Conquering The Wall
July 6, 2023
We made it to the other side! We did not abandon the thing! (This time)…
As evidenced by Comic #045, I have managed to overcome “The Wall” that started to build up about a month ago. Sometimes you can power through certain walls. Others, you can step around and avoid. But with the big scary walls (“I hate this. This is going nowhere. Why am I doing this.”) you absolutely need to stop, re-assess, and come up with a plan. Take some time away, and let your mind wander a bit. It will work on the solution while you watch cat videos or do another hobby.
In my case, I was struggling with the writing. I had the basic idea for the first hundred comics, but a loose outline is not exactly a solid scope to rely on. And with just over half the run to go, I needed to work out everything in detail before I continued individual comics. So I did! With my rough plot outline, I actually came up with several twists and turns before ending on Comic #102! Of course this number will end up being plus or minus a comic, for one-offs I come up with, or removing comics I end up not wanting.
I’m actually surprised with how that process turned out. I thought I had one ending in mind, but as I worked through the final conflict, I decided to entirely put off the larger meta-concept I had as my original idea for how it ended. Now, it’s actually going to remain a smaller, tighter story about a group of characters coming together to solve an EXISTENTIAL crisis (see what I did there? I made it bold AND uppercase for you).
Assuming I continue this comic beyond this first part/chapter/season/thing, I actually have several discarded plot lines, plus the larger meta-concept that I can’t even begin to think about how I would approach or implement. It’s good to have MORE than you need, for sure! Puts you in a really good spot creatively. Overproduce so you can trim it down. Then, kill a few of your darlings. What you end up with is usually the best idea.