Anonymous asked: Hi, Uncle Mod -waves- do you have any tips for sticking with a story to its completion? TPoH has been going on for over five years now. How do you not fall out of love with creating it? I think you mentioned that doodle comics help you from starting to resent it, but then how do you find the time to do everything you want to do?
well, TPoH is kind of special, what with it being a story that basically grabbed me by the neck and shook me until I started and it won’t let go until I finish (and probably won’t really let go of me even if I get there!)- but yes, having side projects genuinely helps!
it might seem contrary, spending time on work that isn’t the story which is soooo long that you want to get it done as fast as possible, but if you do nothing but that one thing then it begins to be a chore very quickly. Your brain needs variety! Sure, you shouldn’t just spend time doing the things that aren’t The Thing, that turns into procrastination, but not letting yourself explore and overly suppressing yourself is damaging to your creativity. You want to draw fanart of that new show because you love it, you want to write a little short story in a new style because hey you’ve never done that before, you want to draw a whole year’s worth of scribbly duck comics because you want to repay the characters for bringing your imagination to life in the first place- and none of those are a bad thing! Moderate what you pick, yes, but don’t stomp on it. Squashing all of those urges not only squashes the eternally excitable happy 6-year-old inside you (which makes you sad), but sacrificing those little joyous bursts of spontaneity can actually make you resent the story that you’re dedicating that time to. ‘I want to’ becomes ‘I have to’, and let’s face it- that’s one step away from ‘I don’t want to’. I also learn new things, constantly, by making these side projects- especially with these fan comics- so it all feeds back into TPoH!
Basically you do you, but what I’ve found is that by balancing out my interests, urges, and determination to complete my own story, I’ve ended up with a system that is optimal for 1) not destroying my hands, 2) not destroying my love of the story, and 3) learning new stuff- by always doing new stuff!
Anonymous asked: Hey I went on your website recently and after a few days of using it, I kept getting weird pop up ads. Even when I had that turned off, some sketchy stuff popped up, so I clicked off the tab. Do you know anything about this or was it maybe just random?
?! seriously? there shouldn’t be any ads on it at all! has this happened to anyone else? please let me know that sounds really iffy
EDIT: got me some feedback for ya anon-
best of luck, I’m relieved because it sounds like it isn’t my site but I hope nothing bad happens to your computer! take it to the doctor and give it my love
Anonymous asked: How did you set up your own website for The Property of Hate?
I asked for help! A friend put me in touch with their friend (who is now my friend) called Felix, a wizard who runs a little company called Mustache Web Solutions- we discussed the project, and basically I did all the layout and described what I needed him to program, and he did the rest, and does! He maintains the website for a very reasonable annual fee including all the brain bending stuff about web hosts and things like that, and any time I need a new web page putting in or something edited then I can get in touch with him and he’ll sort it out. He’s a lovely fella and pretty danged busy, but if you’re looking for someone to help you out I can’t give him enough praise so do go check out his site if you’re interested.
A lot of people tell me it’s easy to learn programming, and I’m sure if you’re smart at stuff it is! But my head is full of stories and drawings and when I tried I just found my head was melting, and I figured that, as investments go, it was wiser for me to hire someone to do the thing that I was really bad at and have them do it well, rather than take ages being miserable and frustrated doing it myself and ending up with something I wasn’t even happy with. I think I made the right decision! That was what worked for me though, and everyone finds their own way of doing things, so I’d ask around to compare notes.
Anonymous asked: I been pouring over your duck comics trying to figure out how you make them so damned real? like, you put them in serious and dramatic situations, but it never feels overly heavy handed or unrealistic in how they react to it- you know how to balance it with the comedy, you know when to hold back and make expressions subtle, you know when to go for broke and exaggerate, it's maddening! how?! do you do this I love them so much thank you for working so hard (also frock coat Gander makes perf sense)
oh my, oh thanks oh gosh :’D I guess it’s practice on top of having read the duck comics basically my whole life? I know it sounds weird and I say it all the time but these characters really are real to me; I put them in a situation or come up with a plot instigator, and then the rest is just sitting back and listening to how they would react to it. I’d say ‘thinking’ about how they’d react, but it isn’t even that, it’s letting the characters tell me what they would do- it’s more intuitive than writing, which I guess it is I don’t know what else to call it? but that’s basically how I write all my stories so bjsakfj anyway basically thank you this is a very kind message and it means a lot to me that you feel that way! (also Heck yeah it does)
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