How to schedule pages without giving myself too much work?

[Momomori]

y'know that feeling when you wanna introduce your favorite character, but the story updates weekly and moves slowly, so you can't show them off until 2 months later? that drives me nuts. but if i update more then once a week ill get behind VERY quickly. any advice for scheduling? i fear that my story is taking alot of pages just to transition into story aspects, but doing more than one page a week is too much for me to handle, but people will begin to forget where the story is going and unsub. i have buffer pages, but im still too scared to fall behind, should i just take the leap and up my number of updates every week and risk spreading myself thin?

[NanettesClouds]

I feel yah man, right now I update 1x/week, even though I could do 2x, but I go back to school next month and I don't want to get overwhelmed and have to bump it down.

That said, staying healthy/not overworked is really important! Because if you dont give yourself enough time to work on your pages, the quality will suffer, and that will make you feel worse about your work and then you'll want to work on it less and that will make you procrastinate which will give you less time to work which will make your pages suffer which will make you want to work less... you get the point.

It's a downward spiral.

The people who update a ton of pages each week usually either do comics full time, don't have a social life, or some combination of both. It's not the healthiest situation to be in.

[ZatchZ]

Find days to make several issues.

[punkarsenic]

id say honestly dont up your output. its not worth it because running out of buffer and then missing schedules is so stressful, and worse for your pacing than weekly updates.

people here are used to weekly updates; while it can feel slow, itll only bore people away if theres a problem with your comic itself. youre better off looking at what youre fitting into a page / if youre leaving a lil cliffhanger each episode than how often youre updating. likelihood is, theres nothing wrong, and your subscribers are very happy.

if you really want to update more, do what @ZatchZ said and find a time - maybe during a school / work break? - to dedicate to your comic, to bang out a lot of pages in that period of time. do it again before that buffer runs out. i still think thats too stressful and risky though

[eleviken]

I relate!! I want to finish more pages while I still have time in the summer, but I always get super tempted to post them.
I think you should stick with your current update schedule! It might not be good for your eyes/posture/wrist/physical health if you do more. And you'll have to give up other parts of your life! I think it's good to maintain an update schedule, though!

[scarlet_wings_kaili]

I update 2 pages a week, and I wish that I could post faster, but just like @niah146 mentioned, it's a baaaad idea to overwork yourself.
1 pages a week is fine, but if you really want to try another schedule, maybe 3 pages every 2 weeks will work?

[Rhombik]

Go with your gut. It seems like it's telling you to introduce the character sooner.

Most people I see on here seem to update once or twice a week. Unless you have nothing else on, it's difficult to do more than that.

I wouldn't increase updates if it'll affect your buffer. I'd consider looking at your methods (story boarding, drawing, photoshopping, pacing...) to see if there's ways to speed it up. I'm resistant to do "non comic" stuff because it's extra time away but actually eventually watching some tutorials and thinking about my process cut out a lot of time.

[TGping]

Start a patreon, draw your character, post as an exclusive early reward, get paid

[DMBrigman]

It is a tough one. I am resigned to the fact that it is going to take me forever to tell my story at a page a week, but I can't work any faster than that.

You may be seeing that there is a lull in your story and you need to edit. I honestly try to have something important happen on each page, and have cut down scenes to avoid the "this is taking too long" problem. Also, having another person read through it and get a sense of if they thought it dragged really helped pinpoint where things could be boring for a reader, before you commit to making it.

[sandpaperdaisy]

This! Sometimes I'm tempted to double my updates, but then something else will come along I really need to devote a good chunk of time on whether it is another art demand, or a surprise life problem.

I also second what @TGping said, where it can be a good idea to run a little bit ahead on Patreon if it's really killing you. I wouldn't go too far ahead though. You just never know what life is going to throw at you. And the next time something unexpected happens, trust me you might forget about your comic altogether for a week or two. Then you'll be vastly relieved to have a buffer!!