Yes... I just postpone it again and again...
@amortelito Is this correct? 
OP, you don't have to use a whole background to fight the featureless void problem. Something I see a lot of people do is A) get free to use 3D models/pictures and blur the shit out of them or b) get very light brushes and only do the vague suggestion of a location, like the ground and geometrical shapes of buildings or furniture. It's not the perfect solution, but if your problem is time and not a story driven reason to not draw them, here's some tips.
I'm not changing my story's major pacing even though I know I'm coming up on a lot of flashbacks and people telling stories. The story originally had a very straight timeline and I hated rereading it(made the characters at the same time petty or too justified, when the situations are ambiguous and no one had the full story), and I feel like putting the past and present together as the characters space out every now and then serves the theme better - even if that means the present sequences will be broken up every end of chapter. What's in the present events itself can change, like having the characters run their mouths less, but the flashbacks need to stay.
One trick I do with BGs is that I do just one panel of an establishing shot with a background and then the rest of the panels are just filled with solid colors as BG. Just to convey to the readers the location and the place of the characters with in the set.
I could use a simpler style for the sake of practicality but I dont wanna because my current more anime-ish style is prettier. It's harder but I'm ok with it at the moment. Well not really, my updates suffer because of it. I'm a bit conflicted and I can't decide yet.
I also try to keep the story as straightforward as possible with a simple structure. I could improve it with more twists and arcs and good fillers but I just want to get it over with and have a finished project to show for.
Very interesting thread 
As for my comic, I know it's a bad idea to open the story with a long scene featuring supporting characters talking about things that aren't relevant yet (or at least, not in a way that is easily apparent), and only showing the actual protagonist in ~5 panels in total, but I have not found a better way to do it - actually, it kinda has to be from the perspective of these characters - so I will absolutely not change it ¯\(ツ)/¯ I may remove/rearrange some dialogue but this opening is here to stay.
Also... tbh I kinda really don't like it when writers spoon-feed the reader exposition from page 1 and explain every single thing straightaway... I prefer to leave bits and pieces of information and foreshadowing here and there, so yes, the story might be confusing FOR NOW, but, that's the way I am doing it.
(...well, some panels might be visually confusing because I couldn't figure out how to convey what's going on right, that's a different issue and it is something I do want to improve. )
So much stuff.... A lot of the art, especially in the first two chapters. Some of the writing to make it a bit more exciting/natural. But I fear it would require completely rewriting some scenes which I'm just not going to do. I've already done enough revisions...
The panel layout.
Back when I did my creative writing coursework I used to do a LOT of fancy footwork with paneling. Funny-shaped panels to mimic the mood, inserts within panels, whatever. I got fantastic grades and positive feedback from my classmates in workshops, but I honestly hated it. It took so long to figure out, and it was my least favourite part of the entire comic - even more tedious than drawing the same background elements! Because you have to sit over it for so long to make sure that there's a clear visual direction and that the readers can figure out what's going on. So I said, if I do my own comic outside of the classroom, I will do it in the style of storyboards. Originally I only had one panel shape, but I've diversified it... slightly. But they are still all regular shapes, no overlap, no inserts, 3-6 panels per page.
So I'm now I'm 10 pages into drawing it and I realized that hm, you know what? There's a good reason for all those fancy panels ^^; If you use the same panel size for everything, it's harder to draw importance to actions or scenes. It also makes your story WAY longer, like a good 20% longer when it comes to page count, because you can't "double-up" on real estate. I'm not changing it for the next 40 pages (would be 30... if I didn't insist on this layout...) though, because that all tells one cohesive story and I want to maintain visual consistency. Once that arc is over, I will consider fancying up the layout... slightly.
I honestly still just want to stick to storyboard-like appearance. It's just so much easier. But I MIGHT use some inset panels.
Color and real shading for my grayscale comic.
I would hate coloring/shading my detailed line style every page, let me have my rest.
Describing my characters. I don't do it in my short stories. Longer works, yes. But not for my one-page stories. That's something I could fix, and probably should, but won't.
I won't change the multiple storylines happening in parallel. Back when we were playing the story that would later become Terra Prima as an RPG, several scenes happened like that and I want to keep that feel. The storylines will come together in the future, but there is still a while to go. Also characters, I have dozens, but I like them and enjoy drawing them and their interactions. Maybe as I learn more about comics, I'll make this kind of narrative work better, but it's the best I can do right now 
Same as @joannekwan, color and grayscale shading! I know that colors would probably help my comic's performance, but I right now cannot really get the time to do so! Maybe one day, but I really just cannot get the time.
I'll stick with hard black shadows and black details and I'll roll with that!
I refuse to drop the sketchy artstyle I have for comics. It takes less time to finish pages and coloring is easier and faster. It might be messy but I like it that way. 
For me it's the pacing. Look, if I had all the time in the world I would defenitely improve it, but unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time to make my comic and I also don't want to let my readers wait for an eternity for the story to progress, so I tend to rush through some parts.
I think black and white matches the tone perfectly! If it was a live-action it would look so cool in black and white as well 
Thanks that helps a lot! I make a few panels suggesting the location, and the bigger issue is my disgusting lack of talent to draw architecture, angles, etc. The 3D models could be an option! I would need to check that they don't look far too realistic next to my characters.
The light brushes had never worked for me because I end up with a muddy mess, I admire the artists who can make these background work. But I will practice next time I have to draw buildings.
You can use Sketchup for NPR (non-photorealistic) 3D models or even just export them as lineart to fit your style.
A well known and used technique for not always drawing full on backgrounds is using an establishing shot whenever you change the scene or your characters change places where you show the background and easily recognizable parts of it. Later you can use those recognizable parts here and there to remind the readers where this is taking place. (Until you change the scene or your characters change where they are - then rinse and repeat,)
Lol, color and the fact that it's page format. Aas a joke I did a page in color and in scroll format and very manga for April fools--gained like almost 10 followers in a day when I have a comic with barely 66 followers as is, so it's like...well that's nice. Too bad I don't have time for that.
But then I thought about it and like...you know how Sunday comics were in color while the other days of the newspaper comics werent (for you old people in the back who remember newspapers) what if...I just occasionally did some pages in color and a different format? As front page bait? Like once every few months? I mean newspaper comics did that for like 50 years.
Continuity....most of the time...I am fully aware I left out an item or piece of furniture that was in a previous shot but....then there’s an angle where it would make tangents with the focal point or I just forgot and it’s going to be half covered by word bubble and I just go “EHHHH ONLY LIKE 12 DUDES READ THIS IT’S FINE’
Probably gradient maps and/or overlays. Can't always have to do everything by hand orz, should be enough to know what day it is or time with the colors used...Cuts me some time to know which colors work and colorpick what colors to be used.
No linearts because they take too long and I'm just going to paint over them.