Hard Work is a myth

[HGohwell]

And in regards to how "work harder" is more actionable than "work smarter," I meant that more in terms of how people could probably think of far more ways they can "do more work" than "do smarter work" - regardless of whether or not those actions actually produce results.

Ah ok, that makes more sense, sorry for misunderstanding that. Yeah, it's a lot easier for people to think they can just work an extra hour or even skip a meal to work harder rather than finding smarter solutions.

don't actually think it is people giving broad advice to individual situations, because the context in which I hear these sorts of discussions never seem to stem from a creator saying "Here are my life circumstances and this is the problem I need solving. With this context in mind, how can I address this issue?"

You're right, yeah, situations like this are pretty rare. Shame really, I think people would probably get better answers if they did give more detail on the particular areas they're struggling with.

If there is an "obvious problem," in my view it's that people are trying to find an answer to a question no one has ever actually solved: "How do I guarantee success?"

Quite honestly, I think the only answer to this should probably be a blunt "you can't and if you're asking that you're in the wrong game" but I can see where you're point earlier about no one really wanting to say those things and would rather be positive comes in. I suppose when people reply hard work to that they probably generally mean "be prepared for years of work without any major returns". Although people coming in with those expectations is probably also a discussion from another place so I'll leave that there.

[GesuGesu]

Not so much in a literal sense but more in that it does not matter how much effort you put into something because in many cases the amount of effort your put into something will not matter.

It really depends on what you're putting effort into, so don't worry about being controversial. I think everything has a case by case basis.

Yes I absolutely managed to gain a little something but the reality was I was wearing myself out for next to nothing. Which is my whole point.

Do you not enjoy what you do? I am able to work hard for next to nothing because creating things is my passion, and getting noticed, successful, improvement, and payment is just a bonus if it happens. I really hope that you have a strong enough passion to do what you love no matter what struggles come with it. This is why I feel that your passion should not become your career or job, because once money or success becomes a factor, it reduces your love for the craft or even makes you grow to hate it over time.

Don't take yourself too seriously, so you can continue to enjoy making what you do.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

You shouldn't have to kill yourself with overwork just to succeed.

Seems to me the meaning & amount of truth to that depends greatly on what an individual see as "success". It's not the same for everyone. Not by a long shot. That's one of the problems with collectivist ideologies, they seem to assume all people find happiness or contentment with the same things.

I also think means "hard work" means different things to different people. And similarly, whether the "hard work" was worth the reward or the chance of the reward. When if comes to human beings there's a looooot of variables.

[Llyrel]

So like yeah you can put effort into things (you wanna paint the mona lisa go ahead) but that's not the issue the thing is that you've gotta pay attention to where and how you put effort into things.

^ This so much. Another similar (and equally harmful) kind of advice I often seen thrown around is "if your comic isn't doing well enough on Tapas/Webtoon, then it probably means that you have to work harder to improve it/chase the current trend/put in colors/change or simplify your style/whatever", when truth is... maybe the problem has nothing to do with the quality of the work itself and everything to do with the fact that neither platform is actually "right" for you? Let's be honest, both Tapas and Webtoon have a clear preference towards some very specific styles/genres.
Anyone who doesn't fit in is hardly going to get a recommendation on the homepage of these sites, no matter how good or professional their work is. I've seen plenty of amazingly done webcomics with downright professional artwork and storytelling getting little to no attention here. Yet you constantly see people saying that "if they aren't making it big, perhaps they should work harder". Hell, no. Just because your comic isn't doing well on two (2) online platforms that have a tendency to promote a very specific kind of subgenre, it doesn't mean that your work is objectively bad or that it can't achieve success elsewhere.

Does it suck that the two major webcomic platforms won't give a crap about your work? Yes, it does. Does it suck to pour your soul into something and see it getting zero attention because it doesn't fit what's "popular"? YES, IT DOES. But does it mean that you should suffer through burnout to "improve your work" to chase something that may never happen (e.g. a homepage feature) or give up on everything you love to chase the "current popular style", hoping that will let you achieve success? NOPE.

Start branching out, try different platforms, build connections elsewhere, join collectives, heck, make your own website if you can afford to. Hone your skills and work on improving them, because yes, there's ALWAYS room for improvement, but for the love of everything that's holy, stop promoting the idea that "not making it big" on this or that platform means that you're not "working hard enough". Because another key part of success is "being in the right place at the right time"... and if you keep wasting all your time and energy on the wrong target/audience, it won't matter how "hard" you work: you will always feel out of place.

tl;dr: hard work is just one of the steps to achieve success. Being in the right place at the right time, knowing your audience, finding your niche, building connections and yes, LUCK (plenty of luck, tbh), are also important. So don't just waste your energy trying to chase an audience you can't have and focus on finding a place/working method/audience that works for YOU.

[VibrantFox]

[surenlicious]

Always work smarter, not harder. Choose what works for you, and let go of the pressure society loves to put in the "work harder" ethic. Success comes in so many shapes and forms, I would applaud anyone that goes out to find the one that works for them.

I learned it....the hard way. I always put so much effort...and got barely anything in return. And suddenly when I just did my thing, that's when slowly folks began to see my work. Its quite something how it always ends up being that way haha.

[Legendofgenii]

Just dragging myself out of bed is hard work for me - so anything I do after that is a plus.

[darthmongoose]

I'd personally say it's less that hard work is a myth and more that hard work on its own isn't enough.

Pretty much all professional comics creators I know work really hard. Most of them have, at some point, given themselves a repetitive strain injury or eye strain or some kind of stress-related illness. I don't personally know any comic creators whose comic is their primary source of income who don't work at least equivalent hours to a job that'd pay the amount their comic earns them doing some combination of creating pages, marketing, making extra materials for Patreon or organising and travelling to events in order to sell their work.

BUT It's also true though that:
- The most successful of my pro comics making friends are from a either a wealthy background or a family with experience and contacts in illustration or comics and were provided with guidance, tools, resources and contacts that gave them a huge early boost in their career.
- The ones who don't have a part time job on the side are practically all middle class and white, and most of them have a partner in a very lucrative career like software engineering or similar.
- They usually work in very popular genres like BL or they make comics that are licensed IP.
- Most pro comic artists I know who make original content have a part time job, or they make their original content passion project and also some kind of premium content for another publication that's usually in a "safer" genre or for a well known IP.
- My friends who have a strong design or marketing background or access to design and marketing expertise tend to do a lot better than people of equivalent or even superior drawing skill who don't know design or marketing.

So it's less that hard work isn't important and more that some people's hard work gets them further. That's an important distinction, because I often see people saying "I need to work smarter, not harder!" or "It's not my comic that needs work, it's just it's not being seen!" and then I look at the comic and see things like rushed lineart sloppily drawn with the line smoothing turned up too high at low resolution, very visible missed areas of colour flatting, too much text crammed into default oval tool speech bubbles and written in comic sans, frequent spelling and grammatical errors, blobby, indistinct backgrounds and other features that show that really the comic actually could use a bit more hard work before deciding that all it needs is more marketing pizazz.

So... yes, for a lot of us, hard work isn't enough, but it doesn't mean that working hard doesn't work or isn't important and the only thing a comic needs is to be a boys love or a villainess story and to get lucky regardless of quality or polish. It's more like we have to work just as hard as more privileged people but then put in more work on top of that in our marketing, or that without a financial safety net and development time to take risks with unusual genres or themes, we need to play it a lot safer with the content of our work or market ourselves to specialised niches. It's extremely rare for a comic to be successful without at least polished looking art, a clear, readable story and nicely presented text and panels whether it's in a popular genre or not.

[LCT_m_a_d]

Hard work was necessary for engraining skills when I was self-taught. I had no clear goals and I just wanted to create lot's of things. Now that I'm fundamentally sound (attended art school), self-awareness, wonder, and thinking is needed to make effective use of the skills I've already developed.

With that said working yourself to death is not, nor has it ever been, synonymous with "hard work". No one can tell you how often you should work. For me I don't draw everyday because of my job. While I love my career is mentally taxing. And while I don't have the volume of work done that I used to, my art is almost at my peak to date (you can judge for yourself). Despite giving myself a healthy space to work, I do "work hard" in the time devoted to my art. I'm very meticulous and thorough about doing few things to a level of perfection or excellence.

I think It's best to leave generalizations for the audience in my opinion.

[wispysing]

This resonates with a lot of people I see, lots of excellent replies are here already. But let me chime in a little bit.

There is no success without a considerable degree of labor. The same way there is no success without a considerable degree of innovation and efficiency. Both are two sides of the same coin, it's just up to us to choose wisely at the appropriate situation, at the appropriate time.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Well...at least for me...the only thing I have is hard work. That's the only thing that keeps me going.

Maybe because I was raised on a "You don't work, you don't eat" type of mentality. Or maybe because, I just like to throw myself at a problem with every single fiber of my being.

If I didn't work hard, I wouldn't be here. But that's just me. Work harder, and then work some more is pretty much my modus operandi.

[VibrantFox]

okay doubling back coz i missed some folks

@GesuGesu I assure you I absolutely enjoy what I do and this thread is less about myself and my personal enjoyment of art and more the blanket advice that often given to folks which in some contexts does not apply. I know the consequences in turning a hobby or a passion into a career and I'm aware of the struggles that come with the field but I've been expectant of and thus relatively prepared for the fact that I'll have a lot coming at me. Plus as @/darthmongoose mentions background and financial standing are things that weigh into what can be achieved and given where i fall in some of those categories I know how the scales are tipped against me (something I could go on about ad nauseum but again wont cover because tapas isn't great at nuance in those areas at times)

@Ordinaryaverageguy I totally get this. I'm fully aware that everyone's goals are different and that's of no issue to me. I get that just in regards to things like "hard work" as a piece of advice having nuance in and of itself but you can refer to my last paragraph as well as some other replies I've liked in regards to how and when it's given in certain contexts.

@surenlicious nail on the head with that one because i know how we all just as people work differently so finding what works for us as individuals is key

@darthmongoose you basically said what i was trying to but yeah all of that 100%

@LCT_m_a_d you can find my stances on that in the op and replies. like i said i don't deny there's nuance in hard work but i think in the context you elaborate on it's less about volume of work but rather time spent honing a skill which yes is hard work but not what i'm referring to in the context of my op which is more in regards to being told to work harder in situations where no amount of additional hard work would lead to more success (which again is why i point to @/darthmongoose's reply)

@wispysing i hear you and I've addressed this several times above along w others

@nathanKmcwilliams as I've said I totally get this and coming from a background that requires I put in a tremendous amount of work and effort not only in art but a lot of areas of life i don't doubt or deny any of what you said. I'm merely saying that in some contexts hard work will get you some distance but it's not the whole piece of the pie

and i think that's most of whom i wanted to address

[Kelheor]

You know what? I'll say it. I wish someone would just give me all the shortcuts to things I need to "work smarter". Because so far I've learned just a couple of them, and I just can't find anything to what will actually make my art life easier, because "have a problem with backgrounds? Just don't draw them/make it a rainbow", "just copy-past all these faces", "just don't draw these feet" are just not shortcuts suitable for me, so I prefer doing work and learning stuff instead of not doing it at all.

But really, please someone spare me good background coloring tutorials

[LCT_m_a_d]

That makes more sense. I think the confusion is where "Hard Work" is referenced explicitly. I think the phrase "Just Working Harder" I would agree with you on completely. Reading the title and summary I wasn't clear on which specifically, so I wanted to clarify my 2 cents.

We are often taught that the 2 are the same thing and I think this is why so many people are anxious, depressed and burned-out about things they care about. There needs to be a cognitive message that other things are necessary to make "hard work" sustainable or valuable. Especially if we are punished or neglected for "not doing enough". For me, I have struggled with this so I have a personal responsibility to correct my understanding so I don't abandon my work-ethic, but also have compassion for those who are doing their best.

[GesuGesu]

I assure you I absolutely enjoy what I do and this thread is less about myself and my personal enjoyment of art and more the blanket advice that often given to folks which in some contexts does not apply. I know the consequences in turning a hobby or a passion into a career and I'm aware of the struggles that come with the field but I've been expectant of and thus relatively prepared for the fact that I'll have a lot coming at me.

That's good to know.