3 weeks, here’s page 2 – finally. What really got me over the hump was starting the 100 Days of Making Comics challenge – an idea that I saw in the Twitterverse.
The challenge was really a self-challenge, started by a frustrated comicker named Kevin Cross in 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCN-ZdQkaGU
He was inspired by other people doing ‘100 days’ challenges. The object is to devote at least 30 minutes per day to making a personal comic – writing, sketching, drawing, etc. This jibes well with treating creative work as a habit by doing it steadily rather than wait for inspiration or some other excuse-laden self-delusion.
The other aspect is to make a post about it for accountability. It can be either a video or a blog with some proof. I’m doing screencasts because recording what I’m doing & sharing takes less time than writing a decent blog.
The final piece of the puzzle is to join the Facebook group or use the official hashtag #thee100s to engage with the community.
So far it works really well! I’m on Day 10 and only on two of those days have I done the bare minimum of 30 minutes. Most days it’s around 50-60 minutes and on a couple of days I’ve done 3 1/2 hours.
I really can’t thank Kevin enough (also, he’s a punk rocker, which makes him doubly cool). It was this video of his that sold me on starting right away:
And as a result, I’ve started paying attention to my YouTube channel, and considering branding, consistency, etc. I’ve only got a handful of subscribers but I’m looking at the views for each and trying to relate them to length. I’m going to keep the next batch of videos to 5 minutes or so to test my theory that they get more views than 9-10 minute vids. Granted I’m not offering anything specific in a vid so perhaps longer vids would do better if there was a specific topic beyond ‘watch me draw’.
The best of Kevin’s 10 tips for me is #9 – Do it first. On most days I do it first thing (after coffee). That’s how I’ve managed to get workouts in consistently (the scientific 7 minute workout, in case you’re wondering). So I’ve crafted a simple morning routine:
- Wake up. Try to limit phone use to 15 minutes (need to work on this more).
- Release & feed the hounds.
- Workout.
- Make coffee.
- Meditate while coffee steeps (this is new, still working on it).
- Drink coffee while watching YouTube vids, an idea I got from Dasha Horb. She watches artist vids & vlogs with her morning coffee so I figured why not inspire myself similarly? Most of the vids I watch involve art, a few are self-improvement or TED/RSA type stuff, and pro wrestling vids make the cut too.
- Comick (verb (transitive): to make comics).
It’s working so far, fingers crossed that it continues.
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