Looking back at earlier work and cringing

[impossiblesoul]

I went back and took a longer look at the first half of my current work.

It was terrible.

My original plan was to make small edits here and there, but I quickly realized how fast-paced and shoehorned the romance was. I felt queasy about it. I've been going through and making hard edits everywhere to ease the pedal off the gas and to smooth out the story, but that feeling just won't go away.

I also remember someone telling me, "said is not dead," and I'm seeing now that I wasn't following their advice enough. Way too many dialogue descriptors to the point of being a serious aggravation to read. Working on fixing that too.

Losing viewership doesn't bother me as much as it once did, but it's still a bit of a pang to think I've lost a chunk of potential readers from these two problems. I've also thought about how preachy it might be, but I don't want to compromise the themes and messages.

Anyone else had this experience, where you just go through your earlier work and get hyper-judgmental and uncomfortable about it?

On a second note, what font size do you use? I've been playing around with it. Personally, I like it smaller (12) than default (15), but I could see it being less appealing to some. Now that I'm nearing the end of the story, now that my personal journey is about over - I'm thinking more about the reader and I'm wanting to fix it up a whole bunch.

[Penni]

I'm sure everyone has that those moments! It can be easy to forget projects once they're done, and what your level of writing was at the time. I like looking at my old writing if only for the sake of cementing the fact that I have improved. So the cringe is worth it.^^

I typically use 12 point font.

[Colours_dont_match]

Yes I know the feeling. But more about how my art or my characters looks. Maybe, if you think your story progresses to fast, you can just make some episodes longer, where you think it fits? I am also right now redrawing/updating my episodes and I don't particularly am changing the story or the pacing, I just add a bit stuff, so it's longer, or more clear.

About the font size? It totally depends on which font you use.

I too thought 15pt is good, as I read it somewhere before. So I made my first episodes like that. Then later when I read them on my phone, I thought it was much too big. So I downsized them to 10pt, which I regularly use by now. Sometimes I even use, if it's much text in one speech bubble 7pt. Some other fonts, i always have to use 20pt, to make them readable.

Oh btw I am talking about procreate. I think font sizes are bit fucked up there sometimes.

[AnimeKitty]

I can totally relate with you there. Even looking back on my current works, I feel the same way most of the time. You can always try rewriting it if there's a lot of issues. Having another set of eyes comb over the work would help a lot too. I've found that having others review my work really helps figure out the issues, even ones I hadn't noticed before and help figure out ways to improve.

For the font size, I use 12 because I always thought that was the default?

[impossiblesoul]

I just add a bit stuff, so it's longer, or more clear.

Yeah, it's been a bit like solving a puzzle for me since reworking an earlier part means another part far down the road that references the earlier part will need to be reworked as well. It's been a slow and drudging process, but the payoff I can hope will be worth.

[impossiblesoul]

Wait, I thought 15 was default? I write my stuff in another program and then copy it over to tapas. If I copy a line from tapas over to the program, it shows as 15. I guess that means the font metrics are different between the two?

[DarkChibiShadow]

I believe the default for essays is 12 point (I think that's where some folks are getting confused in this thread) and the default for websites is 14 and 15. I would say go no lower than 14 point for comics!

It's always better to go a little larger because most folks on reading on their phone and don't wanna have to keep zooming in and out. Er on the side of bigger, not smaller, in almost every case.

[AnimeKitty]

Oh, for Tapas it might be. I'm not sure, as I've never checked. I was just basing what the default is on my word processor. Back in school, our default was font size 11 in Ariel since we used Google Doc.

[Kaydreamer]

I know the feeling, and I feel the same way about my early comic episodes. The pacing is too fast, and there are certain character traits my protagonist has which I need to establish, but which I don't have in there yet. I want to have him chilling in his spaceship for a while, before the action starts, so I can establish some tone and background.

Thankfully, it doesn't need a full re-write. Just padding, and new art. I intend to work slowly on redrawing those early episodes and updating them bit by bit.

This is all totally normal when you're still developing as an artist/writer. And as far as writing novels goes, it's not uncommon for writers to drastically change the direction of a story as they go. That's what the drafting and editing process is for, but the episodic nature of Tapas makes that difficult. (Unless you wrote your whole novel before starting to post it here, which I don't think is very common!)

[jkb4753]

I think it's a sign of growth to look back on your old stuff and scowl a little bit.

My current story on Tapas is old, about 2 years. Reading it makes me want to punch.