The Webcomic Diaries #3 | Believing In My Project

Will my comic even get read? Am I wasting my time?

Hello friends!

Welcome to the third installment of my ‘Webcomic Diaries’ series where I document my webcomic making process from scripting, planning, and drawing, up until it’s official launch. Today I wanted to chat about believing in yourself and your work. If you’ve been following me here on Substack, you probably already know that I’m currently working on a young adult superhero webcomic series, and if I’m going to be completely honest, I’ve definitely been feeling a lot of imposter syndrome and just general self-doubt lately about my artwork and this project as a whole.

I’m a total newbie when it comes to creating comics. I’ve never made a webcomic before and I’ve been feeling very discouraged about it as of late. But I was talking to one of my friends recently (who is also an artist and who works at a comic book shop), and she was telling me about how she wants to start selling prints of her own artwork. She told me to make my comic because comics can change the world. They have changed the world. Comic books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns completely revolutionized the comic book industry and how people view comic books.

Even the comic books that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko created changed the world. The world we live in today might have looked very different without those heroes.

So today I wanted to talk about giving your creative projects a fair shot and believing in them (even when you don’t believe in them yourself.)

I’ve worked on a lot of different creative projects over the course of my life from novels to short stories to comic strips but I’ve never made a whole webcomic series before so the process has been a little daunting to say the least. I want my ‘Webcomic Diaries’ series to be an honest look into my webcomic making journey - which includes the struggles I’ve been dealing with too.

I enjoy the writing and drawing process so much but if there’s one thing I don’t give enough attention to it is self-belief and believing that my project is worth putting out there for all the world to see. If you’re a creator and an artist and you’re making comics and you’re extremely passionate about what you’re making, I think it’s important to have faith in your skills and the stories you want to tell.

Sometimes I think about the vision I want my webcomic to have and then the self-doubt creeps in and I worry about whether I can pull it off or not. But when you do reach that finish line, it’s amazing because you put in all of that hard work and you didn’t give up.

I heard a motivational speaker the other day say:

Motivation isn’t just about getting ramped up and excited to work on something. It’s about finding your passion and your mission. It’s about reminding you of the reason why - why it matters.

The ‘why’ is what drives people through creative projects and through life too. And my ‘why’ is that this story means so much to me. These characters have been with me a very long time and I want to share them with others. I’ve kept this story cooped up for too long. I struggled to get it published as a novel and so now I want to get it out there as a webcomic instead. I started writing about these characters when I was 12 years old (all the way back in 2006) and I always imagined this story being in a comic book format. I want to give my story that I worked so hard on a chance to actually have a little bit of a life span and have people read it.

More than anything, I want people to read the comic. I’m making this story for myself first but I would like people to read it too so they can gain something from it - whether that be entertainment, life lessons, etc. Most of all, I want people to enjoy it. I would like to someday build a following of readers and a community of people who enjoy my comics.

My artist friend who I mentioned earlier also told me that my art is worth it.

Your art is worth it.

Any creative project you decide to take the time to work on is worth it and is worth giving a shot. So that’s what I’m doing with my webcomic. I’m going to start believing in my art. Passion projects that we work hard on (whether they are comics, novels, poems, films, songs, etc.) are worth giving a chance. We have these amazing visions for our work and we want to get those visions out there.

I hope that makes sense and that you all got something out of this blog post. Apologies if it was a bit rambly in places but it was just something I wanted to talk about. I think it’s important to discuss the downs just as much as the ups when it comes to creating art.

I’d love to know if you’ve dealt with self-doubt in your own creative work and how you overcame it. Let me know in the comments! I always love with chatting with all of you.

I hope you all have a lovely day and I’ll see you soon!

Love,

Laura-Louise xoxo