One of the things I heard most back in the days when people offered advice on making a webcomic was that we should always set a schedule for updating comic pages (Monday Wednedsay Friday, etc.) When you really think about it though, doesn't this cause nothing but problems? Buffers, burnouts, rushed pages… I have an account on a certain art site outside of DD, and the idea that I can just post what I want when I want to takes off a LOT of the pressure of posting there versus posting a webcomic. (And just so we're clear, I'm not blaming DD or anyone on here for this, just referencing the current stigma of webcomic updating.) I'm wondering if it's time to start discussing ways to un-train our brains on the whole update schedule, and instead focus on making the best pages we can without burning out. I mean hey, the majority of us aren't getting paid for these, right? We're making them because we have stories we want to tell, and to share with other people. Why turn it into a chore? Plus, in my experience, readers and fellow creators are generally pretty mellow and cool about missed updates.

One of the first rules of developing good work habits is setting a regular schedule of goals. In writing it can be so many words a day, every day without fail. Take a day off and soon enough you take every day off and your work doesn't get done let alone posted.

Update schedules are guidelines not set in concrete. They are the goals you hold yourself to so that things get done. Some of us need them more than others but the argument has been made by whole loads of artists and writers all over more knowing than little old me – and it works.

I get out of my update habit, I drop out of my work habit and soon enough no buffer and no pages. I am off in the land of castles in the air thinking about other projects and the one I was working on languishes. I have more than one story to tell. Look at my control panel, how many comics have I seen through to completion? How many quality pages have I managed to churn out? They'll never be perfect but they will be good enough. If I worked on a page to perfection I'd still be somewhere in the middle of my first comic updating a page every other month or so.

Sure the readers understand but if I don't hold myself accountable for putting out quality work on a regular basis pretty soon I won't be putting out any work ever. I've been down that road of missed updates, despair and “I don't wanna” and nothing gets done like that. The little drill sergeant in my head has to motivate me to do it. And nothing motivates better than a regular schedule of goals.

All that being said, SET REALISTIC AND REASONABLE GOALS. Not a page a day. How about a panel a day? What works best for you? How long does it take to realistically put together a presentable page? Be reasonable. You can build up speed later as you learn tricks and get into a grove. But you have to have that regular schedule first. Be reasonable. I was joking about the little drill sergeant. Don't go R. Lee Ermy on yourself for falling behind. Know your limitations and work within them. Know what you can do and how fast before you start challenging yourself.

Pace yourself. That's how to avoid burn out. A reasonable schedule shouldn't burn you out. It's regular but not rigorous. You're not doing a marathon for your first outing. Know your limitations, know what you can do before you start challenging yourself.

If you want to maintain that readership a regular update schedule is a must. They have to know when to expect you. They have schedules too and this way they can put your work into it. So your regular updates becomes part of their routine and they don't miss pages. Reciprocal relationship. Following comics with no set schedule is difficult. You never know when to expect it and then there's a flurry of activity and for me it's “slow down, I want to savor the page!” That's one of the beauties of web comics. One page at a time you can savor it like a fine wine as opposed to gulping it all down like the swill that comes in a box.

But that's my take on things and how things work best for me. I have to get going because I have been really slipping lately with updates. I have nothing for my second update this week and I know I can do it and I owe it to myself to do it. And my readers and I have come to like two pages a week.

True… they definitely help keep us motivated, but I think the biggest problem is that it's too easy for a lot of webcomickers, myself and my sister included, to get carried away and invent an unreasonably demanding reader who HAS to have the most recent page on the promised day, at the promised time, or he'll leave and somehow take your entire readership with him. So I guess the question I should be asking is if there's any better motivator we could consider when doing webcomics, or alternatively if there's a way to un-invent Unreasonable Demands Reader.

In psychology this is called “catastrophizing” and projection. You are projecting your own disappointment onto this demanding reader and then catastrophizing that this will lose your comic readers.

You see one of the most important tool a creative person has is self knowledge. Know yourself and how your head works.

Step back and apply reality testing and ask if this demanding reader even real? Or is it just a reflection and projection of your own fears and disappointment in yourself over failing to reach unrealistic goals. Projection.

Realistic goals. Know and acknowledge your limitations. Don't blame something that may not even exist.

Ten years and over a thousand pages and I've yet to encounter “demanding ” reader but I have faced down my own disappointment and the projection of my own feelings of inadequacy upon my readers when in fact it had no basis in reality.

It’s just easier to keep readers. That’s the big take away. It gives readers confidence that they are not wasting their time getting invested in your story just so you up and drop it. It helps them know when to expect updates. And it also keeps it a consistent. It’s why I’m waiting to have a very large buffer before I bring new stuff again.

But in the end it just depends on how much you care about that part. You’ll still have some readers that stick around no matter how long you take. Like me! I’ve followed you all this time. Not going to stop now :)

In short don’t stress too much. If schedules stress you then just update whenever!

There was a time when webcomicers made money from ad revenue, so regular updates three times a week were would be a big help. Now that's not the case and the crowdfunding/Patreon model holds sway. That's not to say the reasons given by Bravo and JNP are any less valid, but I've seen some make a decent income by updating in a random fashion, so it's down to what's best for you. That said, if you're trying to build a following then less is definitely not more.

As far as building a fan base goes, I have other venues that get me a far higher following with a lot less effort, so this is definitely just something I'm doing for my own and others' casual enjoyment… I suppose the takeaway that I'm getting from this so far is that the importance release schedules depend on just how serious you are about comics as a “professional” hobby? Which isn't really what I'm going for, but I totally see the other side of the argument that it helps sort of put our feet to the fire.

I think the most important part for me though is just making sure it doesn't intrude on the rest of my life, especially now that I have a lot more to focus on including my upcoming marriage and the adult stuff we all know and love. (No, not THAT adult stuff - the stuff that we love in the ironic sense, like chores and work :P)

EDIT: As an aside, it occurs to me that if I had just kept slogging at Punk-Pink and putting out pages whenever it was convenient instead of stopping all those years ago, even if I had only put out a page a month I'd still be 84 pages ahead of where I am now… I'm sure it's a bit more nuanced than that, and everyone's different, but it does still say something about persistence as far as my own workload is concerned.

Well, you've convinced me as to how devoid of worth regularly scheduled updates are and how misguided I've been all these years.

So throwing away the schedule and if I ever update again – I am certain it will be entirely too soon for some of you. :D ;) 😏😁😉

Being someone who has for years on end never updated regularly, and only have a single year under my belt of regular updates, I'd say that in the end, I'm doing the regular updates for me more than for my readers (though I AM trying to build a good enough following that the comic will keep paying for itself and perhaps pay me for making it, so to speak). In the year I have kept a regular update schedule, I've produced more pages than ever before and advanced the story far more. So for me at least it's worked on several levels.