How often do you think of giving up?

Honestly, I don't often
If I were a commercial artist trying to create to support myself I would, but I create for fun and I can't ever stop creating because it's such an integral part of me. If I ever want to stop on a project I can and just start a new one and that's a very freeing realisation. I create for myself first and foremost and I create what makes me happy. Support certainly helps motivate me, but it's not what ultimately drives me.

For someone as distractible and prone to larking off to the next fun-sounding idea as I am, I can be surprisingly tenacious when it comes to achieving something I really want. And I really want a career in comics. So I don't think of giving up.

If I stopped enjoying it for long periods of time, perhaps I would. I left classroom teaching for that reason. But I really love drawing my comic, and while I don't have a large audience, there are a few people excited for the next page. Those two things are enough to keep me going.

Do you like making your comic? Would you miss it if you stopped? If the answer to either of those questions is yes, you should keep making it.

Also, I'm not extroverted, but I do my best with marketing, and I've not done terribly so far. Reddit and Twitter are both useful platforms for that. You do need to market a bit with art, in order to get new eyeballs on it. It's tedious, but it's reality. I set aside a little time each day to jump on my preferred social medias and engage, which helps me (and by extension, my comic) be more visible. It's good for the community to engage with other creators too, so that's a win/win.

Every fucking day I have at least a second of thought of giving up either my series or my life LOL.

In particular, the era of internet has opened a vast possibilities and chances to share your creations. It is free, easy, with low to none curating and gatekeeping. Naturally, it becomes very saturated. Everyone understandably wants to stand out and get successful, and people can be really competitive. It is like in a dense tropical rain forest where all plants are fighting to get a shed of light.

I am assuming you are a hobbyist, or this is not your main income. Hobbyists usually do create things purely out of love and self-expression, but sometimes the spark is lost because of either pressure or poor reception. Some things that helps me are to just ignore the numbers, take a break from public social media, and surround myself with the people that spark or encourage the joy of creating. The people are those who appreciate your creation and/or whose creation you appreciate, like fellow creators, friends, and family. When you are in the right mood, I am sure the spirit to continue creating and showcasing your work will follow.

If you are a professional, maybe you should take a little break and rethink your marketing or business strategy, and stop reading this useless sentence that gives you no advice.

I'm ten steps aheads, i didn't just quit comics, I already divorced them.

It was a messy break up, but now i'm free.

Everyday, but I allow myself to take a break and not force myself to create for the sake of creating. Sometimes a lot of the pressure to create comes from yourself and is not needed, knowing when to take a break and come back to your story is a skill and taking a break isn't a bad thing.

We all enjoy some part of the process that creating has and if you don't do it professionally there isn't a need to push your story's success. I write because there is a story I want to read and I couldn't find it anywhere else so I made it. Even if you do give up on a story I find writing down all the notes and some of the characters, events really helpful because you can always reuse your ideas and you will have a completely different story then.

I love making comics and art in general. It is the one thing in life that brings me true joy. If other people enjoy my work its a bonus. So I never think of giving up.

I'm sorry to hear you're kinda going through this right now!

You're definitely not alone in this situation, we've all had our bad days for sure. I think a lot of it boils down to the expectations you have and the amount of effort you've put forward? If you expected to do this for fun and for your own pleasure, then the expectation of having a large fan base and all that probably didn't take high priority. This is especially true if you only create for a hobby. However, if this is a career path you are seriously considering, I totally understand why you would be frustrated.

If you find yourself thinking that you're "slaving away" at your content rather than genuinely enjoying the process despite a bump or two, then sit down and really think about what direction you should take? Do you need a small break or maybe you need to take a complete step back? It could even be something as simple as maybe "I'll update less often so I have more time to focus on myself and making my craft better."

Marketing is hard and the internet keeps growing as this constant goliath in our lives. If you take a break and you are serious about this as a career path, take the time to learn skills like marketing and whatnot. Learn how to network and reach your audience. Plus in my opinion its always fun to learn about new things that will help me in the long run!

Good luck, and I hope you feel better

That's not true with writing stories, either.
But listen, if few people are looking at your stuff, & probably far fewer than that ever bother to leave a Like or Comment, then you DON'T know if your stuff is good or bad. You only know it's being unseen a lot. Don't misread the lack of notice as "bad reviews".
There's plenty to feel down about, being unnoticed, but it's a different downer than thinking you're bad at your art.

Honestly, I think about it semi-frequently. I just feel like the investment in time isn't worth the return satisfaction I get. At the end of the day, I make my comic for myself and I really enjoy doing it... but I always get this unwavering thought that the time I put into it could be used somewhere else (like with friends, my SO, my family, exploring, other hobbies, other art that I put more effort into, etc.)

I've been thankful that the pandemic has given me this balance where I can focus on my comic more, but once things return back to normal, I don't know how I'll be able to find an appropriate life balance without sacrificing something.

Usually when I really feel like giving up something, that just means I'm overworked and need to take a step back. I feel that way at work right now too.... I just need a whole week off!!!

While I often feel like I'm spending a lot of time on something that isn't very good/doesn't seem to interest many people, I have to remind myself that I'm doing this to grow and become better at it, and the fact that when I look at older episodes I cringe means that I have actually improved a lot in the time I've been making my comic. I'm not sure I really think about giving up so much as I fear it -- I'm afraid that if I slow my roll or invest any time in one of the other ideas I have I'll stop working on my comic entirely, and then the handful of people who have supported me will be disappointed.

As a side note, I took a look at one of your series, and it looks to me like you have a lot of people interested. I'd love to have the number of views and subscribers you do, but I know that as we reach higher goals, our expectations tend to continue expanding so it's pretty common to end up feeling like it's never enough for the time and effort it takes to make something.

@BeautifulDoubt Speaking as someone who felt DOWN about their book for the first 3 months of posting (not down about the work, but the lack of readership/subscribers/likes and all of the other external gratification), it sucks. It sucks feeling like you're adding something worthy to the world and very few people seem to notice or care.

But intrinsically? I know that I'm improving. My story-telling and my art are taking leaps (the art is harder to gauge since I started making my book years ago but only recently started posting, so it's painful posting at times). But hey, maybe my book is a soft opening for something bigger. Maybe it's not. But I wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now. I love my book. I love my characters. It's feeding me internally, even if it doesn't gratify externally. You don't have control over what others will do in reaction (or lack there of) to your art. It's not up to us. I make my comic because I needed to make my particular comic. And yeah, I might end it earlier than I expected due to lack of interest and start a new one, but that's just to make way for the next part of my journey.

I forgot who said it, but one artist said anytime they felt down about their work not being seen, they used it as fuel to keep going. Like "okay, I'm not there yet. Let's keep going until I do."Waaaay easier said than done because I still struggle with it. But finding a positive outlook that takes in the reality of your situation might help.

Also, short term goal-setting may help. There's the big first question- what do you want to get out of comics? And depending on your answer, you may be able to start setting smaller, achievable goals to get there.
Do you want your stuff published? Maybe try to get on an anthology book or a fan art zine. Start there. Work up.
Do you want to get a publisher/agent? If so, you can research the steps on how to achieve those goals.

Either way, if there's still something you want to achieve in comics, I hope you find your answers.

I'm just taking my first baby steps. And yeah, I'd love to have your numbers (seriously). But I get it. People at ALL levels struggle with these thoughts.

But you do you. Find your happiness. Enjoy the ride.

Honestly, a lot of times.

I had two projects in the past, one writing and one video, and I gave up on both. Mostly because at some point I struggled a lot with no feedback or people just giving me a hard time. At some point, I tried to please people and that was my downfall. I always tried to continue, but at some point, I just gave up.

With knowing this, I went into my comic project and said I have a plan and a goal, and now I am able to drown these thoughts of giving. Because I do it for myself and not for others and I want to see the end. And when I reached that end, I can say, it was worth it seeing it through.

And when this has happened, then I will decide where to go from there and give myself another small goal

Maybe try to do something similar. I can´t say if it will help you, but maybe it gives you at least a small window of distracting yourself from these negative thoughts and you will find what can help you to believe in your work and stop thinking about giving up.

I think about it pretty regularly, to be honest, but it's usually a fleeting thought. At this point I've put so much time and effort into my projects that giving up on them would feel like a bigger waste than just pushing forward, because at the end of the day I'd rather have something finished but not successful than unfinished and not successful. I know that's very "sunk cost fallacy" of me, but it's the only way to keep going sometimes I feel like a lot of people give up less because they're not enjoying what they're doing and more because it isn't getting the attention they wanted--and like, don't get me wrong, it's REALLY hard to stay motivated when you're not getting any feedback--but sometimes you just gotta stick it out a little longer before you get a break, and if you never do, hey, at least you made something you care about.

Hmm, not a lot, really. Art has always been a huge passion of mine. Telling stories, creating characters... it's my favorite thing. It's like, the main thing that keeps me going. My characters mean everything to me, they've helped me get through thick and thin. Maybe it's unhealthy

I don't know if it's because I don't think I'll get a career in art? I'm currently majoring in history, with a minor in anthropology. So far from art lol. But maybe it's because since it's just a hobby for now, a really intense hobby that I'm putting all my energy into lol, but I just don't think about giving up.

I get really insecure sometimes. I hate my work sometimes. But I never want to stop. I want to keep going and keep telling my stories and keep improving, because that's all that's helped me with my struggles.

I'm sorry you're feeling this way. The way I look at it, and this is gonna sound really corny, but do it for you! I think, as long as you love it, and you put your love into it, that love with shine through.

I used to passively consider giving up quite often.
Thinking there's "not enough room for me anymore". A large part of it was feeling like my work was meaningless. It became a lot harder to appreciate some of the encouragement I was receiving. The occasional absence of critique justified those thoughts.

As of recently I've been doing a lot more self-awareness work.
Instead of focusing on "where I'm not doing well enough", I've been trying to focus on "what positive impact my ideas may have if I combine my different creative strengths together". Smaller ideas, internal resources. I'm also trying to speak about my ideas in a more encouraging way, which is starting to feel easier since I'm putting more heart into my drawings.

I think it has less to do with are you marketable or extroverted vs introverted.
I think if you learn from your own source of inspiration and be open to your own strengths, what you need to do next just kinda reveals itself to you.

I don't think about giving up much.

I just think of trying to draw but...I can't always draw.

I love to draw, don't get me wrong. But...I don't always have the willpower to do it. Frustrating.

Okay, I know this is a comic thread and I'm a writer but this honestly resonates with me, so I'll go ahead and add my two cents as well. I can't say I've ever really considered giving up writing before. But that's mostly because writing is as much a form of relaxation for me as it is a passionate hobby. I write for the same reason others read. To escape into a fantasy world of my own creation. And while I can't speak for artwork, considering I buy all my art and don't have a single bone in my body that can draw, I don't see that going away any time soon.

That said, I have absolutely one hundred percent thought about quitting when it comes to promoting my work.

It can be incredibly frustrating to work so hard on something and then see it not pay off the way you hope it will. Or you seem to have hit a peak as far as people who are actually interested in reading your material. It can really sap your energy and make you wonder why you bother editing, doing revisions, making social media posts, paying for concept art, all while continuing to write a series no one seems interested in.

Worse than that is when someone comes along and tears your work apart. Either because they don't like the subject matter, or they have an agenda they're trying to push. Don't get me wrong, if someone tells me I need to change something because it's offensive, or demeaning to someone else, I listen. I don't take those kinds of remarks lightly. And if I feel changes need to be made, I make them. That doesn't stop some people from telling me that my work has no business being here, or making other unhelpful comments. And those can really get under your skin after a while.

There were several moments I really did just consider giving up and going back to writing just for fun. But then I'd see a post like this one on the forums, reminding people that nothing good is going to happen overnight. I can't remember where I saw it, but there was one post someone made about how the writers and artists who are the most successful on Tapas and on other sites are the people who genuinely enjoy writing and art. If you believe in your work enough, and put the effort to make it the absolute best work you can, whilst remembering to be grateful to the few fans you have, then I genuinely believe you can make it.

I didn't quit, and I'm not going to any time soon. As it stands right now, I'm only eight subscribers from reaching the one hundred subscriber milestone, and I now have over a thousand likes on my work. It's felt like a very long, bumpy road getting to this point, but I can say wholeheartedly it's been worth it. At the end of the day, I think the ones who will be the most successful here, are the ones who can ignore that voice in their head telling them they're not good enough and continue to believe in their work even when they don't feel like they believe in themselves.

If nothing else, at least take pride in the fact that you're doing something most people only ever think about doing. The fact that you've made it as far as posting your work, regardless of how many subscribers or likes you have, is in itself something to be really proud of. At least, that's what I tell myself when I'm feeling low.