want my Patreon to be full of extra comics outside of my main series. 12 pages a year (one per month) as opposed to 52 pages a year (one per week) on my main series.

But in order to get to that, I gotta give my main series a huge lead so I can focus on new projects, otherwise I wouldn't get anything done.

[ToxicRamen]

I have so many ideas that I wanted to work but I picked 3 to work on however after writing out the stories, I realized that 2 of them so be merged together since they exist in the same universe so now I have 2 comics that I'm working on.