Hello fellow creators!
I was wondering if you ever experience posting anxiety and self doubt about where you're doing the right thing as far as where your story is going,
as your audience grow over time in tapas comic/novel platform (or in webtoons where readers are more likely to express their thoughts in the comments)
I would love to hear your experience in this matter 
Oct '17
Nov '17
Yeah it sucks cause i just realized my pacing has been going a bit slow so now im trying to pick up the pace so that the main characters can finally meet but theres still a way to go. Not only that i always fear about my art style and whether or not it works.
I feel that sometimes, that a work or something wasn't worth it or wasn't good enough. But sometimes I'd have someone say some nice things or offer good criticism, but such times were always rare.
Every day of my life. I NEVER feel like I'm doing it right. I love, and believe in, the story I'm trying to tell, but the operative here is "trying." I always feel like my comic consists of failed attempts. I only have two scenes/episodes where I feel like I actually hit the mark.
Sometimes I'm actively flogging myself over it; other times, I'm just calmly analyzing my comic and going, "yep, this really needs to be better." Either way, my assessment is always negative. XD;
I don't mean to take over this thread with my negative thoughts, so to sum up: you're not alone!
But self doubt and anxiety can manifest in different ways for different people. For me, it often makes me WANT to post. Think of an arachnophobiac checking their bedding for spiders. I have this totally irrational fear that maybe this update will make everyone leave, and it makes me go "let's hurry up and post because I can't bear this dread anymore."
Sometimes I'll get anxiety, but my stories often push limits of specific subjects. It also doesn't help that I write darker stories, so I question if readers will enjoy some of the chapters.
They say you should write for yourself, so that is what I try to do, especially when it comes to the subject matter in my stories.
Heck yes
Usually I become conflicted when I overthink about the page I'm about to publish -
1) is the dialogue too boring? Is it even important?
2) is this too angsty?
3) I think I made a mistake here.
4) oh god, what if I bore the audience?
5) is this too ANGSTY??
I feel this, wholeheartedly. Im sitting here yelling at myself that the story is too slow, not enough action, maybe I should quit while Im still ahead but then I just shrug and say its gonna be okay.
I mean like, I don't really get post anxiety anymore, I don't think it's cause I have a big ego, I just try not to let myself get into that headspace. One of the things about webcomics is a lot of readers are interested in seeing your progression as an artist, and they understand on some level that you're working on a deadline, so they dont really mind a dip in quality here and there. Also YOU'RE GIVING THEM FREE ENTERTAINMENT, they really dont have much stake to complain.
Also most people won't notice or care about a specific mistake, and just care about the art quality in-general. Because lets be honest here, most people aren't staring at your art as long as you do. So I just make a mental note of it and do better next time, gotta keep moving forward after all.
As my audience has grown I've actually gotten LESS critical of my work, people like it, it's validating. Occasionally someone (jokiningly glares at @MinNCompany ) will point some sort of mistake or little detail at, but usually it's not worth fixing it and the fact that they spent enough time looking at the page to notice it is pretty cool.
@IdiotWithPencil I went off on a tangent most of this wasn't really directed to you sorry.
no prob man XD also
I think this is a very dead end mentality, if your less critical you get lazy and stop progressing, this is fine if you're in a professional level, IE a master painter/writer, but if you want to get better this is a death sentence since you lose the drive to better yourself and start saying "Bleh this is good enought"
the question isn't is it good enough for the audience the question is, are you satisfied with being where you are or do you want to go further?
but that's just me
and they pay your bills, right now this is not an excuse for giving the client a sub par product if you can give them something better, cause if it gets stale they will leave and then what would you do?
this is mostly my own opinion so don't take it to heart dude 
I do, but I also have really bad social anxiety, so I am always very shy and nervous.
The best thing I can suggest is to just post your work, then move on to doing something else. Don't obsessively stay on the site and reload waiting for likes/comments, instead go off and do something else. It will get your mind off of posting.
I personally worry about posting too, mainly because I refuse to rush my work. I work 55 hours a week (15hrs a week of overtime EVERY week), so I do not get a whole bunch of comic time, but I do my best. I also now have tennis elbow from being a cashier for so long and working and drawing so much.
I worry more about readers being like:
"About time this lazy bum posted pages!" Or "wow that took to long. Her updates are too far apart now. I will unsub".
I refuse to post pages that are below quality or unfinished. I may post an update saying I will be late or i am still WIP on those pages.... but i worry more about posting reminding readers that I am slow and that will make people unsub. I take a lot of care into my pages and I hope readers respect that.
(And plz no lectures on lessening quality and posting more often. I already know i need to. However between my 55hr a week cashier job and freelancing and two comics and sleeping and eating and all the other shit i get slow some weeks especially for intense pages.)
Yeah fo sure. I guess "less critical" wasn't a good word choice, theres a difference between being critical and bashing yourself needlessly, I was talking about the later. Obviously I try to always improve and experiment.
I mean sometimes you just gotta say that or else things would never get done. Not every project has to be/can be a "push piece" where you do the absolute best you can, give it 110% and move yourself forward. Ya gotta learn where to say "good enough" and move on. And my comic CAN NOT be a push piece, otherwise it would never get done, and I wanna make other comics, so I gotta get it done.
But they donnnttt? They're not my clients, they're just people who enjoy what I make. I'm obviously not gonna treat these people like shit, but I'm not gonna let them control what I do, and I won't lose sleep if they unsubscriber or whatever. I'm gonna keep making my comic to MY standards, which I think are fairly high, but they're not so high that I'm going to make myself spend a month on one page because I keep redrawing stuff, I've done that before, it's not good for you, you will never get anything done, and you will never be satisfied.
I mean you can call that ego I guess, but I call it being healthy.
All the time, man, all the time. I don't think there hasn't been a single thing I've ever said/put online that I don't feel anxious about. I pretty much hover over the enter button for like a minute every time.
I'm always worried I'm gonna say something wrong and give the wrong impression about myself.
A friend and I ran a web comic together. He drew it. I wrote it, marketed it, did the site management, and handled the posting. SO I got all the anxiety about posting. (Yippee.) But it was important because I learned some things. He never felt the anxiety because he wasn't responsible for posting. He was removed from the process, so to speak. So after we stopped making our comic and I started my own, I carried over a few things.
1) Do as much as you can ahead of time. I write my scripts way ahead of time, and I review them every time I go to add more. So I can improve the dialogue, panel descriptions, etc. The more I have done the more comfortable I am with the results.
2) BUT the actual comic/art is hard to do ahead of time. So do the things that build skills whenever possible. You know the stuff, thumbnails, life drawing, and sketching. Confident in skills helps be confident in the process.
3) Automate whatever you can. I don't just mean posting pages. I automate my social media too. It keeps my presence out there, and I don't have to worry about it. The more I keep off my plate, the more I can focus on creating the best work I can. It also means you're not actively pressing that dreaded publish button right before you receive a response.
4) Accept your skills for what they are. I am not perfect. I am no expert. My comic isn't the best thing in the world, and it never will be. However, that doesn't mean I have to let that add to my anxiety. Deadlines work wonders for acceptance. If you make yourself stick to a deadline, you have to accept your flaws at some point. Nothing is ever "DONE" it's always in process.
Don't get me wrong, I still get nervous every time I post. Every damn time. But I think my little tips help me. Hell, I get nervous responding on the forum. I'm no expert and who knows if what I say counts for anything, but this seemed like worthy thread to chime in on. Everyone deserves to know they're not alone in artistic struggles.
This is a really good advice, also all the other advices too. So yah, basically just do the work, hit post, move on and not obsess about it pretty much sums it up!
I just finished a new page and I hate it. I feel like nothing I do about it is right. I know what I want to achieve but it just can't be done properly. I feel like when I post it I'm just cheating people.
I get horrible post anxiety, especially if I am late with an update. Also if there is a lack of feedback bit people unsub it’s hard to say why they unsubed. i also fear that i have a plot hole that I wasn’t aware of or that I didn’t make myself clear.
In the end i post it anyway because I’ve worked hard and I enjoy the story I am making so there must be others out that that will and do like it too.
Just post and forget like most people say. But i have a hard time forgetting fora long period, lol. I eventually come back to see how it was received.
I get anxious if I'm posting a particularly dark scene - my comic goes to some really sad and miserable places and I worry about people being put off.
For example, I posted a scene where a character is beaten and threatened with further violence. It's a pretty gritty part of the story and I think one or two people unsubscribed because of it. That freaked me out.
There's a bit of a trend right now where if your character is a nasty person you are expected to defend yourself or something. I don't want to do that because my characters can't be compared to myself, but I worry about having to because of how reactionary some readers can be. It's weird having to stand up to protect a piece of fiction just because someone canonically "bad" did something unsavory. That kind of drama grosses me out.
No never get it. For me its just a hobby really so I don't really have too many qualms for what I post and the fact i've been doing it for 10 years makes me become desensitized to it.
True anxiety is I can't find one damn job in my art field. That shit keeps me up for nights.
I share your pain, buddy. Writing and illustration work is so damn hard to come by and I always get nervous about my portfolio / resume because chances are despite how much I've done to be distinctive it's not gonna happen.
Cruel world, eh?
Oh this is good to know about the trend! I feel so much better now, ha. My comic is pretty dark but it started out only mildly dark, and the growth definitely slowed down the darker it gets lol.
There's really nothing we can do as a creator when it comes to readers personal taste, so just like the others said, just post and move on and not worry about it 
I feel this at every post. Everytime I draw a new comic, the doubt starts to creep up.
What if everyone hates this comic?
What if all the trolls decide to come and destroy the comments?
Its a huge barrier everytime I click the submit button.
Thank you for sharing your feelings about this. Same goes to everyone else who posted previously!
Very glad to hear that it is a common thing among creators.
Making comic is such a personal way to express your thoughts and feelings for the internet to see.
Someone said that it's like exposing yourself naked to the world (but not really lol)
So it can be nervewrecking sometimes, I'm grateful that this forum can be a channel for fellow creators to share their experiences for each other to learn.
Actually, its kind of a blessing and a curse to be able to get feedback.
On a positive side, the feedback can help you improve.
But on the flip side, the feedback can seem overwhelming and give you unnecessary pressure.
So its more of a balance between "I want to do only my thing the way I want to" and "I want to see if everyone likes my thing." Its a daily struggle, like my latest episode6 where I left the last frame uncoloured to show its an "omake" part of the comic. Boy did I wrestle with to colour or not to colour. In the end I just packed its bags and kicked it out of the door just to see what happens.
Most importantly, as a creator, you really need the grit to keep going. Just reach 100 strips. If you see most of the successful webcomics, they always hit their "breakthrough" point at around 100 comics. I would encourage you to do the same. Just get to 100 first before deciding anything.
This is a very good advice. From the beginning, I knew that webcomic is a long game.
Just dump it online and see how it goes with zero expectations. When it comes to entertainment, taste is very subjective, depending on each individuals background, age, gender, etc.
Your intended target audience may not be online all at the same time within a day. So as you wisely said, only with consistent posting over time you could tell if you're going in the right direction or not.
Just last couple weeks I lost track of that thought for some reason. It really helps to hear others thoughts and experiences since we all in the same boat.
Thank you for the great advice!
Well, I used to be a real huge case of posting anxiety. Actually, I lost my buffer because I stopped drawing for some weeks because I lost some suscribers and didn't get comments... But then my grandma decided to try baking cakes and selling them... They were delicious, but nobody bought the first cakes... because they didn't know that those exquisite cakes existed. Then we started promoting them, but most of our neighbors are people who can't eat cakes.I learned that you have to find the right audience for your product, instead of thinking that your product is shit. That's what I'm trying right now with my comic. If I want to have comments, I must find people who is interested in the kind of story I'm writting. Now, when I see my numbers dropping I don't think "Dammit, my comic stinks", instead I say "The one who left wasn't the kind of reader that I want".
Love the cookie analogy! They're awesome! 
On the lost of subs, a wise comic buddy told me that those who matter will stay and those who don't will leave #relationshipadvice
Nope, not really unless someone comment something and I am like WTF? someone actually watch what I do?? Sometimes it makes me more happy than anxious.
Even though my webcomic could be considered a relative success, I feel like shit all the time about it.
It's really hard. If you have high expectations and it doesn't come through, you feel like a failure. If you have low expectations and it surpass them, you feel undeserving. I'm just pushing through all this feelings, trying to finish finally finish it. It's sooooo hard....
You're definitely not alone! I feel that just about every new page that I post, especially after having made a drastic change in genre after being several pages into the story. I'm always worried that I'm not blending the elements I want to include well, that the art style doesn't work, or that the idea itself is stupid/ worthless.
I enjoy working on my comic, but sometimes It feels like it's not enough; like the story isn't solid enough to justify it' continuation. I'm lucky in that I have some friends who read my work and press me to keep going the direction I'm heading. Honestly if it wasn't for that I'd probable have fizzled out by now.
Hopefully, with some perseverance, those of us this feel that way will learn to suppress those worries and become more confident in ourselves and our work!
ALWAYS! "Is it too short?" "will they like it" "am i doing good?!" I have a post schedule for tonight and im panicking lol
I'm always very nervous when it comes to posting. Mostly due to me being overly self critical and insecure...not a very good combination, right 
However, it got a lot better throughout the months. In the beginning of the year, when I started to post, I was expecting that everyone would hate me and my work.
Well, thank goodness nothing really bad has happened so far, although I got my fair share of criticism too
However, the nervousness still remains. On some days more...and other days less.
It's nice to know others feel the same. Did anyone ever had a real meltdown and conciderd to pull or even did pull a whole comic/page/chapter due to it?
I nearly did 
