OK, so, there you go. I'm cutting my losses for tonight. I'm not even going to draw page 11. I did some preliminary drawings, but it's just too late. I'm functioning on too little sleep as it is.
But to report, I watched a full hour of Spaced instead of taking a walk or getting a coffee. I actually felt creative and ready to go. But as soon as I logged back onto the internet to check my various internet things, I immediately lost my creativity.
I think this connection is important. I've felt there was a connection before between surfing the internet and losing my creative passions, but now I'm really starting to trust that feeling. What that means is that I have to figure out where and when I can allot internet time. But the more challenging aspect is that I have to figure out how to stop myself from thinking, "oh, I'll just check it real quick" when I'm not supposed to.
I would just unplug the internet, but I usually need it for reference or online radio or something. But I think what I'm going to try instead is allotting comic-related surfing to Firefox, since I usually use Opera, and Opera has all the shortcuts on my homepage that tempt me to waste time.
I think this really is an issue of self-restraint. When it's comic time, it's comic time.
I actually forgot about this, but I have had success drawing on my bed instead of in my computer chair. I can still see the monitor from my bed for reference imagery, but I'm not tempted to up and check something. Perhaps I'll combine the Firefox idea with the bed idea.
That still leaves the matter of scheduling. When do I allot comic time? I think I desperately need that structure back.
Let's try this. Get home from work, shower, an hour of non-internet related entertainment (coffee and reading, TV watching, video games, etc.), comic work. When I start feeling that inspiration slip, I can take a walk around the block to focus my mind and then immediately get back to work. After I'm all done, then I can browse the internet to my heart's content. That way, I never get that creative-zone kill.
That means Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will be photo reference and penciling days, and Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays will be inking and coloring days. Then I'll just try to squeeze all my site work around that solid schedule.
It's worth a shot. It could work.
7eff Community Member 
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