What's the best outcome?

[Iseitouch]

Hello hello!

I am slightly confused and what to hear what you think of the situation.

I attend Full Sail University (I'm sure a lot of people heard or know of it or even attended it) and I'm basically a Sophomore. When I joined, I was put on the extended program whereas I have one class a month every other day, giving me a "free" in between. Now, I used those free days to do projects, sleep, or run around looking for something to do.

As time went on, I decided to start a new comic called "LukUs" where it is supposed to be as simple as possible, that way I do not overdo myself.
I made a decent schedule where I would be able to do everything I wanted while maintaining good grades.

Everything was well, until I moved back home.
When I got back, my grades were on a tightrope and I was always behind on something, weather it's the comic or school. I even failed a class and now my graduation date has moved. I tried to converse my feelings and ideas to my mother and she saw everything that has nothing to do with school as a distraction and it is the reason why I failed. But my thing is, If I was good very well before, what happened now?

Should I change the upload schedule? I should I stop completely? Was she right? She I just stop drawing until I graduate?

Upload schedule: Twice a month (an upload every 2 weeks)
Pages: No more that 10
Help: Yes (Colorist)
Others: Yes (Stickers and Prints as a personal fun project but to also sell).

I am slightly conflicted because I know I caused it on myself but I also see it as I am able to do it but that was a year ago and things have changed.

Should I just give up and move on?

What would you do? How would you approach this?

[Iseitouch]

Honestly, I was thinking of just uploading at the end of every month, with 2 episodes.
SO I keep the twice a month uploads but I just move it towards the end of the month... I don't know

[VibrantFox]

While I'm familiar with Full Sail I don't personally know what their policy is on grade/credit requirements per semester but what I do know is it's going to boil down to what you feel capable of keeping up with. If you're determined to do school and your comics at the same time it'll probably come down to how you balance tasks.

Something to maybe keep track of is how much time your dedicating to schoolwork and comics to see if you'll have to re-balance things. Also maybe consider cutting down comic updates. It's not uncommon for comic creators/novelists to dial back the length of updates so they can focus on other tasks or whatever else and (at least on Tapas) readers are usually very forgiving about that kind of thing so long as creators communicate.

Personally when I'd tried to balance the two it was pretty unsuccessful but there were a number of different factors that I had to deal with simultaneously. Still you seem dedicated and I imagine you don't really want to quite entirely. I'm not certain if you'd be able to pull in more assistants but cutting down updates could help so you have more time to dedicate to studies. Seeing how your doing 10 pages every two weeks maybe cutting it down to 5 every two weeks or just 10 for one month might help, and if worse comes to worse you can always take a hiatus and use the spare time you have to build a buffer.

Juggling so much at once can end up burning you out or leave you overwhelmed so it'll be important to also make sure you have time to rest. Maybe communicate with your counselors or professors as to whats going on. Given it's an art school maybe you can incorporate your comic into schoolwork, it'll just be a matter of knowing who to talk to and seeing what can be compromised/negotiated.

I'll have to apologize if my answer is a little all over the place but I genuinely hope you'll be able to work things out and I'm wishing you the best of luck

[rajillustration]

School generally has priority over webcomics--when your grades dip, it's often because they're ramping up the workload to get you prepared for life after school is over. Like when I was in College I had to give up up a lot of things--I gave up video games, I stopped watching TV shows entirely, I stopped uploading to blogs, I had to quit Facebook my Junior year, my social life was basically whatever was happening on campus, and while I was writing personal stories, I didn't post them because I honestly could not have maintained a consistent schedule. The ramp in workload from freshman to sophomore and sophomore to Junior year--it's a LOT, it's pretty real, and so shelving your hobbies for later is absolutely OK, and we all do it.

As for your situation, I don't know if giving up a comic is necessarily the magic solution, because it could be down to other things as well. It could be that because you're no longer on campus that the culture has shifted away from studying. My roomates would constantly remind me "hey I'm going to the library/math lab/science lab to study, do you want to come with?" and that was a really good influence that kept me from procrastinating on days I didn't have class. It could also be down to stress and health and time organization and just so many other reasons than just a webcomic.

But either way, it couldn't hurt to take time off from the comic and explain "yo, I'm in college, so I'm gonna update when pages are done but that might be a while" because you don't need to have that upload schedule. I wouldn't call it "giving up" on your webcomic, but instead just saying "I'm gonna put a pin on this because other things have come up in my life right now." Because it sounds like you are going through a lot of stress right now, and the last thing you need is added stress from a comic

[alexlcuri07]

Don't punish yourself for doing poorly. Its important to keep your grades up, but if art is your way of practicing self love and self care then I wouldn't give it up completely.

Maybe its worth modifying your schedule? Maybe post less content?

Its not a one or the other battle, even when others see it that way. College is just hard and parents (especially if you're a first generation college student) do not understand that. I wouldn't stop doing something you love because of a hiccup. It'll just make you feel and perform worse in the long run.

[Bokyongyo]

As someone in your position, currently a college student, I understand the struggle of finding balance between school work and the time consuming hobby that is webcomic making.

What I usually do and currently planning on doing with my own comic is have two updates a month and see where that goes.

Always keep in your head that your paying for school and Tapas isn’t paying you. Kind of was a reality check for me but it puts things into perspectives. Until your webcomic gets to the point where it’s actually paying the bills, don’t let your grades slump just because you need to keep up with your webcomic update schedule. Especially for creators whom believe their subscribers and views aren’t really there to begin with.

Now when the semester ends and you have free time again that could be time to get back on the web comic grind; Tapas will still be here when you get back.

[DiscountedArtist]

Let your readers know if you have to go on a break due to school. They will probably understand that school is tough and that you need a break to be able to pass classes. Even if the breaks are too often in your opinion, you should still take them because if you want to have your comic at the best quality it can be, you should give it the time it deserves instead of rushing things.

[Iseitouch]

wow, thank you for the reply I was thinking of just cutting down as well until graduation because I fell behind BECAUSE I was behind on the comic so i might do that.

[Iseitouch]

Yeah, I should probably adjust or go on hiatuses here and there. I guess I feel bad because I planned this and was excited and the fact that I couldn't live up to it, somewhat stings...

[Iseitouch]

What would be a good schedule? once a month? or twice a month?

[Iseitouch]

Aren't you afraid of losing your auidence?

[Iseitouch]

Yeah,,,because of the comic, I haven't do any personal fun drawings...

[alexlcuri07]

Whatever works for you. That's what the best schedule is. No matter what, at the end of the day, if you're not happy no one will be. Do what works for you.

[SleepingPoppy]

It's really normal to struggle with this kind of thing in college, and it's okay to falter as long as you pick yourself back up. Working from home and doing everything online is a huge change, you need to account for that. It might come down to just being harder on yourself to get things done when you don't have a teacher checking up on you directly. School must come before your side projects.

If it helps, I returned to school for ad additional certificate which I just completed. The first year I managed to keep up with my comic. The second year I just couldn't. I was succeeding at school, but struggling with the mental burden of it all, and for my own well being I went on hiatus. I still worked on the comic when I could, but I removed all deadlines, and 100% prioritized school. And you know what? My followers are still there. Nothing terrible happened. People were happy to have me back.

Not saying a hiatus is the only option, just that it's not a terrible comic killing thing. You can do it!