Productivity and Motivation: Jason Franks and Paul Mason

Part three of talking with self-publishing/small press cartoonists about productivity and motivation.

Jason Franks

Do you experience a drop in productivity upon completing a comic? Have you developed methods to deal with creative lulls? What do you consider the primary obstructions of your productivity?

Nope.

Because I am principally a writer, it usually takes months or years for any given piece that I write to see print--so I'm already well into the next project. In fact the converse is probably true: depending on the publisher, pushing a book through the lettering/production process might interrupt my writing schedule for a period, so my productivity usually goes up right after a book comes out when I can settle down and get back to creative work.
  

 Paul Mason

After spending maybe 4-6 months solid on a book writing, drawing, colouring, lettering, assembling/pre print etc, especially ruining my body clock in the process, I can’t help but blow off a few days doing very little creatively as I recover. Read a favourite book, stare at the idiot box, dust off the Playstation for my twice a year game session etc, and maybe sleep longer than 5 hours.

But no method is better to beat this than the next pending deadline/task on the list. I remind myself “Don’t be an amateur”- This applies not only to my comic tasks, but also my sports or work practices. A pro would tough out the pending tasks and get it done. I figure I can’t reach my goals screwing about, and not bringing out new stuff. Not much of a method, berating myself mentally, but it’s true. It’s the same when I have to find the time to train for a world championship or tournament while working, studying and comicing- I might have worked all day at the day job, sat through peak hour traffic, get home to more work, an empty kitchen that needs groceries, sort a meal out, prep for the next day etc. and think the last thing I want to do is exercise. “Would an amateur relax? What would a champion do?”. There’s my answer. That comic page needs to be done by the end of the evening. “Would a pro watch TV and play video games instead?”

The fact that I hate one of my day jobs, and I have a doctoral degree to complete soon is a motivation. Improvement should always be an answer to procrastination. Don’t just “exist” in life. Accomplish things.

The enemy- Social media. A necessary evil in terms of keeping in touch, promotion etc, but you can easily get caught up looking at nothing important at all, chatting to people etc. A great time-swallower. Really though, the enemy is me. The TV or internet doesn’t turn itself on. It’s a battle, since comics can be a solitary pursuit, and the social media contact can be an alluring time-waster. But my main drive? Reminding myself that I don’t have much time; every minute wasted is potential sleep time disappearing, and that book down the track might not get done on time.