What happened?
20 May 2018What happened?
Before I start, I want to give my deepest apologies for anyone who wanted to see new webcomics. I can’t promise what will be the set date for a new webcomic but I do suggest following me on Twitter/Mastodon so that way I can keep you updated. Thank you. My current plan is just doing relaxed sketches and illustrations that’ll be shown in Twitter/Mastodon then when I feel ready, webcomics will be next.
It’s sad that it takes poor internet connection due to the router unable to communicate to most of devices to actually … make me do something productive. Such as writing this blog.
Let me get straight to it though.
So the last webcomic I’ve posted is around May 20th, 2017. It’s been a year of no new content.
So what happened?
Well there is no health issues (mental/physical) nor money issues either. It’s time and just pure laziness.
While I enjoyed of being able to push out weekly webcomics, there is something that I hardly ever explain and it’s what I do outside of making art. I have full-time retail job that mostly takes 10 hours off of my day. 1 hour in total of driving, 8 hours of work, 1 hour lunch break. Coming back home, I either get straight to drawing … or play videogames and watch videos. You can guess what I prefer the most. Or … can you?
I’ll never forget the days where I was not only behind a few days to put up my latest webcomics, but had to desperately attempt stay up so late to finish the webcomics. I think the worst moment in my life is when I was in the webcomic adventure is when I had a lack of sleep. It’s one thing for me to have methods to stay awake since I am standing and walking all the time. For me it’s easy, there is no way I’ll fall asleep since I am … standing and walking … I was wrong. Somehow around at the near end of the shift, my head kept wanting to fall down. My entire body was getting weak. And let’s not forget the worst part, driving. I don’t know how I managed to get back home safely, but I was so happy to hit straight to bed. I try my best to not consume too much caffeine but I am at the point where I don’t even know how much I should consume.
The cycle continues to the point where my writing portion of my webcomics is falling behind. There is no way I can just randomly make up script on the spot (there is last minute edits because I tend to re-read line if it’s sounds off.) There needs to be some kind of flow and some humor at least for these webcomics.
It was at that point where I wanted to revisit my favorite online game. It’s funny because as much as I want to avoid playing an addicting game, Monster Hunter … I ended up playing the other kind of game that has the same level of addiction, Phantasy Star Online.
At least I hardly get on Steam in which I was oddly punished for not buying games on Steam for more than a year. Ain’t that something. (Steam/Valve didn’t like my lack of activity, so they prevented me from buying anything from the Marketplace [TF2 hats/CSGO knives etc.] until I’ve purchased at least one game.)
To think I am able to balance my time playing videogames vs. making art. Nope. I was at a point where I felt that I could make a good comeback, it was never happening. So, when I hit hiatus mode I needed make sure I disable my donation via Gumroad since I don’t deserve to receive any form of donation. I am very sorry if you really wanted the sketchbooks that I’ve published, I keep saying that I’ll reupload it but here is the download link finally: https://archive.org/details/@yalyn
Speaking of donations, when the website turned from ugly Wordpress to the minimal/barebones site, I thought about getting rid of the donation button because I felt that it wasn’t worth it. If you are curious if I ever had donations before, I only had two donations … from Gumroad. Both was done out of direct influence. One was done out of telling my brother to share it on facebook and the other was old friend wanting to ask me to share my artwork to him. Respectively, 20 dollars and 25 dollars, with Gumroad taking some of fee, that’ll be $42.25. And, 30 unique downloads … Mind you that this was published around 2015, so these sketchbooks are pretty dated at this point.
I guess it’s also time for me to get into the bigger discussion and that is pretty much “am I worried for having a lack of audience?” While I can’t believe I was able to make weekly webcomics for 1.5 year(s), most of my brain just wanted to keep saying “I am doing it for fun so I don’t need to worry about gaining followership and donations.” But, that other part of my brain really wants to say “Sure would love to gain some attention and maybe get a single donation that doesn’t involve me having to pester someone about it.” It’s sad but true for many content creators out there who are starting out.
I should also note that I am holding myself back. I refuse to make an account for certain social sites such as Facebook and Instagram. I never used a hashtag “ # “ until the start of 2017. I hardly post anything outside of my art such as sharing a funny video that I’ve found or a cool artwork/artist that I saw. You want to know why I hardly share those kind of stuff? It’s because I don’t want to be labeled as a spammy individual. I feared that most of my potential followers would dislike it if I kept spamming them with funny vids, repeat news, dated information, and other things I may be unaware of. It’s understandable that I should be myself and don’t let others control me. I mean I can at least promise that I don’t talk about memes. I’ll talk about that to others or in private but not to my audience.
I think the bigger problem is that I just … don’t post anything. So after waiting for 7-8 days, I post a new webcomic … then repeat. There is obviously a problem here. My potential audience could already be seeking for other kind of content rather waiting for mine. And what I’ve learned from YouTube (yes, I know) and Facebook, it’s all about grabbing attention. That’s not to say I should do daily sketches, even though I find that enjoyable but I should try something new at least.
Another thing I am worried about is posting my webcomics in a webcomics platform. There is no need for me to do that because I already have my very own website. Having my works sitting next to other people’s works would make the audience want to look past my works rather than wanting to actively follow it.
“If you can’t win, join them.” Just because I dislike these sites doesn’t mean I won’t register an account. You might see me start getting into bigger sites and start posting there (yes that means Facebook too.) As of list of sites that I post it is the usual: GooglePlus (it’s dead but not for the open-source communities?), Tumblr, Twitter, and DeviantArt. Yes it can be somewhat time consuming to post to multiple social sites, but maybe I’ll find a way to make it easier. And also … learn to hashtag properly. Also I’ve recently joined Mastodon which is really pleasant site.
Speaking of social, once I am officially back to making more webcomics, I’ll continue with the no donation button as usual and just ask anyone out there just to share my work. That’s really it. As much as I love to quit my retail job and make art forever, I need to make a flip on myself and prove if I can keep making more and more art. Also no Patreon, I guess that’s obvious. I might setup Librepay but I won’t link it publicly, if the time comes, I’ll share it publicly.
It’s different world when it comes to someone who makes content for free. Price or not, I want to make it worthwhile even though someone would only read it for less than minute. I have destroyed many people’s trust. I can imagine followers wanted to see new content from me and I have failed.
I’ll say it again, I am very sorry. I hope I can do better than the previous years.
Right now for this month I’ve been listening to certain art-related audiobooks and preparing to make a move to another state. In the end of May, I’ll be moving.