Hmm...

[the_gneech]

I had a neat idea for SJ today -- which is always a nice surprise. The problem is, that it takes some preparatory work to do it properly, and that means more work. Waaah!

The first step is going to be sitting down and actually working out a story first. Not scripting up individual strips, but rather the arc that they're going to follow, including beginning, middle, and end. This is something I've got to start doing for all of my storylines, because I have a real problem of starting out with a Bang! and ending with a ffft. Once upon a time, I could count on exuberance or creative momentum to carry me through, but after seven years, that just doesn't work any more. Now, I have to plan, or I'll stumble.

The past year I had a resolution (of sorts) to try to put up something every M-W-F, even if it was just a filler sketch, on the grounds that readership falls off without regular content. Unfortunately, this has had two unwanted side-effects:

1) Quality Slip.
There have been strips I put up that I just wasn't happy with, but had to have something up for tomorrow. There have also been some that were just retreads of earlier strips -- i.e., tracing or just lifting previous panels whole cloth and changing the dialog -- done to save precious time. Not so many that it was a real problem, but enough where I felt kinda cheesy about it.

2) An Archive Full of Filler!
When you read the 2005 strips in the archive, there are a LOT of interruptions -- that weren't there in the previous years. This isn't because there are fewer strips: it's because there's filler where there used to be blank spaces. I think this may be what's causing the comments I've received lately about the story seeming disjointed. When you read just the story parts, it's flowing along as well as it ever has -- but when you also include the stuff in-between, it gets a more start-stop-start-stop feeling than the earlier years.

So I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the "filler-or-bust" idea isn't quite such a good idea after all. Should I just draw the best strips I can, and if it's not up on Wednesday, send it up Thursday? (Or if it's not up on Thursday either, just put up a news item saying when it will be up?) Which is more important, a dependable schedule or a better strip?

What do you think?

-The Gneech

Comments

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

Given that you're working on your own (i.e., not to a contract), I think you'd be better off to go with quality over regularity. Regularity is nice, yes, but not at the expense of quality.

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

I'm going to agree with lythandra --- a bad comic makes you lose readers, and you know how diehard we are, so I wouldn't worry too much about being regular. Or maybe update once a week with more than one strip, putting maybe two up or even three to advance the storyline at the same pace with the same amount of strips, but only having to worry about updating once a week so other things can get done.

Lizard Rat out.
Rambling in Albany NY

[power-cosmic.livejournal.com]

I'm a diehard SJ fan, but this year has been really hard to enjoy.

I think you should definately go for quality over regularity. If it means one strip a week, at least it's a strip you can be satisfied with.

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

*snickers* This year's been nothing but filler. Then again, we've only had 1 comic this year, but, alas... its so much filler. *Insert melodrama here*

Don't mind me, I'm here just to be silly. ^_^

[kylet.livejournal.com]

You NEVER fully outline before you start?

I'm sorry to say that, from a practical webcomic standpoint, consistent updates are better than quality. It sounds awful to say that, but that's more consensus/experience than personal desire.

I will admit I *like* sketchfiller. Behind the scenes is fun.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

You NEVER fully outline before you start?

"I never write stories with the ending in mind, because I want the story to develop a life of its own, and I want the resolution of the dilemma to surpise me. Sometimes I really get myself stuck that way. This story [the duplicator story from Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"] spun completely out of control and surprised me throughout, so it's one of my favorites." -- Bill Watterson

On the other hand, it was Watterson's JOB to sit around and stare at a piece of paper until an idea came to him. Neither you nor Our Beloved Cartoonist has that kind of free time. *Shrugs*

Have the best

-=TK

[kylet.livejournal.com]

See below; the ending to me is a big carrot.

And don't forget HE took hiatuses too. IIRC, he more or less was one of the first cartoonists to set a precedent for it.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Third, after Berke Breathed and Gary Tredeau. And he was offered two nine-month sabbaticals, because he had just concluded a HUGE legal battle with the syndicates to preserve the integrity of his comic.

Have the best

-=TK

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I have almost never outlined at all, much less fully outlined. On our collaborative pieces, I did some rough outlining so that you and I would be on the same page (so to speak), but even that got blasted thanks to the @$&## job I had at the time. :P

My best runs have come when I had an informal "outline" in my head, or at least an ending I was working towards. The problem tends to be that I don't come up with plots, I come up with neat bits, and then have to work in a plot around them.

What I want to move towards is a more formalized version of that. I don't know if it's practical, but what I want is to do no more starts unless I also have a finish to go with it.

-The Gneech

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, an ending is pretty essential, if you outline nothing else. If you have a totally killer ending planned, you can't WAIT to get to it so it'll make the process of writing everything in between speedier. You'll be all "OMG OMG OMG payoff!" IMHO, anyways.

[dhlawrence.livejournal.com]

Filler is nice, but only when there are more comics than filler. People would rather have a prime cut of pork than a sausage filled with stuff that barely resembles meat. I'd say focus on quality more than quantity, but don't be afraid to throw in filler now and then as long as you don't OD on it.

[power-cosmic.livejournal.com]

Here Here!

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

Filler is nice, but yeah, having the story all nice and readable from front to back would be nice. It would be cool if there was a 'Comic' archive, and then a 'Filler' archive. Its not like I haven't seen that happen elsewhere. You know, if you just need a filler for a day, put it up for the day, then move it to the filler archive and remove it from the main comic when you get your next page up, perhaps.

Its an idea, if you wanted to keep both, because some of the filler is really cool. Like my conbadge. Yes, no self interest here. ^_^;

--Salen

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

While "quality over regularity" sounds good, I'd rather see you reduce the schedule and keep it regular than make it irregular. I'm not saying, "let quality slip" but that you need both quality and regularity even if that regularity means SJ becomes a twice weekly or weekly strip rather than a thrice weekly strip.

The occasional schedule slip, with notice if more than a day, will certainly be forgiven. But I can see that all too easily becoming a common thing and that will likely cause problems. "Oh, him, his updates are unreliable" is not what you want for a reputation.

An idea might be to solicit guest strips for a week so that when you feel a need to delay your own work, you can run a week of one guest. Doing this perhaps once a month might give you a good chance to catch up without being pure filler of one-shots (though it would not advance your storyline) and allow guest artists to do a bit more than can be conveyed in a single strip. Of course, a guest week could also be pure filler, it's your week off or, rather, week in the background, getting the good stuff ready. This would likely have a problem of predictability if you are unable to do such a thing on the week week (I'd say either first or last) of each month. Of course you can reject the idea as being not what you want. It's your strip, after all.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[delphinios.livejournal.com]

There's a delicate balance between quality and regularity that should be sought. MWF, with Monday and Friday being filler, isn't much more then a crappy weekly comic... worse since you're hoping to read a little bit further on the storyline each day. Conversely, half-done strips on a regular basis aren't much better. Though, for most readers, the art (once it has surpassed a certian quality so it dosen't degrade the strip's atmosphere, which your skill most definately has... a thousand times over. :) is secondary to the story. I don't even think anyone notices re-dialogued pre-ran panes if they're used conservatively.

As was noted earlier, noone minds sketch filler, as long as it's not the significant part of your strip posts. Perhaps now would be a good time to take all of your filler, declare yourself on hiatus for a month or so, post the filler *now* and get yourself both a good cache of strips and something resembling a vacation? :)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Words of wisdom to live by:

The best comics have funny writing and funny drawings, but sometimes the strength of one can make up for the weakness of the other. Great writing will save boring artwork better than great drawings will save boring ideas, but comics are a visual medium, and a funny picture can pull more weight than most people think. Whenever deadlines force me to go with a mediocre idea, I go for broke on the illustration. (p.32)

Few strips play with real back-and-forth dialogue. A funny conversation is more interesting to me than a one-liner. (p.42)

There are, of course, comments like this throughout the Tenth Anniversary Book, but most of them are specific to the strip shown. I just thought these might be helpful while you're looking at the design parameters of SJ.

Have the best

-=TK

[katayamma.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember something about building up a buffer in case something came up and you couldn't do a single strip.

Unfortunately, you got in the habbit of building a buffer then relaxing while it played out rather than keeping it built.

If you could manage to build a buffer and keep it filled, then I think the problem would vanish.

Cheers

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Usually, it's more a case of "build up a buffer and then it gets decimated by me being sick or working 10-hour days at work or family interruptions."

Every once in a while, it's "build up a buffer and then it goes away as I lay panting on the floor trying to recuperate." ;P

-TG

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

It all depends on what you want out of the strips.

If you're hoping to make this strip into a job (ie: get paid for each strip), then regularity is more important than quality. Editors prefer to have something to fill the space, no matter what, even if it's not the greatest quality. (Don't believe me? Read any comics page.)

If you're hoping to make this strip into a 'work', like a comic novel, at a bigger publisher than Plan 9 (not knocking Plan 9, but they don't have the budget to market your books), then quality is more important than regularity. Readers prefer to have high-quality stories and art.

If you don't have particular plans for the work (if you're just doing it for fun), then choose whichever way will give you the most fun.

[canisrufus-uk.livejournal.com]

For me personaly Gneech, quality wins over regularity. I would expect that to be true for most of the vocal fans who'll stick around come what may.

But based on what I've heard and seen wih some other comics, it's a regular shedule that keeps hold of the silent masses, if cutting back on the number of comics would keep up the quality and allow for a reliable regular shedule that may be a course of action to consider.

You could try speaking to Scott Kellogg, he cut back from M-W-F to a M-F shedule due to time constraints, you could ask what it did to his readership stats.

Filler

[hantamouse.livejournal.com]

When reading archives, I'm always annoyed by interuptions such as late update apologies, hiatus notices, random artwork, and stick figure quality filler strips. After a few weeks those things need to be culled.

At least move the quality fillers below an actual strip, so the story doesn't get interupted.

[nekura-ca.livejournal.com]

If you're concerned about the amount of filler in the archives, you could do something like what The Order of the Stick does, pulling the filler out, so that the archive is just storyline, and then have a separate page for Additional Art or something. I don't mind filler, it lets me know that the author is still active and thinking about the comic. It's better then seeing the same silly drawing there for two months and then finding the entire comic gone.

Guest strips are nice, it's how I found 21st Century Fox, and TCM, and others.

Nekura

[kamau-d-lyon.livejournal.com]

I would certainly see quality being the more important aspect of SJ. I'd love to see a strip every other day but if the quality had to suffer for it I'd be much more inclined to settle for once or twice a week. I love the work you do and the story you work into SJ but honestly when you get pushed into just cranking out work both take a dive. Take your time and do what you do best, create art.

[indigoangelcat.livejournal.com]

I would say quantity. With quantity, you are forced to somewhat make yourself produce something. Even if it is a sketch, and then in the back of your mind you are going "okay, this has to be good enough to at least post, to let me work a little harder". You can get more practice in, and then become faster in producing what you want. Maybe you can actually leave the weekend "sketch" for the high quality piece (ya know, work on it all week, and call it like SJ special, and let the viewers know it is a different story line than the main one, that only comes once a week).

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of quality over quantity. I'd rather have an extended absence where the artist picks up with a quick recap than a bunch of filler which, while interesting, leaves me going "Huh? What the heck happened?"

I'd rather have, of course, a more dependable AND a better strip but I know from my own endeavors that this just isn't possible. I"d rather see you build a better strip.

[wielder13.livejournal.com]

Have you considered guest drawn storlines? Nothing huge. Say, somthing simple that can be done in two to four weeks. A guest artists does a story that you script or help script and then it can be continuity and give you a break or open up time for more involved projects.