Ron Marz’s article Shelf Life: No Time Like the Present really struck a chord with me. If you haven’t read the article, go over and read it. I’ll wait.
Have you heard these before?
“If only I had more time”
“I wish I was good enough to do XYZ”
There are plenty of excuses to not do something, but the flip side of it is a life full of regrets. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to find a balance between teaching full-time, freelance work, a family, and my comics work. It’s not easy to start a new project when life seems to pull you in so many directions. How do I find the time to do what I love amidst all the other stuff?
I make time for it.
I want to give a little background as to my schedule and overall routine.
My full-time position involves teaching media arts and animation courses at the college level.
This quarter, I’m teaching 8 courses – three of which are new courses. Being an instructor involves preparing syllabi, weekly lesson plans, projects, study guides, demonstrations and grading. In an average week, I put in between 50 to 60 hours of work time.
Outside of work, I spend an average of 10 hours a week freelancing. Family time and the usual work involved in maintaining a home consumes the better part of the weekend.
Presently, I write and draw my strips for the week on Sunday. I’ve been doing this for about 4 weeks now. Each PC Weenies strip averages about 2 hours for writing / research and another 2 hours to create. I work digitally and I work fast. Sometimes my work is rushed – sometimes I miss a punchline or two – but my goal has always been to create comics that I would enjoy and deliver them on a timely basis.
While drawing and writing these comics is immensely fun, it’s also challenging. Witness the number of layers for Monday and Wednedsay’s strips below. Each layer represents another one of my attempts at revising the punchline.
(5 revisions for Wednesday’s strip)
(18 revisions for Monday’s strip)
Having to create three strips from scratch is by no means “easy” for me. But I do it anyway because I love it.
There are times where life gets pretty crazy, and sure – I’ve taken a break here and there over the last 12.5 years of doing this. But I never give up because to me, making comics represents everything I truly love.
I’m of the firm belief that if you truly want to do something, you’ll find a way to make it happen. Just don’t wait for the circumstances to be ‘perfect’ – it never will be. You have to make the time and claim your stake. As the ad slogan goes: “Just do it!”
Put in the time – don’t worry about perfection. Just get yourself moving and enjoy the process. After all, it’s supposed to be fun, right?
-Krishna
Wow. Thanks for the “mental kick in the butt” (if I may mix phrases). I’ve felt like this lately but now I realize the time I spend whinig about “not having time” is time wasted by not using the time I just spent whining for more productive time. This is printed out next to my computer. I needed the inspiration. Thank you for your timeliness.