How to FINISH the comic (or ANYTHING) you started
Actionable advice on staying motivated when you're not feeling it
Issue 207
Lots to cover, so let’s dive in!
STAYING IN THE LOOP:
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🎙️3PP Podcast: James Gurney: Life is an Adventure
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📚Selling some books from my collection: LINK
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1) How to FINISH the comic (or ANYTHING) you started
From the Department of Video Works
I recently posted a new video on Youtube after a yearlong hiatus. I explain why I haven’t been making videos in the video, but if you’re a long time reader of this newsletter, you already know why…I’ve been too BUSY! haha.
The video is directed towards people who want to draw comics, but I think what I talk about applies to any creative discipline.
For example, have you ever asked yourself one of these questions?
How do I stay motivated when I stop believing in my idea?
How do I follow through when I keep procrastinating?
How do I build discipline when there’s no external deadline pushing me forward?
Most of us have gone through phases where we doubt ourselves, that doubt leads to procrastination, and that procrastination leads to us becoming an undisciplined mess.
It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact there’s some pretty easy things you can do that can have a massive impact on your motivation and ability to power through and deliver on your ideas.
How do I stay motivated when I stop believing in my idea?
Most times this isn’t about the idea itself, it’s caused by a shift in your internal narrative.
That inner critic gets louder as you go deeper into the work. Your standards rise. Your imagined outcome becomes harder to reach. That’s natural.
What helps is separating your feelings from facts.
There’s a technique from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy called “Catch it, Challenge it, Change it.” that I find super helpful.
When you start to doubt yourself catch it by identifying the negative thought.
Challenge it by asking questions like:
“Is that a fact or a feeling?”
“Was I excited about this idea at the beginning? Why?”
“What if I just finish a rough version and decide later?”
The trick is to reconnect with your values, not your feelings. Maybe the most important question to constantly ask yourself when you start doubting the work is this:
“What does finishing this say about who I want to become?”
How do I follow through when I keep procrastinating?
Procrastination is almost always an emotional regulation problem—not a time management problem.
You’re not avoiding the task itself.
You’re avoiding how the task makes you feel:
Overwhelmed
Uncertain
Bored
Anxious
I give several examples of what to do in with procrastination in the video, but I’ll share one here: Make the task stupidly small.
I’ve had to do this over and over again for my long comics projects. Instead of telling myself “Today your’e going to work on your comic” I’ll tell myself “Open the file and draw one panel.”
How do I build discipline when there’s no external deadline pushing me forward?
I think a lot of us have a skewed understanding of discipline. It's not about grinding through misery to finish something. True discipline is about building structure around your goals.
Again, I go a lot deeper on this in the video, but for this newsletter I’ll share one thing you can do: Track your effort, not just your output.
Keep track of time spent on each page. Every time you sit down to work on the comic, write down when you start and when you finish.
By focusing on effort you’re focusing on what you can control. You can’t always control how fast a page comes together. You can control whether you showed up and spent a morning doing the work.
This builds a sense of autonomy, and when you feel in control you’re more likely to keep going.
Every time you show up, it’s a reminder:
you’re the kind of person who does the work.
And that’s way more important than any final product you put out.
I put together a free six-part video series designed to get you up and running on your next comic project.
It’s based on the live workshops I’ve been teaching recently, and it leads directly into the new Graphic Novel Pro course I’m developing, which launches soon.
What I shared today helps you get out of your head, this series helps you get work on the page.
If anything I said here resonated with you, you’re going to want to check it out—because in this series, I show you actual, tactical steps to help you start your comic and finish it strong.
Link below:
2) What if Mega-Man Zero was an Anime??
From the Film and Animation Division
Found this incredible Japanese artist fleshing out how a Mega-Man Zero anime might look and I’m here for it. He goes by the name Noah and can be found here:
X: LINK
Blue Sky: LINK
3) Special Delivery Trucks
From the Office of Wheels
If it’s not delivered to my house in one of these I don’t want it.
4) Mecha Pokemon!
From the Office of Robots
And my personal favorite Pokemon: Dragapult!
Canadian concept artist Guillem Ferrer absoltely nailed it with the mech designs. they’re so tight and clean. Killer work!
More here: LINK
That's all for now. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!
-Jake
My sponsor for this newsletter is…me. It's me, because I'm not accepting sponsors for my email list, and don't plan to any time soon. Really, I'd just like people to buy stuff from my shop. If you like this newsletter, you can support it a few ways:
I’m selling off some of my library because, I picked a lot of these up for referenc eon specific projects and I don’t need them anymore. I’d like them to find a good home!
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Weekend reading:
Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four Artisan Edition
by Jack Kirby: LINK
*Any amazon link I post is an affiliate link
I've been working on a version of tracking my work using a spreadsheet divided up into the steps for each page (roughs, letters, pencils, etc.). When I finish a step, I get to fill in a box with the date so I can appreciate how many days it took me to get here. I also get to see how much closer I get to the end goal as the chart gets filled in. Sometimes, it really is just whatever it takes to keep going. It's also better than just tracking finished pages because you get the full process picture. Thank you for your insights this week!
Those mecha designs was so cool!