I've heard it said many a time that they're so ubiquitous, and yet there are very few topics concerning them here...anyway, I was just wondering about the thought process of those who do them, especially those who do them successfully~. How does it feel to create that kind of content?
Personally, I love relatable slice-of-life comic strips; I get hooked on them way too easily, considering how difficult it is for me to like things in general. I also enjoy writing them...I mean, I would, if I could. I can easily come up with punchlines and scenarios of that type, but the dots never really connect because I'm...just...not...relatable. I have relatable thoughts and emotions, sure, but the context behind them is usually filled with so many years of inside jokes (for a party of 1) that the end result isn't funny.
Naturally, the answer to that is to write in the third person and create a stand-in character that will do relatable things that people besides me can understand. But as I always say, I know nothing about reality, so I'm not having much luck with that either. =[
I've been working on scripts for a comic like that, and the character creation and world-building were super easy and fun, but the actual writing has been like trying to water-ski behind a rowboat. It just isn't working...either I end up doing my usual absurdist humor or I slip into that "sweetbun" slice-of-life that you see in manga and anime, where it's just cute interactions.
I wanna feel that relatable snap, that pop, that edge, you know what I mean? I don't know what it is (hopefully someone will tell me), but I don't seem to have it. The good news is (in my experience) readers usually find me a lot funnier than I do. But if I don't even smile while I write lines that are supposed to make people laugh, I know something is wrong.