This is a bit long, but I hope that by the end, any creators reading this can feel a bit more encouraged.
There's the thing, excellent quality story is hard to find even in other sectors like films and novels.
I'm turning to classics because of this, actually, and I find that I like older works better. Although in my case, since I'm aspiring to be a writer, I'm talking about books, not comics.
The more mature you become, and the more you improve on your comic or writing, you also get pickier about the works you want to spend your precious time with. It's because you understand what makes something good, and you're able to filter out what's just ok.
The thing is that webcomic creators might not have editors who help them, to act as an audience who can help them correct some of the more obvious mistakes first before their comics are published.
If you think about it, manga artists have editors who look over their drafts before they work on the final product, so there's a layer of quality control there. As they work with their editors, they also learn how to improve on their story.
Another thing is that what's in the creator's mind and how it gets interpreted by readers isn't always the same or even similar. This can also be improved upon, so it's not the end of the road.
It's not that people don't love their work or they don't work hard, but they lack a certain skill set to bring their work from good to great, from everyday to excellent, from empty to exciting, from devoid-of-meaning to depth.
Part of it is working smarter, but another part of success is opportunity. I don't mean opportunity for fame, but the opportunity for the right teacher or right class to come into your life to bring you to the next level.
I completely understand what you mean, but skills can be learned, even the skill to see what isn't working. Nothing is unfixable or unchangeable. Just think about the first comic you drew and the one you drew last time. Take them out and compare. You'll notice a huge improvement, right? As a comic artist, though, you need not just art skills, but also writing skills, so you got it doubly hard.
As an aspiring writer, I also struggled with this for a long time. It seems that whatever classes or books I was reading wasn't helping me to understand the secret ingredient to awesome storytelling.
Even though I was writing short stories, I thought, ok, time for a change, I should expand. I took some acting classes and some screenwriting classes, and eventually stumbled upon the holy grail of story telling (in my opinion, the class awe-strucked me bc I've never heard anyone talk about story making that way) and someone who knows how to teach it. It was a bit difficult to wrap my head around it at first, but it has become a great help.
So why am I not churning out stories? Now, I'm dealing with discipline problem, which take a whole other skillset to overcome. lol
You think you don't have enough talent, and therefore you can't create something on a Shakespeare level. Is this true or false?
Well, here a video that perhaps will change your mind a little. Keep in mind this thing he talks about--the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
The 1 Writer Who Makes It And The 9 Who Don’t by Corey Mandell
I'm not trying to advertise for Corey Mandell, but he's the one I took classes with that I mentioned above. If you guys are curious about the book he mentioned, Mindset, it's a pretty inspiring book to read, and I would suggest it to all creators who want to improve and become better than they currently are. Mindset and attitude plays a huge role in your game. Corey made is a must read before one of the classes he taught.
That's the right attitude! Growth mindset trumps fixed mindset!
Although I was being sarcastic about the Shakespeare thing, I learned from someone who's at the top of their game that unless you aim for the top, you're not going to get there. If I aim for the Hunger Games level, I'm not going to get to Shakespeare level.
You might ask, I can aim for the Hunger Games first, then when I achieve that, I'll aim for Shakespeare. I asked my friend the same question, and he shook his head. It was hard to explain, and I don't know if I can say it properly. When you aim for the top, you spend your energy on being the best instead of striving to be just good, and it allows you to level up in leap instead of in steps.
I know this digresses from the topic, but I hope this helps for creators who read it.
Keep calm and accelerate by bounds!