2020 wound up being a lot less productive than I had hoped. I throw that word around a lot—“productive”. Highly subjective, and generally not the most motivating, no?
It’s no secret the year was rough for almost all creative folks. While I, honestly, wasn’t nearly as affected as many people were, the constant bombardment of negativity, fear and fighting I got every time I went online, stepped out of my room, or even had a simple conversation did quite the number on my motivation and energy. I’ve been fatigued 24/7, and that hampered my plans. I had intended to illustrate most—if not all—of the first volume of my upcoming series Detective Rosengarten, but things went south. But not in all bad ways! I finished Lunar the Moon Rabbit during the summer, and prepping it for publication took a lot of time and effort. Then, in autumn, The Pumpkin Sells Real Estate got accepted into the Webtoons ad revenue program, which meant I was now obligated to update at least once a month, and the new influx of readers meant weekly updates were expected. I’m generally not one to cave to reader expectations. I personally believe that if you let readers take the reins of your story, it loses a lot of its genuine spirit and can fly off the rails very easily. But this is different—the amount of updates I post in a month is directly tied to my earnings. I may not be doing it exclusively for the cash, but let’s be honest. When you’re self-employed, sometimes you have to shift your plans to have money to keep doing the thing. The plan had been 100 pages of Detective Rosengarten by the end of the year, and I definitely didn’t hit that, nor have I through the first half of 2021. But that’s okay, because instead, I threw spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. If it stuck, great! If it didn’t...well, I made some tweaks to my plans accordingly. Here’s what I found. Instagram hasn’t stuck for me. It was fun for the first few years, but honestly, the platform has become stagnant for me. I held onto it for “business reasons”, thinking that was my biggest opportunity for commissions, readers, and various means of support. Most of the people who really support my work wind up following me multiple places. Instagram hasn’t held my interest, and frankly, I only really open it to reply to DMs from people I can chat with elsewhere. I’ve had my Instagram for about four years now, but it just doesn’t have the same glow to it anymore. Social media in general hasn’t held my attention well lately. I much prefer spending my time making comics and projects that hold water outside of social media. The feeling of holding a book I made is far more rewarding long-term than posting a piece of art on Instagram. I don’t regret the effort I put into Instagram things though! I’ve made many good friends and learned a lot from it, but in the end, what will I have to show for that? I prefer tangible results. Books check that box. Plus I really, really love books. The Pumpkin Sells Real Estate has performed well on both Webtoon and Tapas, as well as in my hometown—I got the opportunity to do an art show at the beginning of 2020, right before things went bonkers, and a piece featuring Lantrell was one of the most popular illustrations in my display. The love for my saucy pumpkin man has definitely shown that it’s a series worth pursuing, and I’ll be keeping with it long-term, it looks like. Volume 1 of The Pumpkin Sells Real Estate is slated for a 2022 release in print. The Heyday Kids, Aces, and Little Lady and the Misadventures did not stick in 2020, nor really 2021. They all performed fairly poorly. I have full intentions of finishing the narratives for the two formers, but it might take longer than initially planned since I will, ultimately, need funding of some type to complete them. They’re now hobby projects, and I don’t foresee them selling well when I publish them as books. I still will though, even if only for myself. Lunar the Moon Rabbit took well in 2020, even if I was wrapping it. The support for that series was lovely, and quite surprising! I consider that one as having stuck. It’s still garnering new readers, too, and the paperback sales have been decent. Circadia didn’t stick in 2020, but I didn’t do well talking about that one, and it didn’t get a print release until 2021. It’s done better than I expected in print, but still not great. For a project I prodded at for three years, the reception was, admittedly, a bit disappointing. YouTube was fun, but I don’t think it stuck. I put out quite a few videos in the second half of the 2020, but didn’t experience much growth or interaction. It was still fun though, and I’ve continued posting videos through much of 2021. Editing is a nice hobby. I started streaming on Twitch recently, and it’s gone fairly well. One of my streams got 100+ viewers, which…I still have no idea how that happened. I’m about 10 followers away from applying for Twitch Affiliate, which I’d like to do. It’s just difficult to stream with the bogus internet connection available in the country. I’m hoping to move sometime soon, and perhaps I’ll get better internet then, and can stream more. It helps keep me accountable and on-task for work. Go For Rich! has not performed very well. I’m hoping to publish Volume 1 of it in mid to late 2021 though, and it might just perform better in graphic novel form. I need to change some approaches. Again, I’m trying to not be motivated by money, but at the fresh age of twenty, I need to be more liquid than I am. It would do my work wonders if I could afford a house of my own, and based off my rocky income history, I’d never get approved for loans...not to mention how nervous I’d make a landlord! So I need to rearrange priorities and throw more spaghetti at the earnings wall. Need to try new things. I keep feeling like books are the answer though. Print books! They just tend to take a year or two to make, which makes them a bit tricky. Another plate of spaghetti I’ll be throwing relating to that is a full-length novel. I’ve mentioned Brightlite Records: ‘87 here and there, but it’s coming together. I’m in what I believe to be the final third of the book, and with any luck I’ll be publishing it in 2022. I’ve heard it takes a few novels to get any sort of traction—I figure that means I shouldn’t expect Brightlite to be any kind of breakout hit, but hey, we’ll see when I finally throw the pasta, right? Animation is a realm I want to keep delving into. I finished storyboarding my short film awhile back, and have started final animation for it. Animated projects usually sit on the back burner, but hey, maybe I’ll be able to bite off more involving that in the future. I need to cast the voice actors for it. I really want to make a decisive pipeline for the coming months, but after the past couple of years, I’ve realized my career is simply too tumultuous to even start making any concrete plans. So instead, I’ll make a checklist. Maybe I’ll come back to this list at the end of 2021 and give an update on how things went, if I remember to do so. So. To put it plain, what do I want to do in the remaining half of 2021?
Those are the big points. I have a few personal goals, too, but creatively, those are the major plans. Here’s to making some of it happen! All the best, -Lissie Dixon
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Lissie DixonArtist, author, general wearer of many hats. Creator of many things. Archives
February 2024
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