Hey, I need some help here. Every time I'm out or working, I suddenly get inspired by a crazy whackadoo idea for a new comic and this is seriously starting to bug me. I have NEVER finished a single thing in my life. In just a year, I've drawn over a 100 pages but each of them has been to a different series or idea. In just the several months I've been to drunkduck, I've had atleast 7 comics... one of them reached 12 pages (which I seriously plan on continuing!) but the others rarely dipping 6 or 7 pages. Whenever I reach a good part in my idea, the little metaphorical lightbulb in my head turns on and I abandon the project for something new.

So my question mainly goes out to anyone who has more than 13 pages of continuous of work... considering you're doing 100% better than me. How do you extinguish that annoying lightbulb and focus on just one thing at a time? I've tried a little idea folder where I sketch, write, and draw my random ideas but just SEEING it in front of me causes me to go insane because I'm not drawing it!

Ugh, I need alchohol.

Thats a sign that your brain is faster than your hands... WAAAYYY FASTER. :)

I finished Brood Knight . When I was working on chapter 20, I was being lazy but you know... Its one of the things I forced myself with... lol!

What I can suggest... is translate it into comic form right away as soon as you get an idea. I think thats how I finished in the first place.

I've been uploading pages even though I only had 3 chapters of script done!!! lol!

Because the more you think of ideas, it just piles up and your brain tends to focus on the more interesting ideas as of the moment.


I hope this helps.

I have the same problem. I constantly think of ideas for new comics. What I do is just doodle the story out in my sketchbook (not actual panels, just like, draw out scenes randomly. If I don't get bored of the story at that point, it becomes a real comic (the one I'm drawing now). If it was never meant to be continued, it's just another doodle in my sketchbook.

I have this problem as well.
What I do is attempt to integrate the ideas into my current comic. That can be super challenging and fun at times. New characters, stories, and development can come into the comic because you brought totally new ideas and views to it.

It also makes it so that you never run out of ideas. The hard part is being patient because you cannot simply start working on those stories.

My favorite stories will take me years to get to =(

You don't need to extinguish anything. You need a format which caters to your attention span:

http://centerstorm.net/lite/home.php [centerstorm.net]

Got a neat idea you want to work in? Sign up. Draw a few pages. You're done and your work is a part of the continuum.

Some of these are good ideas but I really like JustNoPoint's... but at the same time, I really don't think I can strip an idea of its originality just to fit it in with my current subject.

AAAAAAAAAAGH THIS I WRACKING MY BRAIN!!!

I'm afraid it comes down to discipline. I have new ideas CONSTANTLY. It, too, drives me bloody insane, not being able to follow through on the new ideas, but with 3 already going, I just have to let them go. I have 1 idea in particular that I'm dying to create, but there's just no way I can add it to my load.

If you ever want to do *any* creating as a pro you'll have to learn to focus all the way to the finish line.

Plus, the feeling of completing a project is just incredible!

I wish I had some magic bullet for you, but there simply isn't one. Discipline is the ONLY way to make it to the end of a project. And that takes a helluvalot of effort sometimes.

One thing I will suggest is creating "smaller" stories that have a finish line that easier to reach. Stay away from epics until you have the staying power to complete them.

Later,
Chip

Oh wow, thanks for that great link mlai.

...ironically, this topic only gave me another comic idea. I'm going to try this "discipline" thing out... "refrain" from creating a new comic until I've finished one.

THIS WILL TAKE THE POWER OF MY MUSCLES COMBINED!

angry_black_guy
Some of these are good ideas but I really like JustNoPoint's... but at the same time, I really don't think I can strip an idea of its originality just to fit it in with my current subject.

AAAAAAAAAAGH THIS I WRACKING MY BRAIN!!!

How would it strip the idea of it's originality? If your story requires new characters then simply add them in. I gain and lose cast like crazy.

Later on I don't follow the same cast of characters at all! The only thing I maintain a constant is the rules of my universe.

I get tired of my post apocalyptic earth and want to make stories of jungles for instance. Well, I either have my cast discover a jungle still around, perhaps artificial?
Or I take them to another planet/reality that can tell my story.

Some things will not fit no matter what. But with enough creativity it is very rare to have to change things beyond the point of the original concept.

Well... if I do get a awesome idea to create a new comic, I usually try to work my character into it.

The thought goes away pretty quickly.

Do an anthology comic like penis or droop. You can do anything you want with no rules to bind you.

if you want to do something epic, you need to sell your soul
to your comic for a while. :P

I'd have to go along with some of the other posters here. If you find you tend to stray from a comic after five or six pages, try writing some comics that are only five or six pages long.

You'll then build up a portfolio of finished works and you can start to branch out into longer projects from there.

Marine
Do an anthology comic like penis or droop. You can do anything you want with no rules to bind you.

LPC is an anthology comic of sorts, and when I started was I definitely felt that I could do essentially anything that came to mind. But I think even if youre doing an "anything goes!" comic, you'll tend towards a certain tone and comedy style, and that will become the limitation. If Penis one day did a strip like Allan or Panda Panda, it would seem just as out of place in an anthology comic as it would be in any other comic.

I've wanted to do something different from LPC for a while now, but I just don't have the time to do two comics at the same time... so, I'm sticking with it for the time being.

If you think of an idea, spend some time planning how you'll put that idea into practice. If after thinking it all through and planning the first storyarc, you haven't lost interest with that idea/realised you just wanted to do it because you were inspired by something you'd seen or read recently/have fallen in love with another new idea, then by all means, continue with it. Just know your limits. I know for a fact that I can't keep up two webcomics as well as doing everything else I want to do. I can barely keep up one sometimes! Some people, however, are like comics drawing machines. Find out your limits. You may discover that you can keep up two comics updating once a week each rather than a comic that updates twice a week. It's rare to see an artist who regularly updates more than two.

make a comic, then, that's a bunch of different short stories... I see very little comics like that these days and I'd love to see more like that.

Exzachly

Marine
Do an anthology comic like penis or droop. You can do anything you want with no rules to bind you.

But I think even if youre doing an "anything goes!" comic, you'll tend towards a certain tone and comedy style, and that will become the limitation. If Penis one day did a strip like Allan or Panda Panda, it would seem just as out of place in an anthology comic as it would be in any other comic.

I've done pages like that before. Some of the most painful events in my life were used as cannon fodder in penis. I've done less extreme, and some argue "cute", stuff in penis before too. The idea now is that every day of the week offers something different. I've got a different kind gamer comic on mondays that is particularly formulaic, I keep rotating tuesdays every few months with a spotlight on an outrageous character, Wednesday I do material that would work in a strip like Cathy or Craving Control with my own slant to it, Thursday I was doing slapstick/physical humor not unlike the three stooges using wrestlers on thursday this month I'm doing a story about a werewolf who realizes his life has hit a peak that he can never reach again which is something that anybody can relate to. It does use a lot of overly violent and comedic elements sure, but its still a personal story that is something that I'm sure everybody has happen at one point or another in their life. Friday I have a story featuring some of the more obscure characters in penis such as the "starring" character the Pothead Snowman, The Great White Pimp, Picasso, Pete The Pushover, Pauline Shore, and other characters whose names start with P. Its part of an odd fascination I have with aliteration, dialect, and the english language. Often in my dirty comics you'll find some brilliantly written writing of the worst characters that is worthy of a wonderful writeup. Other times its just lame stories that stretch on and on and go off on weird tangents. So if you like the story arc format that penis uses from time to time, you'll love Friday. On Saturdays I do super hero stuff. A few of the heroes I use have been written out of penis. Faggot Man, Rape Man, The White Devil, and others still appear regularly. Generally my heros are inept and can't really save the day. Faggot Man just has to mention his name for people in trouble to tell him that they would rather solve their problems themselves than be helped with him, even though he is oblivious to the homophobia and himself is not a homosexual. Rather he asked his wife what his name should be since he got a giant attack dog suit and wanted to be a superhero, to which she replied he should be called Faggot Man. Not realizing the homohobic content of the name, he went with it. Rape Man, as his name would suggest, is a crazed rapist. He shows up to help people with their problems with rape. It doesn't make sense and is in extremely bad taste, but it seemed like a funny gimmick. The White Devil is a satanist anti-hero who tries to convert people to be devil worshipers and he often says things like hail satan or Devils give me strength much to the confusion of the villain of the week or the people he's attempting to rescue. Most pages are one shot gimmicks, but last week I started the second Saturday story yet about a hero attempting to save the day by fighting a giant mouse which I elaborated on today with great success. In what could be one of the best penis pages yet. The first story is still ongoing as well, but due to Halloween this month, I wanted to show off The White Devil and his satanic shenanigans. On Sunday I do yet another dry/unfunny/gimmicky kind of comic like Garfield, Peanuts, or Dilbert or most all of the newspaper comics. Its about a character in sales who always finds a way to ruin his sales or he makes a sale. Thats it. I'm slowly adding in a cast of characters to the strip with the addition of a second sales character who is the overly confident smug Alec Baldwin in wallstreet type of character who always makes the main character feel bad. Not unlike what the peanuts do to Charlie Brown. I could wake up tommorrow and decide I didn't want to do any of these stories and just do teen romance comics or an anime comic about a telephone, with penis, I can do anything.

However, I've a list of rules that I go by for penis that I occasionally add to. Right now I'm not allowed to use excessive profanity because it makes the comic look more juvenile and sophomoric than it needs to be, excessive nudity is out completely but suggestive nudity or sexual references is allowed especially when its something outrageous like two male vampires discussing and performing fellatio off camera, I can't break the six panel format I use. Although most days of the week I'm down to five panels, using the first panel as an introduction for the sub comic or story, and some characters I could do four with the first and second panel always being the same basic set up for their jokes, see the alien using his weapons for an example of that. At the very least keep the page the same pixel dimensions. No copyrighted characters like Spider-man or Wolverine. Even other web comic characters like Detective Fork or The Hero By Night are out. Topical and political humor should be kept to a minimum to avoid someone reading this three weeks from now and not getting it. Its also so I don't have the comic get up its own arse like some argue South Park and The Simpsons have with their forced messages.
And finally I'm not allowed to do excessively scatological or racial humor. Racial and Religious humor has no place in penis and is to be avoided. Using a goofy name pun like The White Devil for a satanic character who happens to be black is just another funny layer to a parody of satanism and anti-heroes. But anything thats like the usual web comic fare of "Christians suck because they shop at wal-marts, heres Jesus saving when he shops at wal marts lololol!" That takes no thought at all to do. The White Devil is a complex satire of several things at once that I think is funny. What I don't want is for people to say they feel bad or worse, insulted, because of my comedic comic on the internet. The poop joke stuff just got out of hand for awhile too. To the point where "feces week" became an idea I was going to use. I'm trying to avoid bodily fluid humor or body part based humor. Although I've done it as recently as a few weeks ago in a Wednesday page. I just thought if I could cut down on that, that'd be great. But bodily fluids are funny, especially when you add in five or six crazy ideas. Like a narrated story about a werewolf add in excessive poorly drawn violence and weird twists in the narration that take it in anti-climatic and stupid directions that no one sees coming. That to me is what penis is. I can do anything, I just have a few ground rules. Sexist, homophobic, racial, religious, and all the other ists will still be in penis, because these are things that exist in the world. You can make a joke about anything, but what I try and do is to make it funny for everybody. If people keep sending me stuff saying things aren't funny, the more offensive stuff just goes away into the archives. And on occasion if I feel something older went over a line, like a page featuring the superhero "Rape Man" that showed too much of what was going on, for example, I will go back and change that page to obscure or completely change what was going on in the page. I got rules for what I talk about on my authors comments. I don't want people to be offended, but to some extent controversial material is the foundation of penis, and without it a lot of the longtime fans feel like their being cheated. Like when I do stuff that has no jokes at all like the Sales Goblin pages. A lot of people just feel completely polarized by my work sometimes. I keep saying that its always different and evolving, and a guy who was the star of the comic last week could be replaced next week never to appear again.

The sub comics in penis were started as a way to put more structure into the comics. Rather than just letting things go wild and let the pages be completely randomly ordered, I had to institute a days of the week policy. Some people really love the sales goblin but they hate it when I use superheroes. Others just love it when I do dirty jokes, but then they'd rather have dry and witless humor about video games for whatever reason.

I've done pages that were blank or drawn with the most dynamic and interesting panels you'll see in a web comic on drunk duck. I've done serious introspective stories, stories about lesbian women in prison bonding with each other, pages about aliens taking over the world, teen romance/melodrama comics, but ultimately no one cares what I do. Their too busy promoting their own projects or hating my own because of its perceived popularity. Yes, it is funny, but its more than that. I do it daily to give myself something to do. Without it, I'd be sitting around telling jokes to the wall all day. I just do what I do and I do it as well as I can. And I can do anything in penis. If I wanted to have comics designed as public service announcements about proper instillation of insulation, I could do it and make it work. I'm always doing new things with penis and trying not to fall into the same sand traps as other comics and web comics do. If something works, I can't beat that dead horse until it doesn't work anymore, I've got to move on to the next thing. If it fails, I can't go back to the old horse and beat it if I've already beaten it to death, now can I?

An Anthology comic is probably the best way for me to go... kind of like a proverbial toilet where I dump all of my ideas that wouldn't cut a full length comic.

Anyways, it's 4:18AM on a saturday morning and I'm reading this topic super depressed. I have this gut feeling that now's the time to continue on my longer project but I seriously don't know. I MUST HAVE DISCIPLINE... but that's not a word in my dictionary...

Let's see where Saturday takes me.