Project management for writers

[punkarsenic]

I saw a post today that began (emphasis mine, quoting bc they phrased it v well):

The reason you’re great at one-off compositions but can’t put a long-form comic or animation together to save your life isn’t because you’re a lousy artist, it’s because you’re a lousy project manager.

I know that doesn’t sound particularly positive, but you’d be astounded how many artists I’ve run into who are literally unaware that project management is a) a totally separate skill set from being Good At Art, and b) something you actually have to learn - they think that people are just intrinsically good or bad at doing long-form projects and that’s all there is to it.

Correctly identifying what it is that you suck at is the first step to improving!

and then linked to this article which breaks down a project management process for writers into:

• organise your work space and files
• organise your schedule and create several internal and flexible deadlines
• make lists. lots of lists.
• something something gantt chart something something aeon timeline

as someone with like, a little tiny bit of experience in project management it was really interesting to see this process applied to writing, and i was seeing a lot of things i already do and am inspired to do better.

what about you guys, do you do any of the things talked about in this article? do you have any other tips on managing projects in comics &/ novels?

(also, anyone ever used a gantt chart in planning a comic project? id really love to see that bc ive considered using one myself but cant rly visualise it. i was never good at gantt charts :/)

[LCT_m_a_d]

I want to emphasis the point made on lousy project management. From my experience in the business technology industry, even professionals are generally bad at project management without realizing. I'd argue 80% due to the 80/20 rule.

It should be encouraging to know that faithfully executing even a few basic good habits would really put you in a very rewarding position, As self-awareness is often considered the primary factor of poor PM performance. You basically go from lousy to better than most.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Maybe there's something to what you said about people being "just intrinsically good or bad at doing long-form projects", even though you disagreed with that sentiment. Personally, I found the article rather boring and annoying. Not because it was bad, but because I kinda knew all that stuff already. He'd mention a problem that I didn't think was even a real problem, and recommend a bunch of tools and programs that I didn't think anyone would need for such a non-problem; rinse and repeat. ^^;

I hope that means that I'm actually a good project manager, and not just overconfident. XD I dunno. For one thing, I cannot really conceive of actually setting up a schedule for an entire project, start-to-finish, and then looking back at it later and going "Wait, this is unreasonable!"
Like...wouldn't you realize that while you were making it? If I plan to do, say, 10 pages of a comic in one weekend, I can tell that is a HUGE gamble right from the get-go. I know my limits far too well...

Like @LCT-COMICS said, self-awareness is probably most of the battle. If you have a habit of over/underestimating how much you can do, then maybe you DO need all that stuff to keep organized. But if you know yourself well enough, I would not recommend killing a day and a half "organizing" just so you can look like a professional. For some people, "project management" is just a couple Word Docs and a notepad.

[punkarsenic]

Maybe there's something to what you said about people being "just intrinsically good or bad at doing long-form projects", even though you disagreed with that sentiment.

to clarify: that italic bit is a quote from the linked post, not my own words.

i dont think anyone is intrinsically good or bad at anything, though i think its fair to say some ppl have approaches and practices that work better with long or short projects

Personally, I found the article rather boring and annoying. Not because it was bad, but because I kinda knew all that stuff already.

yeah, the article is a bit shallower than id like, which is why i wanted to start this thread to prompt a discussion about project management in webcomics that could go a bit deeper

I cannot really conceive of actually setting up a schedule for an entire project, start-to-finish, and then looking back at it later and going "Wait, this is unreasonable!" Like...wouldn't you realize that while you were making it? If I plan to do, say, 10 pages of a comic in one weekend, I can tell that is a HUGE gamble right from the get-go. I know my limits far too well...

i have been in like, exactly that situation. a lot, actually. i overestimate my limits all the time, so i can see what they mean

For some people, "project management" is just a couple Word Docs and a notepad.

that make sense. i think it depends on how much you have going on?

bc i have two event-based projects on the go, college, a webcomic, and a freelance poetry career i get a lot out of compartmentalising and organising and keeping very clear calendars, because otherwise all the tasks get on top of me and nothing gets done. but if someone is just juggling work/school and a comic, thats way easier to conceptualise and keep on top of without a lot of work.