Words of wisdom for posting anxiety and self doubt?

[Brumoss]

Im sure im not the only one gearing up to post a comic but feel dread. I mean, i WANT to share this story. I love this story.

But with this attachment comes fear of “the unknown” and “rejection”. A tale as old as time lol.

Vets and pros please share any words of wisdom for those struggling?

Maybe stick around or mention if you are up to fielding questions?

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

A mixture of insecurity, low esteem in my work, lack of preparation, and just plain fear kept me from starting my story, let alone posting it, for 15 years. Fear of never posting, never trying, made me post.

Ask yourself which is scarier: posting, or NEVER posting.

And then post. Take a step back. Remind yourself that it takes time to build up steam. You can do this.

[Axur]

Just post it as soon as you can, it may take off and do very well with very little, it may crash and burn after a lot of work has been put on it, but you will still be there after all and everything will be easier after you start posting it.

Also there's a lot of things that are out of consideration until you actually post it online, and a lot of other things that you pay more attention than what it's really needed, you can only see those things when you actually get things going

[SleepingPoppy]

I think of my comic as a very personal project, a labor of love. It is for me first, so pleasing myself is the only real rule. This helps take steam both out of worrying about the reaction of others, and pressure that can come from obsessing about pleasing or keeping up.

Comics are a LONG game. So rather than rejection or a negative reaction, what's most likely to be an early struggle is a lack of interaction. Building an audience happens really slowly over time. Try to remember that you're in a community FULL of people also publishing their first comics and still learning what they're doing. Don't worry or expect perfection, think about things in terms of personal growth- you will learn what you are doing and how to get better step by step. The "big" comics you see all had a learning curve too, in their own ways. This is what helps me most with my anxiety! Usually I get more nervous after I post a new page, so sometimes I make sure I have something else to do right after- this also helps toward not obsessing about the numbers, because you're not just sitting and staring at them! lol

If you are afraid of negative responses: If/when they happen, it's actually WAY more likely to happen when you are more popular, and a lot of people are looking at your work. It's a very small fraction of people that have the gall to be mean. Best advice I can give here is to firstly not bother arguing or engaging, and if you can't resist responding, kill them with kindness. Secondly, don't take it too seriously. It's good to be open minded about criticism, but that doesn't mean listening to people are are just bitching for attention.

Maybe stick around or mention if you are up to fielding questions?

Please feel free to ask anything!

[Llyrel]

My method: click that "post" button, leave it be for a while, go do something else, get distracted, then come back after a few hours or even a day. More often than not you'll be surprised by the positive reaction

Fear of never posting, never trying, made me post.

^ This, right here.
I also refrained from posting for a long time. My idea for the story dates all the way back to 2014. It wasn't until 2017 that I found the courage to start drawing the first page. And it wasn't until 2020 that I finally decided to post it. I was afraid that my skills weren't "good enough" and that "I couldn't do it". Eventually, I started to realize that "not good enough" was still better than "nothing at all" and decided to post.

Suggestions about not stressing about numbers are also very good. Popularity depends on a lot of factors and objective quality is just one of these factors. Many popular artists either built an audience elsewhere throughout the years through social media or are already well known due to their previous works. Building an audience, especially if you're like me and you're basically starting from scratch, takes A LONG time, so don't feel bad if your work doesn't explode in popularity right away. Also, try not to look at other people's numbers and not to make comparisons, that only brings a lot of frustration.

Also this:

If you are afraid of negative responses: If/when they happen, it's actually WAY more likely to happen when you are more popular, and a lot of people are looking at your work. It's a very small fraction of people that have the gall to be mean.

Speaking as someone who used to have a somewhat popular blog on Tumblr, I can definitely confirm this. And yep, "don't feed the troll" is definitely the best advice in these cases. Most trolls want to just cause a reaction and blow things out of proportion. But if there is no reaction... they'll have nothing to work with to blow things out of proportion XD

[fleurravenbooks]

Okay so this was HUGE problem for me , after years ( around four or five) i finally said to myself that i want to try this out, i used to make up stories ( in my head and write maybe some things in random notebooks), but this summer i finally decided to create account and just post, this is one of reasons why my work looks a bit rushed (i post 1st draft because i know that if i don't i will just leave it be for few days and then delete EVERYTHING, this way i can't do that), so my advice is to just click post and leave, come back when you are ready to see comments,likes,etc..... You can always come back and change/fix stuff later, but if you have anxiety over posting, find strength to click post

edit: my novel isn't one of stories i'm talking about in this comment, i still can't find courage to post them

[Calandria]

Hey, why don't you give it a try? Why do not you do it? Afraid of failing? That happens to everyone, you are not the only one, don't use it as an excuse for not achieving the purposes you have in mind . Believe me when I tell you that if you let your insecurities rule your life, you will achieve nothing and you will regret it as time goes by. I'm not that young of a person anymore (well, I'm not that old either) but what I'm trying to say is that if I had been more risky (obviously being cautious about what I can and cannot do), maybe I could have had more opportunities to achieve my goals.

[monotone_ink]

The feeling never goes away - just post

[nkapit]

Don’t focus on where you are now, focus on where you want to be, and see each new piece as a step in that direction

[N1ghtm4r3]

i get that way , mostly its because i don't want to come off as shoving it in everyone's face like they do with usual ads you see everywhere, i want people to like my work because they like it not for some trend

[system]

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