#dont critique unless the creator asks you
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
spenglercore · 6 months ago
Text
They will also get 'It's fiction. Not a scientific paper up for peer review. Go away.' Basic rule of thumb: unless the creator ASKS for it, keep your 'critique' to yourself.
I DO agree with 'You don't need to give a number'. Without any research, how many people out there Just Know how old their hometown actually is, exactly? How many people Just Know the exact speed of the space shuttle on re entry off the top of their heads? How many people Just Know the exact speed of the current land speed record? 'A few hundred years' or 'fast enough that the effects of ram air create plasma' or 'over mach one' are all acceptable answers that don't often need any more detail. Your characters don't have to know everything or have a complete understanding of how the world around them works! That's how things often are in reality, too!
But what if you're writing a character who is actually in on the science? What if an exact number relates to the plot ? Or would be really FUCKING funny, even if it's incorrect? What if YOU have the PhD?
As a former welder, it GRATES on me when I see an oxyfuel cutting torch being used to ARC WELD. Or I read about someone weldIng cast iron to aluminum BECAUSE YOU CAN'T FUCKING DO THAT.
You know what I do in those situations? I remind myself that most people out there aren't professional welders or metallurgists with a working knowledge of the chemistry behind the process and the materials. It will be fine. The world will not end because of one mistake in a movie. And my commenting on it or calling out the writer won't do anything but make me look like an asshole and possibly cause someone to stop writing and sharing their work. My professional knowledge on the subject was not asked for, nor is it necessary.
You don't NEED exact numbers in your fic. You also don't need to do the math for fucking fiction just to prove the writer is wrong and call out their 'mistake'. You are not doing anyone any good by giving unsolicited critique. You ARE being rude.
speculative fiction writers i am going to give you a really urgent piece of advice: don't say numbers. don't give your readers any numbers. how heavy is the sword? lots. how old is that city? plenty. how big is the fort? massive. how fast is the spaceship? not very, it's secondhand.
the minute you say a number your readers can check your math and you cannot do math better than your most autistic critic. i guarantee. don't let your readers do any math. when did something happen? awhile ago. how many bullets can that gun fire? trick question, it shoots lasers, and it shoots em HARD.
you are lying to people for fun. if you let them do math at you the lie collapses and it's no fun anymore.
76K notes · View notes
the-exiled-comic · 27 days ago
Note
I get what you mean, as a (different) ClanGen comic blog creator myself x.x It’s definitely gotten harder to manage the sort of public responses and interactions when it comes to those kinds of asks. People being rude or parasocial, or outright asking you to tell you the entire future plot over and over again, or jumping to crazy conclusions and not listening, or otherwise not treating you like you’re a living human being with a life behind the screen. The amount of asks I’ve had to delete or ignore (or even fans I’ve had to block) because of how bad the ask culture/“content consuming culture”/fan interaction has gotten, it’s exhausting. Very very exhausting. I’m surprised you haven’t turned off asks completely, I’ve had to do that multiple times now just to give myself mental health breaks from it all. I love drawing and I love creating so I don’t think I could ever stop creating comics, but my god sometimes I really wish I could upload my things to a vacuum where I could just create without ever seeing any of the fan responses to it haha
yeah its rough out here. theres a lot of very positive comments and thoughts directed at comics too, so its certainly not all bad. might be bold to say, but the world is a better place with our stories and i dont think we should ever feel forced to stop sharing them but there is a ratio of negativity thats much higher than we would all like, and i just wanna encourage people who may feel negatively to keep it to themselves unless the author outright asks for critique. and to just re-read or drop the comic if it is so confusing or frustrating
i actually did have the ask box closed for a while, i dont remember how long. it was after firespots betrayal, there was a lot of really upset people and at some point there were over 100 unanswered asks from weeks of build up that i just purged and closed it for a while. i dont mean to threaten to take away things bc i know i enjoy reading insight from creators i like. but sometimes i dont want to deal with it and sadly it IS because people are mean or they talk about my characters in ways that make me feel like im a bad writer or that they hate what i made
40 notes · View notes
chanstopher · 2 years ago
Note
I don't want this to come off as rude at all,I'm just curious as to why you get so much interaction. your posts always get notes and you seem to answer a lot of asks everyday. I am also a cc in the fandom (I'm on anon because I don't want anyone to judge me for this) and my content flops pretty constantly. I'm just wondering if there is a secret to success I'm not learning or if my content is just garbage. Any advice would be nice!
Hi, I definitely dont think you're being rude, I totally understand being frustrated by numbers on here. i wish i had secrets to share but i really dont. i have a lot of followers so my content is pushed further. using tags properly and becoming friends with other ccs is really good for getting your content seen. ive been lucky enough to have ppl like me for some reason so ppl support my blog when i post things most of the time. i do also have some flops, thats just how tumblr works and some ppl wont agree that your content is good and ignore it.
its harsh to say that and i know that ive had terrible content get a lot of notes because of my blog size. but you just have to keep working at it. try changing up how your content looks (more or less grain, sharpening settings, try unique coloring or try to really work on color correction instead of just making things more vibrant or darker) if u write find other writers, no one supports content like content creators.
as for the asks, i have literally no idea. i am confused as to why people would talk to me constantly abhdjs I just try to be kind and keep my negative opinions to myself unless theyre about ppl stepping over bounds or being mean or rude to skz. i try to just be unapologetically myself tho, posting about chris like a rabid dog or just weeping over how much i love him. it is apparently very relatable lmao
i am not good at making friends, all of the people who i am friends with on here have come to me seeking friendship, but going on anon and talking to ppl or just showing up in tags with fun comments or thoughts or just compliments on the content will make you friends. a lot of ppl have reached out to me just because i was kind to their work.
the only real advice is to not give up. i think blog growth is always slow until you just hit a certain point where for one reason or another you become more known and then it will grow more rapidly, but it can take a while. and it can take you finding what youre really good at, you might have no idea how well you are and gif blends or graphics or even just being someone who updates on activities happening with skz (this site is absolutely lacking a proper skz update blog fsjniss) if you ever want to vent about it i'll listen, and if you ever want to send me your content and ask for critique i can do that too (but it will just be my opinion and im not anything special fhbdjs)
above all else you have to enjoy making things or it is never going to be worth it. no number of notes is going to make u better at any kind of art. only time and effort and enjoyment will.
I'm sorry this is so long and i wish any of it was truly helpful, but tbh i think i just got lucky with tumblr and how much interaction i get :/
8 notes · View notes
nobodywritingao3 · 1 year ago
Note
Hi!
Just re-read all of your fics and I just wanted to say that I love your writing style so so so so so so very much!!!!!!!!
Cookies? 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
-✨anon✨
(btw if I'm allowed to ask, why did you change your user to nobody?)
thank you so much! :D its really nice to hear that people like my style
:3 cookies! have some warm ramyun, sparkly sparkly anon 🍜
as for the nobody thing, mildly incoherent ramble below:
the short of it is that people on ao3 are getting a little weird with me and i needed to put some space between me and the fandom
(tumblr people, you are all sweet and nice dont worry this isnt really you)
i posted a chapter and i got like five messages saying stuff like "i hate the characters" "this chapter pissed me off" "did anyone else wish that the ending was different?" i moderated the comments on the fic and people started leaving me comments under other fics that were in the same vein of criticism. criticism is fine, i want to be clear, but that kind of talk is inappropriate for the context. im not a content creator, or someone mass producing entertainment, and when people leave me comments, i actually get emails from ao3. so i got like 5 emails that were just "fuck these characters" and nothing else. im not a public figure, im a fellow fan, im just Some Guy posting silly fanfiction on the internet, but people are starting to treat my stuff like its """"Content"""" to be discussed and critiqued and analyzed.
these messages came from people who enjoyed my writing. they left kudos and bookmarks and when i interacted with them, they were respectful and tried to banter with me. these messages arent coming from trolls, theyre coming from people who like my stuff, and honeslty that kind of made it worse.
my stories usually get very positive feedback. for context, heres my stats
Tumblr media
the numbers say theyre doing well and i tried not to internalize the negative comments im getting but its overwhelming.
im a clown, not a jester. my first and foremost intention is to entertain myself, not to entertain other people.
so i yeeted the rose name and im trying to transition into a more anonymous removed state because thats kind of the way people on ao3 are viewing me and for my own sanity im just going to comply. i started deleting negative comments and i think im done responding to people on ao3 unless it's someone i know and like or the message really touches me.
the name change isnt really a Tumblr problem, its an AO3 problem. when i have time to sit down, ill be fixing my tags and stuff to reflect the Nobody name.
but yeah. overly complicated reason that im now Nobody.
2 notes · View notes
antiloreolympus · 3 years ago
Text
8 Anti LO Asks
1. the thing is like even the poets we draw from get critiqued too. a lot of people thought hesiod was an evangelist with an agenda to push, homer (if they existed) was often lampooned for contradicting lines and spending too much time making lists than developing the story, aeschylus and euripides were both seen as biased and cynical and were often mocked, along with many more, and yet LO fans think their kiwi tumblr fave is somehow above all of them and shouldn't be critiqued? Get over yourselves
2. the problem with the 'make your own story" argument is that, assuming you try to retell hxp at least, youll have LO fans attacking you for "stealing" from rachel, who in turn never promotes or supports other retellings unless it adheres to her worldview (such as OSP). say what you will on punderworld or ficlets, but they always prop up lesser known creators with their platforms, meanwhile rachel when tasked with helping others (like Lets Play) she made it about herself. that speaks volumes.
3. a lot of LO fans think antis are just randomly haters but that's not true. Most of us were once devoted fans who couldn't ignore all the issues anymore and who still remember when it had promise and effort put into it, not the rushed husk it is now. It isnt just blindly hating it, it's being annoyed & disappointed of what could have been and how much the comic has declined and how the fans refuse to acknowledge its faults. How would we know how badly its gone down if we weren't fans once?
4. idk man i wouldnt tell people who dislike lo to make their own comics because those end up being way better. reylos did the same thing to disney over how badly they hated the last star wars movie and now their fanfics are becoming NYT bestsellers. just saying.
5. Maybe I'm dating myself here but one of the funniest parts of fandom used to be the most devoted fans calling out the bad stuff in what we liked and discussing it, because it was fan to pick it apart and clown on it. IDK why now LO fans and people like them are so convinced they can only mindlessly praise with no dissent and all critique is invalid. It's basic critical thinking skills that one can like something and still acknowledge the flaws. It's a bad look to admit you can't do so IMHO.
6. lo fans really need to get off this high horse that lo is perfect and therefore can never be criticized. even the best pieces of work ever have actual things to critique within them, and lo is not somehow better than all of them  to not be critiqued as well. its an ever growing list of issues lo keeps adding up because of who is behind. sorry, rachel, if you want sole credit for the writing and art, you have to own all the critiques too, and the fans needs to accept it. 
7. sorry, LO fans, but we are allowed to critique a work that gets so much privleges that even other webtoon creators dont get (seriously, the majority stull have to live off commission work while working on a full time comic) meanwhile rachel gets away with bad writing, cliffhangers that aren’t resolved for years, worsening art, and her bad and entitled attitude all while the company constantly promotes her while the majority of their catalog doesn’t, she has a full team rushing work for her while she at best does sketches and the occasional banner art, and gets her a bunch of media deals that the rest won’t ever get even a scrap of, all while already being a well off, privileged white woman who cries to her thousands of fans when her ego is bruised because more and more people are noticing her shitty politics and morals put into her work and are rightfully calling it out. at the very least you’d think someone in such a high rank at one of the worlds biggest media houses would actually put in the effort to make the best product she can and respect the people and culture she’s making bank off of, but she’s not and frankly does not seem like she ever will. She quite literally said it’s HER story and she’s allowed to do what she wants with it, and has spoken over Greeks time and time again that their input doesn’t matter over her personal feelings and thoughts. you don’t see other people in her position who also made bank (such as Rick Riordan or Madeline Miller) treat Greece and it’s people so awfully as her, her fans, and her product do, yet she gets all the excuses in the world while the above mentioned and others work on their mistakes and try to always put their best products out there, all while respecting Greece and it’s stories and even giving platforms to the underrepresented, meanwhile Rachel herself can’t even keep colors in line or keep designs on model while her writing gets more and more nonsensical, with her status only going to enrich herself and her ego while the rest are clinging to survive. God willing, maybe another mythology webtoon will be picked up to give her some competition and actually force her to put in the work for the rewards she earned off the backs of others, and that can’t happen soon enough.
8. NGL, kinda funny that LO Stan defends it by claiming people who dislike it are just “hacks like the woman behind 50 shades” like … uh … you know LO is ripped off from 50 shades, right? Like quite literally, it’s almost point for point exactly the same as 50 shades, down to the CEO with mommy issues and BDSM mixed with weird obsessions over a college girl’s virginity and a jealous ex who is into it versus the pure MC. Rachel is literally the hack ripping off 50 shades that that stan is claiming antis are. Wild stuff.
Anyway both the 50 shades woman and Rachel owe Stephanie Meyers a lot of money Bc they both in turn just ripped off Twilight anyway lol
Based on this post:
https://alatismeni-theitsa.tumblr.com/post/663420719494053888/why-not-write-a-take-of-your-own-on-the-myths
49 notes · View notes
lnc2 · 4 years ago
Note
Hey i was kinda hoping i could get some advice. So i post my fics on ffnet and you cant block guest reviews and i have this one person telling me my story is unreadable cause of an ooc character (i dont think theyre ooc though, i explain why they act that way) and i have this other person (maybe them) saying how even if i find what theyre saying rude cause i post to the internet i have to deal and its their right fo say whatever they want on my story and like what do i do
Tumblr media
Okay. Okay. Okay.
First and foremost let me validate the hell out of you– you are not wrong or immature or being overly sensitive.
I have said this before and I’ll say it a thousand times again:
Offering unsolicited critique on fanworks provided to you free of charge is a dick move.
There is a wild sense of entitlement regarding fandom creators’ time and output and the right to criticize both freely when no one asked.  The idea that all critique is good critique, that all critique is welcomed, and that all critique should be valued is fucking ridiculous.
There is a time and a place for critique and unless you are in those spaces (workshops, established beta relationships, a classroom, etc.) or unless you are specifically asked the best thing you can do for a creator is to either comment on what you do like or just move the fuck on.
This is apparently Controversial and it has everything to do with the egos of the people who think they’re doing creators a favor.
My archive is full of people screaming at me about this.
Fuck em.
You’re totally valid in saying that you just want to put out your stories and if people don’t like it they don’t have to read it.  They’re not paying you and you never asked.
All of this being said, FF.net is notorious for having the worst commenters.  Most of them act like That.  If you can’t ignore them (and I totally understand if you can’t because that shit sits with you) and if they continue to bug you about it I might recommend choosing AO3 to post your work instead.  I don’t know if it’s because the culture is different, there are less assholes there or if people just aren’t as bold but I’ve had an overall good experience with it.
47 notes · View notes
quilloftheclouds · 5 years ago
Note
howwww do you always leave the best comments on people's works!!! the most i ever come up with is "aaaaahhh writing good" and then some keysmashing and i feel stupid cux i dont know how to intellectually let people know how muxh i love their stuff fjdjdj
Leaving Comments On Writeblr
OKAY SO FIRST OF ALL.
All comments (with few exceptions), no matter how small and no matter how incoherent, are amazing to creators, and I can GUARANTEE that they’ll appreciate it SO much. They’re more than just a reblog or like! They’re a sign that you took some of the time out of your day and some of your energy to show how much you love someone’s work!
Please don’t feel “stupid”. You’re not. Your comments aren’t. They’re lovely and so are you.  
But, if you’re looking for some actual advice? We’ll see what I can do. And as always, remember to only use what helps you—advice is only a suggestion, after all~
Here are some tips and prompts if you’re struggling on what to talk about!
Types of Comments
This post is originally for fic comments, but a lot applies here!
There’s a variety of kinds of comments I’ve seen, all wonderful things to receive! I usually combine a few of these bullets, which is where the length of mine tends to come from! (This is not a comprehensive list in the least.)
Keysmashing
Incoherent yelling about how good it is overall
Taking out pieces you like and focusing on those (can be direct quotes or paraphrasing)
This can be lines of the writing, a particular OC, worldbuilding details, etc.!
How it affected you (Can be good or bad---writers love knowing they’re manipulating your emotions~)
Gif/image reactions
Critical analysis (which is the kind I’ll be talking about later!)
But you know what? There are comments that I don’t like seeing very much, and I find can often be incredibly rude-seeming, even when you mean good. I’d avoid these next types of comments on writeblr, unless people are explicitly asking for them:
Demands to update/requests for more: This... isn’t helpful. It’s okay to have a nice “Can’t wait for more!” with some of the comment types above, but definitely not on its own. (And DEFINITELY not “When are you next updating?” That’s just... plain whiny unless you tread really carefully with how you word it.)
Comparing to another work: “This reminds me of [bestselling story]!” Mm... okay. See, this can seem really nice, and sometimes comes across as nice, but unfortunately it usually reads more like: “This is a completely unoriginal idea! It’s already been done!” Which is... not so nice. Especially if this is the only comment you’re leaving.
Unsolicited (negative/constructive) critique: UNLESS SOMEONE ASKS FOR CRITIQUE, don’t. Don’t. A lot of writeblrs are posting up their content while it’s in its unfinished stage, and are not looking for people to tell them what to change. There are all sorts of reasons why it’s rude to give unsolicited critique, and I’m not going to debate that here.
Tips for Critical Analysis Comments
I suppose having the intrinsic ability to pick up on deeper meanings is developed from experience, but I can certainly give some things to think about, here! And certainly don’t feel required to comment on everything here: pick out a few that stand out to you, or that you really liked the most!
But you know what this sort of comment is like? It’s like a high school essay about what’s effective about a piece. Except it’s about something you actually like, and hopefully it’s something you actually want to write.
Writing style: Does this writer have something consistently unique and original to their writing that you love? Can be part of any of the below, or something else!
Sentence fluency: Does this writing read more slowly to fit the mood, more quickly to fit the action? Is it (purposefully) harsh cut and jagged or smooth and soft? Does it feel nice on the tongue when you read it aloud?
Word choice: More complex vocabulary? Do the connotations of the words well fit the theme and emotion? Does it fit the setting and/or characters?
Characterization: Are all of the characters different and distinct? Are their personalities easy to see in their body language, action, and dialogue? Is what they do fun for you to read?
Environment/Atmosphere: Do you feel like you’re there with the characters? Is the environment described well? Does it set a nice atmosphere or tone for the rest of the writing?
Senses: Sort of goes with the above but... Can you hear the sounds written? Can you feel the cold or heat, or the other senses that the characters have?
Symbolism: This one takes some experience to pick up on, I suppose. But does the writer use images or connotations that symbolize something?
Worldbuilding details: Do you get a good sense of the world and culture of the story? Is it woven in well, so it doesn’t feel like info-dumping?
Anyways, there are so many other tidbits you could pick up on, but there’s some to start you off! Basically, think about why you liked the writing so much! A lot of it can be subconscious, sometimes~
So yeah! That was a lot (and a long post ^^’), but I hope you get something out of that! And remember: keysmashing and picking out parts you liked alone is definitely enough of a comment, but if you’re willing and able to put in the extra effort to leave a more meaningful one, it can do wonders to improve a writer’s confidence and motivation!!!
And if you want more work from a creator, leave a comment about their writing, not one asking for more!
888 notes · View notes
comicteaparty · 5 years ago
Text
April 1st-April 7th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive
The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from April 1st, 2020 to April 7th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:
How do you feel about creators spoiling their own stories, and how does it effect how you read the comic?
Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]
As someone who's both reader & a creator, it can be really hard to restrain giving spoilers. But it could also be that they are excited to make this story and they wanna 'get to the spoilers' really soon. But if you are such creator, an idea is to find friends whom you can trust, don't mind giving critique/give spoilers to. As a reader it can be slight disappointment to learn about spoilers in a comic you were invested in and still reading. At this point, I might think, I'm going to get out of the conversation on the spoilers and wait until more content is made(edited)
DanitheCarutor
Being someone who was raised by a parent who wanted me to spoiler movies for them if I saw it first, I don't care about stories being spoiled for me. Experiencing the scene is usually very different than being told what it is, also once I get to that spoiled scene I've already forgotten about it thanks to my Quality short-term memory. Honestly, I would totally go all out spoiling my own comic, but I know most people hate that stuff so I don't out of respect. There have been a few times when I've talked about spoilery stuff not really knowing if it would be considered a spoiler, or because I'm talking about something else that is related and I have to spoil a bit for the topic.
shadowhood (SunnyxRain)
Personally it depends on how plot heavy the spoiler is. If it's something like what food/clothing/interests the characters have, I don't mind so much. But if it's something like who is going to die, who falls in love with who....I think the experience would be slightly more diminished.
Like @Joichi [Hybrid Dolls] said, I usually share the spoilers only with close friends, particularly those who know how to give their input. It's important to get feedback, but choosing who you tell is very important.
sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)
I’m very protective of story details. I don’t want people to know any of what’s going to happen in my story. I like having secrets
I don’t really mind hearing spoilers myself much of the time because I mostly enjoy stories by looking at all the events in the story together. If I know all the events sooner that often lets me enjoy it sooner
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I usually don't care that much about spoilers, unless it's about character death or something. Usually, I try to avoid them like the plague, just in case, but I don't really care that much.(edited)
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Personally, on other people's comics, I usually only refer to what's in the comic proper. Not too fond of having to read supplemental material, like creator QA's.
I know they can be nice for some readers, but I genuinely don't like it when the knowledge established in a QA or so is assumed to be known in the comic proper without ever being mentioned there.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm having difficulty articulating my reasons, but for me, the creator spoiling things is different from a reader spoiling the same things. And reader-supplied spoilers can also be VERY different based on context and tone. I hate it when people spoil things for others out of malice (like when people were buying ad spaces, just after that one Harry Potter book came out, to broadcast [THIS IMPORTANT CHARACTER] DIES!!!!), even if I don't care about the work being spoiled.
Going back to creator-supplied spoilers........ it's something I can't relate to, as a creator myself? (Sharing spoilers in private is one thing, but if they're posting it in public...) This is going to sound negative and I apologize in advance. When I see a creator laying out the big spoilers in public, it makes me worry that maybe they prefer to talk instead of actually making the comic -- that maybe they won't make it to the ending. I'm happy to be proven wrong, of course. And there is no shame in dropping a comic before you get to the end (I've done that myself!). But yeah, public spoilers is one of those things that makes me worry.(edited)
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
^My thoughts exactly. It worries me in exactly the same way.
Deo101 [Millennium]
when it comes to reading spoilers, Ive never really minded. Granted, I'd rather have spoilers more towards "what to expect" because I otherwise will get a lot of anxiety. A bit of the way in, I want to know if something is going to be worth my time to get invested into, or if I should ignore the stress and just be along for the ride. Being told things like "this is a tragedy and you shouldnt expect to have a happy ending" and "everything will work out in the end" really calms me down when I'm reading. Getting small spoilers about character things, inconsequential plot stuff, etc. don't really bother me at all, but yeah I'm with keiiii where if someone is sharing the ending of their story halfway through I worry theyre not interested in actually working to get there.
I'll personally share in small private settings whatever people want to know, but I refuse to in a public setting share what I'd consider to be a big spoiler. I'll share small character things or vague plans and some worldbuilding stuff, but I don't see those as spoilers really.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The "what to expect" thing is a really great topic though. I would love to discuss it in depth in shop talk when the caffeine kicks in
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Ooh me too. I drop some future story features in my About page - very broadly. But it's more of a pitch than an outright spoiler. It requires some vagueness to be effective.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
@Deo101 [Millennium] Setting expectations correctly is very different from spoilers, I think, and more in direction of "what genre does that story fall under". Like a romance means happy (for now) ending for the main couple - even if you might end up disagreeing if an ending is happy.
It ain't a spoiler that a space opera has some kind of space travel, that kind of thing.
For me spoilers tend to cover plot specifics, not genre and general tone. That's setting expectations.
Deo101 [Millennium]
Yeah, but a lot of people really don't like to say that their story is gonna be a tragedy because they dont want to spoil that people are gonna die or whatever
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
That's... bad marketing.
Deo101 [Millennium]
it happens constantly
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I agree that a lot of times what creators share is basically bonus plot info, or extra details, or even warnings. I actually haven't really ever gotten a major spoiler from a creator.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Mind you, you can have people die without being a tradgedy, see the majority of epic fantasy.
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
(On a side note, I have spoiled 100% of the plot of my comic to very specific close people in my life, but I don't know if that counts.)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I don't think there is a single person to whom I've spoiled 100% and I'm jelly of those of you who have Story Confidantes!
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Honestly SOs and close siblings are a GODSEND
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm close with my bro, but he's not into the kind of stuff I write. (might be getting off topic?)
RebelVampire
Yeah I do want to remind again here this should be about experiences as a reader, not as a creator. And I know there can be a bit of bleed over, but there's a point where the focus changes too much.
RebelVampire
I think this depends on who it's being spoiled to. If creators want to spoil their stories to close personal friends in private convos, I think that's A-okay. Even as a writer I do that, because it's good to have people to bounce ideas off of. And I think for more creators it's the same. Also, sometimes you just want to have a fun chat to de-stress and it's easier with people who you can tell all your secrets too. If it's being spoiled to people who asked for spoilers, that's also another matter where I think it's mostly fine. In fact, depending on what's spoiled, it can really help drive engagement. For example, if a comic is "spoiling" lore that has a significant bearing on the plot without revealing the exact how of it all. However, then we come to the matter of major public spoilers, which there are tons and tons of creators who do this. On the one hand, that's the creator's right to do so, so a part of me feels like embracing the can't be helped mindset. But, if I'm being brutally honest, as a reader 90% of the time it just kills all engagement with the story for me. I mean, what's the point of reading the story if I can just find out everything in a fraction of the time? Plus, for me personally, I enjoy theorizing and trying to guess events, mysteries, etc. And if I'm being told the answers, that basically ruins like 80% of how I engage with content. I'm also confident I'm not the only reader who feels this way, so personally speaking I don't think it's a wise decision no matter how juicy or agonizing it is to hold in the spoiler.
Feather J. Fern
For me, spoilers don't mean much. I'm still going to read the comic regardless. Now I spoiling something is funnier, because it takes me forever to get to the section which I spoiled, so something I spoiled would take a year to get to, and then everyone forgot the spoiler anyways. XD
I have already spoiled endings to my friends about one of my comic projects, and three months in they are already like "I forgot about that." So maybe it's just my readers haha.
DanitheCarutor
@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) About the talking vs. finishing the comic thing. If I decided to spoil it would be because I was impatient to discuss. Like, right now I have the worst itch just to talk about the climax and ending to discuss all the little details, what I could do better next time, if I should put trigger warnings on specific chapters, and/or how my readers feel. Would it keep me from making it to the end? Nah, executing and seeing the results are not the same as describing them. The emotions a reader has can change vastly when they experience an event vs. read a description, it's not as fulfilling... or as painful. At least that is my perspective, neither I nor my readers would get the full experience from me describing a major event/ending. I don't know how it would be for other creators though. Lol
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, it's definitely a case by case thing.
DanitheCarutor
Pff yeah, I imagine some people are less anal about execution than I am.
eli [a winged tale]
Great discussions here! If I’m the reader, I’d prefer not to be spoiled and enjoy the story as is. It helps me as both a consumer and a creator to see how the plot twists are planted and revealed. As a beta reader, though, I would need to know the story to give suggestions on how to execute said spoilers but this is more of a creator-to-creator basis. I totally get the itch to share and I think having betareaders/comic confidantes are great for satisfying that need while getting constructive ways to evaluate them.
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Agreed. I think having at least one person within your reader circle who is privy to deeper details can be very helpful, both for editing and for motivation Especially if there are story details that won't be shared for years. It's a good way to prevent 'leakage'
DanitheCarutor
I need to get myself a confidant, not only would it help the itch but talking about it would probably help me better fill in the small details. There was a rl friend I had who got too busy and lost interested, and someone online who I talked to about smaller stuff, but I don't like bothering people. Especially since my comic is sooo... my comic. Lmao!
Gosh, I would be the perfect person for someone to confide in about their comic, I would totally forget about the spoilers after waking up the next day.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
Tbh I don't mind if a story is spoiled to me. I'm the type of person who is like "okay so that's how it ends? How does it get there?" and I would be more upset if the creator spills those important parts that reach the end result. Though, when explaining my comic plots and details to my irl friends and beta readers, it's more of a planning session than things said in stone. Basically if it's something that I've not written down and could be a spoiler, yet I talk about it and those spoiler squeals aren't in the final scripts though. If it's an important detail and is a spoiler, I will withhold that information till the time comes.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I don't know what I'd think because I've never seen a webcomic I liked share spoilers before. I get the feeling that a "serious" writer would keep their twists private because they know they can show their plot better than they can tell it, if that makes sense. Even Sfeer Theory, a comic I really like that iirc did much of its brainstorming online, shut down their old worldbuilding posts once they got their actual comic started.
varethane
Personally, I'm not hugely opposed to spoilers, though it depends on the context. A lot of new webcomics when they're just started out will often only be able to market themselves with illustrations of scenes or dynamics that haven't quite happened yet, just by virtue of being so early on, and that's fine-- though increasingly less necessary the more Comic is released. The only kind of spoiler I might be actively mad about is if a comic whose appeal hingest largely on a central mystery or suspense spoiled The Answer, but I feel like most of the writers creating stories like that are conscious of this and keep that sort of thing under lock. There's also a big reason why I personally try not to share spoilers (and why I try not to put much stock by any spoilers I see posted by other webcomic creators, in case their process is like mine)-- which is that, basically anything that is more than a month ahead of the pages I've already drawn, is very likely to change substantially. I rewrite future plot points all the dang time. So if I shared something as a 'spoiler', there's only a 50/50 chance of that plot point actually coming to pass (unless it's one of the 4/5 big central plot linchpins); any readers waiting for it may come away disappointed, lol.
FeatherNotes(Krispy)
Def agree with Vare on this one. However, sometimes when a writer tells details to the point of no surprise in the comic whatsoever, that usually breaks immersion and interest for me. I've had a couple stories stagnate from having their plots revealed by the writer, and when the story hinges on that being a selling point, it tends to be very dissapointing to have done. Unless the story is character driven/ has characters charming enough to capture readers, i would def avoid spoiling the main plot points of the story if they can
eli [a winged tale]
I feel like anything in act 1 is technically not a spoiler since in books, the blurb encompasses act 1 even the beginning of act 2.
RebelVampire
Once again I'm popping in here to remind people this chat is primarily to talk about experiences as a reader, not as a creator. So let's not go too far into creator territory here.
snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)
It's hard to say how I'd feel because I don't really see writers post, like "X dies in the end" or whatever. Like it's not that common an occurrence, at least for comics I follow. What is common in my experience is creators posting ship art for characters that haven't shown up yet (thus spoiling that these are characters who will show up at some point, and at least have some interaction with each other). And with regards to that... I dunno. Like, my mentality as a reader/watcher of things is that a character doesn't "exist" until I see them in the story. Like, if I see a character in an anime OP, I'll be like "oh that character looks cool, I can't wait until I meet them". That is, I don't consider myself as having "met" them yet - I need the story as context. (for the record, that's true for me as a creator too - i know plenty of creators figure out their OCs' personality & backstory first before figuring out what sort of story they work in, and that's valid, but I can't imagine working like that) So anyway, to me creators posting OC art before they appear in the story is less "oh, i've been spoiled on what these OCs will do" and more "oh, i can't wait to read the story that these characters are involved in"
1 note · View note
luckylikeyou · 3 years ago
Note
it feels rlly weird when people critique fics bc i think a lot of people treat fan creators (in this case fic authors but definitely also artists) like professionals? writing fic is a fun little hobby i sometimes do in my free time and like to share with people, im by no means a professional author looking to hone my craft or anything. idk the way fandom treats fic authors is very weird in general and this is just part of it i think
AGREE!! i know some fanfic writers want to pursue a career writing professionally, and it makes total sense for someone like that to want critique on their work, but i write as a hobby. i dont want or need to make my work perfect because if i did, i would lose the fun i get from writing casually. personally i would never give critique on someones fanwork unless they Ask for it because people create fanworks for free; it is not my place to critique something that has been given to me asking for nothing in return, you know?
0 notes
sunandmoongobrrr · 4 years ago
Text
i think youre discussing the wrong things here.
this doesnt really have to do with lgbtq+ artists or anything like that. the porn ban is DEFINITELY involved but it doesnt really have much to do with the queer community considering this is a het ship we're talking about (not that a lot of zutara shippers arent queer, myself included, but this is far from the only place artists can post this ship's nsfw art).
youre talking about two different effects of the porn ban. One was the major effect everyone saw almost immediately, where lgbtq+ artists were run from the platform and it sucked. But this is a much smaller effect of it where we can't scroll through the zutara tag without seeing tentacle porn lmao. i think if we all as a community decided on a nsfw tag that would bypass the filters, it would basically solve this entire problem (and i highly doubt tumblr would care enough to filter a very specific tag for a very specific community, unless i'm wrong about that). i dont see why nsfw blogs would have a problem with cultivating a tag so minors (and other people that dont want to see it) dont have to see their posts, since its been pointed out that its a problem rn.
the porn itself is not that big of a deal. nobody is trying to get rid of it. notice how every person who wants this stuff gone from the tags is also very pro-ao3 and such. we're not asking for censorship, we're just asking for a way to cultivate our internet experience for us. tumblr was 17+, but the person who started this discourse in the first place is over that age limit. its not just about minors.
But I don’t think we should automatically assume anyone is trying to dismiss anyone’s feelings and voices. I’ve read multiple posts from both sides and there seems to be this conflation between people of color who are talking about racism and white women from the LGBTQ community talking about the harms of puritan culture coming from a site that used to be a safe haven for LGBTQ creators.
Yes, exactly. there are white women trying to use their own experiences to excuse what many east asian fans see as fetishization. its not about purity culture, it's about people of color trying to do whats best for their community and combat stereotypes. but i definitely do agree that there are some hostile people on here that are just posting without thinking about repercussions and you can definitely see how thats working out lmao.
So if you have a problem with people sexual using East Asian men I would start with the white men who drew him and created those scene with that purpose and not people who are reacting as intended.
If we blindly consume media without looking at it through a critical racial lense, we could be missing the exact things east asian zutarians are pointing out to us right now. id say this fandom has done a pretty good job at criticizing the men who drew him, but that doesnt mean we cant critique each other when we see the same thing happening in our own spaces.
anyway, personally i dont mind if anyone writes smut or draws whatever or posts whatever. i think anything anyone is asking for here is like proper tags and stuff that can identify these kind of things. or at least not tagging them in the gen zutara tag.
im not east asian so i clearly dont have a voice in the specific discussion about shirtless zuko sunday or whatever, but ive seen a similar thing happen with the misuse of Katara as a brown woman by white fans, and being brushed off as a woc, and so i'd think its understandable why im more willing to side with them here haha.
Shirtless Zuko Discourse
Okay, I want to start by saying I am a woman of color, specifically Native American and Latina. I am also Demisexual and bisexual. I would also like to emphasize I’m an OG Zutara shipper on Tumblr, meaning before the resurgence, which is essential for what I’m about to say.
The discourse is not really between white women and WOC, but old tumblr and New Tumblr. I’ll explain.
Unfortunately the only ones who has made the majority of posts have been white. But these women are also part of the LGBT community who are also from Pre Renaissance ATLA.
I don’t want to get into the entire history of Tumblr, but, while it was a safe space for fandom it was also a safe space for people part of the LGBTQ community to express their sexuality in media and art without shame before the porn ban.
I find it sad this is happening in pride month of all times. The younger generation might be unaware of what Tumblr meant to the LGBTQ community, but it was never meant to be a site for minors. It was initially 17+.
While I do understand things have changed, it has led to many LGBTQ creators to hide or leave and create a new culture of shame they went to Tumblr to get away from in the first place.
Recently, people have started coming out more open with their preferences and trying to express themselves within the guidelines Tumblr has allowed. It’s not a coincidence. June is pride month and people from the pre renaissance are trying to feel safe in their original community.
We often forget those affected during the NSFW purge, primarily Sex workers and LGBTQ artists who were left without a platform to network. Within the guidelines, creators are still shadow-banned when they do use the correct tags. So even writing smut is impossible to promote even if it is appropriately tagged.
I understand I don’t speak for all POC and that there are people who are upset for valid reasons.
But I don’t think we should automatically assume anyone is trying to dismiss anyone’s feelings and voices. I’ve read multiple posts from both sides and there seems to be this conflation between people of color who are talking about racism and white women from the LGBTQ community talking about the harms of puritan culture coming from a site that used to be a safe haven for LGBTQ creators.
I dont know who is sending those awful asks but I can guarantee it isn’t OP or the event. And if anyone is trying to dismiss your voices as POC and/or as part of the LGBTQ community, fuck them.
Now as for my thoughts on shirtless Zuko:
Shirtless Zuko were pictures created by the creators with the intention of making people thirst over Zuko. So if you have a problem with people sexual using East Asian men I would start with the white men who drew him and created those scene with that purpose and not people who are reacting as intended.
76 notes · View notes
iamyourdoubt · 7 years ago
Note
Doubts tell me; how long could i stay happy and motivated if i was an askblog everyone hates for no other reason that "being a dik" while all i do is trying to make them aware of their potentials mistakes and trying to help them through their Tumblr experience ? Because you see Doubts, sometimes i feel, really deep inside me, that all i do is vain, that the people im trying to help dont listen, and hate me for that. I even feel sometimes that it does affect me. Im not sure if i want to continue.
We’ll start from the top then. If it is validation you came seeking, you likely won’t find it here, just take that as my disclaimer. I’ll also say many people in the communities I take part in do their blogs for fun and aren’t really too concerned with having a perfect art, story, or building the largest following. They might not be seeking critique on these factors. They’re just here for fun and relaxation
Something you may want to consider in the future, as well, is to ask if the artist or content creator is accepting criticism right now before providing it. Not everyone is advertising this. But it helps avoid problems and it’s a simple question to ask.
That said, let’s move to something in the field of interacting with others and why your interactions with these creators may have soured. Something I’ve found from my own experiences, both myself and others, is that if we are the only one that doesn’t think we’re being a dick, we’re probably being a dick. Even if it is just one person, stop and listen, take a moment to consider why someone just said that, what you had just said, and even how you said it. Evaluate yourself. Is that how you would have wanted someone to tell you something? Especially if they are telling you that you are doing something ‘wrong’ or ‘you shouldn’t be doing that.’ Also, try and keep in mind your own biases and beliefs, they might not apply to all situations and some people just have different audiences they appeal to.
If you want an example of how not to go about giving ‘advice,’ an anon recently sent a returning community member an ask that told them that the ask community had been forgetting this member while they were gone dealing with real life and that they should post stuff to get attention again. This could seem well-intentioned to the sender, but that’s not how it reads off. It reads off as callous. Even if not the intent of the sender, it’s still cold and feels more like ‘The only reason people remember you is because you do the thing.’ At best, it was just poorly worded. The well-intentioned, without mindfulness, can come across and crass and heartless. At worst, it was a cold statement to guilt someone into focusing more on their blog then their real life because some anon wanted more updates. 
But ultimately, this is just general advice and thoughts. I can’t provide you with advice specific to your situation or problem, Anon, because I don’t know the details of your communications with others. Hopefully, this helps despite that. If you want anything more specific, you’ll have to come off anon.
Remember everyone, your words resonate with others. They hold weight and impact with them. Try to have empathy and understanding in yours. Try to find the warm ones that build a person up. I’m not saying ‘don’t say something is wrong or off,’ I’m saying ‘don’t be mean about it’ and ask before providing unless they communicate on their blogs they are seeking that advice.
Be excellent to each other.
16 notes · View notes
just-shaladin-things · 7 years ago
Note
i'm seriously tired with some of the creators on this site, especially writers. I know that criticism can be hard to take and some of it can be just 'your writing is bad hurdur' but if you reject a well-put-together criticism of your writing and you sulk over that then you just sound like an overentitled child. we are trying to help you, if you cant take a polite suggestion of how to change your manuscript to make it better, you do not deserve to get your story published. Get over yourself.
i mean,i get the frustration of your critique not being received well but put yourself in their shoes? its not really that easy to get criticised for something you worked on for a really long time. while its not the most mature thing to get angry at it - they have a right to do so (unless they asked for feedback and pull off this shit anyway, then yea, its p unreasonable and shitty.) + take notice of how old the author is, its especially hard to take on criticism when you’re younger and in need of positive attention from other people. 
on the other hand its also good to remember that not every person posting their work, be it artwork or a written piece, does it to learn to do it better or stuff? some ppl just do it for fun and like the way it is right now and dont even want your help. 
3 notes · View notes
fishfingersandjellybabies · 7 years ago
Note
(1/2) Honestly, I haven't read the fic just yet. But I wanted to say three things. 1) you're an awesome writer, dont let anyone tell you other wise. 2)sorry that person missed the point of the story, but cleary they werent reading it too carefully since your character tags only say superfam and batfam. I'm really not sure what they were thinking, asking that. Unless they wanted more content for it?
(2/2) 3) that loser who said that you shouldnt write superfam anymore was just being rude. The way I see it, he has no room to be mean. Like, I don’t see that guy taking time out of his life to write stuff. If he’s not a fan of the style, he doesn’t have to read it. And if he wants to critique someone else’s work, there’s a way to do it politely. Like I don’t always love what some of my favorite writers create, but you don’t have to harass someone just because it’s not up to your “standards”
haha i don’t know if interpreting their comments as asking for more comment makes it better for me. That leads me back to the feeling unappreciated thing I was talking about a few days ago. Like, I’ve written over 300 stories as someone said - and that’s not enough? You’re gonna ask for more? 
And that’s my frustration! Like - there’s so many things in fandom people don’t like, so instead of contributing to fandom in a way they find positive, they just spend their time spreading negativity and continuing to consume things they don’t like. And I’m not saying I’m against constructive criticism, but like...why are you wasting your time? If you don’t like it, move on. The best way to have someone stop creating certain content is to ignore it completely. And even if that doesn’t deter the creator, then block them, so at least you don’t see it. (Especially those folks who send negative comments and keep checking back and commenting more when their opinion or whatever has been deleted or ignored. Get a life and stop making us both miserable.)
But thank you so much, I really really do appreciate your kindness.
4 notes · View notes
pensurfing · 6 years ago
Text
Caitlin’s Three Things List
Okay, so moments (probably hours by the time I finish this) ago I wrote a goals list that I think is good for self-evaluation. (Keyword: This is what I think. results may vary depending on what you’re looking for.)
I’m going to hop to it and answer some of these that I laid out in hopes of having a better idea of what I want to accomplish. 
The Three Things Lists!
1) Three things that went well this year.
* Audience growth
So once upon a time, I grew a pretty decent following due to creating an Inktober Prompt list. My expectations: Maybe two of my friends would do this, maybe. And then one stranger that has followed me for a while. (There are a few followers I recognize their username because if I post something they always like it and for some reason that keeps me going.)
But because of this prompt, I was exposed to MANY new creators and illustrators that I now enjoy chatting with and following! Instagram had the biggest maintained growth. I’m excited to create for an audience that actually expects me to create and not just for friends who see my things “whenever they aren’t busy”. (Not to bash them or anything, just there are a lot where unless I tell them, they don’t see the posts I make.)
Another surge of growth in my audience was due to tabling at conventions this year. I was terrified to show my work let alone attempt to sell it to someone. Tabling at cons not only boosted my confidence but also quieted one of my ever going demons. “YoU sUcK aT dRaWiNg CaItLiN.” “How do you have a degree? oh right, you just barely passed.” I can’t say this is the case, there is an audience that genuinely enjoys my scribbles. So I am forever thankful to Atlanta Comic Con for giving me that chance. It honestly opened a few doors for me.
**Process
I’ve gotten more comfortable with showing my process. It can be messy, crisp, and illogical. But turns out the people who enjoy my content enjoy my scrambled thoughts. It’s something about not being alone in this sort of sense that calms the nerves.
So I can say with chest poked out that sharing process has gotten MUCH better. I can thank a self-help book I bought this year that was a FANTASTIC BUY. Austin Kleon has [two] (currently? If he has more then I’m buying it like people buy a name brand.) books that helped me see that it is GREAT to share not only the process but advice. “Show Your Work” is the book I’m talking about for now. Great tips, the outline is on the back of the book. So if you’re like me, I need to clearly see what I might be getting into, you might have a ball.
And finally, (not calling myself out on this but other) If you’re going to respond to people when they ask you “how do you___?” do not answer “Google it”. That is the rudest thing I’ve seen some of even my FAVORITE illustrators do; that response can burn in hell. PERIODT. (my one typo allowed.)
*** Art Style Exploration
For those who think college will help you establish an art style that you’ll enjoy or help nourish the one you currently have.... Let me save you over 80K.... No, the fuck it won’t.
That was the biggest thought I had going into art school. If anything, it confused me more and utterly destroyed what little confidence I had in my drawing style. After graduating, I had a huge swing from how I used to draw to how my art currently looks. I stopped trying to please the one professor who stood between me and my degree and started drawing to please my tastes. And guess what? That did something. And that something WORKED. I love what I draw now; I see why I chose this as my career path. I’m genuinely happy with how my pieces turn out versus in college just wanting to turn the damn thing in and hoping it isn’t an F.
2) Three things you could have handled better.
* The loss of a good paying client.
Now hear me out when I say this: A good paying client DOES NOT EQUAL a good client. Say that three times and then exhale.
Back earlier this year, I had the opportunity to work with a writer who gave me hell and back. And even that is an understatement. I dealt with her because in school you were taught “if they pay on time, finish the work and get the exposure.” 
I’m here to tell you my lesson learned: A good paying client DOES NOT EQUAL good exposure, good pay, a good client. 
I was doing the work of three for the price of one and a half. (And was always told I charged too much.) She tried abusing this power with friends of mine, with other illustrators. When things turned out bad, she tried saying it was my fault. She read my contract and then tried telling me I changed the wording, I purposely did this thing, another thing was my fault. I could go on with this story.
The part that I wish I handled better?
How I treated myself afterward. I’m so used to people telling me, “Cait, this is what you do wrong. This is how you fix it.” that I don’t consider my own feelings, and when I bring my feelings into the scenario they no longer matter. Because they tell me they don’t matter. In this case, I wish I had treated me better, because my feelings, my mental health, DOES matter.
**My Patience Getting Into Conventions.
Pretty self-explanatory. I got into one, finished one, and wanted to do eight more in a week. But this sort of thing just takes time and I need to accept that.
***My losses
I had to listen to a Little Mix song to actually learn this one. The context of the song is nowhere near the topic at hand. But a verse from Power feat Stomzy really packs a punch after this year: 
“ You look him in the eye and say, "I know I'm not a guy But see there's power in my losses and there's power in my wins" “
I had to look one of my demons in the face, and state something similar. My loses mean I’m trying. My loses piling shows I’m not willing to give up easily, and that is something that took a while to be content with.
3) Three things artistically you want to improve on.
*Composition
It’s not awful, but it can be better.
**Color
I told this BOLDLY if I might add while critiquing someone else’s portfolio; “Your color palette is boring. All your [things] look as if they are from the same universe, during the same time of day, with the same kind of mood. After three photos it’s bland, boring, and understood you have a preference.” 
Can you say damn Cait? The statement was, in fact, true, but I certainly could not talk. My color palette is mainly bright, pop, and happy. In order to tell a story, I KNOW it is best told with color. And I failed myself this year. But I sure won’t next year.
***My Damn Tag
Okay, alright. Why is it well-established artists have their tag figured out? Even some who’s art style is so recognizable (I’m looking HEAVILY at you Gabriel Piccolo.) we know it’s theirs, seem to have a tag that suits them and works for them. But more importantly, they put it in A VERY DECENT SPOT. SOMEONE SHARE THIS SCIENCE WITH ME? CAUSE APPARENTLY I DON’T GET IT.
4) Three things you want to focus on trying.
*More backgrounds.
As much as it pains me, I need to improve on backgrounds and perspective. When I do make backgrounds, I’m told I make great pieces. That I should look into becoming a background artist. And don’t get me wrong, I like them. But I don’t like them.
I feel as though I need to improve in that region so that way I don’t feel as though it’s a weakness of mine. My backgrounds are nice, but they aren’t nice to my standards.
**More designs
I love character designs, but let’s be real. If you were to scroll down my site or my Instagram page, or even this Tumblr archive, could you tell? 
I draw characters a lot sure, but none are designs. No process, no sheets, no turnarounds, none of that. So that’s a huge goal of mine for 2019.
***Scheduling posting
At one point I was pretty good at this. Live stream in Instagram and Twitter, cool. Videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Cool. Everywhere gets a photo, everywhere gets a silly one-liner. Yay. I’m not leaving anything out.
Well by the end of this year that totally crumbled. 
SO I want to try getting better at that thing there. Because having attempted this at the end of the year was cool, but it still wasn’t enough apparently.
5) Three positive things to tell yourself.
* You are an inspiration. That’s all you wanted to be in life, you did it. I’m proud of you.
**You didn’t kill yourself like you tried to; you opened up about it for once and used that pint up anger creatively. That is very hard to do, trust. I’m proud of you.
***You moved on, matured, and let it go. Even when the goddess inside you told you these peasants didn’t deserve your light, your friendship, your greatness. I’m proud of you.
I’m just proud of me for not snapping when I had every right to; not everything deserves a reaction.
6) Three negative things you want to leave for 2018.
*Comparisons 
Oh boy. I am extremely guilty for this: I’ll compare myself to a well-known illustrator my age. I’ll compare myself to friends who are in the field having a blast and getting work; I’ll compare myself to friends who aren’t in the field and they struggle at getting work. I’ll compare myself to the kid I graduated high school with who is traveling the world, is able to eat, come home to his dog and relax because he doesn’t have tuition to pay. I’ll compare myself to these goddamn baby boomers who keep repeating “We didn’t have it hard, you’re just being stupid. Millennials aka our children deserve to starve. We’ll just put our faith in our grandchildren because screw the kids we raised and refuse to pay accordingly. $7 an hour worked in my day, they need to make it work now.” I’ll compare myself to fake people I created in my head and purposely made scenarios and wonder why I’m not like them, said creations I made because I was pretty low for ten minutes...
I just compare myself too much. To any damn body. It’s draining, obnoxious and most of all pointless. My new motto for next year is: “Unless it is helping you grow yourself, your brand, your spirituality, don’t do it.”
I’m not comparing my chapter two to someone’s chapter thirty-five. I’m not even comparing my chapter two to someone else’s chapter two. I need to stop doing that PERIOD! My journey is different, unique, and worth seeing through.
**Listening to negative others.
A couple of years ago, I lost a close friend around the time my aunt passed away. During this time I was hypersensitive to any and everything done or said; I also kept many walls up to hide my mourning. He caught the crossfire of all of that. I kept secrets from him I was too prideful of admitting and lashed out because of the emotional turmoil I kept suppressed. While in the midst of packing his things and leaving my life, he mentioned that I was a failure because I was unemployed and artistically speaking I hadn’t accomplished anything; that I would remain that way because that’s just the person I deserved to be. Now mind you, I graduated college that year; he was a flunk out. I changed my art style dramatically compared to when I started school to pass; he thought just posting crappy pictures of lukewarm sketches were equivalent. I started attempting trends and all he could do was copy. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to bash my old friend. If he were to come back into my life and move on like nothing had happened I’d do the same. (With some limitations.)
It’s just while typing out this scenario, of our four-year friendship I can’t think of one nice thing/compliment/gesture he has said to me. That’s my problem.
I can be praised, admired, and look highly upon for years straight. But my problem is I let others negative thinking and comments marinate with me for a long while. Too long of a while.
Another example is my mother’s friend. (My mom has many friends that do this shit, but this one stung more.) 
This friend always roots for me; treats me like a person, and encourages my artistic journey. I consider her family before my actual relatives. 
We went over for some barbeque the family was having and I was ready. Black Hallmark Cookouts, laughing, good food, good music, shit talking others teams. She asked me a harmless question of when was I going to quit my day job. Seemed like nothing at first, until the added gest of what she continued with. “All I’m saying is you can’t do [your day job] forever. That will get old. If the art thing doesn’t work out next year what’s plan b?”
I’m not a calm person (usually). Normal Caitlin would have cursed her out and mentioned how just because she chose a job to settle and be miserable at for most of her life doesn’t mean I have to follow suit. But again, of all the nice encouraging things she has done, said, and showed, for a while, I couldn’t think of it. 
So I pray I let go of this nasty behavior in 2018; it’s going to be hard but it is dire.
***Saying I’m Not Enough
Alright, now put the combination of the two above in a bowl and what do you get? A Caitlin who struggles in interviews and applying for jobs because I let comparisons and negative comments rule my thoughts. This stopped me from applying to jobs I would have been perfect for; internships that could have helped me; posting art online.
We (including me) have to stop thinking that in order to be an illustrator means we have to pass a certain threshold of struggle, success, and a huge number of followers. That isn’t the job description. NO JOB DESCRIPTION has ”must have at least 10K followers on Instagram or Twitter.” nOnE. 
So we (including me) need to stop treating ourselves this way. Period.
7) Three things you’re looking forward to in 2019.
*Going to move conventions.
**Adding pieces to my portfolio to try again at job hunting.
***Becoming content with the fact that my current situation isn’t my permanent situation. Unless I laze around and make it so.
Alright, so this was basically me calling myself out on my noise. Lashing out my demons and putting it in writing what I want to accomplish. I hope this inspires you to write yours, even if you keep it private. I hope it guides you and maintains your vision.
I’ll see you in 2019
A new wave
Caitlin xx
0 notes
comicteaparty · 5 years ago
Text
November 9th-November 15th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive
The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from November 9th, 2019 to November 15th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:
How do you deal with a lack of engagement from your audience, both emotionally and physically?
IzzyNinjaMaster
Oooo now that's a good question. If my online audience doesn't respond, I personally always show any new page updates to my family and friends and get feedback and comments from them. Really great for support. But sometimes their not available or I don't have anything new to show them. When this happens, I just look to myself for support. I know that doesn't really make sense or sounds kinda cheesy but it's what I do. I get myself pumped up and excited for what I can do next in the story and how awesome it will look all drawn out. And I go from there, I'll start drawing out ideas or writing out new chapters. So just be your own hype man, not just with your comics either but with everything. Great for self esteem.
Sorry went on kind of a rant right there
carcarchu
I prepare myself emotionally to not have any expectations. If you expect nothing and receive something you'll always be happy!
IzzyNinjaMaster
Lol true very true XD
Deo101
I'm not completely sure what this question means by physically, but I just kind of keep making art to move past it. Something that has helped me a TON is to make art that's just for me (like, that I don't post anywhere). I think that if everything is made to be shared, then we get a little too used to trying to find validation with engagement. With comics, specifically, I try to make none of my goals relate to engagement. I only have goals for myself and what i'm producing. If I'm hitting all of my goals, then I feel good about what I'm doing! No one engaging with it is just kind of like "okay!" Another smaller thing that helps me is getting my work done well before I upload it! for some reason just getting a bit of time distance between when something is done and when I post it I dont feel so bad if people don't engage.
Cronaj
I'm fairly lucky that I have a small following on one of the sites I post on, so while some weeks might be slow with feedback or engagement, I'm usually not completely devoid. I also have some very supportive family members who read my comic and often comment or text me after I update. As for what I do personally when I don't have a lot of engagement? I do a lot of self-reflecting, which is probably not the healthiest of practices. I question what I'm doing, trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong and how I could improve. I also try to understand other external factors at play, such as my readers' personal lives, jobs, school, holidays, that might have delayed them from engaging with my work. For example, I know that during November, as we get closer to Thanksgiving, there is going to be a huge drop in readership, because a lot of my younger readers will be preparing for school finals and visiting with family. By knowing this, it helps me cope a lot better. And if all else fails, I vent to my fiance or my little sister. It really does help to have someone to whine at for a bit
khkddn
If I were to get completely zero engagement on something I'd do what I'd always do, message people I know irl like "validate meeeeeeee"
In general I just take a step back from what I've posted and focus on something else. That way I remember webcomics isn't everything, and by the time I check up on things again there might be some sort of audience response.
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I kept my work hidden for the first few years I was working on it (wanted to iron out any wrinkles before I was comfortable sharing) so in comparison, any engagement afterward - even a tiny amount - is pretty great! And even now, some updates get more traffic than others, for a lot of different reasons. Luck, timing, quality, etc. I always keep in mind that this project is - at its heart - for me and my own enjoyment/fulfillment. And if I’m pleased with where it’s going, that’s a win.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Oof, that question really hit me where it hurts. Over the years I’ve lowered my expectations, because while I used to have an active audience in the ‘00s, I’ve rarely gotten any engagement on my comics in the ‘10s. It’s definitely made me feel depressed and like a ‘failure’ to put heart and soul into my comics and art and get 0 reaction online. I honestly don’t have any way I ‘deal’ with it. I make something, hoping to get some comments > I get no comments > I get depressed about it and feel like my work is garbage. Rinse and repeat several hundred times. I keep going because I just love to create, but it’s like an actor trying to put on a performance and no one shows up to the play. It has gotten better lately and I’ve started getting some engagement for the first time in many years, but I honestly don’t have a good answer for how I handle that emotional reaction to reader silence.
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Also good to keep in mind that lots of people may read without commenting, and still enjoy it! I did a poll wondering who would be interested in doing guest art, and way more people responded than I expected. It opened my eyes! Sometimes you just can’t tell until you outright ask for feedback
keii4ii
There's definitely a risk to that, though. You ask and still get nothing. Or worse, you ask and get negativity. Asking is a worthy gamble, but it takes courage! Sometimes when we don't have enough courage, we gotta find it elsewhere first, before we can try that gamble...
I lost that gamble one too many times and need more Courage Fund before I can try again, lol
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
True true! It was a gamble I had no real expectations/assumptions about, so I didn’t have much room for disappointment. Even getting one person who says “This is cool!” is enough to fuel me for days. But I know that’s not how it is for everyone. Once you’ve been disappointed once, it can take a while to get the urge to try again. I can’t imagine getting negativity, though... I think THAT would wreck me.
keii4ii
Sometimes I don't even ask and someone just randomly drops negativity off at my doorstep... I need to remember that I have also had wonderfully positive responses, that it wasn't all negative. But it can be hard to remember that on bad days.
Deo101
Yeah, negative comments always seem to be the loudest ones... They can drown out dozens of good ones if they hit you right.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I did develop a pretty thick skin for negativity in art school, which was really fortunate because my comics garnered a lot of negative attention at first. Though thinking back on it, I was making very androgynous and gender non-conforming characters (even though I never stated anywhere that they were queer) in a time when the public attitude towards such things was far less kind than it is today. At the time it was draining to get so many trolls, but unless I was already having emotional difficulties in other areas of my life, I was able to let it roll off.(edited)
keii4ii
The weirdest thing with my negativity is 99% of them come from actual readers who mean well. So I have a hard time dismissing them like 'oh they're just haters.' It's not necessarily harder than dealing with blatant trolls, but it is an entirely different beast.
Deo101
Sometimes I go and reread positive comments when I'm down about things
Yeah I'm not sure that I've had any trolls tbh... Its all readers saying what they think
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Avid readers who give backhanded compliments and ‘well-meaning’ but very subjective critique can definitely be detrimental.
keii4ii
In Korea, I dunno if they're still a thing, but 1-2 decades ago there was this type of theft called slash theft. It's a type of pickpocketing, done on the street while walking by. They bump into you, briefly and lightly, but you don't think much of it because Seoul is a crowded city and you brush against other people all the time. But during that brief bump, they manage to slash open your purse and take all the contents. It's an amazing ninja level skill for sure. I know people who had their stuff stolen that way. Back to the Courage Fund analogy, sometimes a negative comment isn't just a normal theft of your Fund. The comment slashes your purse open, and now your bag can't contain Fund even if you put more and more into it.
It can take a long time and lots of support to sew your purse back.
Deo101
Idk if other places to slash theft, im sure they do, but im pretty sure historically its been a big thing. The term "cutpurse" comes to mind
keii4ii
(:o I didn't know that was a term! The more you know)
Deo101
(some book i read (wasn't great but you know) used the term a lot and i was like "ok wtf is this")
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
That’s a very good analogy for it, and I definitely understand what you mean. I had to take a three year hiatus from one of my comics once after a IRL ‘friend’ ripped the comic apart and called me a terrible writer in less-than-kind words. I had already been going through some very bad things with my health and family and it hurt me far more than it should. It took some encouragement from some very dedicated readers to convince me to pick up the comic again.
Deo101
(so i associate it with pirates now)
That's really terrible lee... Om glad you picked it back uo though!!!
keii4ii
I can super relate to harsh comments hurting way more than they should, when you're already in a bad state. >_<
Deo101
And also it is a really good analogy keiiii
Yeah things just kinda get harder to deal with in general when you're more tired/upset in other areas
keii4ii
The most devastating feedback I've got would have done far less damage if I weren't in a fragile state at the time.
Deo101
Like you can't go be safe elsewhere if everything is a source of stress...
keii4ii
(For all we know those slashers in Korea could be pirates )
Deo101
:o
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Does Korea have pirates? If so, I’m moving to Korea.
(Sorry, we’ve probably gone way off topic for the discussion)
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I got antsy when someone made a small critique of my lettering (rightfully so, though - lettering is hard and I’m still learning) so a proper heart-stabbing, bad-faith critique might sideline me for a while. Gotta be prepared for that someday
Deo101
Its weird, it really seems to be mostly about how I'm doing elsewhere in life now that im thinking about it. Also being further along in the comic helps cause I've got years of support and "just keep chuggin" under my belt
Like the other day someone critiqued me randomly and called my characters stupid and i was like "dam ok, your comment getting deleted then" but a year or so ago a comment like "I'm sorry im a little confused..." Made me second guess everything for weeks
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Ohhh Maybe the obviously mean/troll comments are easier to deal with, than feeling you let down a reader who was genuinely trying to understand the story. I would definitely react similarly.
Deo101
Iunno, the big old critique was a normal reader who has left other comments he jusy kinda randomly did it. But yeah I think it can be easier to shrug off things that are CLEARLY antagonistic versus someone being harmlessly confused
Because confusion can mean I'm not being clear enough and need to change things and whatever. Its vague in a way that hits your anxiety
keii4ii
Yeah, when someone is obviously being a jerk, you know it's on them
omg... reader confusion has been the bane of my existence
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I dunno, man, art school just toughened me up to most negative comments. If one person out of five is confused, I don’t take it personally and just explain it to them to clear up confusion. If everyone’s confused I think ‘Hmm, maybe I should retcon in some dialogue to make it more clear’. I guess art school really teaches you to distance yourself from your work and be very objective about it. BUT as I said, I’m not immune when other bad things are going on and it becomes the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Deo101
Though THEN you kinda get like "why am I being a target???" And its very frustrating, at the very least, and it does definitely still hurt... (Wrt trolls)
keii4ii
It's hard to tell who's confused and who isn't sometimes
Deo101
Yeah Lee im in art school right now, but for me its different when I make something to be critiqued versus a passion long term project
If I am asking for critique too, im braced for it in a way I'm mentally prepared for. Im not always braced to have someone be like "its pretty good buuut..."
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Ahh, I can understand that. I guess I’m able to view my passion projects the same way I did my school projects. It took time, that’s for sure. It’s a process of desensitisation, and was something I had to build up over years.
keii4ii
I'm disproportionately sensitive about reader misinterpretations/confusion. I'm 95% sure it's because one bad experience. Someone thought my main story was garbage, but they liked parts of it, so they told me to basically make a different story using those parts. After that, every time a reader didn't recognize the main story (I got a very prominent B plot, so it's kinda understandable that some people mistake it as the A), I got vivid flashbacks of that one bad experience. Every time someone said they liked [this character that The Other Person liked], I got flashbacks. Took me good 2-3 years to get over it.
Deo101
Its also a lil different when it's like.. i wont be changing these pages so unless it's a critique for moving forward its kinda pointless and i cant really apply it
Damn keiiii that's really rough
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, that sucks.
keii4ii
Yeah, it's hard to be motivated when the underlying message is "your first 100 pages are hot garbage, but you can still improve........ even if readers will give up long before they get to the decent 101st page!"
Deo101
RIGHT...
I don't want to have to preface "check out my comic!" Wirh "i promise it gets better..."
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
COUGH That’s exactly why I’m reduxing Eryl’s hot garbage beginning right now COUGH
Also because I’m a masochist and perfectionist.....
keii4ii
I think "it gets better" is fine when it's a reader reccing it. (I remember some of my friends reccing multi-season anime series to each other, going, "it gets better after season 1") But yeah, as the author we can't be the ones saying it.
Deo101
Mhm.
And I'm still hapoy with my old pages. I know I could do them better now but they're perfectly fine and they get the job done so... Idk its just hard when someone is like "wow two years ago you made a mistake, :/"
Like. Yeah, duh... I've spent like a thousand hours on pages theres gonna be some mistakes
keii4ii
It took me a long time to realize that Flaws =/= Problems
Deo101
I'm learning and getting better youre gonna have to bare with me here
Nutty (Court of Roses)
are you kidding i still get crit on stuff i made TEN years ago
Deo101
Mhm
keii4ii
omg
Deo101
Well its not a competition
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Same, Nutty
Nutty (Court of Roses)
True sorry ;;
Deo101
Ur name just changed colors keiiii
You: flaws =/= problems Your name: im ascending
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I think...learning how to like not be bothered by negativity that much is a skill. Super freaked out one time when someone said they didn't know what's going on when reading HotV whoops
(turned out they just had to re-read a bit and it was just webcomics being webcomics)
Deo101
I had a group of readers say they were co fused and one person asked me to explain the last 2 chapters and i was like "holy shit am i being this unclear????"
Its stressful for sure
Nothjng wrong with being concerned with ut
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Keiiii has reached a new plane of existence. The blue is unrefutable proof
Deo101
Its something you're passionate about and you want to be as good as it can be
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Yeah...
Deo101
So any critique, regardless of validity will be something you WANT to consider
Which is fine and theres nothing wronf with taking things to heart like that
But also if youre Happy with it that's all that matters
You gotta be your #1 fan kinda thing
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I'm personally super uh...yeah I am having a hard time dismissing criticism
even if it's in bad faith, haha.
keii4ii
The #1 fan thing sometimes reminds me of that scene from Lilo & Stitch
The scene of Lilo's rag doll. It's been years since I watched it, so memory's a bit fuzzy, but I think all the kids were showing off their dolls, and Lilo wanted to show off hers too
but the other kids didn't like her homemade-looking doll, and it made her sad, almost not like her doll for a moment
but she picks up the doll again afterward
There are days where I relate to that. I never not-love my story and my characters, but sometimes I feel like everyone else has a low opinion of it, you know?
and I'm like lonely Lilo hugging her rag doll in the sad corner
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Yeah I totally get that and...loving what you do first and foremost is really important. I don't think in a medium like webcomics you would be able to keep going
keii4ii
I'll always love my Doll but I do wish this little corner weren't so lonely, kinda thing
Deo101
I feel that keiiii
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Hmm
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
When the ‘critique’ is detrimental it does become a problem. Like that ‘friend’ I was talking about earlier who bashed Eryl to bits. He told me to ‘read some Stephen King’ to learn how to write. I was making a high fantasy story, not a horror story. The writing of a horror author is simply not applicable to building a good fantasy adventure story. That’s when I knew he was full of shit. But the damage had been done, and I lost all motivation for the project for years.
keii4ii
uuugh, I'm so sorry that it happened to you D:
Deo101
Also this story is one that i have dropped and picked up SO many times, and its wildly changed over and over, and so i worry a lot im not making it in its final form, i suppose. I worry i started it too young, and so critique of the older parts hits that anxiety
Wow lee that's terrible...
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Gosh...
Deo101
Also you can't really compare Novel writing to comics imo. The structure can be compared but...
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I think HotV is like a project I've worked on since...2008? And it changed with me and I feel pretty confident that it's in its final stage.
keii4ii
and not every story needs to be a Stephen King story
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
But yeah, you can really not compare writing for novels to writing for comics wth
nah
tbh it's weird (I like King personally) but his stories and also his writing do have flaws too so
what
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I actually do use novels as a source to study how to construct my comics. But! Studying the right genre is important. I’ve the feeling the only books that guy read were Stephen King, so that’s the only kind of story he was familiar with.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
God when I was still developing a picture I did got featured somewhere and someone criticised the way I did knees and linked to the picture of another artist going: Hey draw knees like that
Deo101
Every story will have flaws, its impossible to make one that is perfect. Well. Its impossible to make a story thats perfect for everyone. So alk you can do is try to make a story thats perfect for you!
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Agreed, Deo
keii4ii
^ THAT REMINDS ME
Deo101
Omg
keii4ii
(going back to the original question) With no response, or negative response, one thing that helps me is hearing other people gush about their beloved unpopular stories!
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Hmmm
Deo101
!!!!!! Me too!!!!!!!!!
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I am having this problem and went to ask on twitter what ppl loved about their projects
and that's really uplifting somehow
Deo101
I LOVE reading other comics and just seeing how much passion is in them its like a light
keii4ii
I need to remember that just because someone, or even a lot of someones, thinks a story is trash, doesn't make it the universal truth
Deo101
^^^
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I WILL GUSH ALL DAY BOUT MY BELOVED UNPOPULAR STORIES and once you open that damn I am unstoppable. You will regret it, trust me.
keii4ii
And people gushing about their unpopular favorites is an excellent way of reminding myself
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
hehe
Deo101
I have been very lucky and have had a few incredibly kind people who i can remember fondly when i worry my story isnt reaching people. I Know it has touched a few lives, and if it makes even ONE person happier (even if thay person is me) then im doing my job and its worth all the time and effort.
That was kind of off topic i swear it connected in mt mind
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Absolutely
I feel it's connected
Deo101
Phew
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
bc hmm it's a way to deal with times when there is not much engagement?
Deo101
Aha! There we go yes :)
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I do generally write very off-beat, unpredictable stories because I like reading / watching those kinds of things. A lot of my favourite movies bombed at the box office because they weren’t formulaic, which was what I loved about them.(edited)
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Remind yourself that there is people who enjoy what you do and who are happier bc of it C:
Deo101
Mhm ^^
Also i have my characters on a shirt so i can just wear that and be like "fuck yeah. I have a shirt. It cant be a bad comic if I've got merch babeyyyy"
Which admittedly is a very odd way of dealing with anxiety
But like.... You should get your Characters on a shirt.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
dfhwioufheuf Deo that's cool tho
I made so many like...background designs and posters for HotV and some of those I WANT ON A SHIRT
Oh I think what also helps me is to find a friend and just talk about the comic?
Deo101
The place i use lets you get up to 6 items a month as a sample order and it's severely discounted my shirt was like $15
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I should do that. I have designed some T-shirts but that wasn’t for personal stuff.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
omg
keii4ii
I'm actually in the (long) process of re-learning how to talk about my comic
Deo101
And yeah for sure having people i csn talk with/joke with about my comic helps soooo much
Like the fact that i know these 5 people will get my jokes like this
THAT helps a TON
These people actually are the reason I was confident enough to be able to start after having a bad friend drive me to almost drop the story for good
So having their support is probably one of the biggest things thst helps if no one else engages.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Okay, so on the original subject of ‘How to deal with no feedback’ I do talk about my stories a lot with my two best friends. They are my biggest fans and my sounding boards. They let me go on and on about plot threads in my comics and it’s one of the main reasons I keep going. Even when I get 0 reaction online, I still have two people who I know are reading the comic and think I should keep going.
Deo101
Or like, when my family is being homophobic about my work kinda thing. Friends are good for that...
Yessss lee having people you can talk with about it is SO good
keii4ii
ngl, I'm jelly of those of you who have go-to support friends who are genuinely into your story! That's something I hope to have some day, myself
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t know whether to give a sad react for homophobic family or a happy react for supportive friends
Deo101
Happy react ^^
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Still sorry about your homophobic family tho, but your friends sound awesome
Deo101
Yeah but :> I know I'm doing good work. Again those few people who i know my story has touched.. i know I'm doin good work.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
@keii4ii Just know I’ve been an acid fan of your comics for over 10 years and honestly think they’re some of the best comics I’ve ever read
AVID
NOT ACID(edited)
keii4ii
Hey acid is important too
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
GOD MY PHONE
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
hiodcnioefwe acid
love this
I have one friend who has supported me since 2007 and I can always count on her freaking out about my comics Y_Y
so when I feel especially bad I turn to her
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
My phone is old and the keyboard lags and autocorrects like AAAAARGH(edited)
Deo101
Its okay same here lee
Typo club babeyyyy
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I have to edit almost every comment I make THANKS A LOT PHONE
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
shakes fist at ur phone to be more kind
I can't type on phone at all so...
keii4ii
Yeah, swipe-typing is high level sorcery to me
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
As someone who’s normally a grammar freak it causes me great pain that my texting is a syntactical disaster.
Deo101
I've been doing swipe a bit lately so it doesn't hurt my hands to text (I Tex too much)
keii4ii
This actually makes me wonder
What are some good, safe(ish) ways to reach out to people who may be 1000% willing to become that Support Pillar for your comic?
Deo101
I just straight up start doing it
keii4ii
For all I know they exist. But.. Schrödinger's pillar
Deo101
And gague the reaction
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
As an antisocial gremlin who hides under a rock, I have no idea.
Pakky
never hurts to ask
keii4ii
@Pakky You would be surprised
Deo101
Start sharing art, see if theyre curious, get deeper if they're good with it, kinda thinf
I've got friends who like to see my art but don't really care about my comic, and you kinda just gotta take it case by case
Pakky
mm fair enough, i always try to be supportive of content creators mostly because i would hope for the same in return. theres a lot of bluntness in my industry so if you do well you get praise but if you do poorly, you very well know it :/
keii4ii
Me: "Thank you for supporting my humble comic!" (this wasn't even asking, just thanking) Reader: "Well, your comic isn't that good." Me: "?????????"
Deo101
Wh
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I’ll be honest, on the rare occasion a reader starts trying to get really close to me, my dumb brain freaks out and I put some distance in because I have Issues for days.
Pakky
thats just rude on their part
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
what
holy fuck
keii4ii
I've Been Burned
omg, that question mark react is so appropriate
Deo101
I've chatted with some readers here or there but I don't know if id wanna use them as a support pillar
I kind of have trained myself to think readers as fickle.
If they get sick of my story, theyre allowed to leave
They dont owe me their time or energy and them being here is a gift
So I'll chat and stuff and answer questions but unless someone is my friend i will not lean on them for support.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Honestly it’s happened that I’ve gad readers try to get really close or be my sounding board, and I think they were just trying to be enthusiastic and supportive but my stupid broken brain always panics and goes WARNING STALKER ALERT WARNING ABORT ABORT.
Deo101
Hey better safe than sorry
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
juppp
Deo101
I'll chat but i wont give personal information and im not gonna like, get all into spoiling everything im planning lmao.
If someone asks me a question thats a spoiler ill answer it in private
But bringing raw ideas up for help... I need very specific people for thst.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
The thing is they weren’t even being creepy or trying to get really personal. They were just very friendly and I apparently can’t handle that. ><
Deo101
The friend group i get writing helo on are all writers, and they all understand my vision. They don't write stories like mine, i dont write stories like theirs, and we all fully understand our suggestions may go unfollowed.(edited)
Also whoever put the eye emoji yeah if u have a question straight up dm me and I'll answer.
keii4ii
It's okay, your comfort is important. If you want to be more open, you can work on that. But not everyone has the same comfort level and that's okay too
Deo101
Yes! Its all about what you're comfortable with
But I've personally got a small curated group of writers/artists who all circulate our work between eachother
Which i know is very rare.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Same, Deo...helped me a lot and I also know who to turn to when I'm down about engagement
Deo101
Mhm ^^
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
(also they are all perceived better than me so I believe them if they say sth nice)
Deo101
Omg
That group of people have done SO much for me honestly. Im thinking about them. I love my friends.
Also dont worry its nit all about me they also talk about and we help their work too i wanna be sure thats clesr
keii4ii
I figured it was all mutual! but now that you've said it's not all about you I'm suddenly imagining The Cult of Deo
That is 10000000% wonderful though
Deo101
I walk in and I'm like "y'all check out this new millennium lore" and they all take their hoods off and start scouring it for plotholes
keii4ii
Whilst sitting in a circle (a magic circle to be exact)
Deo101
Of course of course
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Damn, that’s awesome! I only see my friends every few months so I dump a lot of plot on them all at once, and it’s harder for them to give really detailed critique. XD
Deo101
Oh, I do this all online
Irl I sit down with my sister and we talk for 4 hours and Lose our voices LMAO
Cronaj
Good convos literally ALWAYS happen while I'm at work
keii4ii
I'm still here
Cronaj
Good, because it made me sad when you said you didn't have a support pillar
And that readers are fickle (which can be true)
But I don't think you know how much I love your comic
keii4ii
I'm seriously honored! I still fear that maybe people are not seeing the story I'm trying to tell, and are following the comic for some other reasons (which is valid, just not what I'm trying to achieve). But hey, I'll never find out if I don't keep going, right?
kayotics
keiiii, i love your comic and i think it's beautiful in many ways, not just the art
but also, on the topic of lack of engagement... I'm pretty fortunate in that my spouse is always really supportive of my comic, so when I need a little pep talk I can always ask them
sssfrs
I’m trying to collect as much negative feedback as I can so that I’ll know my comics strengths and weaknesses and I’ll be prepared to take criticism as it comes in the future. It is pretty frustrating having no response or fanbase right now but I started my comic pretty recently and theres still time for growth
Glowbat (Aloe)
when you're collecting feedback be mindful that there's a difference between constructive criticism and people being unhelpful and simply telling you they don't like your work
the latter wont do anything but bruise your self confidence(edited)
keii4ii
Yeah, and sometimes even well-meaning critiques can miss the point too, like if it comes from someone who thinks your work should be X, when it is intended to be Y. Easy example: My previous comic was a depressing drama centering around a terminally ill young woman and her doctor, and once someone told me I "needed more fight scenes." It wasn't even an action comic! In that case, the lack of fight scenes was not a weakness. It simply meant the comic wasn't for that person.
DanitheCarutor
On the topic of lack of engagement. My answer is really boring, but I just keep working on my comic regardless of how much/little engagement it gets. I never intended or expected to have an audience to begin with since my comic has sooo many problematic elements in it, whenever I get feedback it's super nice! Always a surprise, like seeing the machine light up when winning $500 on the penny slots! (In a way, getting engagement is kinda like gambling. You post a page and you may or may not win some comments in return... Not equating real people to items to win, of course!) Admittedly, if there is a page I feel would cause reaction but I get nothing, it is a little sad. It's not the end of the world, though! I got a story to tell, and as long as I can still draw I'm content.
kayotics
i relate to that a lot, Dani. I also never intended to make the comic for anyone but me, so the fact that anyone reads it is really exciting to me.
Cronaj
@keii4ii (Potentially off-topic, but is there somewhere to read your other comic(s)? Or are they all in Korean?)
DanitheCarutor
@kayotics Every so often I look at my reader base and think "Man, there are people into this kind of stuff??" It's an almost surreal feeling.
kayotics
Yeah I get it! I wouldn’t say mines too out there but there’s so many other fantasy dnd inspired comics out there that they could read that I’m surprised they even glance at mine.
AntiBunny
How do I deal with it? Usually experience a series of emotions such as "how hard is it to leave one little comment you losers?" Then "Who am I kidding, no one is reading this, I'm creating into a void," and finally pry a few comments from people who know me personally, reassure myself that I create out of a compulsion to tell my stories even if no one's reading, and start the process all over for next week. Not exactly a healthy method I admit.
keii4ii
@kayotics There is only one Toivo out there
@Cronaj aaaa the previous one was in English. But I would not recommend it It's unfinished (though it does have more than 600 pages IIRC) and honestly really rough.
kayotics
@keii4ii true....... one weird wizard boy
Cronaj
Dang... I LOVE medical stories. I'm seriously addicted to them. @keii4ii
keii4ii
I enjoy them too and I appreciate your interest!
Cronaj
scours the internet for the lost records
keii4ii
The site layout is also broken so yeah...
I guess another thing I do is try to comment more on other people's comics, to rec them publicly, etc. Being the change I want. I don't do this as often as I want, but I think/hope even the little bit I do counts.
mathtans
Heh, I'm basically with Cap'n Lee in terms of a cycle. I think part of my issue is I won a fanfic competition in 2004, and it's kind of been downhill since. I've posted regularly to a serial site for over 4 years, accumulating 300 posts, and last month it had 100 total views... there's been 2 comments since March.
On the actual comic side though (not serial) I've relaunched it more than once, and tried to flag the more recent index as a starting point. And yeah, just hold on to the few good comments, like the guy who applauds me for continuing to post even though I only have 10 people following on Tapas.
These days, of course, I'm too darn BUSY to really think much about the lack of engagement. So one solution might be to get married and have a kid. Then you're just happy when you manage to get content out, never mind if anyone remarks on it.(edited)
Mharz
Popping here just to answer the question becos it's interesting. The lack of engagement was a bane in my existence and honestly one of the factors why I had to see a psychiatrist. My doctor told me I have self-esteem issues which leads me to seek validation from strangers. This is the first thing I work on. I have to be confident enough to not break even if nobody likes my stuffs. Which means I have to love myself first. (People prolly see me as vain at this point) Second thing I do is keep a mentality of "nobody has to care. They have things going on as well" which helps me appreciate the small percentage of people who actually took the time to engage, talk, and be friends with me. I also try to put a positive spin on it. "Nobody cares therefore I can make as much noise on my social media as I want and no one will bother criticizing becos nobody cares." If people unfollow, it's on them. It just means they're not really a fan of my work and I shouldn't waste my time. And if my mental illness is too much, then I will disconnect from the online world a bit. Treat myself. Do something fun like gaming and baking and hang out with friends IRL if possible.
Mharz
I sometimes think it's karma on my end becos I'm so vain, I rarely get interested in anything so I'm not really a fan of many stuffs so that is something I accepted as well.
AntiBunny
Perhaps being a webcomic author sort of goes hand in hand with needing validation.
MJ Massey
OH BOY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT A LACK OF ENGAGEMENT?!
over the past week, I got 24 users. Granted, I didn't update, so that's probably why
So this is a four month overview of my website traffic. I hit a high of 184 unique users in August, and after that it plummeted to just barely over 100. And I hadn't really done anything different
I have never really gained a lot of traction with my comics. I'll admit that Black Ball definitely has more appeal than my last comic, so I have slowly been building an audience with it, but it's still been very slow. Sometimes it feels like I have to adhere to some extra set of rules while others can just throw up their comic on Tapas and have instant success. Of course, that's not the case at all
the key is to remember "why am I doing this? isn't it because I love making comics?!"
and to keep on pushing, keep up that hustle, and enjoy the ride. Make great content and it will be rewarding in and of itself
carcarchu
I'm not really sure it's as simple as simply throwing something up on tapas and getting instant success. there's a lot of work that goes behind every comic even if you don't perceive it
MJ Massey
well yes of course, I'm just saying sometimes it SEEMS like that
I'm a marketing professional, so I know there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes
Glowbat (Aloe)
theres, i think, a lot of factors in certain comics gaining traction faster than others that are mostly out of a creator's control. on mirror sites like webtoons or tapas you have to factor that more attention is given to certain genres and art styles over other because of what that crowd likes. if they're into slice of life romances in anime-esque styles then someone who writes fantasy mysteries in a more western influenced style may not get as much love as they deserve
its tough out there
ive been fairly fortunate to gain a steady bit of followers on tapas but on webtoons my reader engagement and subs are significantly lower
Glowbat (Aloe)
i chalk it up to the type of crowd
MJ Massey
I've been analyzing my audience and my work and have a hypothesis that my work just works better in bulk format. I think 2020 will be a year of transitioning into bulk distro instead of the page at a time format
and see if that helps. As well as some new marketing techniques and getting back into the con circuit
Kabocha
A lack of engagement... This is definitely... a topic. I feel like, sure, one's general marketability in any given platform will definitely make it easier or harder to attract an audience, but on the other hand? It's also worth making sure you kinda figure out what you want out of webcomics. Some people have been working on their projects (or existing within a fandom) for years - decades, even at this point, which can be a big boost to initial readership on a new project! Other people just have the advantage of being able to sit down and advertise, or having someone do that for them. Personally, though. I went in not expecting to get an audience, and for a long time, actively avoided even having a comment section on my site. I just enjoy making comics and creating things - and if it happens to make someone happy, that's awesome. But comics and art aren't the only thing I do in my life that make me happy, and I've found engaging other people directly about things like comic craft and resources to be about 100x more fulfilling than posting comics themselves. (And it is fun, sometimes, to gush about my OCs and how dumb they can be.) But how do I cope with it? Eh, it's honestly not a big deal to me. It feels less stressful in some regards, because the dayjob can get hella hectic, and trying to balance "OH GOD COMICS" with "OH GOD THE SERVERS NEED PATCHED ALL NIGHT TONIGHT" can be.... interesting.
(But oh god, I will admit, having someone come up to me and say, "I read your thing or used your photoshop/csp brushes" can be incredibly motivating. But other days, I have to be my own motivation, so...)
kayotics
Sometimes it’s helpful to keep a list of really nice comments or to write down memories of when someone told you they like your work. This can take a while to gather but if someone says something nice about your work, keeping it somewhere safe for a day you’re feeling bad can help boost that morale
It also helps me sometimes to think about how there’s a TON of people who never comment on things, but they’re probably regularly reading.
MJ Massey
Totally! I was building a landing page for my email subscription, and I was able to go back and find old reviews from my last comic, and it really got me pumped
Kabocha
Yeah! When I worked in a call center, the metrics on calls in -> surveys was something like... At best, you get 10% of your callers leaving surveys. And it's usually because you left an impression (good or bad). Usually the reality was at best, you'd hear back from about 2% of your userbase unless you gave them an incentive them to say something.
Mharz
re tapas and other platforms: I have to agree that certain genres really are more appealing there. I have two comics with different genres that I regularly update and the numbers are literally like night and day. It's a sad truth.
Mharz
I also love getting notifs on tapas when a person is binging my comics and liking every update. It means I got them hooked. :'3(edited)
nice reminder that there ARE people who like my comics.
Kabocha
Well yeah - even in traditional publishing, some genres generally get larger readerships than others (and higher advances) because they're more easily marketed. There's a reason why some publishers will categorize what's basically a fantasy story with romance subplots as a "romance" overall for a relatively unknown author (it's because they're more likely to attract more readers because romance is HUGE)
MJ Massey
true that
and you have to find where you audience lives as well
Kabocha
Yeah... I have some readers who only engage when they come back to catch up, which can be every 6weeks or more. Some only read when a chapter is done being posted, which is about every six months.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Re: Tapas. Yeah, Tapas especially has very particular styles and genres it likes (anime style + romance, especially BL). I posted Children of Shadow there for six months and had 20 total subs before taking it down. A while later I tried posting it on Webtoons and got 60 subs in one week. That level of engagement slowed down considerably almost immediately though, because the prologue episode is in colour and the main series is greyscale - and I discovered the hard way that the majority of Webtoons’ users do not like greyscale (I even got rating-bombed over it). My second comic is doing much better on Webtoons since it’s in digital colour rather than pencil like Children of Shadow. Each platform has its specific interests and it can be a struggle to get noticed if you’re not making something that falls into its normal styles and genres.
Glowbat (Aloe)
both tapas and webtoons really dont push their scifi comics hardly at all. Tapas' top scifi section is littered with discontinued stories (at least theyve abandoned tapas at any rate idk if theyre for sure no longer continued) which means that because i update weekly and sorta fall into a semi-anime inspired style i get some decent traffic from the small demographic who go hunting for a scifi comic
RebelVampire
That's not that surprising, tbh. Even in the realm of novels sci-fi is more of a hunt for where the audience is sometimes.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Scifi is an under-appreciated genre, imo. Unless you’re Star Wars, Star Trek or a Marvel comic, it seems like people don’t talk much about scifi.
It might help boost views if you rework your genre labels on places like Webtoons. Like, have Adventure or Drama as your main genre tag and Scifi as your secondary genre.
Glowbat (Aloe)
actually ever since avas demon went on webtoons ive been getting about 10-15 subs a week there
for a while i had listed aloe as drama first but the results werent fantastic as i think that genre has been flooded over there
keii4ii
I think sci-fi has some very prominent associations with the genre that don't apply to every sci-fi story -- e.g. the first thing a lot of people immediately think of is spaceship explody battles. So if someone sees sci-fi and they're not into spaceship explody battles, they won't read.
Glowbat (Aloe)
i may try adventure though if scifi doesnt pan out
keii4ii
Alternatively, if someone sees sci-fi and they ARE into that... and only that... they will leave once they find out the comic is not about that
Glowbat (Aloe)
thats also a good point
keii4ii
I've had similar difficulties even though fantasy is more widely accepted these days as a more varied mega-genre
People expect X, comic contains only a sprinkling of X and is about Y instead.
Glowbat (Aloe)
in my personal case, i've alienated potential readers i feel sometimes simply by having the cast be primarily lgtbq with an agender lead. but i dont regret that and im happy to have it deter people who arent down for that
RebelVampire
That is definitely true about sci-fi. Film has really biased people as to what fits sci-fi, where in reality sci-fi is a really wide genre. So a lot of stuff never gets a chance cause it confuses people.
Nutty (Court of Roses)
Yooooo i feel that, glowbat. On one hand, I want ppl to know that my comic is a safe read for LGBT, but at the same time I know that announcing it as such will deter others on principle.
The Q - working on WAYFINDERS
I feel the same way. The whole cast of Wayfinders is some form of lgbt+, but we don't actually adress it much, because it's an adventure story moreso than a romance. So it's like.... how do we tell the readers it ain't straight
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Fantasy does seem to get drowned by numbers. Eryl gets about 5 new subs per update and Children of Shadow only gets 1-2, and I think they’re just getting lost in the crowd.
Nutty (Court of Roses)
Two of my characters jokingly told each other their identity through bard puns, plus I keep pushing for gay ships within the story, so I'm pretty overt with my readers about it ahaha.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
@The Q - working on WAYFINDERS I’m having some difficulty with that dilemma, too. Both my comics feature large LGBTQ+ casts but romance isn’t the focus of either. It often feels like there’s no good way to bring it up naturally until the romance threads surface very far into the story, and I’m always worried about homophobes lashing out when they eventually discover the comic is G A Y
Glowbat (Aloe)
in my descriptions i describe the comic as a lgbtq+ themed scifi flat out
keii4ii
Early in HoK, one character embarks on a journey for a personal reason, and the MC tags along. I've semi-recently heard from an American friend that she didn't really get the character's reason. He wanted to take a younger family member away from a bad living situation, but to the friend, the situation didn't seem so bad. After some talking, we realized it was a cultural thing. The situation was very obviously bad to Koreans, but it didn't/doesn't seem like a far departure from the range of normal life in the US, for cultural/societal reasons. I suspect that was a big part of the reason why people kept pegging my comic as a "fun adventure romp" despite the lack of fun adventures (it has elements of adventure, but is not that as a whole). The reason for the journey seemed superficial, like the author (me) just needed an excuse to start the Fun Adventure-Filled Journey. Whereas Korean readers, back when I was publishing it in Korean, immediately understood it was an intensely personal, difficult task that the shy boy decided to accept for the sake of love.
And yeah, LGBTQ+ as a tag/ part of the description seems like a good option to me too!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
But then I’m also anxious that LGBT folks will think that’s false advertising because the characters’ labels aren’t mentioned until really far into the story (and it’s no where near that point yet). Aaaagh maybe I just overthink everything.
Glowbat (Aloe)
its really interesting to hear the difference in reception HoK gets
keii4ii
Yeah and the setting itself apparently feels different, too! To Koreans, it evokes secondhand nostalgia. But some non-Koreans have told me it feels fantastical and Ripe For Adventures
Glowbat (Aloe)
I feel you Lee- almost none of my chars have mentioned or done anything to illustrate their identities yet
keii4ii
(I also feel the need to mention, there have been non-Korean readers who got what HoK was about. Those readers mean so much to me! But I don't know if they understood that particular detail about Danbi's motivation for the journey early on.)
The Q - working on WAYFINDERS
(I'm gonna put so much lbgt+ love in the background of the story everytime they get to a new city ahahahaha >:) )
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
To me, @keii4ii HoK is very reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films because I get similar whimsical vibes. But Studio Ghibli has always been more about emotional journeys so after a couple chapters I was like ‘Ah, yes, I think this comic is about the characters’ emotional growth’(edited)
Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS
(muhahhaa, also just let Sallly flirt with all the ladies in the BG)
Glowbat (Aloe)
yesss flirt with ladies
MJ Massey
I'm worried that my comic is not "gay enough" to warrant the LGBT+ label. The character's sexualities have very little to do with the actual story, and one character is actively hiding their identity
The Q - working on WAYFINDERS
SAME
keii4ii
I'm aro/ace/agender and I don't really feel "LGBTQ+ enough" so I can't really use the LGBTQ+ label for my own comic, even though I know the label isn't exclusively for ownvoices stories.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I admit I’m not sure I ‘got’ Danbi’s motivations on a cultural level, but I felt like the tone being presented in that scene made it pretty clear she was in a bad situation?(edited)
Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS
but... we have calculated a total of 1 straight character in our whole comic.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
‘She’ as in the niece, not Danbi. XD(edited)
MJ Massey
that's what it seemed like to me too, or at least that by leaving their village they were going to a better situation
Glowbat (Aloe)
first of all- high fives keii because agender solidarity and second of all if you have chars who identify as either not straight or not cis or both rolled into one then its gay enough to have the lgbtq label
to heck with gate keepers
there are plenty of queer peeps who just want to read stories that casually include people like themselves
but if you dont feel its needed you dont have to either
MJ Massey
I guess there is a certain expectation when you say "I make an LGBTQ+ comic" of how that comic will be, and I don't want to disappoint people or set them up to expect something different
I just figure that all kinds of people exist in the world, so I should include as many different kinds of people as I can in my work
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I probs should just put LGBTQ+ labels in the descriptions and be like ‘this is genre fiction but almost everyone’s queer even though you can’t tell yet’. XD
Nutty (Court of Roses)
I use the term "LGBT-friendly" to indicate that they're present, but might not be the full focus
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I write genre stories because I’m not that into romance-centric stories myself. I want queer heroes in the kinds of stories I like to read without the entire focus being on their sordid love-lives. I just want to read about the hero who slayed a dragon to rescue his prince instead of his princess, lol.
Glowbat (Aloe)
lol im in a similar position where i'd rather see the hero befriend the dragon
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I have plenty of that in my comics, too!
There’s some nice dragons and some very-not-nice ones. XD
Glowbat (Aloe)
(im insufferable in d&d i was a bard who tried to be friends with everything)
eryl is on my lisssst <3
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
This is why I love bards
Glowbat (Aloe)
hehe
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I'm always happy when people mark their stuff as LGBTQ+ if characters are present tbh Y_Y
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Also agreed with everything said above
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
All right, now Imma definitely have to add the LGBTQ+ labels to my comics next time I do website maintenance.
Glowbat (Aloe)
yay!
Nutty (Court of Roses)
Aw ye aw ye
Join the brigade
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yiss
I feel a bit bad bc I rarely read sth that's not clearly marked as LGBTQ+ or where I know the authors are part of the community whoops
But it's mostly the fact that I consumed hetero-focused media my whole life and now I can...choose.....
the dream
Glowbat (Aloe)
heck yes
im way more drawn to stories that are marked lgbtq+
keii4ii
Don't feel bad, because seriously, even if you exclusively read LGBTQ+ marked stories? There ain't enough time in this life to read every good story that fits that bill.
There are too many good stories out there and we do need to choose.
Glowbat (Aloe)
its just nicer because then i can enjoy the story without having to worry that in the middle of it im going to get a rude wake up call from an off colour joke or somethin at my expense
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah that's true
keii4ii
Sometimes we miss out on stuff that we may have fallen in love with, but that's the name of the game, the game of not having enough time
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Webcomics feel a lot safer than other media in that regard atm
Jupp especially if you're also working on your own stories
Glowbat (Aloe)
it sucks thinking theres a bunch of stories out there that im sure id love if only i had the time or mental fortitude to sift through a bunch of others.
keii4ii
(OTL that reminds me... there is one instance of trope use in an early chapter of HoK that falls into that 'off color joke' category. I don't have any excuses for it, just 'I just thoughtlessly parroted a trope that I saw elsewhere.' I regret it and hope to figure out an elegant way to rewrite that one scene.)
Glowbat (Aloe)
i dont have the energy to be burned so often by stories that seem good and then hit me with random transphobic bs or using slurs as jokes
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, as someone who grew up in a time when no one positively portrayed queer folks in mainstream stories (and there was no internet and living out in the boonies made it impossible to discover underground cultures) I love that now I can seek out tonnes of LGBTQ stories and drown myself in the gay every day.
Glowbat (Aloe)
yesss
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
jupp ;;
Glowbat (Aloe)
man if i could give ten year old me printed copy of paranatural and turn to the pages with rj's identity being explained? that kid would have grown up way happier
living in small towns aint great for queer peeps
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Nope it’s not. I was badly repressed until honestly only 3 years ago when I suddenly asked myself why I loved reading about and writing so many gay characters. And then suddenly my whole life made sense.
Glowbat (Aloe)
im so happy for you<3
Glowbat (Aloe)
its a heck of a thing thinking back on things and realizing why you do certain things
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Honestly there were giant clues from when I was still a little kid and I can’t believe it took me so long. XD But I’m digressing from the comic talk, lol.
Glowbat (Aloe)
haha i understand what you mean
i think its why its so important for comics to be inclusive
spare some poor kids the heart ache and confusion
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yes! The internet has created such a boom for indie comics and that huge variety of voices has been so so important.
Glowbat (Aloe)
as much as comics are an art, they're extremely powerful as a vehicle for teaching and generally conveying ideas
FeatherNotes
Can i just say how happy i am that y'all are making LGBTQ+ comics that aren't just romance tho? I'm pretty indifferent and on the ace spectrum for sure, so its so refreshing that we can have a queer cast just being cool and not hurt by identities. I wish i had that as a kid
Also no shade on romance but there's def a lot and lgbtq+ isn't just for that genre
So yes yall are 'gay enough' lol
Glowbat (Aloe)
i agree! queer peeps shouldn't be squared off in romance, which unfortunately i think is a result of people's gross misconceptions
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Admittedly, I use my comics as a vehicle to work through my own issues, so there are scenes planned where the characters have to deal with transphobia or homophobia. But I will always counterbalance that with other scenes that validate the characters’ identities.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Hmhm my story also deals with transphobia and dysphoria bc I'm working through own issues. I don't think that's a bad thing though
generally I think it's pretty ok if the story is not a constant misery train
(even those can be written well, but they are usually not my cup of tea)
Glowbat (Aloe)
i think its perfectly acceptable to use comics as a vehicle for that lee
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeahh tbh
MJ Massey
there's no wrong reason to make comics/create a thing
Glowbat (Aloe)
youre a queer creator and you're working with what you know so why not
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I know focusing on queer suffering has been criticised a lot but I feel there's more nuance to it. Especially if it's a LGBTQ+ person writing about it
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah. I’m a miserable emo and I write miserable emo stories, but I try to inject some hope into it, because I think that the majority of humans are good and/or want to be good.
Glowbat (Aloe)
theres this comic called dropout that does a wonderful job exploring the grittier truths of being queer
its a fairly short read but its super good
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Hmmm, I may look that up
Glowbat (Aloe)
i can dm you the link! no pressure to read it tho
twothirty
gosh, i just want to chime in because i really relate to earlier comments around labelling comics. I'm bi, but i don't wear it on my sleeve, and my own comic has like...1 straight character. I feel like there is an expectation for comics labelled as lgbtq+ and i don't want to disappoint people who are really looking for that content to be directly addressed.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Tbh I feel many people are just happy, if there's queer characters doing cool stuff (at least that's how it's for me).
Glowbat (Aloe)
i label my own comic as lgbtq+ and the plot hardly hinges on that being the central theme
just a bunch a gay scientists and robots in space
...i swear its way more interesting that that lol
man i wish i could get more of my comic out faster so i didnt have to worry about spoiling basic things geeze
twothirty
haha im into it! Ahh, well probably a big part of it is my own insecurities, but what are webcomics for if not... for figuring out your own crap (edited)
keii4ii
I feel that X'D
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
juppp...I get the anxiety tho
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Mess of anxiety solidarity.
Glowbat (Aloe)
oof yeah
also hey while we're at it with the queer biz in here:
aro/ace/bi peeps are all gay enough full stop
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
YES
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
jupp
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
As a demi-bi dude I fully endorse that all labels are valid.
And that gatekeeping sucks and helps no one
Glowbat (Aloe)
yeah anyone who makes you feel like you dont belong under the lgbtq+ umbrella isnt doin right by you
and your comics should be allowed to be considered as queer as you want them to be
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Also all gender identities are valid and don’t hinge on having a physical transition. You’re valid as trans whether you change your body or not.
Glowbat (Aloe)
^^^
YES
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
YESS
Glowbat (Aloe)
all our experiences are valid and the comics we make because of those experience are beautiful
Deo101
Oh man I missed a huge convo, but I love y'all and it's wonderful seeing so many kinds of comics out there and seeing people make their own content
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Yo, nothing "gross" about romance, and the reason people flock to it is because romance with same-gender couples and/or trans people has been treated as "deviant disorder that needs to be cured and cleaned up, or at least kept far away from polite society" for so long (and still is, in many places)
All queer stories are valid, queer characters don't need to be in a romantic storyline to count, but please let's discuss that without echoing homophobic rhetoric about queer romance being "gross", yeah?(edited)
MJ Massey
I don't think it was meant gross as in queer romance itself being gross, but more in the finding a general distaste for romance tropes and romance as a genre
but I agree, that we should be careful about implying those sorts of things with our work
keii4ii
Romance as a genre is valid too; the consensus was just that there's a lot of it, and other genres are valid too. That every genre is valid
MJ Massey
true, but people might just feel strong distaste for certain genres from a personal point of preference
it's part of what makes the fabric of human existence so fascinating, we all have different opinions, likes, dislikes, viewpoints...
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
tbh I love romance stories but the thing that disheartens me is that the queer stories people take most serious are romances
keii4ii
The pigeonholing
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Can you elaborate on that Keiiii?
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Those are the stories that get repressed and erased the most, is the thing, so it takes more effort to get them produced and shared, and that makes people extra-happy
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t think anyone said romance stories were gross?
Just that it’s not necessarily our jam.
keii4ii
Oh, I meant that's what people are doing when people start exclusively associating a very diverse experience/ group of people with ONE thing, to a point where the people in that group are not allowed to be anything other than That One Thing
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I was reacting to "queer peeps shouldn't be squared off in romance, which unfortunately i think is a result of people's gross misconceptions"
keii4ii
and it's a really unfair, inaccurate restriction
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Ahhhh
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
OH okay, thank you for elaborating, Keiiii. I couldn't really associate anything with the term at first!
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Misconceptions are the reason queer people have been excluded from most romance for so long
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I think in that case it was more about people's misconception of queer identities being inherintly sexual and/or romantic though?
and not about queer romance being gross
DanitheCarutor
Huh, I thought 'gross' in that context was more akin to 'outlandish' or 'exaggerated', but I could be misunderstanding.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I think it means more that a lot of people fetishise queer relationships when there’s only representation in romance.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Associating "queer people being sexual and/or romantic" with "gross" is still hella dicey
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
the misconception is what's gross, not the queer people or their romance?
Glowbat (Aloe)
re: gross misconceptions :Oh! i think i said that Erin- i don't think i did a great job of explaining my thoughts on that. on sites like tapas and webtoons its fairly common for gay couples to be exploited for an audience thats less interested in representation than fetishization(edited)
MJ Massey
yes I think there was some lamenting that it could be difficult to show queer characters without an element of romance to make their identities apparent?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t think they meant gross as in disgusting but gross as in ‘far off the mark’
MJ Massey
because some people wanted to have queer characters but not focus on a romantic plot
@Glowbat (Aloe) I know what you are talking about I think
Deo101
Yeah, though I'd like to add on as someone who is writing LGBT romance, I get lumped in with fetishization content a lot and that is very frustrating for me, too
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
And it does take a lot of digging to find respectful representation in romance instead of stories made by and for straight people that use bad stereotypes to fetishise queer relationships.
Not that all romance by and for straight people does this.
But it’s a problem in the genre
Deo101
I work very hard to portray healthy loving relationships and people lump me in to their hatred of romance in general or categorize my work as bl or discount it for having that. It gets fetishized or dismissed an awful lot and that's very frustrating for me to see happening
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
If you want to talk specifically about something you feel is stereotypical or fetishizing, I wouldn't object to that, it's the broad swipes at all romance that become a problem
Glowbat (Aloe)
agreed
queer romance is very important to represent
i dont think anyone here would imply otherwise
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
And, hey, sometimes queer writers/readers also enjoy a romance that's unrealistic or trashy or silly or melodramatic, I don't want to dismiss "all romance that wouldn't represent a healthy and respectful relationship IRL" either
Glowbat (Aloe)
very true
Deo101
Yeah, not what I was trying to say.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Idk if anyone was saying that tbh
Glowbat (Aloe)
i think our initial conversation though boiled down to that we were happy to see stories with queer people being allowed to just be people doing things that didnt focus on romance
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I'm personally very glad that we are getting a wider variety of queer romance now
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
What we were discussing earlier is more that it’s important to portray queer protagonists in all kinds of genres, instead of only romance. Which doesn’t mean romance isn’t also a valid genre.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Sure, and part of my discomfort is that queer characters have already been "allowed" to do non-romantic things in mainstream media for a long time -- it's being "allowed" to have an explicit romance that's new and different
keii4ii
^ I don't know about that. It probably depends on where you are, both IRL and part of the internet?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I never saw a queer character that wasn’t either tragic, a deviant, or the butt of a joke in media until the late ‘O0s(edited)
MJ Massey
both views are valid--it's good to both want explicit queer romance and to also just want to see queer people doing a wide range of things
DanitheCarutor
@Glowbat (Aloe) Yeah, to parrot what you said. I just chalked the convo up to seeing queer characters expand into different genres, and being happy that queer fiction is starting to be known for more than just romance.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
There was no positive representation in any genre in the media I had access to for most of my life(edited)
Deo101
It helps with the normalization of stories like that, but I also think it makes homophobes be "more comfortable" with gay stories sometimes in a way that bothers me
I have had someone say that my story is the only bl they can stand so I'm sensitive about this subject though
Cause there's a lot to unpack there
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
The "if there has to be a queer romance, at least make it awful and tragic" trope was absolutely true in my area too
yikes, I can see being sensitive about that
Deo101
Like me writing something that primarily isn't romance and just has a romance b plot is making homophobes and fetishizing people read my work and that's frustrating for me in a way I can't articulate. I'm very happy within the LGBT+ community to have these works be made but among the straight people I know it's uncomfortable when they start saying things like "oh yay finally some gay stuff that isn't romance" kind of thing
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah that makes sense
Deo101
From other gay people I get it, it makes sense and I'm the same way! Especially with the oversaturation of bl
DanitheCarutor
@Deo101 Gah I got a comment like that before, it was a weird situation because not only was it unnecessary but... TGtaHR isn't even a romance...
Thinking about it, that's actually kinda worrying.
Deo101
But it's important to remember that the LGBT+ community is a bubble and though it's safe to explore all sorts of stories here, it's not safe outside of our bubble
Or, not necessarily safe
Like a homophobe reading a gay story with an unhealthy dynamic could just bolster their bad opinions about gay people even if it's exploring it in a healthy way
I have a hard time explaining what I'm thinking and I really hope this all makes sense
keii4ii
I get you
Glowbat (Aloe)
(i get what youre saying deo <3 )
Deo101
And its not something we can really change but I think it's important to remember with regards to society at large and how our stories are percieved outside the community
Phew lol
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I get what you're saying, although in that case, the homophobe was probably going to think that no matter what, and if it wasn't the story they'd find some other "evidence"
Deo101
Yeah absolutely
And I think it's important to remember that when talking about exploring stories that have unhealthy Dynamics and things other than romance and whatnot. I don't want those things to become safe for cishets to exploit basically
Like "oh great now I don't need to write them kissing so I can access BOTH the LGBT and everyone else!"
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Ah, you mean like "the author says they're gay, so that counts as representation and LGBT people should buy this, even though there's never anything explicitly gay in the story"
right?
Deo101
Yeah
Deo101
Which again within the community I get and it's important to explore things like that for sure
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I think the important difference is, writers within the community are going to do something to indicate the queer identity, even when it's not "having an on-screen romance"
And that's something that, say, your average JKR doesn't bother doing
Deo101
Again I have a hard time explaining myself and I might be tripping over my words a bit here
Yeah that's true as well
I trust LGBT people to be navigating stories with an inherent nuance
For the most part
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
That, or (I think people were talking about this upthread) we don't advertise a story as "look at all this representation!" while the characters' identities haven't come up in the comic yet
Deo101
Yeah I know I didn't say my story was LGBT til I had the married couple kiss cause I was worried people would think I was gaybaiting
I know I'm not but it feels wrong to me like I'm trying to rally up readers kinda thing...
But also if you know you're planning to do it I feel like you can say it'll be there
I just have anxiety LOL
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
No, I get you. Even if it's definitely going to happen in the future of the comic, it'll disappoint readers if you rally them up for something that isn't there yet
That would happen with anything, not just queer identities
Deo101
Yeah I also don't tag my pages or whatever for disability if a character isn't disabled on the page
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Like if it was "read my comic for cool space battles!" when you had only posted the 5 pages of setup with characters having a chill talk in a field
sssfrs
I think what bothers me about lbgtq focused romance stories is that they’re often centered on how ~scandalous~ the relationship is and how the characters have to overcome personal biases or homophobia/transphobia as the central struggle
Deo101
I don't want the wrong audience. I mean I also could probably slap bl on my cover and I feel like I'd get a lot more readers but they're not the readers I want
sssfrs
Or at least I dont enjoy reading stories like that
Deo101
Yeah that frustrates me too, personally
But some people like seeing that overcoming idk
sssfrs
My comic has at least 2 visible prominent gay relationships but its not about romance at all
I guess thats personal preference(edited)
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I think a lot of the time you also know what intentions the person behind telling a story like that has? I have a straight aquaintaince writing BL and it's totally clear that she thinks the whole ordeal is kinda cute and endearing when it's pretty...harsh for actual queer people
Deo101
Mines got 5 and it is about romance cause I absolutely love romance and I love love, but I am overly frustrated with romance as a genre. Which is why I write my own
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I think that goes back to the "talk about a specific trope that bothers you, don't treat it like the whole genre" thing I was saying
Deo101
Yeah I think there's a lot of nuance to it that cishet people largely don't have
sssfrs
I feel like it makes the romance into a statement about how society is bad and its not interesting or groundbreaking to represent that bigotry in your media without adding something new
Deo101
I'm frustrated with the often unhealthy Dynamics and the frequency with which homophobia and transphobia are shown.
I live in a homophobic household I don't want it in my romance cause it hurts to see
But, I don't think it's bad to tackle those issues it's just hard for me personally
sssfrs
I like pairing up side characters but only 2 pairs are going to have an Arc. so far....
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I...feel for many cishet authors it's also a good excuse to not have the characters get together right away without actually thinking about why they would not for other reasons (like personality based). So there's a lot of "I'm not gay!!!" type of thing
Also totally understandable Deo :C
Deo101
Yeah absolutely.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It’s also valid, as a queer author, though, to show characters that do have to overcome their ‘gay panic’ when they first realise they’re gay. It’s something a lot of us have gone through, but it’s important to show the comfort you finally feel in yourself when you come out the other end if it.
sssfrs
Why should fiction include all the shitty parts of real life
Deo101
I think straight people see LGBT authors tackle these issues and go "oh so I can too!!!"
And yeah this is why I'm largely drawn to sci-fi and fantasy, I get to entirely remove all the things that hurt me about reality. Dude can just use a cane and everyone is like dope
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Because sometimes fiction helps us process all the shitty parts of real life. Both happy stories that take away shit and gritty stories that acknowledge shit are valid and important
Deo101
Ppl can just be trans and it's fine
I agree they're all important
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
(I think I'm just super bitter bc here I've seen cis and straight women get awards for their queer romance stories which just hmm)
Deo101
^
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I agree it's a super nuanced topic
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
...I feel like you've also gotta make some allowance for bad writing. Like, maybe someone's not getting a lot of nuance in their story because their skills aren't sharp enough to handle it yet.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Agreed, Erin!
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
And one of the ways they'll get good enough to write better stories is by working out issues through writing the worse stories.
sssfrs
My main character is a butch lesbian gnc completely androgynous person and no one is ever going to say anything nasty to her about it
Deo101
I feel you sssfrs lol(edited)
Deo101
I thirst for gentle, nice LGBT stories. I just crave them
Nutty (Court of Roses)
I feel that. As I build Prismal and decided to include lgbt folks in it, my first thought about it was "would there be any reason for them to be hated in this society? No? Then why would I include that theme?"
Deo101
And yes it's important to delve into the harsher realities and I think it's good to use fiction to explore and work through those themes, definitely, but personally no thx
sssfrs
I like where ppl are just all expected to be pan or bisexual by default
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
heh, I literally have 2 comics and one of them is "real world where characters struggle with realistic prejudices" while the other is "fantasy world with 0% homophobia/transphobia."
Something for everyone!
sssfrs
Nice
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I’m too goddamn miserable to write such nice stories, lol. But writing gritty stories where my characters go through hell helps me process the stuff I go through in my life. But I love reading those nice stories where we can forget racism and queerphobia exist.(edited)
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
hehe...I've decided to go into some queerphobia in my next comic only bc I want to...explore historical queer spaces and the kind of space does not make sense in a world that's 100% accepting
Deo101
Yeah it's just all about that nuance babeyy
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeahhh
Deo101
I think that's also why we see so much more LGBT content of all kinds in indie media
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Absolutely
Less gatekeeping, less opportunity for homophobes to shut it down
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
No big boss complaining it’s not ‘marketable’ to be inclusive
Deo101
And I worry that mainstream stuff will be like "ohoho, so that means I can do it too" *stumbles and sets gay people back 10 years in the eyes of the general public *
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
YEEEEEEAH there’s that
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I think the mainstream is going slow enough that that's far from my biggest worry
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
But change never happens smoothly
Sometimes it goes up and down before society evolves into a better mindset
Deo101
Well yeah ofc, but even on a smaller scale of bad people reading good works it is kinda happening I feel like
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
So there’s gonna be periods of shit before being queer is faithfully represented in the mainstream
Deo101
Yeah for sure
It helps normalize things but it also can do it in an unhealthy way and it's frustrating
As in people going "yes let's include gay romance *it's just bl tropes *"
And things like that
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I think the best way to counter that is by producing & supporting more stories of all kinds -- the more complex and multifaceted a view people get, the better
Deo101
Yeah
From people who are handling those stories well, too ^^^
Which is subjective of course I know that
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Also, something nobody's mentioned that I think should come up...a lot of times you don't know who's straight/cis and who's not. Like, if it's Famous Mainstream Author JKR, you can be pretty sure, but with small-scale indie creators, how much can you tell the difference between "straight/cis artist who thinks BL tropes are how all real gay relationships work" versus "gay/bi/trans/etc artist who understands IRL fine, but it's fun and self-indulgent for them to write those tropes"?
Especially since the artist could be actively in the closet. Or could still be on their own journey of self-discovery and not know they aren't straight and/or cis yet. All the more so since indie creators are more likely to be younger than well-established mainstream standards.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t know about you guys, but it’s always BLATANTLY obvious to me by how they’re writing.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
How did you confirm it? Did you ask them?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Call it intuition
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I don't think it's always confirmable tho :C
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Granted, sometimes a person writes with enough nuance that I can tell they're queer, but how do you tell a straight writer from an awkward/inexperienced/clunky queer writer?
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I know a lot of authors thinking they were cishet and later on realizing they were not
and some of them wrote a lot of "yikes"
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
There’s writing patterns and use of tropes that signal whether the person is actually respectful if the queer community or not
Deo101
Also just cause you're working through things doesn't mean it's a healthy exploration that is good for the community at large
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Even if they’re queer and self-indulging, there’s a lot of tells both in the comics and in their commentary
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
tbh I think some tropes are fair to criticise no matter if the author is queer or not but there are also queer authors writing disrespectful tropes
it's not sth that I see a lot, but I've seen it
Deo101
^ yeah this
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
All questions of their writing aside, there are definitely queer people who don't respect the community IRL, either...
Deo101
Like it's not good to write glorifying rape fic of pedophilia no matter who you are or how it's helping you work through things. I mean you can write it but then to share it is something else entirely
Not saying those are common things but they're pretty very much "bad" things
And actually glorifying rape is something I do see much more than I would have expected
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
And that’s problematic, too. When you’re part of a community but not respectful of it, that’s just as bad as a straight person being homophobic. Sometimes the worst homophobia cones from within the community, but that doesn’t make it okay or healthy.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
If you share a dark story behind accurate warnings and labels, then it can reach other people who are working through something by reading it, and be avoided by people who don't.
Deo101
Yeah there's a lot of lateral agression within the community
Okay but glorification of it isn't a healthy way to work through those things it's not a dark story
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I'm not saying homophobia from within the community is okay or healthy, I'm just saying it doesn't have to indicate that the person is straight/cis.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I have a lot of dark themes in my comics. There is rape, but it is never shown on panel and never never glorified. I think it’s a subject that’s important to talk about, but I find it extremely disturbing how much it’s romanticised in fiction.
Deo101
^^^
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah...
DanitheCarutor
Huh, this convo reminds me of an article a friend sent me from someone's Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/25994657 It talks about creation policing, and problematic fiction. You all proooobably won't agree with it given the direction of discussion (which all points of view are totally valid), but this whole subject is super interesting.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
All right, true, you can’t always know if an author is queer or not. I should have been more specific in whether an author has a healthy view of the LGBTQ community or not.
Deo101
So you might not be able to tell if someone is gay by their writing, but there are certain trends that gay people do not generally fall into that MOSTLY indicate someone is straight, though there's no way to know for sure.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
THAT is always obvious to me.
Deo101
And like def there are bi women who fetishize gay men, and there is transphobia and biohobia and everything within the community
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
If they’re being homophobic or just don’t ‘understand’ the queer community, I mean
Deo101
Etc etc, so even if you can't tell whether a harmful representation is written by someone who is LGBT it's a harmful representation regardless
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
^^^^This
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Yeah. I'm always very hesistant on how to address things like this
Deo101
Me too esp since I have such a hard time saying what I mean
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I'm not saying it's impossible to write harmful representation, but "this is harmful!" gets used as a cudgel against any representation, so often that I'm wary of talking about it as a vaguely-defined blanket category.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It’s hard to articulate things clearly when in fast-paced chats like this
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah, haha
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
At least it's good for leveling people up, huh?
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
eifhiuef pfft
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Lol. ‘You levelled up talking about homophobia!’
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
(I feel we're all respectful and try to explain ourselves and give others the chance to do so too)
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
At least it's good for something??
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
(so that's good haha)
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yes. Talks like this are super important to help see each others views on tricky subjects
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Yeah, I feel like we're making good-faith attempts to understand each other, which...is not something you always get in internet discussions
To put it very very mildly
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
We all have our own stories and unique perspectives, and that’s important to share both in the fiction we write and in discussions with each other
DanitheCarutor
@Phin (Heirs of the Veil) The subject is pretty sticky. On one hand artists should be allowed to create whatever they like, on the other if that work can perpetuate harm for a certain community should it be allowed? There is a lot of this going around right now where people want sanitization in media, and what works of art are and are not allowed to exist. Not saying it's bad, but it is fascinating. I'm not fully getting into the convo because I'm honestly super neutral.
kayotics
I’m definitely watching the convo play out, it’s interesting to see a chat like this develop
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
yeah I'm taking notes this is not my area of expertise, and it's all good stuff to keep in mind
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I'm okay discussing & criticizing specific examples (which is probably why I keep bringing up Dumbledore...), but I don't like being critical of broad categories, because they can be so ambiguous & easily misused.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
@DanitheCarutor I think it is very hard to differentiate between people who want difficult subjects to be explored (which is valid) and people who don't want to be called out for certain kinks for example and a lot of the times stuff like "purity policing" gets used to shut legit criticism up. On the other hand there are a lot of examples of callout culture gone wild and honestly ??? Idk anymore.
Deo101
Its very frustrating
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
But I'm also at a point where I'm getting super tired of constant discourse so
Deo101
Yeah I've literally had to block words like "ace" cause it's just so often discourse from either side and I'm just so tired of it
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Plus there’s always going to be stories that help one person work through things but that are very toxic and upsetting to someone else. Just like there’s people who are toxic to one person and important to someone else.(edited)
Deo101
I've also blocked LGBT and "feminism" kinda things
I JUST see cats and memes now thank you
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Lee: absolutely, which is why accurate labels are important
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Eyyyy, it's my turn!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yes
kayotics
I think it’s important to curate your online experience, and sometimes NOT curating your experience leads to purity policing
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
HMM
kayotics
But yes tagging is really important!!!
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I think there is the creation of a lot of anxiety in what and what you can't tell in stories
Deo101
Tags are super important but also when someone doesn't think or realize they're doing something harmful they might not tag it
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Warning labels all around are always a good idea
Deo101
Like if someone is being a homophobe just cause etheyre homophobic they're not gonna tag that
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
True
Deo101
Why tag it's glorifying abuse if they think it's hot or reality and don't realize that's bad
Etc etc
kayotics
There’s definitely a lot of creator anxiety lately, I’ve had a lot of friends come to me with anxieties about not wanting to start a project they love because they’re afraid of who might attack them online
Deo101
^^^ I've been scared about this
kayotics
Me too, honestly
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Same honestly
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
There’s always the issue if ‘should harmful ideas be given a platform’ vs ‘stifling voices you just don’t want to hear’ it’s a fine line.
Deo101
I once got all in a tizzy cause I was like "oh my god my planet of women is asking a man for help"
Yeah cause some free speech silences other's
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Same
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
And sometimes you get people thinking "if I label this with a warning that it contains Bad Content, the internet police will come after me," so they don't use warnings for that reason, and then it's just bad times all around
Deo101
Yeah.
And also there are things no one thinks to warn about, like some very specific triggers
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah...
Deo101
Its just all around a very difficult to navigate space
DanitheCarutor
@Phin (Heirs of the Veil) Right? People do that with anything, if it's not the "purity police" excuse it's "my style", or "I'm friends with -insert minority here-!" I don't bother with the arguments anymore since I've been pushed into them enough, I'm more into seeing opinion on general art policing, or what is and isn't allowed to exist in art. Sorry, I'm being slow at typing again.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Heck, if we're talking about actual psychological triggers, most of them are going to be super-specific
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I have a trigger for fungal growth on bodies now bc I have 3 people who either have probs with plants growiing on bodies OR funghi lol
Deo101
Ya I have a "someone watching someone else sleep" trigger which people use a surprising amount
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
...wait, Phin, now you have a trigger, or now you use a warning for it?
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
@DanitheCarutor srsly don't worry about it, haha. It's a nuanced topic and I think generalizing is pretty bad when it comes to what you can and can't portray
I use a warning for it, sorry Erin, wasn't clear
I had multiple people approach me so I warn in update posts and should probs also do it on the website
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
no worries, just wanted to be sure
kayotics
I do have an extreme phobia of needles and you’d be surprised how many news sites use active needle shots for vaccination stories
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
GOD I KNOW
I am not afraid of them but like once they are near skin
I don't wanna see...these shots
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I have a deathly phobia of vomiting and there are NEVER warning labels for it.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah I think most people don't regard it and sometimes it's hard to get everything...
a friend of mine, Eli, creates a very gory comic and they put all their warnings on their update post images
and I kinda wanna try to be similarly mindful?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
(I’m okay if it’s in a comic and off-panel or the gross part is not shown but the sound and sight are crippling for me and shows and movies just SHOW it all the time)
kayotics
That’s true. Not a vomit fan.
DanitheCarutor
Ah I've thought about using page by page TWs, and I tried it out with one page, but with the amount of triggering thing in my comic I decided on a general warning. (since almost every page would get a warning) A few of my readers also said they preferred not to see them due to possible spoilers.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Hmm...I have a list of possible triggers in my about section
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I probably should start doing that bc my comics get very bloody
kayotics
I know I’ll have a scene eventually that I’ll want to have a warning on, but I’m not sure how to warn for it without spoiling?
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I installed a spoilertext plugin on one of my comics for that! Now I can put specific warnings at the front of a storyline, and readers who don't have triggers & don't want spoilers can leave them hidden.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
OHH that's a cool idea
DanitheCarutor
Yeah, mine is like a general pop-up that you have to click on to proceed to the comic.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I’m going to have to look at that plugin. Potential spoilers are the only reason I don’t have really detailed warnings on my comics
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Here's the one I use: https://wordpress.org/plugins/inline-spoilers/
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Yeah I'll look into it too. It seems super useful.
Heck thanks Erin!
DanitheCarutor
I don't know how you could make a warning without spoilers, @kayotics! I mean, you might have to if you want to do a page specific one.(edited)
Sorry, my cat sent the message for me.
kayotics
I was thinking a page specific one for the upcoming scene.
So I’m glad that doesn’t seem weird
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I'd say super-general warnings are mostly not spoilers. A movie will say "contains graphic violence", and that doesn't tell you who's being violent, or why, or how it's resolved.
DanitheCarutor
^^^
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah, I think that's not a spoiler, especially if the comic was already violent
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah. I have warnings for things like ‘graphic violence, blood and gore, nudity, etc. But some chapters or pages probably warrant more detailed TWs.
Deo101
Yeah I'm gonna put in my a/n for a few updates before like "hey there are some spooky scenes comin' up!'
kayotics
I wouldn’t say my comic is already violent, so it’s more applicable for this one scene
Deo101
And yeah things like "watching someone sleep" is gonna be at least somewhat of a spoiler...
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
hmhm
DanitheCarutor
@kayotics I think it really just depends on the person too. Some readers like page by page TWs, and don't see them as spoilers, others are the opposite. Your readers might appreciate a warning more than mine since your comic isn't overall super graphic.(edited)
Gah I can not type today!
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I put "this will get bloody" before some of the vampire storylines, not spoiler-cut -- because it's not a given, but shouldn't exactly be a surprise, either.
Deo101
I also do not mind spoilers whatsoever and I WILL spoil to anyone who asks as I've said many times, but I know not everyone is like me and spoilers are a big deal to many people
"i don't mind spoilers" i love them and they make me enjoy things more for many reasons
DanitheCarutor
Ah same! I'd love to just spill everything!
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
(Deo high five bc same)
Deo101
My people
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
tbh spoilers got me interested in many comics and I actively spoil myself
like getting into new comics and reading the updates before jumping to the beginning haha
kayotics
I’m very much the opposite
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I don't want to spoil anything, I want to keep people guessing! But sometimes you gotta.
Deo101
Yes. I get incredibly stressed about whether or not things will work out and spoilers relieve that. Even if it doesn't work out like at least I know
I get so so sooo stressed about it
kayotics
Whenever people tell me spoilers I actively like content less
DanitheCarutor
I don't mind them myself. My mom absolutely hates them, and used to make me spoil every movie if I saw it before her, so I'm pretty alright with it.
Deo101
Yeah ik many people are that way
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah I also think that's fair
DanitheCarutor
Also spoilers don't affect me either since it's not the content that means anything, but how it's used. Imo
kayotics
Usually for me it’s like. “Ok you spoiled a major character death/reveal, that’s not fun for me anymore”
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
OH yeah Kay! Tbh
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
If there's a big twist, I want to be unspoiled the first time I watch/read/etc the thing. If it's handled well, I can always rewatch it again with the knowledge.
kayotics
Because then I don’t get to experience that anymore
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
that's sth that can also ruin a story for me
kinda didn't get into the current season of CritRoll bc of such a spoiler
with comics it's kinda like...I see them on twitter, read along a few updates and then jump to the beginning so there I don't mind spoilers at all
it's more scoping out if the story's for me
Deo101
Oh man I sometimes only get into things because of spoilers LOL I know I'm weird with this but genuinely I love spoilers so much they make me comfortable with what I'm watching. I love rewatching things cause I know how it goes down and I'm not stressed by it
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I sometimes have troubles to deal with...raw emotions towards media so spoilers help me with that too
like preparing myself for it to hurt
(not always tho)
Deo101
Right yeah for sure
Even if I know it won't work out I KNOW and I don't put energy into getting my hopes up
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I hate spoilers, personally. I love going into stories completely blind or with just the bare-bones ‘genre, overall theme’ because I LOVE being shocked and surprised and have plot-twists thrown at me, so that’s what I do with my own comics(edited)
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah that's also fair. Right now my brain's not in the mood for that so I gotta play it save hehe
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I still don't like saying "here's what the Beings are" in ads or sales pitches for BICP, even though the page where it was revealed is several years old by now
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
But everyone likes different things so there’s nothing wrong with giving spoilers for your own stories if people want them(edited)
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah it depends honestly and that's pretty okay.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Everyone’s different and everyone’s valid
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I don't spoil my own story, except with artworks and mostly it's without context or cryptic enough that it's not...a real spoiler
yeah!
in that regard, it's just a huge matter of taste
twothirty
i also jump into webcomics, read them backgrounds for a bit then realized im actually into it and read it properly haha
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
hahaha yes
If I get invested without context I know it's good lol
Deo101
I don't spoil on public platforms cause I know people don't wanna necessarily see that (unless it's in an ama but I try to avoid spoilers still) but in private? I'll spill whatever tf u want like
I have and I will again!!!! Lmao
I know no one is gonna write it like me and also it's p linear so the only spoilers people really ask are Character things not plot things, anyways
So I'm not worried about theft im not doing anything super wild or original lol
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
all my favorite panels I've done are all the most spoilery ones, so... whether I share them or not, I lose
Deo101
Aw man
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
SAME
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
nooo
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
but it makes sense! I put all my effort into those moments where the story twists and turns
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Some of my fave panels or pages are when big reveals or plot twists happened
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
and it shows
so meh, I'll live
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
So I can’t share them to people who haven’t read my comic yet XD
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
luckily they don't make a ton of sense out of context, but... as soon as people start reading they might be like OHHH I know what's coming now
but it got them reading so shrug
I guess all mileage varies
Deo101
I feel like even the way I talk about my comic spoils it LMAO whoops
I'm made out of spoilers I can t hold them all in very clumsy
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
haha
I feel the same a lot
(But I also just wanna scream 24/7 about my stories whoopsie)
Deo101
I once had readers asking me to sum up a chapter caus ethey were confused and I just waited til someone else did it cause I was worried I'd spoil Something in trying to sun it up
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Linear stories are good too, though! Just reading a satisfying, well-written story is great; there doesn’t really NEED to be twist and turns for it to be food.
Deo101
Who doesn't wanna scream all the time and their stories hahahahha
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
GOOD
NOT FOOD
GAH
Deo101
Millennium is yummy yummy yum
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
...for the in-universe version of spoilers, I just had a moment of "hang on, this scene could've been way more dramatic if this one character hadn't already been given a certain reveal last chapter"
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
good food, agreed
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Normally I get away with not having a long buffer prepped ahead of time, but for once I wish I could still change this
Nutty (Court of Roses)
i spoil a lot about my characters more than i do the plot lol
i mean except their backstories sometimes
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Oh :C sometimes it's like this, Erin. Reasons buffers are good, but when do you have the time....
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I've tried putting this one on hiatus to prep a buffer, but it turns out I need the deadlines and the regular feedback to push me through making the pages...
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
oh I see. Understandable though...the only time I create real buffer is when I finish a book for print and have a deadline there.
(I wanna try to actually...get better though, since I wanna start a second comic project)
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I mean, sometimes if there's a process that works for you, you gotta just go with it and not waste energy fighting it. Even if it's not the Best or Most Professional way.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
yeah that's true. It's just frustrating when you compare the work you get done in these phases vs. every other time.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Clearly the solution is to split it up into smaller books, so you have more print deadlines!
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
haha, that might be!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I need buffers or I get super stressed. Unfortunately I also find them difficult to keep up.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Buffers are very hard to keep up. I'm running out of mine next week, whoops
But I've already started working on new pages
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I have...a half-finished, past-deadline page open in another window right now, lol
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I haven’t been able to draw for about a month, so one comic’s buffer is getting low and the other’s going to either miss this week or be late.
And I’m stressing about it. -_-
sssfrs
I’m so excited for my story to progress. I’m tempted to talk about it but when I am I think that nothing I say casually will be as impactful as just letting the story actually play out
Desnik
I deal with lack of engagement by throwing my ideas (or myself) at people. I learned that keeping secret twists as spoilers was inhibiting my growth as a writer, so instead I talk through my plots with my writing group and I often walk away with much better ideas to write
We're a kidlit/MG/YA group and I'm writing in a similar fashion, so we usually don't have to warn each other about anything we're writing, which is its own kind of freedom
if I can get the content to be good enough, and land in front of someone who'll help me take it further, then the engagement will follow
keii4ii
(This the right place?)
Deo101
Speaking of a lack of engagement, i feel like my engagement rates are incredibly low. I get a good bit, i get comments on every page and im very happy with that, but it's odd that i dont get more given my amount of readers and I wonder if some comics just aren't the kind of story people feel a need to say anything about, or what?
I think so?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
My engagement rates are... almost nonexistent.
keii4ii
I TOTALLY GET THAT DOUBT
When my anxiety is bad, it gets... really bad. "Maybe my story isn't worth commenting/ there is nothing to talk about it." I know that's just anxiety, so I try my best to not listen to that voice.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Although I think my audience is just not there? My page-views are pretty low, too, so maybe I just don’t have enough readers to comment (outside of you awesome SF perps)
PEEPS NOT PERPS
MY GOD THIS PHONE
keii4ii
Yeah, my views are fairly low too, considering the sub count I have on platforms
Come on, phone. We're not criminals. (Probably. )
Deo101
Yeah, its just weird when i have like. 1000 readers on tapas and get 0 comments i guess? I do kinda feel like my comic is very.... Its very linear its character driven and people can onky say "aw cute ^^" so much so idk what they would say
Like its legit .1%
keii4ii
hides the bloody knife
Deo101
ITS IN THE FLOWER POT!!!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I was getting about 1k daily views right after I joined SF but now it’s back down to about 100 a day, so shrugs
keii4ii
Views though, it's natural they spike like that even if you retain 100% of the people who checked out your comic!
because typically, people only go through the old pages once
so they give you more views upon first visit
Deo101
^^^
keii4ii
But I 100% understand the worry of "why do people check out my comic and decide not to read it... is there something wrong with my work"
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
On webtoons I think I have relatively good engagement for Eryl considering my low sub number. I have about 350-some subs and get an average of 1-2 unique comments per page, though that number goes up when a character dies. (edited)
That’s true! They do get kinda ‘falsely’ inflated when people binge-read archives
Deo101
Most comments i ever got is when I said "tell me your pet names"
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Lmao, I should try that
Deo101
And then outside of that when luzio and sage do something cute is the most I get like, organically just frim my content
Amas are second most comments which are again, me starting the discussion
Maybe alk my authors comments should be like "tell me about your fave color" that'll inflate my stats
keii4ii
One person told me they don't comment because everything seems so obvious, and they don't wanna be captain obvious. Which I can respect. But I don't think everything is that obvious if the most common comment I get is "I'm lost"
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Hmmmm
Deo101
Hahahahhahahahah
Like "NO PLEASE SHARE THESE THINGS"
keii4ii
IKR
Deo101
Help everyone else out!!!
keii4ii
There is a term in Korean comment section culture
"Konan" (from Detective Konan)
It's a term for commenters who explain obtuse stuff for other readers
Sometimes you'll even see comments like "Hurry up, Konans! I'm too tired to think! Spoonfeed me what happened in this update!"
Deo101
Me reading every comic ever
keii4ii
I NEED A KONAN IN MY COMMENT SECTION
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Honestly I wish western readers did that, but they either get attacked for being ‘Captain Obvious’ or people scream SPOILER!!!! at them
Deo101
I really wish people woukd expkain for me too because then i know some people get it, but ALSO i dont want to explain things i didn't show, accidentally.
snuffysam
one thing i've found that helps with engagement is making sure to include something on the page for people to talk about, no matter how relevant it is. like a while back i had a (in my opinion) fairly boring scene where it's basically "where do we gotta go" "i'm not telling" "please" "ok you gotta go here" so to give readers something to talk about i had one of the characters take a hotdog out of a pokeball and eat it.
keii4ii
There was also this incredibly, incredibly obtuse comic. It had a fascinating hook but then became almost impossible to follow. You'd see comments like "so this is the Forbidden Realm that even Konans cannot enter."
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Hahaha
Deo101
I try to make every page have something, i usually have 3 goals i want a page to accomplish but it's not very... Fun i guess? Its just kibda like "yes this happened"
keii4ii
It's also kinda sad when you DO put something important to you, and nobody says anything (or worse, says "so when is it gonna get interesting???")
Deo101
Yeah...
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
So once I spun this theory on a comic by picking it up from context clues. And I was like ‘Hey guys, what if X character is the dragon???’ and everyone was like ‘WELL DUH IT’S IN THE HOVER TEXT.’ I read comics on mobile where hover text doesn’t always work, and after getting sneered at for something ‘everyone knew already’ I was put off of ever being a Konan type again.
Deo101
:(
I never read the hover text unless its by accident I just dont think t
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah. And it wasn’t obvious from reading without the hover text so I was really proud of myself for figuring it out. But it just goes to show how rude commenters can scare away well-intentioned ones.(edited)
keii4ii
aaaugh D:
snuffysam
tbh i'm not sure why an author would put something important in the hover text where mobile readers can't see it. or tbh in blogs, side stories, etc. if it's important to understanding the main story, it should be in the comic.
Deo101
Yeah that's what im thinking... Hover text should be for puns
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It was revealed later that chapter in the main comic, but apparently it wasn’t a ‘secret’ like I thought it was.
keii4ii
Bleeeh, sorry that happened to you. >_< This is why we can't have nice things
Where is the nearest Konans R Us, I want to order one for each of our comics.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah... I’m very socially anxious / awkward so I’ve been scared away from quite a few comment sections. I still read the comics and buy them if they go to print, but a negative commenting experience usually discourages me from ever participating in the discussion.
keii4ii
100% understandable
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Which is why I feel it’s super important for the creators to moderate their comments (or hire a good moderator if they don’t have the time). A lot of comment sections get toxic if the author is lax about fostering a positive discussion environment.
Deo101
That makes me feel much better about the times ive asked people to cut Something out or deleted comments.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I appreciate that effort very much.
Deo101
I worry that its "disengenuous" or something and if someone has a negative opinion I don't want to be like "nope you're ONLY allowed to be nice to me!!!" But it's not good, i don't think, to let people feel safe being mean In my comments.
keii4ii
Yeah, there is being critical, and there is being mean
Deo101
So I rarely do it but I have and I don't feel any guilt over the times i have
Right
keii4ii
Sometimes a comment can tread the fine line between the two and it's really annoying that it's not Obviously, Blatantly Mean
Deo101
Yeah hahahahahhaha
keii4ii
But I try to remember that I too have walked that line unintentionally and obliviously, back when I was younger
Deo101
Right. I have too
I was like "oh man I am so smart and im about ti IMPART MY KNOWLEDGE ON YOU!!!" *Is a jerk *
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
That one comic I was talking about earlier: the author had a hard time keeping up with moderating and eventually took comments off the main site. It was 100% not her fault and she was herself getting emotionally distressed from the amount of negativity in the comments. Especially since the comic itself is really thoughtful and has a lot of messages of acceptance.
Deo101
:(
keii4ii
>_<
Deo101
Uhh but yeah! Does .1% feel like about what y'all get as far as comments:readers goes?
.1-.2
I feel like i have no actual gague for this lol
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It varies from comic to comic (for no quantifiable reason, usually) but that is about right. 99% of readers are lurkers.
Deo101
Dope, I was worried I had like super low numbers when talking with some people and it got me worried about my content
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Plus subs don’t necessarily translate to active readers. A lot of people just never clean out their library after they stop reading something / subbed it to read later and never got around to it or left the site entirely.
Deo101
But I've also just got a lot of anxiety about what im producing and how it's percieved in general
Yeah ik
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I can see people binging my archives from my stats but maybe 1 in 100 or less leaves any comments.
snuffysam
on average, each subscriber to my comic has posted about 45 comments total (which is like 0.07 comments per subscriber per page) if someone clicks on a page (subscriber or not), there is a 0.5% chance of that person leaving a comment.
Deo101
See for me its like. 1 in 1000 leaves a comment...
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
(It’s okay I get anxiety over it, too)
Deo101
Yeah i was gonna say uhhh whats it called
Shoot i lost mt train of thought.
Right. I feel like the longer a comic goes on tbe less frequently people engage
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, I’ve noticed that in my comics, too.
Deo101
Like less readers will have made it to the end, more will be inactive, etc
snuffysam
i've found that my active commenters take a jump in early march (i.e. right after the comic's anniversary), and any time a book ends (since, i guess people like seeing how all the stuff that's happened in the book culminates)
Deo101
Oh that's an interesting note
snuffysam
i suppose that's some other advice on increasing engagement - give a reason for even caught-up readers to leave comments. one thing i've been doing is redrawing old pages and releasing the redraws on anniversaries, which gives reason for people to re-read.
and for end of book stuff, i suppose people are more willing to predict how something is going to end when it's close to ending
Deo101
Hmmmm
I'm taking notes
twothirty
seeking validation through comments is my downfall, because i just dont seem to write a comic that has the type of readership who is into that. What helped was just looking at google analytics and being like "oh right, of course people read this, its clearly here in this data" haha.
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
twothirty, same. It's kinda hard to get out of that mindset.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Raises hand I need constant reader validation and get depressed easily when there isn’t. It’s not healthy, but it’s really hard to break out of that mindset.
Deo101
Im not seeking validation through comments, but when i have thousands of readers and get only like 5 it does make me look twice and start wondering if there's something I'm doing wrong.
And yeah it's hard to break out of the mindset
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Me constantly atm haha
Deo101
Especially if you've bee. Hurt in the past and you feel like people secretly hate your work because... In the oast they have
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
I wonder if it's actually...a change in how people interact with media nowadays?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Oh yeah, definitely, Deo. I got so much negative feedback when I first started posting webcomics and it still sticks with me today.
Deo101
Yeah I've been lucky where people have been mostly nice to me or otherwise just indifferent which makes it so I don't have a super negative experience that my anxieties latch onto
And its STILL hard
Because words of affirmation is my love language lol
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Partly I think it was because I was creating a lot of gender-nonconforming characters in an era when that wasn’t well-accepted in Western comics (reminder that I was surrounded by a veeeery conservative environment at the time), and partly because my skills were just not what they are now. There were a lot of nasty comments from both strangers and people I knew, and it was really tough to work through. I think if I hadn’t had the Tomgeeks forum to hang out in, I probably would have given up.
(For you young’uns, Tomgeeks was a webcomic list site and we had a really tight group in the forums. A lot of that old crowd are now in Spider Forest).
Kabocha
(Sorry, saw the tomgeeks mention! I remember aspiring to be in that group one day, but I was a lil' too much of a noob back in the day.) A lot of media is kind of... Sometimes you need to put a call to action to be like, "HEY LEAVE A COMMENT!" or something - else, they forget in a lot of cases, but ofc that's no guarantee.
keii4ii
Re: people being less willing to engage the longer a comic has been going on, that is definitely a thing
I think it's called archive burn or something
and I feel it too sometimes, as a reader. I feel like I'm not "allowed" to start reading a comic unless I can find a big enough chunk of free time to finish the archive in one session
It's 100% irrational but... it is a thing
I've found that I don't experience it IRL, with physical books. The end of each volume is a really good stopping place
snuffysam
then i suppose a problem is that webcomics don't really have stopping points you can physically see like physical books like when you're reading a book series, you know where one book ends, but when you read a comic you don't really unless you check how many pages each chapter has
and even then it's hard to keep that in mind when it isn't physical
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I definitely understand that feel. It's kept me from doing a lot of the book club comics because I'm like "I got ten pages in, but that's not enough to comment" T_T
snuffysam
maybe someone could program a widget for comic sites that works similarly to the page indicators in ebooks. like "you're 40% of the way through the chapter, and at your current reading speed you have 10 minutes left"
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Comic Rocket!
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Does Archive Binge also have a feature like that?
I feel like they might... I don't use those kind of readers so I'm not super familiar with them.
snuffysam
archive binge lists what page you're on and how many pages the comic has, but there's no reading speed thing no
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don't know. I'm technically on Archive binge, but didn't get any subs there so I didn't look into it past creating my listing. I don't use those services myself because I like a nice long archive to work through, but I know that comic Rocket shows you how much of an archive you've read.
snuffysam
also, the thing i'm talking about would be for chapters as well as the whole comic. because if there is a big archive, people like to know how long they have before a good stopping point
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I'm on Archive Binge. I don't think I have any subs either but definitely get traffic regularly as if I did. How even does internet work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
snuffysam
i guess recently updated?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I usually check out the archive page of a comic to get a good idea of chapter length, myself. So I know if I'm in for 10 pages chapters or 100 page chapters. Plus, idk, I have no problem stopping anywhere and picking it up again later, but I may be a pretty atypical reader.
Lmao, I have no idea how the internet works. I was one of the first people to list on Archive Binge and I have never gotten a single click from it. I get a steady number from Comic Rocket, though.
keii4ii
I wonder if it'd be worth experimenting with chapter numbers? Like, re-number existing chapters like "Season 2, chapter 2 of 15" instead of "chapter 20" ?
Deo101
^ thats a good idea
seeing "chapter 20" makes me as a reader go like, oh god, theres so many,,
snuffysam
^ that's one of the major reasons i label things "book X chapter Y" instead of just counting up chapters forever though adding "out of" is an interesting addition...
keii4ii
I'm nearing the end of season/ book/ whatever 2. I should give this a try
Cronaj
Lol, my books are going to be 3 chapters long each, so I don't think it would make much sense for me XD
keii4ii
Yeah, my chapters are short but numerous, so this might have a different effect than comics with longer but fewer chapters
Deo101
I'd be afraid of saying "out of" cause... well, i dont know how many heheh...
it all gets wacky when it comes time to actually make the thing
snuffysam
i mean, could add 'em retroactively as each "season" finishes
Deo101
oh thats true!
keii4ii
I would probably do "Chapter x out of [REDACTED]" (not that but something similar) when I start posting book 3
Cronaj
Yeah, my chapters are around 35-50 pages, so they're pretty long'
snuffysam
listing how many chapters are in book 3 would kinda spoil a twist lol, so i'll probably only do it retroactively
same lol
and some are 80 pages
book 3's going to have one 120 page chapter which is wild
Cronaj
I was thinking about printing 4-5 chapter books, make it more like a manga-length
keii4ii
You know, some comics (Korean comics do this a lot) do like... Chapter 10: Happy Day, followed by Chapter 11: Happy Day (2), followed by Chapter 12: Happy Day (3)
Cronaj
but full color printing is expensive
keii4ii
Dividing what might have been a single chapter into digestible chunks
snuffysam
i've split "arcs" into multiple chapters before, but unfortunately there aren't really any solid split areas in the chapter in question
Cronaj
and I doubt anybody wants to shell out $25+ on a 200 page comic
This is of course, a consideration for the future, as I don't even have the first chapter finished yet, but ya know
Come next year, I'll have some big decisions to make
@keii4ii Is that a webtoon thing? I've noticed that webtoons have shortish chapters
snuffysam
webtoons an entire chapter is posted at once
keii4ii
It's a Korean thing, which means Webtoons gets some of it
Cronaj
I mean, technically I post my comic in scrolling format, so I consider it a webtoon, but it's definitely drawn for print
@snuffysam, I mean the length of the chapters. The chapters (or episodes) are usually somewhere between 50-100 panels long, which is anywhere between 10-20 pages of a traditional comic
keii4ii
(Tangent, but as a Korean speaker I'm very weirded out by the word "webtoon" in English contexts. Over there every webcomic regardless of format is called a webtoon; I guess it's like anime/manga in Japanese? That in Japan, every animated show is anime, and every cartoon thingie is manga?)
Cronaj
Yeah, that makes sense
In the english speaking world, originally there were comics and webcomics, with little difference between except that one was posted online
but when Korean webtoons entered the English-speaking market, the naming conventions changed
The major difference being the prevalence of scrolling-format webtoons, which made people think that the difference between webtoons and webcomics is the format
but really, it's just a naming thing
You can call a comic a manga, and people expect a black and white comic in a specific style, but really, it's just a comic in Japanese
keii4ii
Yeah
Deo101
I usually just say "scroll style comic" or "page format comic" because im putting pages up on webtoons so it feels... weird to me
keii4ii
That too
IT'S A PICTURE STORY THINGIE WITH SPEECH BALLOONS
Deo101
hahahaha
Cronaj
In the end we are all just children XD
kayotics
this is really late, but i've been getting a lot more comments on my main site lately and I have no idea what I did to encourage that.
Deo101
people caught on
kayotics
That's probably all it is, but it's really surprising that my main site is the one getting more comments, since I wouldn't say it's necessarily a well built comment system? It's the native CMS comment system, and I require the first comment to be moderated
keii4ii
Does this mean I can claim I started reading Ingress before it got famous 8)
kayotics
yes
BUT, I'd say that the estimation of 1% of readers (or whatever the number was) is still accurate.
Deo101
.1% ish
kayotics
I have the most eyes on my comic over on Tapas, and while I do get a handful of comments there, it still equates to less than 1% of the total people subscribed. I'm sure there's a lot of reasons for that (like subscribers who aren't regular readers, people who quit the app, etc), but even the ratio of views to comments is pretty low.
Deo101
yeah I've been noticing that too
I have the most eyes on webtoons but I still have like. a good chunk on tapas and I think those are just more... casual sites
kayotics
yeah absolutely
Deo101
like on comicFury I have way higher engagement rates and i think that's pretty typical cause most of that audience there is also creators
kayotics
I'm sure there's some people who are pretty dedicated on Tapas, but I'd guess that there's more dedicated readers on my self-hosted site, just because they have to specifically seek out the content.
Deo101
^that makes a lot of sense to me
I know a lot of people who follow me on tapas are following 100+ other comics
and i know for SURE I wouldnt be able to take the time/effort to comment on like 10+ comics a day, assuming theyre even keeping up with all thsoe
wow yeah I just checked my list this person has over 6,000 comics theyre subscribed to, and a few have over 500
just on the first page of my readers(edited)
sooooo yeah it makes sense why engagement would be low if people are regularly reading that mant...
keii4ii
I actually rambled about this on twitter recently!
Deo101
and also makes me feel a little bit less bad when people are confused hahahahaha
keii4ii
How I thought I'd get a very small readership who are into what I'm making, but I ended up getting that very small readership PLUS a huge number of people who are just casually reading it
That first expectation was mostly based on my experience with my previous webcomic, but things were different back then. Big platforms weren't a thing, so casual readers were less common.
Deo101
yeah that's really neat
since I've only been making millennium for like... a little over 2 years and it's my first comic, I kinda just started with like 5 mirrors and was like "alright well, lets see how this goes I guess"
I had only ever read one webcomic before i literally have no idea how or why i got so convinced into making a comic
but since I was like 12 years old I was like "hm... I am going to make a comic i think." I just never did any research or tried til recently
or read any. I dont know how this happened
keii4ii
Casual readers vastly outnumbering the dedicated ones used to make me feel like I was doing something wrong, but I think that's just how the times are.
Deo101
Yeah :/ it's hard NOT to notice and feel like you're doing something wrong though.
when its like "okay i have 7,000 subs and got 5 comments" it's like ??? what am i doing WRONG
even though... its nothing wrong
it just be that way
hard to match those two ideas up though
almost went to continue this thought in an entirely different channel.
I think there is also something to be said for people not wanting to repeat a comment
like "oh someone already said what I thought so I'll just give it a thumbs up"
keii4ii
That's what upvoting is for!!!
Deo101
yup!
keii4ii
though, tfw highest voted comments are like "I have no idea wtf is going on lol"
Deo101
YEAH.
also do you ever comment on your own pages?
like not replying to people
keii4ii
I think I did once or twice, back when I actualy had relevant info and didn't have enough room in author's notes or something
Deo101
I've done it a few times, but it's usually kind of to ask questions where I can get replies
keii4ii
I have also seen a pro Korean creator post "first" on their own comic because they were tired of seeing so many of those
Deo101
I did that once LMAO
it's funny when people comment on my comic "FIRST!!!" cause i'm like. dude i get like 10 comments it's not that special to be first
but i'm happy theyre there and theyre excited its kinda cute i guess
keii4ii
Yeah, it's harmless
Deo101
and it's also nice to have people think that they have to race to be first
even though they don't
so it's kind of a nice comment to get even if it's not commenting on my work at all
keii4ii
It's kinda like hitting the like/heart button, just with more HURRY POINTS
Deo101
yeah hehe
oh i do 100% like all my own pages though
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I actually get the most commenters on Webtoons but I’m (fairly?) sure I have more readers on my website.
Deo101
on webtoons, I don't do it on tapas cause you can see i did it LOL
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I think I only ever got one First! comment and that was the only comment on that page.
keii4ii
Hey no shame in being your own #1 fan
Deo101
the one time I said "first!" was cause it had no comments on it for like a year and a hal
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Oh no, I don’t like my own pages. For some weird reason I feel like it’s cheating.
Deo101
and hell YEAH! I'm my number one fan so much that i'm making a dang comic for how much I like these characters ;D
keii4ii
I don't feel bad about liking my own pages, but I rarely do it because I wait a bit before even looking at the post
Deo101
inflate your own stats its cool. all the cool kids are doing it
keii4ii
And by the time I look at it, I forget about liking
Deo101
I only do it on webtoons cause I have to manually post there anyways
so i post and its like "heres the page!" and im like :) good job me :)
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I might start doing it. XD I get an average of 5-10 likes per page so why not.(edited)
Deo101
I also rate myself 10* or whatever the max is wherever I can
keii4ii
Yeah, and TBH one like isn't gonna give you an unfair advantage anyway
Deo101
^
keii4ii
If you're making a dozen alt accounts to give yourself more likes, now that's a bit questionable
Deo101
yeah that would be not so good
but you're a real account who likes your work so why not!
keii4ii
Yeah!
Deo101
I also honestly kinda like to sub to my own stuff and like my pages partially to make sure it's all working right
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I should probably rate myself 10* bc both my comics got ratings-bombed at one point for really dumb reasons.
Deo101
like to see when the page goes up and everything
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
The ratings have slowly crawled back up a ways, but it’s always disheartening when people attack my comics for stupid things.
keii4ii
Oh, to go back to an earlier point about asking questions to readers to encourage commenting, I might straight up ask next week if my comic is making any sense.
Deo101
ohhhhh man i dont like swingin at that hive lol
keii4ii
I'll have to word it well because I do not want it to be a pity party
Deo101
but i mean it might encourage the people who do get it to go "yup!"
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I do straight up ask every now and then. Sometimes I’ll get a pity comment when I do and sometimes it’s still crickets.
Deo101
also I feel really lucky that I havent had anyone be like, mean to my about my work.
I feel like trolls have really gone down in popularity
keii4ii
like even right now I feel like nobody's getting it (except maybe <10 people) so..... I don't think the answers could make me feel worse
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I meant I straight up ask for comments, ugh, I misread Keiiii’s post.
I GET IT, KEIIII
I LOVE UR BABIES
Deo101
oh man, I could never just ask for comments. if I'm feeling really down I usually send it to my friends like "can i have smth nice please" I just get really anxious asking people for things
not that asking is necessarily bad I just, as a person could never do that
also keiiii I havent read it yet but it's on my list cause the way you talk about your work and what I do know of it... seems like it would really jive right with me
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I usually do it along the lines of: ‘If you enjoy this comic, don’t forget to leave a comment! Getting feedback motivates me to keep drawing!’
Deo101
oh okay thats not so bad
oh my god how are the eyes moving
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I’m shameless, you can say it
Deo101
I have too much shame probably
keii4ii
It is my anxiety moving the eyeballs
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Give me sone of your shame, it’ll even us out
Deo101
please take it
keii4ii
(anxiety with Nitro powers)
Deo101
NOOO dont be anxious im gonna love it
god that eyes shaking emoji is so great
keii4ii
ikr!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
So fun fact- my real face eyes do that
keii4ii
I think Tatsumaki wants to see you do it
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It’s called nystagmus and it’s super trippy if you’ve never seen it before!
keii4ii
OH, I knew someone with that condition!
I never noticed anything about their eyes (only heard about them having the condition from talking), because I never met them while wearing my glasses X'D;;
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
My eyes just RANDOMLY do it a lot and it really freaks people out XD
Desnik
I've found that comments don't matter too much, but getting a boost from someone with a big following does
and the only comments I take seriously are from people I trust, although I get it: chasing the internet numbers is fun
snuffysam
what do you mean by "comments don't matter" you mean, like, in terms of garnering popularity?
Desnik
yeah, and as validation they can be a bit fluffy too
my perspective changed when I started printing out my work as zines and got people to buy them irl, it was very eye-opening
very few people commented on them online but in person I've found out they're not bad? And one of them got me a lettering job
keii4ii
Eh, I think it's okay to have different goals. To some people, good comments mean the world, and that's totally valid to want that.
Desnik
I know, just stating my pov
keii4ii
I mean that to some people, a good comment is not just an "internet number."
Desnik
fair enough
I believe I allowed for 'good comments' as being from someone I trust
keii4ii
Me, I treasure insightful comments from anyone who's invested in my story. To each their own
FeatherNotes
I have a book that I write them down to give me a lil boost to morale when I need it! i def appreciate the time it took for someone to write something thoughtful
keii4ii
Yeah!
Capitania do Azar
Oh comments are like.. What I like the most! (not all comments are the same tho). The reason I put my story out there is so I can share it and discuss it with people and the fact that a few take some time off their day to actively tell me what they think it's what keeps me moving
eli [a winged tale]
I really enjoy comments too. I always respond to my Instagram ones but not the comic ones mostly because of platform difficulties
Glowbat (Aloe)
I love reading through all the comments- they really motivate me when I'm having a low point and need a pick me up to get goin on pages. I just wish I was better at knowing how to respond instead of just liking the comment and hoping they recieve my telepathic brainwaves of gratitude
Phin (Heirs of the Veil)
Replying to comments is very hard and I always have the anxiety of "ruining" it haha ;; whatever it is (the person's enjoyment of my work?? who knows)
Glowbat (Aloe)
I feel that- part of me is always nervous I'm gonna say somethin to off put them or smthn.
Though I do try my best to curate comment sections if things are looking like they're gonna get rowdy
keii4ii
YEAH, and/or sometimes you're like "this comment is Awesome and deserves an Equally Awesome reply... HOW DO I DO THAT" and get stuck in a loop
Glowbat (Aloe)
yesss exactly that
I'm not that clever and I require lots of time to come up with anything I'm confident in lol
and by the time I have something cool to say back its been like a week
keii4ii
I made a Discord icon to express my internal response in a visual form to such Awesome comments, but I can only use those on Discord
This one:
Glowbat (Aloe)
Hehe
cuteee
and also a mood
keii4ii
Sparkling tears of happiness
Capitania do Azar
I believe them
Cronaj
Man... I will admit, I barely respond to comments
And that probably sounds terrible
But I honestly don't have time to respond to every comment
As well as the anxiety of not know what to say
It does depend on platform tho
keii4ii
I mean, as a reader I don't expect a reply if my comment is like "ooo nice!"
Cronaj
Generally, I respond more readily to comments on Tapas than on Webtoons, because I only have like 2 commenters at most on Tapas
And usually it's readers who ALWAYS comment, so I almost feel like they deserve a response, even if it's just a smiley face or a "thank you"
keii4ii
But if I've written a long ass essay comment, it would be nice to have some kind of engagement with that. Don't get me wrong, the creator doesn't owe me a reply but it's like... should I ever do this again with this comic. Or is my reply-writing time better spent on another comic
Cronaj
True
keii4ii
I def respect that not every creator has time to read all of the comments, regardless of how many comments they typically get
Cronaj
On Webtoons, I have way more engagement, but most of it is thirst for my characters or talking about the art style
keii4ii
and that not every creator may even aim to get comments
Cronaj
So I don't usually know how to respond to stuff like that
keii4ii
But if that is the case........ I would rather know before committing myself to multiple essay-length comments
Yeah, that is understandable!
Cronaj
I read every comment, but I don't want to respond to all of them
keii4ii
I'm 100% cool with "thicc" comments on my MC's butt or on my tiger dude's legs, but I can't necessarily think of productive replies to those
Cronaj
The only comments I respond to on Webtoons are either a) incredibly funny, b) meaningful and noticing more than the art, or c) a genuine question
Like if someone asks about my update schedule
Or if someone wants to know which programs I use
I had one comment about how good my grammar in the dialogue/thoughts is, and I felt so honored that someone else noticed
Usually I get comments about the art (which is also nice), but I prefer comments about the story or subtleties
keii4ii
It's the best thing when people notice the things that you put a lot of thought and love into
Cronaj
For several years in high school, I played around with the idea of getting a writing degree, so grammar and literary language have a special place in my heart
sssfrs
I respond to every single comment... I get one comment a month pretty much though
When friends or readers say nice things about my comic on any platform I save a screenshot and read them if I start to feel like nobody likes what I’m making
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I do the exact same
FeatherNotes
Its a good practice when things are kind of slow! Or just for that lip morale boost too
1 note · View note