Why I don’t blog anymore |

EDIT: I go into details about time investment in the comments below.

Dear Colleen,

I bookmarked many posts on your site for information about self publishing and contracts, but when I came back to read the posts later everything was gone. Now I get page after page of broken links and comments without posts. Did you know that most of your website is completely broken?

Kelly

Dear Kelly,

I stopped blogging in public regularly almost 8 years ago, (UPDATE: I now blog on my Patreon behind a paywall, so the 15 million hits this blog once got will now pay me directly instead of an advertising service that pays me almost nothing). While I think it served a purpose at the time, now it is holding me back as an artist. Between social media and blogging, I am investing hours every week into activism that is costing me on a personal and professional level, and I am no longer willing to pay the price. When I started blogging, there weren’t very many websites that covered the same things I was writing about. Now there are, and you have many other resources to choose from.

As for where the posts went, I loaded a blog security update that broke the site. The home page looked fine, and I didn’t look any further. So, when the site backups updated, they updated to a broken version of the site. This included both the blog and the comic inventory portions of the site.

Many of my old posts were locked into a system that required each post be reformatted and imported one at a time. I don’t have the resources to do that.

You will find that some of the material has been restored, but I will not make further efforts and am letting the rest go.

It’s for the best.

I’ve written of how expensive it is to work on my A DISTANT SOIL comic, and how I can’t carve out the time for it among all my other assignments. But after giving everything a really hard look, I come to the conclusion that if I’d invested just a fraction of the hours I’ve put into blogging over the years, I’d be completely finished with A DISTANT SOIL by now, and it wouldn’t have cost me a penny out of pocket to do that.

There are 24 hours in the day, and if only 1 hour per day goes into blogging (and I used to blog daily,) then that is an hour I’m not drawing and writing stories. I’ve had a blog and/or message board for 15 years. Even half of that investment would have finished A DISTANT SOIL by now. A brutally realistic estimate shows me that my blogging and social media use is the time investment equivalent of three 200 page graphic novels.

I’d rather make the graphic novels.

Since 2010, my online presence has been great for sales and visibility, but that is something that must be carefully balanced with the art.

For several years, when I was unwell and spending a lot of time in bed propped up on my pillows with a laptop, blogging was the easy alternative to drawing. But making comics is far more labor intensive than blogging. As I am getting more and more publishing work, and believe my best work is yet to come, I can’t justify blogging anymore. It is time-consuming, and it is often stressful as well as ephemeral.

I don’t think I realized just how anxious and stressed online activity made me until recently. I am making the choice to self care, and spend less time engaging with things that don’t promote my well-being and the well-being of my art.

Of course, I am posting on my blog to announce this, and I do intend to update periodically. I’m more than happy to post art on my Twitter and Facebook accounts. But I will no longer engage in activism of any kind, and will no longer blog about professional issues in publishing and fandom (my own business being the notable exception, of course).

I will continue to maintain and update the A Distant Soil website, but my priority is finishing the final graphic novel which I fund at my Patreon.

Thank you for your kind understanding, and I am truly flattered that you considered my postings helpful in the past. I am moving on, and I hope that your future will be filled with the great art and writing you will do.

Family. Friends. Art.

Nothing Else.

My mantra.

12 Comments

Siphrania

October 19, 2015 at 12:25 am

Real Life needs must. I haven’t been writing much fanfic, and I almost feel guilty for not finishing my fics. But your real life is making comics, and if blogging gets in the way of that, screw the blog. I want more comics.

Colleen Doran

October 19, 2015 at 1:29 am

I already made the decision to call it quits some time ago, but when the blog broke, I took that as a sign from Providence and let it fall down the rabbit hole.

It’s too stressful, there is too much signal to noise, too many people fighting online, fighting to control narrative, fighting for attention. I don’t know what they think they are winning, but I came here to create comics.

Let ’em fight. I’m done.

Jeremy_A

October 19, 2015 at 6:26 pm

I completely understand where you’re coming from on this. I had to do a lot of work over the weekend and when I looked back wondering why I had so much to do in such a short span, I figured if I removed the time I spent checking social media and general web surfing, I might have been able to enjoy this weekend. Live and learn.

Your blog posts have been interesting and insightful but I can understand your need to shift focus. Looking forward to seeing more of your art-related posts when you have the time.

Colleen Doran

October 19, 2015 at 6:51 pm

I think some people see this as an indictment of internet culture, but it’s really not. I am in full agreement that social media helps drive people to my work, but it’s out of balance for me now.

I have gained several important clients and picked up some very lucrative work because of contacts I have made with professionals on social media.

When I have time to do it, I am able to get very good sales on art and books via the internet. If I put serious effort into it, I can make a solid five figures a year in extra money (though in years like 2015, I cut back on sales because I have too much publishing work and don’t have time for mail order.)

I can state with a reasonable degree of certainty that I have made a solid six figures of income due to contacts I have made via the web and online sales.

However…

In terms of actual hours spent, I am looking at an investment of about 14 hours per week for 15 years between blogging, message boards and social media. A fair estimate of 10,920 hours.

10,920 hours is 273 weeks of forty hours a week of effort. That’s 5.25 years of a full time job.

Now, if I halve that in consideration that a goodly portion of my web time is probably me looking at LOLCats and joshing with my friends, that is still a full time job for 2.65 years.

I would not have scored some of these good jobs or made those book and art sales without my regular social media presence. I have picked up a number of paying lecture gigs as well.

But it is well past time that I need to be blogging. The return on investment is not there, social media is a fraction of the effort, it is far less stressful, and it leaves me more time to do other things.

Like make more books.

Dave Schwartz

October 20, 2015 at 10:34 am

Nice post about blogging w/o the “I have come to hate Internet”. Thanks for all the wonderful posts and take care. )

Colleen

October 20, 2015 at 11:25 am

🙂 Yeah, I do not hate internet, I just need to manage the way I use it differently.

Colleen Doran

October 20, 2015 at 1:22 pm

The posts are down now, like 95% of all my posts, but I blogged two years ago about slowly cutting back, and recall a few people getting pretty upset about it. One person just went on a rant about how the blog isn’t what it used to be, it’s just fangirl squee-ing, which I thought was really rude of her to write. What business it is of hers if fans want to squee? It’s not like they’re committing a crime.

This summer, I had a family emergency, and was at the hospital for five days. Now of course, people don’t know that, I never mentioned it. But I had a few people admonishing me for not blogging or tweeting about some issue that had come up in comics at the time, which I knew nothing about, and how dare I not mention it, don’t I care?

I think that last bit is what really convinced me to hang in the towel for good. Something else happened recently, that made me take that clean, final break with a particular clique of the comics blogging community. Pretty toxic bunch at times, this was the last straw.

I have a life outside of this other stuff, and I really want to focus on things that are positive and that move me forward. From a time management standpoint, and from a toxicity standpoint.

Quin

October 20, 2015 at 7:54 pm

Do what makes you happy; it’s your life and your time.

I’d love to see more A Distant Soil. If the choice is your blog posts and ADS, ADS would win hands-down.

Jeremy_A

October 20, 2015 at 9:31 pm

I find I’m getting less from blogs (in terms of interesting information and a connection to fandom) and it’s a time sink. Following a few pros on their own sites, Facebook, Twitter, etc. provides some of the enjoyment that I, frankly, had been missing navigating through the different blogs/fan sites.

I have less than a month to go in a promotion track I am currently on. If I pass, it’ll mean a lot in terms of my career path and a sense of relief and accomplishment. My time is better used focusing on finishing what I need to do and less on following some flame wars.

Colleen Doran

October 20, 2015 at 11:38 pm

Thanks everybody.

Jeremy, best of luck with that promotion! I feel the same way, once blogging was a positive thing, now it’s not. I fully intend to post update on my work, answer questions once in awhile, but anything outside my personal art sphere, forget it.

Quin, I’m just about to finish two major projects, and then I have almost 2 months to do nothing but commissions and A DISTANT SOIL art. I am really looking forward to it.

Quin

October 26, 2015 at 1:39 am

@ Colleen: Yay! I’ve been following ADS since its teaser insert. Can’t wait!

Colleen Doran

November 1, 2015 at 2:13 pm

I did a rough draft of the final scenes over two years ago, then got caught up in all kinds of stuff. I tried to get back to writing it and had a really hard time hearing the character’s voices. Not literally, but you know…

Anyway, since cutting way back on online activity, my head space has cleared up, and I was driving down the road the other day, and boom! Brain percolated, and big scene for ADS I’d been struggling with burbled up like it had never left. I just worked it right out.

I think writing online was just taking up too much headspace and energy. Interacting with my fans has been great and energizing, but everything else has to go.

Siphrania

October 19, 2015 at 12:25 am

Real Life needs must. I haven’t been writing much fanfic, and I almost feel guilty for not finishing my fics. But your real life is making comics, and if blogging gets in the way of that, screw the blog. I want more comics.
Colleen Doran

October 19, 2015 at 1:29 am

I already made the decision to call it quits some time ago, but when the blog broke, I took that as a sign from Providence and let it fall down the rabbit hole.

It’s too stressful, there is too much signal to noise, too many people fighting online, fighting to control narrative, fighting for attention. I don’t know what they think they are winning, but I came here to create comics.

Let ’em fight. I’m done.
Jeremy_A

October 19, 2015 at 6:26 pm

I completely understand where you’re coming from on this. I had to do a lot of work over the weekend and when I looked back wondering why I had so much to do in such a short span, I figured if I removed the time I spent checking social media and general web surfing, I might have been able to enjoy this weekend. Live and learn.

Your blog posts have been interesting and insightful but I can understand your need to shift focus. Looking forward to seeing more of your art-related posts when you have the time.
Colleen Doran

October 19, 2015 at 6:51 pm

I think some people see this as an indictment of internet culture, but it’s really not. I am in full agreement that social media helps drive people to my work, but it’s out of balance for me now.

I have gained several important clients and picked up some very lucrative work because of contacts I have made with professionals on social media.

When I have time to do it, I am able to get very good sales on art and books via the internet. If I put serious effort into it, I can make a solid five figures a year in extra money (though in years like 2015, I cut back on sales because I have too much publishing work and don’t have time for mail order.)

I can state with a reasonable degree of certainty that I have made a solid six figures of income due to contacts I have made via the web and online sales.

However…

In terms of actual hours spent, I am looking at an investment of about 14 hours per week for 15 years between blogging, message boards and social media. A fair estimate of 10,920 hours.

10,920 hours is 273 weeks of forty hours a week of effort. That’s 5.25 years of a full time job.

Now, if I halve that in consideration that a goodly portion of my web time is probably me looking at LOLCats and joshing with my friends, that is still a full time job for 2.65 years.

I would not have scored some of these good jobs or made those book and art sales without my regular social media presence. I have picked up a number of paying lecture gigs as well.

But it is well past time that I need to be blogging. The return on investment is not there, social media is a fraction of the effort, it is far less stressful, and it leaves me more time to do other things.

Like make more books.
Dave Schwartz

October 20, 2015 at 10:34 am

Nice post about blogging w/o the “I have come to hate Internet”. Thanks for all the wonderful posts and take care. )
Colleen

October 20, 2015 at 11:25 am

🙂 Yeah, I do not hate internet, I just need to manage the way I use it differently.
Colleen Doran

October 20, 2015 at 1:22 pm

The posts are down now, like 95% of all my posts, but I blogged two years ago about slowly cutting back, and recall a few people getting pretty upset about it. One person just went on a rant about how the blog isn’t what it used to be, it’s just fangirl squee-ing, which I thought was really rude of her to write. What business it is of hers if fans want to squee? It’s not like they’re committing a crime.

This summer, I had a family emergency, and was at the hospital for five days. Now of course, people don’t know that, I never mentioned it. But I had a few people admonishing me for not blogging or tweeting about some issue that had come up in comics at the time, which I knew nothing about, and how dare I not mention it, don’t I care?

I think that last bit is what really convinced me to hang in the towel for good. Something else happened recently, that made me take that clean, final break with a particular clique of the comics blogging community. Pretty toxic bunch at times, this was the last straw.

I have a life outside of this other stuff, and I really want to focus on things that are positive and that move me forward. From a time management standpoint, and from a toxicity standpoint.
Quin

October 20, 2015 at 7:54 pm

Do what makes you happy; it’s your life and your time.

I’d love to see more A Distant Soil. If the choice is your blog posts and ADS, ADS would win hands-down.
Jeremy_A

October 20, 2015 at 9:31 pm

I find I’m getting less from blogs (in terms of interesting information and a connection to fandom) and it’s a time sink. Following a few pros on their own sites, Facebook, Twitter, etc. provides some of the enjoyment that I, frankly, had been missing navigating through the different blogs/fan sites.

I have less than a month to go in a promotion track I am currently on. If I pass, it’ll mean a lot in terms of my career path and a sense of relief and accomplishment. My time is better used focusing on finishing what I need to do and less on following some flame wars.
Colleen Doran

October 20, 2015 at 11:38 pm

Thanks everybody.

Jeremy, best of luck with that promotion! I feel the same way, once blogging was a positive thing, now it’s not. I fully intend to post update on my work, answer questions once in awhile, but anything outside my personal art sphere, forget it.

Quin, I’m just about to finish two major projects, and then I have almost 2 months to do nothing but commissions and A DISTANT SOIL art. I am really looking forward to it.
Quin

October 26, 2015 at 1:39 am

@ Colleen: Yay! I’ve been following ADS since its teaser insert. Can’t wait!
Colleen Doran

November 1, 2015 at 2:13 pm

I did a rough draft of the final scenes over two years ago, then got caught up in all kinds of stuff. I tried to get back to writing it and had a really hard time hearing the character’s voices. Not literally, but you know…

Anyway, since cutting way back on online activity, my head space has cleared up, and I was driving down the road the other day, and boom! Brain percolated, and big scene for ADS I’d been struggling with burbled up like it had never left. I just worked it right out.

I think writing online was just taking up too much headspace and energy. Interacting with my fans has been great and energizing, but everything else has to go.