How did you guys get confident enough in your story to start it?

every time i lose confidence in my work, I start thinking why I started at all. My conclusion is always the same: Life is short. Too short for countless revisions and hundreds of hours of polishing. I just want to finish the stories I have on my mind before my time over. It may sound macabre, but hey... as long as it works ^^'
what I mean is that i postponed starting my comic like 6- 7 years because i thought i was not good enough. As I got older and people I knew started passing away (even young ones) I realized I can't postpone things forever as I might never get the chance to do them in the first place. It's a sad, terribly melancholic way of thinking, I am aware. And I apologize if I made anyone sad... it is not my intention to do so; merely saying what works for me. ( i'm aware it's not a healthy way of thinking and that I should probably get help)

But I do agree with the majority, that I also do continue and not dwell on improvements for the fun of creativity itself (that's also why I rarely do challenges like "redraw old art" - ain't creative enough for me)

I personally am always happy to just have something to share, so that definitely pushes me to eventually posting (and I'm really bad at working ahead of time for buffers, I really hope Patreon helps with that) - I don't want to disappoint followers/subscribers, so it's better to post something crappy than nothing at all. It makes me more uneasy to not post anything.

Also, when I started posting my comic, I had recently read a few webcomics where I really loved the art - of the later chapters, that is. It was a real confidence boost to see that people loved these comics even though the art in the first 20 or so pages looked much worse than what I had to offer at that point.
In more cases than not, the first few chapters are bad in comparison to what the creators evolved to in later chapters. Understand that you won't get better and will be able to learn if you never post anything and thus don't receive any feedback. If you don't post anything, there's nothing people even could like and enjoy. First chapters are not the be all, end all. You will find readers, and if you gradually become better, they will notice, and maybe share your content with a friend so they know there will be good content even though the first chapters may be not so well-executed.

Maybe give yourself limitations, like you can do 3 drafts of a chapter, and then you need to post one of those 3 drafts. No buts, no ifs, no what abouts.
Imagien this is the most important assignment of the semester and if you hand in late, you'll fail. So, would you rather fail your class and maybe even fail your entire studies through that, or do you grit your teeth, knowing it's not perfect, maybe you'll get a B- instead of an A which barely even influences your overall grade?
My layout prof once said "75% is better than to aim at 100% and delivering 0%" and that is the bottom line of everything.

In addition, be aware that comics who perform exceptionally well right off the start usually are either professionally made or the creators have a very large following on social media and know how to promote themselves. If you promote updates with links to the actual update, that is what people get in touch with at first. If it's later in the story, they'll notice "wait I don't really understand what happened" and they go back to the start. You are scared that you don't have a hook but as soon as someone is curious enough to go back, you already got them 80% of the time.
And, again, there won't be a hook if you don't post anything.

I had confidence in my story.

i dont think i really did, i just... started. kinda regret it - if i had a complete plan actually drawn out before start, i think things woulda been easier. but then, your first comic is always.... interesting

really though, at your first comic, you need to stop giving a fuck. accept that therell be flaws, that itll be maybe not the most original thing, not the best writing or best art youll ever make. but its necessary to make something kinda crap to every make something kinda good - and itll prolly be less crap than you think!

that all said, make sure you have a plan of the entire plot before you start

You know, that's almost exactly my problem!
Background People3 was my first foray into writing. I had everything set up in my head: the characters, the plot, the interactions...everything! It was a breeze at first: writing down a chapter almost every week.
Then it kinda burned out. That's putting it lightly. It completely stopped.
I rewrote it, and I didn't like how it turned out. So I scrapped it, and started working on other things.

My point? Don't rush things. Don't think ahead that you're already thinking about how it's going to end. Spend some time fleshing out everything, even down to the little details. It's going to help, and when you finally complete it, it'll feel loads better. Trust me.
If you're feeling unconfident the first time, that's fine! You can always go back to your stuff, and rework it! It's only when you think it's good enough (after loads of revisions) that you can post it!

And another thing: write everything down. Write it down: plan your stuff, develop it, and then maybe share it to a friend or two. Maybe what he/she/they will say might help you feel really good with your stuff.

I don't think it was necessarily confidence that caused me to start my story; it was just an overwhelming urge to write out the story that was playing out in my head. I wasn't at all confident sharing it in the beginning but I decided that if I wanted to be serious about potentially advancing my writing into something more, then I would have to get past the fact that someone was going to have to see it. Additionally, I knew I would never be able to improve if someone didn't see it.

So I took a chance and I think it's been pretty good so far! I know there will be bumps in the road but I am looking forward to growing and learning more

It took me about 6 years to end up with what I feel is a solid story for my comic, and I'd rewritten it several times since I started thinking seriously about it. I think what really helped in my case was finally going "okay I've been fiddling around with various character ideas and the main premise long enough, I need an outline."

Once I figured out how I wanted my story to end and what the main conflict would be, the rest just kind of fell into place by working backwards from there, if that makes sense? It really helped when it came to working out character arcs as well. I did have to toss aside some cool scene ideas and stuff that I'd clung to since the beginning since they no longer made sense, but really it was for the best.

So yeah tl;dr - Once you have your main plot and ending figured out, as well as the character arcs for your primary characters, I'd say that's a pretty good launching pad to start from.

You don't need to have it all scripted out to the most minute detail before you get started on pages either, I've been keeping the details like dialogue and paneling fairly loose just so stuff remains interesting to me as I work on it. So long as I know what needs to happen next, it's all good!

oh i Definitely made some terrible decisions but i learned you gotta just. do it and dive right into it. i learned from pushing back starting a project for 2 years because i didn't think it was 'perfect' enough to start that sometimes you just have to risk it.

I think that there is no a bad story, there a bad presented story. The thing is that you have to present your story in a way that the viewer or in this case, the reader can understand enough to have questions about somthing and leave the reader with the sensation they want to really know what's up with the characters. I believe that it's not about the style and perfection of the drawings, My comic is not perfect, the drawings are weird sometimes but still I focus a lot on the writting, how the characters interact and let the characters to explain whats going on.
With time, training and a lot of effort and patience you'll get something good. Don't worry. You don't have to be confident, just keep posting stuff, and finish you projects with dignity, because to me, having a project incomplete is really undignifing for that project.

I simply write it out first then review what I had just written logically, looking for plot hole, inconsistency, any illogical flaw in the story line, fix all the flaw you can spot, rewrite again, publish it, and... hope for the best.

I start thimking about a story, then I made changes (i read over again in case it needs changes), you know, to get it better. Then I publish it without thinking it too much. You should lose the fear of critics, people do that anyway, and those things are even good for you!. When you read your story, and you share it with close friends and feel that is finished, you can publish it!, and then, you will learn in the way, with people comments, with other experiences.

But my recommendation is, publish it!!

I just end up putting myself out there because I got tired of everything being more important than what
I love to do. Also, the comic i have on tapas now is also there to help me get back in the habit of drawing regularly.

Never was an issue of "becoming confident"- just a matter of doing something that really interested me to the level of "I GOTTA do this!".

While i was confident in my story because most people i showed it really enjoyed it , i wasn`t confident in my capability to post consistently. During that time i developed a habit to draw one page per week during 2 months (on average 9 pannels). This helped me to build up a buffer. After some encouragement from my mom, i got the courage to start uploading here on Tapas.

That's my secret captain...
I´m never confident ORZ

Great question, aqua03!

To be honest, I didn't have confidence at all when I first started publishing on Tapas. I kept telling myself "The story's not finished. I'm still unsure how it will all end. I need to work on the lore more."

And that was my problem -- I was so much of a perfectionist that I kept myself from the most crucial aspect of artistry, which was to take a dang step forward.

We live in a wonderful era for the arts, especially for writing and illustrating, because we can publish an amiable product. True art is like a living being: it always changes and is improved upon. So we have the freedom to go ahead and publish, even if we may not have all of our shit together. Having that support system of readers behind your back truly becomes your main drive as you push forward to finish your story.

So do I know how my story will end? I got an idea, but only time will tell. In the meantime, allow the readers to enjoy the ride along with you, because storytelling is all about the journey, anyhow. And if you ever need to go back and edit a page or two, go right on ahead! It will only make your storytelling that much stronger.