That sounds like logic to me. Hope everything on the diploma course and the move goes well for you - your fans will be here successful money maker or penniless hobby anyway :)

Art Block I like it when a webcomic has interesting posts to go with it like today...

I think you're great with explanations and this idea of art becoming work sounds very familiar to me. In fact it reminded me of the reason I don't follow my pageviews on deviantArt - It was so I don't fall into the same trap where I post art just because I'm looking for more views or watchers or favorites. I've had a bit of art block myself recently. So... thanks for that reminder.






PS: Today's whitespace Neko is great. :3

One more thing Why can't you try and judge for yourself if you think your art is any good? I think you've had enough experience to allow some of that.

There's a balance between pride and humility which I've never been able to get quite right. I try to avoid the issue :P

aww The only webcomic I actually like right now is gonna die :(

I've been reading Neko for years, and I still love it. Yeah, it's definitely a cult comic, but the good side of that is that no matter what, you at least have a handful of die hard fans, which in my book is way better than having a ton of fair weather fans.

Oh don't get me wrong, the fans are awesome, and it's brilliant having a cult following! Most of my friends don't have cult followings.

It just doesn't pay the bills, and that's something I've got to either let go of or be dragged by.

It's also quite possibly a depression thing. Neko's my go-to activity when I want to do something, anhedonia's probably unavoidable in that kind of situation.

Anyway, there's probably going to be more weird artsy stuff with watercolours and poems and the like until my brain gets back to wanting to make regular comics again.

I might not be the best example, but.... One time, in an art course I was taking, I had a really hard time to draw. I was focusing on all the details so much that my teacher made this an assignment:
Draw the fractious version of what you are trying to do. If you are drawing hands too big, draw them huge, if you are trying to get male anatomy good, draw a female, if one is happy and dancing, draw them evil and...doing evil stuff.
The point of the exercise was not only to stop obsessing over the details, which I believe is a cause of your writer's block, but also to explore the fantastic world of the weird, to refresh our trains of thought which sometimes come up with a whole new direction we would never have thought of.

Why don't you give it a try? For yourself, draw a sketch of the next comic you want but in a way you know will fail. Make it hilarious to yourself and absurd as you want it to be. Then when you go to draw the real comic, your brain will have relaxed and would see value in your work, rather than striving to outdo a masterpiece.....


At least that's what worked for me.

to add to what I said when I was a kid, writing stories for my friends, I used this absurd writing style to get a fresh take on the matter. I would experiment with things (to be relatable) like if Neko saved Murphy's life while Keno was trapped in the Chaos Dimention by Edgar, Poe's evil twin who was created while Poe helped his witch to create the other twin. Then I would bring it back in an instant, by revealing it to be a dream sequance. I noticed that the story changed from there as to my usual story, but in an accepted way. Might be something to think about

I resigned myself to the philosophy, that it doesn't matter how good my creation is someone isn't going to like it.

So, basically I don't care about other's opinons. I still hold to the the philosophy that people improve on their own and the most "competent criticism," not complaint, can provide is a direction to focus on.

On Writer's Block Mark Twain once observed that the best way to make someone stop doing something is to pay them to do it. He said it somewhat more eloquently, but the point was that as soon as we get paid for doing something, we start counting how much it pays - whereas, so long as we're doing it for free, we never count the cost.

I worked as a salaried writer for a video game company after college (lo those many days ago); I remember dealing with writer's block, and ultimately coming to the conclusion that I couldn't afford to let it stop me.

I see that there's a host of suggestions above, so I'll offer another one: don't spend time doubting yourself, ESPECIALLY if you're worried about how little money you get. No one is paying you to doubt yourself. The stuff you were doing for free was what got you the fans you have; more of the same is exactly what we're looking for.

With regards to the last thing you said, That's fine, wierd is good.

@auntmousie

There are card games to help one overcome writers block now. They work like the dolphin set up they demonstrated in Southpark.

However, more to the point, how does one get a job writing for a video game company?

@Gabriel Blind luck. I was fresh out of college, and fresh off a rejection from law school - so I was sending the best resumes I could muster to every company I could find within driving distance. One of them happened to be the (now defunct) Alameda campus of Microprose, and they just happened to be looking for an extra writer.

@auntmousie
Thank you.