And with that we have arrived at the end of the first chapter! To everyone, if they exist, who has held out between all the long hiatus’s and changes: Thank you so much, that seriously means a lot.
And unfortunately this page marks the beginning of another, hopefully brief, hiatus.
I’m moving in a week or so, and would rather not stress over new pages while in the middle of that.
Anyone who isn’t really interested in knowing anything beyond that, keep an eye for the end of the month, as that’s when I will try and update everyone on the move and whatnot.
For anyone who wants to know what else is going on, continue reading.
I also need to take some time to do some really hard thinking. The truth is, I’ve written about three or four different “Chapter 2’s”, all radically different, all about completely different things. And so far, none of them really feel “right”. Honestly, the past… idk, since I’ve started posting pages again, nothing’s felt “right” with the comic. Truth be told, every time I get stuck only posting a page an update with this comic, I get very unhappy. But only making a page a week is all I’m mentally and physically capable of doing right now. The past year I’ve been dealing with issue after issue trying to monopolize all my time, and every time I get one problem solved, a new one crops up, and quite frankly, I’m completely drained at this point. I’m perfectly capable of finishing at least three pages a week and still having time for taking care of myself: but not when things keep coming up will small to no break inbetween for me to recharge.
Chapter 1 honestly took forever, far longer than I ever wanted it to, and I am very unhappy about that. This is not the pace I designed the story around, and it’s been very hard having something I love turn into such a slog. I want to do the story justice, and this isn’t doing it justice. But I don’t really know how to fix that and still be putting content out there that won’t kill any hope of keeping readers around.
And just to be clear on something here: I am not looking down on or throwing shade on any other webcomics. There are plenty of webcomics out there that work just fine being a page a week. But these comics are usually designed for that, too. Page-a-week comics are not a format I personally enjoy working in, which is why I’ve attempted several times to do batch updates. But doing that means my numbers won’t grow and I don’t want to be doing something that is actively shooting my comic in the foot. But, when I try to do things the “traditional” way, though, and post only a page a week, that makes me miserable as well, because it’s, again, something that I feel is actively shooting my comic in the foot, because it goes against the design. I’ve thought about trying to reformat into more of a scroll thing and posting it on Tapas or webtoons, but I didn’t design the comic around that either, and reformatting takes me forever. Also I don’t do long enough updates.
I feel as if every member of the community is looking down on any decision I’m making. I feel looked down on for having my own site, I feel looked down on for considering using tapas/webtoons, I feel looked down on for not enjoying doing page-a-week updates, I feel looked down on for not doing MORE than one page a week, and I feel looked down on for the number of breaks and hiatus’s I’ve had to take because I have a hard time balancing work and life. I feel like I’m letting everyone down for not following their advice. And I feel like I’m letting myself down for not being capable of doing what I genuinely feel is best.
So yeah, that’s the stuff I really need to sort out right now. And luckily the timing is good for it. I don’t know what the future will hold, but I hope that once I’m settled at my new place, I can figure it out. I don’t want to stop making this comic. Paisley Brickstone means a lot to me, and has gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life, and we haven’t even gotten to any of the good stuff I have planned for it. I want to at the very least make it to Chapters 4-5 before even vaguely allowing a thought like that to cross my mind.
Anyway, thank you all once again, and I will try to give some kind of an update on all this by the end of the month. Take care, and stay safe.
It’s a great comic! I’ll read it at whatever pace you post it.