How do you set yourself up for success with your work?

[smokesalty]

What I mean by this is- how are you ensuring you stay motivated and complete your projects (or whatever measure of success you have for your work)?

For me, I know that in order to complete my comics, I need to keep a schedule. This was the case with planning my outline, script, 3D models and character sheets. Now, I have a set amount of work to complete every week.

Planning in general is a big must for me. Before I started my comic I knew I was not a panster writer- I needed the entire story planned to ensure I know the direction of my comic and so that I don't back myself into a wall. I feel motivated because I know there are a ton of scenes I love and am looking forward to in the future and that I don't have to worry about writing on the go. ( I also know the overall story is satisfying and that there are pay offs to everything I've set up!)

[nayrnixon]

Hey there! I'm Ryan, the creator of Taproot, Toil & Trouble!, and Jacob's Journal. Still very new to this, but I guess what I've learned from making webcomics for myself is that looking for progress and completion over perfection definitely helps. I know that it's my duty to continue the story and not spend too long on one project or episode. Before, I would spend years on a single project in hopes it would be perfect. I'm talking like... 13 years ha ha.

Other than that, what you said was true for me too. I post every week for my series and have extensive outlines for all of them. Having that oultine gives you a good map and lets you look forward to the long journey ahead.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I also know the overall story is satisfying and that there are pay offs to everything I've set up!

This goes for me as well! I just look forward to hitting my future plot points too much to not work towards them! (And conversely, all the projects I dropped were ones that didn't have super cathartic scenes for me to aim towards :'D)

looking for progress and completion over perfection definitely helps.

Yep, this definitely helps for me as well! I feel like ditching the need to make my comic polished (i.e. have clean lineart and colouring etc) is doing wonders for my motivation to continue. I don't want to even think about how long my drawing process would take if I had to refine those sorts of details :'D

Other than that, I'm not super into organization. The only scheduled writing I do is with a writer's group where we do pomodoro sessions together, and that only works for me because there are other people around XD

Probably my main thing is I use structured procrastination (or what I like to call 'cross procrastination'); I always make sure to have multiple things going on at once because I always feel like procrastinating on the most urgent thing on my to-do list, and that pushes me to do less important things that are still on my to-do list which means I still get things done, just not the thing I need to do! :'D So I technically work on two comics in parallel, and I'm also taking up reviewing webtoons. This might be a disasterous idea for some people; I guess I'm also lucky that I tend to procrastinate by doing useful (or at least creative) things

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I was actually thinking about this today, after I successfully planned out the beginning of my next fancomic series...which are historically the only series that I can even consistently work on...

I don't always finish fancomics, but they tend to hold my attention for much longer, and they usually run long enough for me to satisfyingly 'wrap' them, even if I don't do everything I originally planned.
Meanwhile, original comics...I have a very bad track record with them. 9_9; I've finished exactly one in the modern day, and I'm currently having to scrape together motivation to just continue with its second season, let alone finish it.

Why is this? Well, here are the qualities of the comic projects I usually finish/wrap:

1) No schedule. I update as much as I want, whenever I want.
2) Fast and loose plot progression. If I really don't feel like drawing a certain part of the story, I simply narrate it or skip it entirely. All the visuals are things I saw clearly in my mind's eye and particularly wanted to put down on paper...basically, the comic is made up exclusively of 'the fun parts'.
3) New artstyle. Coincidentally. ^^ Although coming up with a brand-new artstyle is a lot of fun and probably helps with morale.
4) New formatting. This is something I think I should actually investigate in order to help with all my comic work...certain formats (like smaller pages) help my artist mind more than others.

The first two qualities are the most important, and unfortunately they pertain pretty much exclusively to fanworks: like, of course it's easier to go without a schedule when your work has a built-in audience. And of course it's easier to skip around when your story is based on a pre-existing one, and your characters already have established personalities.

But that kind of freedom is apparently what makes me actually enjoy my work enough to finish it...if only I could apply it to my original works...TT__TT

...I mean, I guess I could. And my art is definitely solid enough for it to still attract some fans (especially if I'm only drawing the best parts of the story)...but that loosey-goosey process, although fun, just feels too 'unprofessional' for my personal masterpieces. ^^; Maybe when I hit 30 and start to feel the grim reaper closing in I'll throw professionalism out the window, but right now I still feel like I should hold myself to a higher standard.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Ohh yes, definitely; I couldn't put my finger on it, but you just nailed it. I'm not sure how many original projects you have planned, but a great way to feel the grim reaper encroaching before the age of 30 is to be overly ambitious and go 'hmmm, this amount of content divided by lifespan equals death ...' :'D

[LouisWinter]

I try to challenge myself while working by aiming a bit higher. By always aiming higher and achieving small steps, I keep wanting to do better.

[Lensing]

I always need defined goals otherwise I have no motivation.
When I do illustrations for customers my goal is to get the money and satisfy the customer.
The same with music, I rehearse/practice to play a show or record.
I record to release an album. I release an album to play shows and get money from the
sales and the shows.

Getting likes or views means nothing to me. It is not a goal.
I take part in a comic contest, the winner gets money and the comic gets printed.
That´s a goal and that makes me work on the comic. I want it to be printed, I want
the money.

And I need deadlines. Everything needs a deadline. For the whole project.
Deadlines for my daily work. At the moment I´m doing 2 panels in the morning,
2 from 12-3 and the last 2 panels in the evening. One page a day from monday
to friday. I´ll be finished with the sketches mid june and start to ink. The comic
has to be finished until august 15

[rumpenstiltzkin]

ensuring you stay motivated and complete your projects

the only thing right now that does this for my current comic is that i enjoy drawing it and want to get to the good parts of the story

and the encouragement ive gotten from readers and friends, it was unexpected and have been quite the confident booster

[UrMom]

The only thing keeping me going is that it's something I want to work on. Being a vent thing my comic has helped me tolerate a lot of mental stuff, and I've said before I probably wouldn't be here without it, as dumb as it sound. It helps that I knew all the major story beats from beginning to end right away too. I can't say I have a true method to stay interested in project, this is the first one I've stuck with for so long, but it's nice knowing the overall story right away so I can fill in the small details as I go.

Anticipating certain scenes helps too. I'd say I'm excited for the "climax" in the next chapter, and a scene in my current one, but it's a mixed bag. I like seeing how readers react, although I know I'll lose a lot of them. Honestly the scene I'm looking forward to the most is in the chapter after the climactic one, not only because it'll be really cathartic, but I'm hoping to see people's thoughts on it since the environment is safe enough to discuss such things.

[GumshoeComix]

Aside from it being a vent story and something I feel I need to share
I stay motivated by shuffling what I do
Like one day will be for lineart
Then when I'm bored of that ill color or write
It helps me to not burn out if I shuffle them all the time.

[TroyVSTheWorld]

I often times find myself saying "Good enough" on a panel and moving to the next because I'm not trying to display the greatest art known to mankind, I'm trying to illustrate a story. Sometimes its just kind of fun to neglect rules and enjoy what you're doing, so that you can keep pushing the narrative forward, as long as you have something it's building towards.

Also I don't use model sheets and draw my characters different literally every time, sometimes abstractly, which I generally use as a method to try odd camera angles. I mean, its two talking heads, I could copy/paste for 6 panels if I wanted to.

[powerplantanimations]

Every project I make is in the same universe. EVERYTHING must be canon. It makes me excited for the other projects because I'm creating more toys to play with.

Also playlists, playlists, PLAYLISTS! I cannot stress that enough. Music is king. A lot of the time people take LSD to make music. They took it so I don't have to :v

[NickRowler]

I don't think I would really call myself successful, I feel like a bit of a nobody when it comes to my art.

I guess I just like my characters so I draw them, not really deeper than that. I complete things somehow, I don't know how because I feel like I work at a snail pace and sleep all the time.

[system]

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