Thoughts on hiatuses

[LostKelp]

So, I'm sure we've all heard of and probably taken hiatuses, as a viewer for a show/comic I am personally ambivalent to them. Creators are people, people need breaks, 99% of the time creators are under no obligation to finish their work in a rush or finish it at all. But I have been thinking of taking a hiatus either when my current chapter ends, or when the first year anniversary comes up. So:

1. As a reader, how does a hiatus impact your engagement, how long does it take for you to loose interest in a project, what is the longest time a project gone on hiatus but you still remained a fan of it?

2. As a creator has going on hiatus renewed your excitement with a project or gotten you to abandon it,? What is the longest time you have abandoned a project before coming back to it?

3. If you have gone on hiatus what has caused it? Burnout, or personal life? How has this impacted the project?

4. When should you go on hiatus? Should you go on hiatus at all?

I haven't gone on hiatus before, I did a daily comic and missed a few days, but that doesn't count my books. And as for 4, whenever you feel like it unless your being paid. There are logistical reasons not to but making comics is a hobby 99% of the time, and you shouldn't sacrifice anything for a hobby.

[candiedcotton]

I've talked about this a few times with a number of people in webtoon communities (largely readers) because I've also thought about it a lot. From my experience, general consensus is that a haitus over a month is too long, and people will often drop the story at that point. I'm kind of in the same mindset, too. If it's been over a month I'll probably get annoyed and drop my sub.

I do actually think it is the responsibility of a creator to finish their work. That isn't to say it's always possible, and things do happen. But I think when you decide to do something you should finish it. Don't set unrealistic goals or timelines, and try to only do what you are actually able to. But I do think it's irresponsible and disrespectful to readers to just drop your work or randomly go on a hiatus for an undetermined amount of time. I'm well aware this is also a general consensus among many readers out there and I have seen a couple creators who've basically destroyed their reputation from that exact sort of thing.

If you just randomly need a break and it's unplanned, I would let people know you will be back in x time (for me, more than a week is too much. But I think a month is acceptable in general). But it should be a kind of rare thing. I think it's much better to have a 'season' for your work, where at the end of each season you take a designated hiatus. I think readers tolerate that much better.

I have a chronic illness and I've been very forthcoming to my readers that it can potentially set me back, but that's also why I have a backlog of episodes.

Edit: I've never gone on a hiatus, but I genuinely enjoy working on my story and I'm used to spending years actively on a single project. But I also wouldn't set up a story I can't finish (reasonably, of course).

Edit 2: After some consideration, I'd also say this isn't actually the best place to figure out what the average reader is and isn't okay with. Obviously people are going to respond with their own needs, experiences, etc as creators, but that's a hell of a lot different than your average reader. Knowing what it is to be one can have a big impact on your views. So I'm mostly speaking from what I've learned asking the general community (not here, because this forum is almost entirely creators. I mean people who just read comics. Average everyday readers). And it also depends on how seriously you take your work. If you see it as a hobby or more. I see it as more than that.

[VibrantFox]

1. Having been online a fairly decent amount of time I've watched a lot of stories and projects come and go, waited through extended and sometimes permanent hiatuses and even if sometimes it's frustrating or rather disappointing I wont begrudge someone for doing it especially now as someone with at least a little experience under their belt. There's a number of series I've seen go on hiatus but vary rarely have I ever completely dropped following a thing. If and when I have time I'll usually go back and reread/watch episodes or chapters or what have you but never just outright abandon something unless I felt there was good reason

2. In some instances yes and in others no and I'd say that my current one from Tapas has likely been the longest which is probably about....2 years now??

3. Honestly a combination of a lot of things from time management, to eventual burnout, and a lot of life things happening one after the other. If anything I'm still working through said burnout and likely will be managing that for a while till things become more stable personally but it's pretty much halted everything save for personal art and commissions but comics as a whole we're an abandoned idea till recently. I've ditched a lot of my older project ideas, opting to let them bake for a while till they feel more coherent and complete but for the newer ones I'm looking to start I feel more confident in my ability to bring them to fruition.

4. Honestly I'd say scheduling breaks can help, like chapter or season breaks, but I also know life can be full of unexpected mess so I feel like folks should just do what they can when they can and maybe that gives the vibe of someone who's too lax but imo there's way too many unpredictable variables in life to feel like you can plan for each and every possible road block

That's like I definitely see comics as more of a side thing for the time being than trying to make it a primary source of income or whatever else (like in this economy? idk) I commend and applaud folks who're like 100% dedicated and giving their all but unless I know for a fact I can count on some form of stability I'm just not gonna take that jump or risk making my burnout worse

[Katzalcoatl]

1.- As a reader I will usually wait but if author comes back and I forgot the story I will drop the story alltogether.
2.- Going on a hiatus has not renewed my excitement. Actually the opposite I become lazy.
3.- Lazyness. Didn't kill the project just made me lazzy.
4.- The only time a hiatus is acceptable in my book is for health reasons (physical, mental, or both). You should not go on a hiatus but you should in turn plan season breaks to bring the best quality and get a most needed break. The thing is a season/volume break is not the same as a hiatus. A season/volume break is planned beforehand while a hiatus is done without having planned it.
(It's not the same when an anime is broken into seasons than when it is in hiatus).

This only applies to people who make a living out of their comics/novels. If you don't make a living out of that then you can take as many hiatus and breaks as you wish since it's a hobby.

[darthmongoose]

When I've taken breaks longer than one or two weeks (in circumstances like sickness or family deaths), it's always been between chapters.

I think if what you make has longer updates, or if it's a gag-focused series that isn't too reliant on continuity, you have a bit more wiggle-room on this stuff, but on a comic like mine where updates are basically two pages stacked and it's mostly story-focused, the plot momentum is really important. If readers fall out of the habit of reading, and it wasn't at an obvious break point, like between chapters, it can be really hard to bring them back in. Coming back to a plot-focused comic after a break can be a bit "...wait, where was I? What was happening?"

[Azifri]

As a reader, how does a hiatus impact your engagement, how long does it take for you to loose interest in a project, what is the longest time a project gone on hiatus but you still remained a fan of it?

If the break was long enough I may go back and re read the comic, but if I'm reading the comic/novel, it means I'm interested in the story enough to do so. So no, it doesn't affect my engagement at all, after all, I know I'm reading a story someone creates in their free time and I'm reading it for free. I still have bookmarks of comics that haven't been updated in over a decade and once in a while (when I remember about it) I check again; surprisingly, some actually continue even after such a long time.

As a creator has going on hiatus renewed your excitement with a project or gotten you to abandon it,? What is the longest time you have abandoned a project before coming back to it?

My hiatuses haven't been "abandoning the project", just that I didn't have any pages to post because there were times when I didn't have enough hours in my days to manage to finish a panel.

If you have gone on hiatus what has caused it? Burnout, or personal life? How has this impacted the project?

Around six months was my longest break from posting, and it was because of an international move + starting a new job + the beginning of the pandemic. There was just no time and energy to sit down and draw :') Other shorter hiatuses were for similar reasons (minus the pandemic).

Oh and, there was also this short comic I was posting on tapas that I thought I had scheduled all the pages to automatically update but I forgot to upload the last 10 or so pages. The comic went silent for months before I realized this lol

Edit to this section: forgot to answer how it impacted the project. It didn't really, at least I didn't notice much. New pages posted right after the hiatus did have less views, but it picked up during the months that followed and I never noticed any lasting difference.

When should you go on hiatus? Should you go on hiatus at all?

IMO if you're not getting paid for posting your stuff on the internet then I think it's silly not to take a break if you need one for whatever reason. And if I happen to lose a reader or two because of it, then good riddance xD

[NickRowler]

I have been posting webcomics for 10 years with a lot of hiatus periods.

Sometimes a hiatus has helped renew interest in a project, other times no. The biggest hiatus was for Bay Be Fresh, 4 years. Tho it was originally a one shot vent comic and is just something I do for fun. For my longer series, 2 years has been the longest hiatus mostly due to 2019 being a bad year for me.

My shorter hiatus were due to burnout and mental health. I just needed a pallet cleanser after working on the same thing for awhile. I feel like when I draw my comic, I don’t really have time to draw other things or play video games. For longer hiatus, computer issues or feeling a lack of interest in the series.

Going on hiatus have effected my series differently. Some people discover your series after the hiatus and they don’t even notice. Loyal fans won’t care, they are just hungry for more. Casual readers might drop the series. For one series, I came back from a hiatus to see if people were still interested, however the engagement was so low on the last chapter, I sort of felt the series isn’t worth it.

I feel like it’s best to have a hiatus at the end of a chapter. It’s even better if it is at the end of a story arc. If I see someone set up a hiatus 4 pages in, in the middle of a story, that is a giant red flag that they wanted to make a webcomic but didn’t know it was a lot of work and there is a high likelihood they dropped the series.

[cherrystark]

As a reader, as long as you notate that you're going to stop posting for awhile and approximately how long, I'm good. If I like a series, I'll come back. If I am left fumbling in the dark, I likely won't read anything you put out again. *It's not entirely out of spite. I just don't want to commit again to a series only for it to be no linger updated.

[thepenmonster]

how long does it take for you to loose interest in a project

I only lose interest when the work becomes uninteresting. (ex- The Chibnal era of Doctor Who) A hiatus might make me forget it's there but it won't make me quit.

what is the longest time a project gone on hiatus but you still remained a fan of it?

Sixteen years: Doctor Who.

What is the longest time you have abandoned a project before coming back to it?

Fifteen years and ongoing. I'm hoping to beat Doctor Who.

Burnout, or personal life?

Yes

Should you go on hiatus at all?

Unless it's your day job and you're feeding your family, you should go on hiatus whenever you need to. If your readers don't come back then you never had them in the first place.

[GumshoeComix]

1. when I read the stuff from my library I read it in large chunks once or twice a year so unless they've been on hiatus or a LOOOONG time that wouldn't affect anything

2/3 not really renewed excitement no but I didn't go on hiatus because of burnout or anything I went on hiatus cause I got sick and the hiatus had no effect on my project. if anything I had more time to rethink the way I was working on it while I wasn't working on it. so I work more on marketing myself now

4. anyone can go on hiatus I'm actually very against NOT going on hiatus. the human body can't be working or sitting that long you WILL get sick if you don't do something else

[SoftWonderBun]

1- Hiatuses don't really affect me as a reader. If I've subbed to the comic I'll wait until the notification pops up and won't really think about it unless I wanna do some re-reading. What really gets me is a hiatus that is really just being done with the comic for now or for good. I would prefer honesty than the cushioning of a hiatus when what you are really doing is stopping the comic. Stop if you gotta stop but a hiatus, to me, denotes you'll be coming back. If you know or even feel like you won't come back just be honest about that. It'll stay in my sub box unless I decide for other reasons to drop it or you actually buck up and say you're done.

2- I take my hiatuses, which maybe that's not the right word, as a sort of break to clear my mind and start pre-pro for the next chapter. The break is never impromptu so i like I said it might not be the right word. I make comics to finish them. Life will get in the way of that but I make them short enough that I can do so or I set up my pages to give myself a 'break' every once in while while I'm working on them. Ex: A single page full page.

3-I don't think I'm gone on a true impromptu one and if I have it's not effected the comic output so no one knew anyway.

4- Everyone is different. Do what feels right for you. What I think a hiatus should have is an ending. Give yourself a set amount of time and then come back. If you still don't want to or can't do the comic and there's no foreseeable date that you can think of that you could start again then it's probably done at that point and you should let readers know. This is coming from someone with no kids or partner and a day job obligation that allows, minimal, time for comic work so I'm rare I know.

[ShidoDraws]

Looking at this thread it seems like a planned haitus with a end date seems to be the best way to go about it without losing much readers.

Though in all honesty, as a reader myself I think even ongoing stories makes me a lazy reader. I like to read a story in a continuous motion. But haituses never made me unsub from a story before. I just forget that it's there. If a story is updating one chapter a month I'll wait 2-3 years, if a story updates 8-16 pages a month then I'll wait 4-5 years. Though it wouldn't it matter how much is being updated, if it's a story I really like I'll be more likely to remember it and read more after 2-3 years. It doesn't matter if you go on a 1 month hiatus or a 3 months haitus. As long as there's progress within that 2-3 years. If not I'll just drop the story and conclude that there won't be anymore chapters/parts.

[Quinvert]

As a reader I don't care how long an authors hiatus is, as long as they are open with when they will come back. But even if they arn't, I rarely unsub as I understand those that just leave with no crumb of info, do it because of overwhelmness, anxiety and such.

Personally, I just came back from a long hiatus, although does not feel like it was long since I only post a small update once a month normally. One thing for certain is, your engagement goes down A LOT, but that I knew going into it. And I rather lose that engagement, over me overworking myself for something I'm barely earning anything for. I draw my comic because I love it, but I also love myself enough to take breaks when I need it, as I unfortunatly lost all my backlog long ago.

[powerplantanimations]

Yeah, I've had like... four subscribers so far drop-out and we're two days from releasing episodes again (during a seven week break). I know better next time to have comic strips ready. College hit like a truck and I've started to write for animated projects too

The good news is that whenever I make notifications, I have regulars respond. Just two days when I announced of episodes episodes, a person I don't see around as much was excited to see where the story was going. So maybe there's a little hope? Who knows.

I remember people saying January and February are the most inactive dates. I am happy that we figured out a schedule that allows us to make a boat load of extra content should another hiatus start.

[candiedcotton]

Questions like the OP are hard, because each and every person here is going to have their own needs, situations, etc. going on. Different people also have different expectations for their work, and put in different levels of time and even effort. We all tailor differently.

In the end, the only person who's gonna know whether you need a break, whether you need to outright quit, etc., is yourself. Whether or not you care if you lose readers also just depends on the person.

If we want to know how the average reader thinks, though, this just isn't the place to find out. Readers who create are different than readers who don't. It is what it is.

[IndigoShirtProd]

1. I'm not currently keeping up with any webcomics so I can't really speak to whether not I'd drop a project. But if I had to say, Id say no since there's a comic I'm still subbed to, and will go back to reading when I'm up to it, that hasn't post in several months.

2. I go on regular months long hiatuses as a creator and it's due to two reasons. 1) When I first started, I didn't have a substantial buffer, maybe about two weeks and I just started my sophomore year of college. I overestimated myself. 2) I just plain get bored and feel the need to work on other things, especially after completing a batch of pages and uploading them. I wouldn't say I've ever "abandoned" my main project, maybe that time I worked on something else for the call to action contest. But other than that, if I'm not uploading pages, I'm usually making pages.

3. I guess burnout. Like I mentioned, after working on and then uploading episodes, I just want to work on other things.

4. When ever you want. I have courtesy to send out monthly updates to my readers when I'm on hiatus so they know what's going on with the comic. But even if I didn't, I should be fine to take off time when I feel the need to regardlessof the reason, though I do understand how that can be frustrating for readers. But I make my comic in my free time and I don't have a lot of that during the week.

[CloudyMagpie]

As a reader, I typically keep the bookmark for the series. If it's a series I really liked, I'll still go back and re-read it occasionally, even if the author has stated they will not rfinish it.

Going on Hiatus has definitely helped renew my excitement for my comic. I posted the last page in 2021 after a series of hiatuses in between. I took a step back to check the script, and realized I didn't like where the focus was (nowhere?), so I've been pruning off a few plot points and trying to focus on the important themes. Can you tell I wasn't a strong writer when I started this project? But I've learned so much while I've been away

Aside from the writing issues in my comic, I was suffering from burnout from my day job and other personal life stuff. I knew I couldn't just jump back into page-making so I really focused on improving my story writing as a craft.

I think it's important to take breaks if you feel the need. whether for personal reasons, art reasons, writing, etc. It's ok as long as you take care of yourself

[VersusVII]

1) As a reader, I accept more a hiatus that has already a come back date, so I can write it down on a calendar. I don't like hiatus that only says "I will come back soon" and then months passes without a news or why is taking so long. Or worse, you discover later that the author decided to don't publish anymore on that platform because reasons (eg. Let's Play on Webtoon).

2-3) I did a 5 year hiatus in the past because I couldn't focus anymore on the story, work was stressful and the shifts were never regular. I come back last year re-drawing from the start and publishing again the story.

4) When I went on hiatus I tried to finish the third chapter, if I have to I'll try to end the chapter or the sequence I'm working on.

[igneriss]

As a reader, how does a hiatus impact your engagement, how long does it take for you to loose interest in a project, what is the longest time a project gone on hiatus but you still remained a fan of it?

It doesn't. I only check a series if I get a notification, I have no idea what their upload schedules are Of course I like series I'm subbed to, but I kinda forget about them in-between updates. For me it's like waiting YEARS for next book volume or a tv show season. I recall two series here on tapas that I really liked and that recently came back, one had their last episode before the hiatus in October 2020. I'm not sure about the other one as some episodes where deleted and reuploaded, but it's been years.

As a creator has going on hiatus renewed your excitement with a project or gotten you to abandon it,? What is the longest time you have abandoned a project before coming back to it?

For me it's been 3 years. At first I thought it would be just a short hiatus, then I thought I would never return to drawing my project, and then after some time I started missing drawing comics. But it was actually thanks to my friends that I returned to it, as they read the story and were VERY enthusiastic about it. Basically I decided to finish it for them, but after re-reading it myself I regained the love for that story

If you have gone on hiatus what has caused it? Burnout, or personal life? How has this impacted the project?

I had some issues in personal life and also was stressed with my job. The stress and being tired accumulated and slowly spread onto my hobbies, making me question my story, art skills, what am I doing with my life and so on

When should you go on hiatus? Should you go on hiatus at all?

If you feel tired and feel like you need a break, you should get a break. And it's better to take the break early than trying to power through it, because the burnout my be really bad if you keep overworking yourself.

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

1. As a reader, how does a hiatus impact your engagement, how long does it take for you to lose interest in a project, what is the longest time a project gone on hiatus but you still remained a fan of it?

2. As a creator, has going on hiatus renewed your excitement with a project or gotten you to abandon it,? What is the longest time you have abandoned a project before coming back to it?

3. If you have gone on hiatus what has caused it? Burnout, or personal life? How has this impacted the project?

4. When should you go on hiatus? Should you go on hiatus at all?

1. How long it takes me to lose interest in a project depends heavily on how invested in it I was in the first place. If I'm casually reading something that I'm only sort of interested in, and it goes on hiatus suddenly with no projected return date (or even is just incredibly inconsistent with updates), I'll probably give up on it. On the flip side, there are a few comics that I suspect are just straight-up dead (one hasn't updated in almost a year, and another has been closer to 6 years) that I keep in my subscribed folder because I really WANT them to come back.

2. I'm the sort of creator that does something obsessively, sometimes for years, before my steam runs out and the obsession burns off. I've learned the hard way that the only way for me to keep working on a project that no longer has the driving force of an obsession behind it is to have a plan/script/etc so I don't have to rely on inspiration, and to keep my momentum going. If I take a hiatus to deal with burnout, I'm much less likely to come back to it with more energy.

3. I don't use hiatuses to deal with burnouts or personal life issues at all -- that's what my massive page buffer is for. Before I started posting, I drew 30 whole pages, so that if something happened that prevented me from drawing for a while (broke my hand, moved, got Covid, death in the family, etc), I had almost five months worth of pages already drawn so there wouldn't be a gap in the momentum. I am currently on hiatus on my comic, but it's a chapter break, not a leave of absence in the middle of the story, and I'm actually using it to build my buffer back up and iron out some stuff for chapter 2 before I start posting new pages in April. On top of that, I'm not actually gone-- I'm posting filler and lore drops and stuff on my regular schedule so people don't forget my comic exists.

4. As far as when or if someone should go I hiatus? If you need to take a break for reasons, you should. Burnout/RSI's benefit nobody. But I'm a firm believer in building yourself a big fat buffer as a fallback, and planning chapter breaks that feel deliberate, and that have a set time frame to them, if at all possible. Less disruption for your readers, and less guilt for you, the creator, for leaving your readers waiting.

Disclaimer: I'm aware that my methods don't/won't work for everyone. I don't have ADHD, or any known mental health issues that would make working consistently to a deadline harder, I am not in school, I don't have kids, and I work part time, so I have plenty of free time to make/keep up with a substantial page buffer.

However, planning my project out ahead of time, doing LOTS of work up front so I have the grace to take breaks when I need them without disrupting the schedule, and maintaining my page buffer during planned chapter breaks is serving me well so far, so that's what's been working for me.