Trying new things and Executive dysfunction

As many of you know, I have ADHD and with that comes executive dysfunction. For years I have struggled with the constant internal battle of having lots of ideas but not knowing precisely where to start. Those who have ADHD, you likely completely understand what I am talking about. For those who don’t. I’ll break it down for you.

I love to learn things, I am constantly gathering new information and then that information often leads to new connections. I am an ideas person, someone who when given a problem wants to dive right in and try to understand it from multiple angles. At the same time, I am always fighting to control where my attention is turned. Recently, I wanted to give myself more down-time and to feel less stress to “finish” things instantly. So I created several panels weeks in advance and set them up to publish ahead of time. This gives me two very key things, the first is that I am no longer stressed about getting the panels out, I can determine placement, and the overall look a lot easier. The secondary advantage is the ability to fully look at the dialogue. That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes realize after I published something that the dialogue is absolutely stupid. I have and I admit to ninja-fixing it.. Though I have also accidentally thought I posted the updated version of a comic vs the one I hated only to discover that I was wrong.

The downside to advance posting also is that because I am no longer deadline focused, I forget to update everyone or try to communicate with my audience. I’m still trying to figure out how to do this more efficiently and effectively (if you’ve got ideas feel free to comment). The other downside is “Out of sight, out of mind”. Because the deadline is further out, my focus isn’t on communication and is instead on trying to get my ideas in my head to match what I am creating. I’m pretty sure by now many of you have noticed that I can’t seem to help myself when it comes to creating fully realized pieces. I keep trying to convince myself that I do not need to make the backgrounds but as soon as I start drawing the comic, my brain starts trying to create a large scale illustration. I find myself focusing on the details when I should be focusing on telling the story. Especially with BLH, I admit the reason for the massive details in BLH are because I find the overall world of Tyria to be amazing. I have fallen in love with the overall world, even with some of it’s issues. I will attempt to reign in my love of details to finish telling the story I’ve been trying to tell this week.

In the case of Universal Exchange I’m really happy with the pace that has been sped up and I’m really hoping that you enjoy where we go next. If you’ve gotten to the bottom of this wall of text, thank you! I appreciate all of you and I’m so glad you keep reading my comics.