Thread "Is it ever too late?" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 4:01AM, Jan. 23, 2017

Everyone has an abandoned project. It's in the nature of writing and creating. There will be a project that doesn't work, or you never finish or you just abandon to work on something else more pressing. There are all kinds of reasons.

But is it ever too late to revisit that project, dust it off and bring it to completion? Maybe being on the back burner so long you suddenly have a new insight and it suddenly comes together. Or maybe much later you look back at it and realize it wasn't as awful as you thought.

Is it ever too late to dust it off and finish it?

Sure there may be some differences in style, we all grow and change, but could you still revisit the abandoned story and finish it?

On the other hand there is the curse of the reboots. Every time you start, you never finish because you want to do it from the beginning again. That usually devolves into a project never so much finished as one never quite begun. Restarting numerous times can guarantee never finishing. I'm talking about taking the bull by the testicles and forging forward from what was done until it is done.

Is it ever too late? Someone whose work I really respect surprised me with saying they had followed my first comic, that I had abandoned seven years ago. It says it was last updated in 2011, but look at the actual last page of the comic and it was last updated August 2, 2009. The remark inspired me to reread the script. It was finished, but the comic was abandoned. So could I finish it using all I've learned since?

Do you have a project you abandoned that you've had second, third or even fourth thoughts about and revisited and made it work? Or want to make work? Is it ever too late to revisit it and just get it done?

Posted at 5:01AM, Jan. 23, 2017

I don't think it's EVER too late to get back to work on a project! Stephen King abandoned his Dark Tower series more than once - took him over 20 years to finish it but finish it he did (at least the main series; there's spinoffs, completed and planned….)

But, I suppose you actually have to have nostalgic yearning to even want to go back to it!

I've never abandoned a webcomic (have only one to my name), but I've abandoned many written novels. While it's never too late, I don't feel I'm the same person that started those novels - I don't have the same muse I once did! So… I suppose it's too late if you simply don't have any desire whatsoever to go back to a project! ;)

Posted at 5:01PM, Jan. 25, 2017

It's never too late, in fact it's an awesome idea because you get to start a new(-ish) project with a ton of buffer pages already made.

It probably wouldn't be a good idea to just pick up the old comic and start posting again; better to start a new comic and just re-post the old pages. That way you could get more people reading from the beginning. And of course you could fix the bad dialogue and add things you wish you'd put in the first time, take out things you wish you hadn't included. But you gotta keep the original untouched, as an historical document!

I've only ever truly abandoned one comic here, my swords-and-sandals epic Knossos, back in 2010 (wow, that's a long time ago!). But I don't think I'll ever pick that one back up; the whole Theseus-and-the-minotaur thing has been done to death, and I don't have anything to add to it. I actually saw a straight-to-DVD movie based on the minotaur myth where the opening scene is almost exactly identical to the first pages of my comic. When I saw that, I knew I was never going back.

Posted at 2:01AM, Jan. 26, 2017

Great idea, especially since the first 50 or so pages from the 2008 archive are an old draft that I later updated and reformatted but never posted here. Reading the comments it's amazing that back in 2008 people used to tell you if the comic sucked (but often how to fix it.)

And I had forgotten just how crude those first pages were.

Posted at 8:01AM, Jan. 26, 2017

We need a two column comment section: Why Your Comic Rocks, and Why Your Comic Sucks!

Posted at 12:01PM, Jan. 27, 2017

I don't think it's ever too late, but it's knowing how to continue and do it right.

Lore and B.A.S.O. are hanging close at the moment. Lore is easier as it's very much smaller chunks. I have the rest of the current story written so picking up should be easy. Baso is harder, I have the story planned but it's a big job my heart isn't in at present. Similarly I still need to finish underbellyour which I went back to after a long time already.

Phew my projects are building up.

Posted at 8:02PM, Feb. 1, 2017

The process has begun. Thank you everyone and especially Amelius for planting the idea in my head.

Posted at 10:02AM, Feb. 3, 2017

Looking forward to it!!

Posted at 9:02PM, Feb. 3, 2017

AW no prob gosh you're welcome! I had no idea that meant enough to encourage the idea to pick it up again but I was really glad to hear it!

Yeah I'm totally an advocate for revisiting stuff with a fresh perspective/new skills in the toolbox! As long as it's something the creator still cares about and has ideas for, I say it's never too late. There's really nothing to lose picking something up again, except maybe free time, ha!