What do you do on a Hiatus?

Kamikaze 2016-08-03 13:10:42 UTC #21

Whenever my team takes a hiatus it's to literally just help us catch up on our buffer. Each of the pages we create takes about 75 hours to create between three people, so it's uh...hard to keep ahead of the curve. Haha ^^()

When we go on hiatus we take the time to set up SOMETHING to post. The worst thing you can do for your comic is not post anything at all, because then your readers have no 'reward' for returning each week. To cover our butts we post behind the scenes images, or...well bizarrely we have these SUPER popular posts that are stupid easy to make. They're simple dossiers, and our readers went totally nuts for them. Here's an example ->

My team's found that anything that expands information about the world of our story readers will lap up. We've done dossiers, propoganda for areas of the world, and a city map too. :3 This kinda stuff it super easy to make, and it's great content for 'extras' when we print Volume 2. \o/

jennula 2016-08-03 13:35:16 UTC #22

With SPEJS, I have a bit of a buffer, but I decided to take a break from the storyline for a month and do QnA's instead. Mostly because the chapter break happened right in time of my vacation, and I've promised myself to try and not draw comics and just relax for four weeks. The past 1,5 years with SPEJS has been a bit weird for me, work-wise, because it has looked a bit like this:

Always: full-time job
January-April: Crunch a new SPEJS chapter (and also do some additional comic, and maybe a course too)
May-June: Go to convention, sell comics. Then chill/get some post-con blues
July-September: Maybe do another short non-SPEJS comic?
August: vacation from everything. Travel. Play video games. Read books.
September-October: prepare for some conventions during fall (also, take a course?)
November-December: storyboarding the next SPEJS chapter

I have promised myself to not take any courses for a while though, and try to concentrate more on getting SPEJS pages done. We'll see if I can handle that, but I'd like to draw much more SPEJS, so I'll hope so!

miseryhunting 2016-08-03 14:16:14 UTC #23

This topic is killing me...this is probably my biggest creator sin - taking a hiatus. It usually happens when life overwhelms me, like University and my job and placements all getting in the way. I'm not good at juggling those with any social life I have either.
So I usually find myself not-organized enough or not satisfied with the little I have but no physical time to work on it.
I dream of the days I actually have buffer pages...

acealmansoori 2016-08-03 14:58:43 UTC #24

oh thats only because I made sure to have at least 20 pages xD because my work is a bit overwhelming to me. the buffer is about 5 pages now xD

alaingrey 2016-08-03 15:24:44 UTC #25

Hah it's kind of killing me too. I'd hoped for ideas for small extras not "I'm a creator who never would excuse myself to have a break and even if I were to break it would be bc I am dying." 8")) well I'm glad people plan ahead and are so dedicated to the cause, but this site does tend towards that kind of mentality. I don't think taking a hiatus -especially while you're in uni- should be planned. You're in a really important and overwhelming part of life and it comes first. Most people with the huge buffers tend to be much older because they have the option to spend more time on comics... There's no homework when you're an adult. It really frees you up, even if you work long hours.

Your post made me feel bad, I hope you don't beat yourself up over the things people say here- I think everyone's just showing off a little

I'm still thinking what to do now because I don't have a buffer and I haven't been posting, so those ships have sailed, ha. Might put up some small extras when/if I have the time during this trying month.