A goal is a dream with a deadline.
A little over a year ago I made a few observations about what I have learned about being a successful graphic novelists. Now I know these aren’t hard and fast rules, nor are they guaranteed to bring everyone success (I mean we all have different value judgements for what that means). But I am a big believer in practical wisdom. That certain things breed success more than others and I would much rather pursue tried and true models that lead to the results we want than not. And one of those things that have been impressed on me the most has been deadlines.
Whether real or imagined, deadlines move us along, give us a horizon we can aim for and keep us on track. When I made my first book, From Death Til Now, I really had no deadline, so the project floated out there in ambiguity for three years until it was finally completed (just the first volume). It was only a 150 page graphic novel in black and white. Really a fairly small book by all standards. But I had no real grasp on the work entailed to make it.
So with Adamsville I went about all of this differently. I took the time to write a script first, I took the time to get a pretty solid gage on the number of pages I would be creating (138, full colored). And I made a personal committment to myself that I would aim to finish the whole book within a year. It’s been about 14 months since I started that process. Now granted I missed my mark, but things came up along the way that I wasn’t expecting with work, kids etc, but that never caused me to keep this rough deadline in focus.
At the time of this writing I have exactly one week left of production on the first book in this series. It’s going to be a long one and the goal is difficult, but I should get there. (A side note, those who helped me color flat pages on the end of this book, have absolutely saved the production of this book, I will have to do a final write up on everything once I am done.)
BUT let’s get around to the point of this article, DEADLINES. Why should you have them? What good has it done me to have such a tight deadline when I have no publisher? Why run myself ragged?
Because deadlines help goals happen. A task may be monumental, challenging, and exhausting (and it will be), but the minute you have a deadline you can start planning. I written articles about planning tools I’ve made like my production spreadsheet, and other thoughts along the way. You have to turn a mountain in to a hill and you have to give yourself a horizon. Professionals have deadlines. If we want to consider ourselves more than hobbyist, we should too, even when no one else is pressing us.
For many a webcomic creates a nice weekly deadline. But do you know how long the whole project will take? What can you do to make that happen faster? One day you may actually have a real deadline, when that publisher buys your book and you have a legion of fans waiting for your book to come out. Start preparing for it now. It’s helped me reach my goal in a time period I never thought I could. I never would have imagined a little over a year after I started I would be wrapping up work on this book. And I feel much better about how book 2 will play out as a result.
Very good advice man!