Healing Your Inner Artist/Writer

Last week I made an article about how it’s ok to just stop and take a breather.

But now I wanted to talk about recognizing when you need to stop, when you can come back and the thought process you should take on while you’re away from your comic.

As Helixfinger had pointed out in the comment of last week’s article, stopping doesn’t mean quitting.
And please remind yourself of that.

If you’re bored or you lost interest, there’s a chance that you’ve just been working on it for so long that it has become dull for you. You’ve just become numb to this part of the story and that absolutely 100% happens. This has most definitely happened to me and some times I take a step back or I try to treat it like a 9-5 job by working on it as best as I can, but this can normally lead to the much needed break that I talked about last week.

So, how do you recognize you need to take a step back?
As I mentioned above, it’s when you’re numb to the current scene, some times you can’t focus on it or you keep finding other things to do or other pieces of art to work on. I am absolutely guilty of this, I do this often, if you ever see me posting new pieces of work one after the other, it definitely means I AM AVOIDING MY COMIC lol

How do you approach your audience regarding your need to take a break?
Be honest with them, tell them it’s taking a toll on you and you just need a month or more to yourself, keep them updated and if you work on a few things here and there relating to your comic, feel free to show them, let them know you’re still thinking about it. The last part is totally optional. Actually, this whole part is optional but it’s just really nice to let your readers know what’s up.

How do you stop worrying about your comic when you’re on your break?
Honestly, I don’t have a clear answer for this, but my main idea is “Hey, this is my baby, I still love it and want to work on it but I can’t give it my all if I feel like a flaming hot turd that just stubbed their pinky toe” – basically, really think about the sentence “you have to love yourself first in order to love someone else” this applies to comics, your project is an extension of you, but you have to take care of yourself to take care of your comic, so if you’re in the mood to just game all day, do that. If you want to clean, go ahead and clean, if you want to sleep all day or take that nap, do it. It’s totally ok to just let yourself relax.

Actually, regarding the topic above, I recently saw a tiktok where someone said they believe the term “lazy” was coined by the… ROYAL PEOPLE, UP IN THEIR COZY BED to make other people, such as servants, or just hard-working laborers feel bad about themselves for just wanting to do nothing.
And honestly, I totally agree and I could definitely see that. If we’re not working, we often feel AWFUL about ourselves and feel like we could do more.

How do you know you’re good to return to your comic?
That is 100% up to you. If you pick up that pen/stylus or whatever and you feel happy and good, that’s when you know you’re ready to come back. But if you’re still feeling a sense of emptiness and sadness or you’re just tired, continue your break. Keep relaxing.

Will you lose readers?
I’m going to be 100% honest with you, there might be people who do forget about a webcomic here and there, especially if it has gone on a lengthy hiatus, but if they are DEEPLY into the story, they will most definitely come back, especially if you make an update on your wellbeing like once a month, they’ll know you still exist and the comic is still alive in its own way. The only way you’ll really lose readers is by a reader disagreeing with the path the story is taking or because you really did officially end your comic. Seriously, very rarely will a reader leave because of a hiatus.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if you have any tips on what are good thoughts to give to yourself so you know it’s ok to take a break, go ahead and comment, you might help another artist/writer!