How do you stay motivated to do continue your comic?

[Jin-roh]

The title says it all.

I've been doing my comic for about 18 months. I love it. I don't like the first year, but I feel that the art is finally "passable" and I like that I've developed enough of a background and history to my characters that they are becoming somewhat endearing, at least to me.

Thing is though, my life is rather chaotic, and my strips have reflected that in the form a few missed updates. I don't like doing that. I've just graduated from college and am trying to "stable out" in a job and living situation, both of which are transitioning right now. I've also come to realize how important other goals are in my life, such as which friends I can still spend time with. Obviously, if I can decide "I can spend time with these people, and not these" I can confront whether or not I can continue the comic.

Now bear in mind I do not want to stop my comic. Furthermore, I realize that a lot of my anxiety is probably just part of situation in life right now. Still, I really need to know how I should stay motivated/inspired in times of crisis, espeically when the crisis will probably effect most of my life.

[Black Sparrow]

I'm probably the last person who should be responding to this, given my recent hiatus... Oh well.

In the end, your comic is just a hobby. It can wait when real life intervenes. If you need to, decrease your update schedule for a while, or even take a break (though it's probably a good idea to set yourself a time to return by). You don't need to stop doing it if you love it, but don't let it get in the way of your real life.

If you're worried about losing motivation, just wait it out. Either it'll come, or you'll do what I did and get sick of the comic altogether. Whatever you do, good luck.

[VinnieD]

With Antibunny it's actually hard NOT to work on it. I find myself drawing strips when I should be doing other things. Mostly because the ideas won't stop bouncing around in my head until I let them out. But once one idea becomes a strip, it spawns three more ideas and so fourth. I do my best just to keep my head from exploding.

[Jackhass]

I dunno'...the hundreds of hours of spent on it would seem like quite a waste if the comic never amounts to anything. Besides, I genuinely do enjoy doing it even if it sometimes feels like a chore.

[Sortelli]

Seriously, if not for staking my pride on the grind, I'd have slacked off already by now.

[Turnsky]

'cuz i love doing it and relish the opportunity to screw with the minds of my readers.

[Robbie]

It's simple: if I stop, I'll never succeed. Not that I've succeeded yet. Not to mention the identity crisis if I quit.

[Reinder]

I work on my webcomic at the expense of paid work. It's a compulsion.
So the way to stay motivated is to become an obsessive compulsive.

[Leperdoctor]

Stress relief!! I go to university and have a part time job, and my friends and family are very high maintainance!! Writing or drawin sections of my web comic help me wind down and relax. I treat them as a helpful escape, and when I'm done, I feel much better. Works for me!! The times I'm not motivated to do anything are where my life is completely stress-free, which is where I get my motivation problems. <.<

[Rkolter]

I do my comic in spurts - weekends that I devote mostly to doing the comic. I get a lot done during these spurts, and I relax and don't think too much about having to update during the intervening weeks. It's worked for a couple years now.

[Siabur]

When a hobbie for fun becomes work then it's no longer fun. I ran into that problem a few years ago with SitCom when I was trying to put together syndicate packages. After a while I stressed out then "Redeveloped" and "redesigned" it. Changed cast designs, comic title, then this or that then one day realized that I was avoiding actually making it 'cuz I didn't want to do it any more. Three years of this then one day I looked at what was done and liked it the way it was. So then I tweeked a few dead scripts and was off and running again. It's fun again, little stressful when being at work in the middle of a lunch rush and I can't stop to jot down the cool idea.

I'd say reduce the updates. Spread them out over time until you feel that need to do it again. Good luck.

[Kemmy]

My comic is my procrastination technique. It keeps me (relatively) sane. If I am not drawing comics or writing stories or generally being creative in some way, I go mad and start slashing at my dissertation with a box cutter. I find that obsessive procrastination through productive creativity is actually somewhat healthier.

[Pimpette]

If I stop updating Pimpette, K-Dawg comes to my house and baps me on the head with a newspaper and tells me I am bad.

If I stop updating Shenanigan, Lego teleports to my house and chases me around the front lawn with a whip he borrowed from Sparrow.


I can't ever stop.

[Laemkral]

I don't know why I keep going!!! I guess I just sorta told myself "As long as you can do this, you WILL do this." Truth be told I've thought about ending it several times, but then I quickly get reinspired to do more.

As much fun as it would be to keep doing this for years to come, I'll probably have to stop after I graduate cause I just won't have roommates (and thus no cast) any more. So, I'm Always Right will still be going strong for at least another year with more changes to come in the summer.

[Rkolter]

If I stop updating Pimpette, K-Dawg comes to my house and baps me on the head with a newspaper and tells me I am bad.

If I stop updating Shenanigan, Lego teleports to my house and chases me around the front lawn with a whip he borrowed from Sparrow.


I can't ever stop.

I've really got to loan K-Dawg my taser. A world without turkish is bad.

[RemusShepherd]

I made a commitment to the story. Not to my readers -- I hardly know any of them. Not to myself -- I've broken commitments to myself more often than I can count. But the story is like a babe trying to be born, and I've committed myself to being its midwife. I just can't fail it. I can't.

And considering how much time I squander doing my comic, how much disruption and lately physical pain it's been causing in my life, I honestly don't know why I'm keeping such a commitment. But I can't imagine otherwise. I think 'obsession' is the only label that comes close to being adequate.

Let your story obsess you, and you won't be able to imagine abandoning it.

[Spqrblues]

I've just graduated from college and am trying to "stable out" in a job and living situation, both of which are transitioning right now. I've also come to realize how important other goals are in my life, such as which friends I can still spend time with. Obviously, if I can decide "I can spend time with these people, and not these" I can confront whether or not I can continue the comic.

Jin-roh, it sounds like you're at precisely a point when your life when your activities need to be redefined and will be redefined whether you want it or not; and some stories (and activities, and friends) you were devoted just aren't going to be as important to you as time goes on, and others will take their place.

It took me a long time to find a comic I believe I'll be devoted to until the end of its story. On the other hand, there are some projects (comics, manuscripts) I worked on while at university that I've recently picked up again and finished several years later. IOW, let time sort out your priorities. Keep your comic in mind, think about it every now and then--but don't feel that you need to stay motivated. Don't let that add anxiety to your life. This might simply not be the right time for you and for it.

I stay motivated with my current webcomic because I love the story and the characters as much as I'd love, say, characters in a comic or novel or television series I'm just reading or watching. The way I want to know, need to know what happens to some book character, I want to tell what happens to my characters; it's sort of the same feeling. It's incredibly important to me that the world (i.e., my handful of readers...) know what happens to these people. I'm both anxious and excited about getting the job done. If I were struck by lightning tonight my last thought might very well be, "Ugh! No one will know how the story ends!" That's my motivation.

Ego helps.

[Vorticus]

I'm in the "cut back on your comic schedule" camp. I do suggest avoiding complete hiatus because once you free up the time you comic for other activities it's hard to get it back.
I work with motivation problems by maintaining an update schedule of one comic a week on Sundays. I do update more frequently than that but I do it when I have the ideas, time, and drive to do it rather than on a specific schedule. I've found it works wonders for my motivation and gives me time to relax when I need it.

[Rcmonroe]

It's simple: if I stop, I'll never succeed.

Bingo. I want to succeed. I want to make my living from my comic strip. The sooner the better. Slacking off from it adds more time to the present-day "Working for Someone Else and Getting Up Early" era at the expense of the future "Working For Myself and Sleeping Late Every Day" era.

That being said, if doing the strip was a real drag, I'd give it up. But as long as the idea of doing the strip for a living sounds better than what I actually do now, then that's all the motivation I need.

There is artistic motivation as well, of course, but that's not what keeps me pumpin' 'em out daily.

[Dutch!]

I've heard it told that the luckiest people enjoy what they do and do what they enjoy. I guess I'm lucky, because I enjoy both working with the strip characters and getting to know them and spending time with them, and I enjoy what I do for a living, which is much the same except with real kids.

They go hand in hand in my case, so I've not had much of a problem except for the very few weeks where I've had to squeeze a comic out because of report writing and stuff.