Feb 2021
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Feb 2021
Mar 2021
Iseitouch
Feb '21

For a while, I have been in and out when it came to my comic. I received an assistant and we have been doing pretty well. However, ever since covid happened, a lot of personal reasons slowly hindered me from my usual biweekly updates. Now times passed, I've gone through monthly, weekly, and parts. My question is, what is more, beneficial to a college student and Highschooler working together? My classes are fairly tamed since I only have 2 classes a week with each day only giving 2-4 hours of my time, and my colorist friend has about 5 classes a day. I was pretty consistent when I first started and people came around to see it, now it's barely acknowledged due to everything happening. Should I reset? How can I fix this? I'd love to hear all of your thoughts!

Here is the link to the comic
https://tapas.io/series/Luk-us9

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    Feb '21

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    Mar '21
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VibrantFoxRegular
Feb '21

Aside from ensuring that both of you are able to have time set aside to focus on schoolwork i think that if you opt to reset it will be important to build a buffer before uploading pages. The more buffer that you have built up the more wiggle room it'll give you if something comes up like big tests, large projects or someone just isn't able to work on something for whatever personal reasons.

Also make sure to pace out those updates once you do have a buffer. As students it's likely that different things can come up as well as just general life things so consistent schedules makes things easy on you two as creators and gives readers a day/time to expect updates (anticipation is good, hype builds intrigue).

Whatever you choose to do I hope things work out and i wish you both luck with your comic and school :v:

therosesword
Feb '21

Everything @VibrantFox said times 1,000.

I'm a writer rather than artist and I have nothing to offer here except encouragement. I think the fact you two are working together and trying to find a way to make this work shows a strong level of commitment, so (this is my opinion based on what I'm reading) I think you might be disappointed to stop.

Vi's idea of a buffer is the best. I've seen some writers state that after taking time off it's taken a bit of work but they do get their people back.

If you can find a way (that fits in your schedules) to let people know you're planning a comeback that would work. There have been so many interruptions for so many people I think your readers will understand.

Best of luck.

Reveal
Feb '21

Buffer
Buffer
BUFFER.

Lol, but yeah I’m a college student too so everything you’re saying I get; but I wouldn’t reset. Trust me your fans will be there when your free time is back to dedicate time to your comic; I’m still subbed to comics that have taken a hiatus just to build a buffer so I really don’t think taking a slight backseat just to catch up on other duties as well as your comic will be a issue in the slightest.

With my comic Rewrite I didn’t have much of a buffer when I started but when my following started growing I realized that I should really get to making that buffer. And while the buffer I have isn’t what I’d consider huge it’s suitable.

Still, learn from my little hiccup mistake and make a decent buffer for when school’s work load pick up, but also don’t think having breaks in your schedule is a issue. Very few or no one at all will un sub from your comic just because updates are lacking. Of course if you feel the need to let your audience know this than that’s even better, just so they have a heads up to expect less updates as you try to build a buffer.

NiWo21k
Feb '21

I am not quite in your shoes, but I agree with the others who already replied.

Build a buffer, it's the biggest tip you can get. Don´t make it just one or two pages, better make a chapter so you have enough time to write and draw and are prepared for everything that might come up in private life. And try to find a shorter update schedule.

The comic I am working on, we (the artist and me the writer) decide to even divide the chapter into a few parts so we can avoid the stress and maybe communication problems and we are creating small interludes between the comic, so we can keep this "once a week" schedule.

Sorry that I can´t give any more advice.

Iseitouch
Feb '21

Yep that's what I'm doing, I post 3 pages of 1 chapter per week since it's easier to do.

Iseitouch
Feb '21

@VibrantFox @Reveal @NiWo21k @therosesword @SallyEmilly
Thank you guys for that! I found it constraining and wanted to give up due to the fact I felt like I am never getting anything down and I'm only making this worse. I wanted to keep up the updates but there are times where (currently, not before) I have to make videos for class and I began to feel the weight of failure but refuse to give up. When I am at a crossroads, I ask people who have some type of a similar issue, whether it's another college student, comic creator/artist or writer, or anyone else. It eases my mind to acknowledge that I am not the only one and not to feel any type of way if I just ask.

Now, you all mentioned "Buffer" and though some have a point, I guess I'm hesitant slightly because I don't know how long is a buffer. Does that mean the same as hiatus or is something different? How long is a good break? Did you guys ever felt this anxiety and how did you confront it? (Sorry I just really enjoy hearing ideas from others!)

Reveal
Feb '21
1

First to answer your first question,
no, hiatus isn't the same as a buffer but they can be connected to one another;

A buffer is a amount of pages a creator has in their backlog that are already done that they use to give themselves something to update their series while they work on future new content pages without having their audience wait too long due to them having to actually make them. Buffers can also help when a creator wants to take a week to themselves for whatever reasons. Without buffers a creator would always have to work week to week to make a deadline so there's a benefit to having one.

To give a example a creator can have a completed buffer that spans from pages 50-200 and is currently working on page 201 while their series has just dropped a recent update, page 49. So that means the creator has a solid lead ahead to take breaks if need be, but this takes a lot of planning and prep to reach. Which may involve a hiatus to gain if you have already began your series... which leads into the next thing

A hiatus is a break a artist/creator goes on due to a varying factors; this can involve anything from making a buffer/increasing buffer, health issues, life changes etc; as you can see what causes a hiatus can vary from creator to creator but a hiatus and a buffer aren't the same however they can be linked to one another

and for your second question of how long is a good break, that depends on the creator as well, nobody can tell you how much time you should give yourself to recharge, only you know that. That could be a week, a month, a year; only you can decide that

and in terms of the anxiety, think any creator has gone through that so no you're not alone, I'm a college student as well and like you I'm juggling with a lot of things at once so yeah, it can get hard but how I confront it is to just do things I enjoy and that's literally making comics, drawing, writing. One way or another I come back to making stories so that's my remedy

Of course there are instances where I'm burnt out creatively completely and just need to relax and do other things that don't involve creating something so there's that. But what keeps me motivated is at least one person out there is reading my work, so that always is a plus

But yeah, no you're not alone in how your thinking; everyone's been there

NiWo21k
Mar '21
Iseitouch

You are welcome :slight_smile: Talking with others is always a good idea if you feel like you don´t know what way to go.

About a buffer, I can only speak for our project.

We planned one chapter. At first, we wanted to finish that before posting it but then decided to start earlier, because we got a lot of feedback and people wanting to read it.

So what we did, was to finish the first 6 pages and post them weekly. After that, we do small interlude pages with stuff around the comics universe, they can be done in short bursts and don´t need too much time, but give us more space, but keep our schedule running, and readers engaged. Through this we have a buffer of around 8-10 weeks, meaning that time we can use to write/draw more but are also prepared if someone gets sick or something else entirely happens.

A friend of mine, who also draws her own comic, goes even that far, to draw her whole chapter, and after posting all pages, goes on a real hiatus. Another one draws every page every week, with just one page ahead.

I think you have to decide for yourself, but just going from what you say, I would recommend, that you finish a chapter first and then post them. Depending on how long that one will be, that is the time you have.