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What have you been up to lately?
December 15, 2011
Howdy! I've been asked this question a lot - there's a lot of folks here in Portland whom I know, but don't see very often. We're all fairly active in the local cartooning community, but it's a large community and only a small portion of them are at any given event at a time. Lately, though, it's a question I've been having trouble answering. I don't know if it's a creative drought or what, but my motivation has been on the wane again for several months. I have the next page of Ellie scanned in, but just can't bring myself to finish coloring it so I can post it. Likewise, I've got the page after that started, but don't have the drive to finish penciling it. I have been spending a lot of time focusing on contract projects and trying to get a little ahead financially, but between that and my volunteer work for Stumptown, I haven't had the energy to do much else. One of my long-time regular corporate clients sent me a bunch of new work last month, which is nearly wrapped up now. A second client came to me with a long-term project which should carry me through well into January, and I also did a couple small illustration commissions - one of which is a cover illo for one of my all-time favorite magazines (I'll definitely be talking about that when it's available!). AND I'm busy redesigning a couple of the websites that I manage, which should take another month or two. So it isn't as if I haven't been busy, I just haven't been busy on Ellie. I've been saying for years that I hope I can work on the comic more 'next month', or 'next year', but I know that just saying it doesn't mean anything unless I actually do it. I'm still trying to figure out exactly HOW I want to continue Ellie, but that's a topic for another day. So, what have you been up to lately? 
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Working like crazy on the next episode/chapter ... and getting two huge coding projects done at the day job at about the same time.
I hear sleep is a really novel and cool thing! ;-)
Ye gods, I feel your pain. I've got the next half-dozen pages of 'Decrypting Rita' in various stages ranging from "1/3 done" to "partially scripted" and I just can NOT get down to working on it.
In part this comes from having the inertia broken - the winter blahs mean I really have way too little energy to work on ANYTHING, so it was easy for a conflux of deadlines and distraction to leave me with no time for it, and no pages for one week. The next week and a half was a previously-scheduled trip down to my mother's place for the winter visit. Where I was a hell of a lot less productive than the not-very-productive I expected to be due to a couple factors - one being a friend in the animation industry dying suddenly. And now this weekend I'll be going down to LA for the funeral. Ain't expecting to get any work done there either.
I've been spending today pondering putting Rita on official hiatus or something, and oh geeze I really don't want to do that.
But now that you're making me think about how easy it is to put stuff down... I think I'm gonna spend some time today getting the comic's site upgraded to the new version of Wordpress. I tried it the other day but it just ate several hours because something I'd done to harden it against attack also hardened it against upgrading, and I couldn't just do it the brute-force way because my mom's net was so slow.
I guess all I can really say is this: if Ellie really matters to you, then find some way to get in at least tiny little bits here and there. Keep SOME kind of inertia going, push it forwards in some tiny fashion every week. Even if it's just spending an hour working on penciling/inking/coloring a panel or two. Or a couple hours kicking back, looking over the story so far and your notes for the future, and expanding upon the latter. Something. Anything.
C.B.: Sleep is underrated, but I wish it were unnecessary. Think how much more we could get done with an extra 6-10 hours in our day!
Egypt: Sorry to hear about your friend, that is sure to interrupt anyone's workflow. And thanks for the advice to just try to get a little done each day - it's a habit I've been meaning to get into, but like so many things, it's difficult to adopt. Why is it so hard to break bad habits, and so hard to learn good ones?
Indy, I have to agree with Egypt. A little each day does get you along. I try to scrounge out a little at lunch each day for 'Brass Griffin'.
To get started, I set an alarm on my phone with an irritating alarm to make me look at it. That got me doing a little at a time. Not long after I didn't even need the timer!
And oh.. what I could do with an extra 6-10 hours a day! Heh, knowing me probably fill it with other work and me grousing not having enough time on my hands!
When I think of what I could accomplish if I didn't have a pesky job to go to 6 days a week.
Starting Dec 26th I aim to create at least 1 website a week to bring in some passive income, then look to sell some for at least $1K each towards the end of next year.
Today, it's all about creating a Christmas card: A snow drop fairy with an origami snowdrop. Piece of cake. I hope.
I agree with doing a little every day. That's how I got my last novel done. Yet, it's really hard to make myself do it. First thing in the morning seems to be the best time because then I don't have to try to fit it in the rest of the day--it's done. And sometimes, it's only 15 minutes of writing before I have to leave for work. But that little bit eventually gets you somewhere. :)
Blessings to you, Indy!