I read webcomics. I am a sucker for pretty pictures, and for stories, and anything that would combine the two is of course something that would interest me. And as much as I like the “joke a day” comics, I find myself much more attracted to the webcomics that have one major underlying plot (as opposed to just an infinite number of archs) because it’s so much like reading a novel, just with pictures.
The point? I clicked on a new link today, and found myself at a webpage that was set up like a webcomic, but was actually…well he calls it an e-novel. Basically instead of putting up a new comic on some weekly updating schedule, he puts up installments of a book. Each installment usually isn’t as long as a chapter, though some are longer than others. It’s more like each installment is a scene or so.
While I wasn’t interested in the story itself (I don’t like ‘Dark Fantasy’, as he labeled his genre.) the concept of the webpage itself is greatly interesting to me. It also shows me that perhaps there are people out there who will come to a website for something even if there aren’t pretty pictures. (Of course webcomics will probably always be more popular, but his link was an ad on a webcomic site so there’s some correlation.) But this has given me some interesting ideas for my own website, which is made all the easier by the recently added “blog” on the front page.
One of my major issues is my inability to keep focused on one story for very long. I can go through stints of writing on one story for a few weeks, and then have weeks where all I do is read over random stories and maybe write a few lines on the end, or make some changes, and still other times all I’ll work on is the background or details of the world. However, the blog would help greatly in this, in that each “piece” I post is put into a category. That way you could choose the “Demonslayer” category and just see the posts that add to that story. Then once I have posted all of the pieces of a chapter, I can compile the chapter and put it into the already existing structure of my website. But perhaps fact that I won’t have to have an entire chapter done before I post it will encourage me to post more than I have.
Of course the issue still comes out of the fact that I want people to read what I write. I do write for myself. I write what I like and what I want to see, but at the same time there’s nothing better than getting feedback on something I’ve written. (Assuming it isn’t done in a nasty way, I even appreciate constructive criticism.) Not only does it make me feel good that someone else might care about something I’ve put so much time and effort into, but other perspectives and suggestions help to expand my skill.
At the same time, I don’t believe I have nearly enough confidence to actually rent out ad space on popular websites to bring people in. But I do want to bring in some people; more people than are just randomly floating around here because they know me from who knows when. (Not that I don’t appreciate you guys hanging around.) After talking to Ajin, of Misadventures Etc fame, I found out all he really did was post the links on a few forums he went around to, and possibly word of mouth did the rest. Now he’s rubbing elbows with some of the greats of furry artdom. (Though improving his art skill has done a lot toward that end as well.)
I suppose, however, that the first step is…well taking the first step. Posting a piece of story to the blog. Perhaps throwing up the link to this site on a few of the forums I go around to, and see if anything happens.
