Ferret Williams

I’m avoiding the word “hiatus” like the plague. Whenever a comic goes on hiatus, the chances of it coming back are extremely low, which is why I include a specific return date of December 31 for the comic. Since “hiatus” carries so much fear and uncertainty, I’m using the word “hibernation”. It’s quite appropriate, really, since part of the reason is for sleep.

Sleep has been my focus since I started the comic’s hibernation. So far, the results are promising. Up until Friday, I’ve still been getting out of bed around 2:00 pm(HORRIBLE time, but normal for me), but the actual wake-up time has been getting earlier. It takes me a while to motivate myself to get out of bed, especially since I don’t have to leave for work until after 3:00. It doesn’t help that I’m still occasionally staying up late out of habit, but at least I’m catching up on stuff.
On Saturday, however, I had my alarm set for 10:00 am(8 hours after going to bed)… and I got out of bed shortly before 8:00 am. I GOT OUT OF BED. IN THE MORNING. AND I GOT THINGS DONE! You’d be surprised how many things you can’t do if you’re not awake during the day time. I set up some Christmas decorations(daylight!), I sawed some wood for a home project(I won’t wake neighbors with the noise!), I went to stores(They were open! I wasn’t limited to Wal-Mart!). Since I wasn’t using time that I should be using for sleep, I also crossed off a few to-do list items. My goal is to get used to starting my day at 7:00 am or earlier so that more of my waking hours will have daylight.

I know that my sleep schedule isn’t the most interesting thing to most people, but that is the news around here and this cartoonist is excited about it. I’d like to show you sketches, 3D models, demo footage of something animated and/or interactive, but it’s too soon to have anything to show. I have been watching more tutorials, though, and that will definitely help me do more things with 3D. I don’t plan on creating any games soon, but I am learning the Blender Game Engine for 2 non-game projects, one of which looks hopeful for January. This week, I plan to focus on watching more tutorials, watching movies, and sketching. If I have time, I’ll get started on building 3D characters and the website redesign.

With this schedule and a month before the comics resume, I could organize my cartooning much more efficiently by doing all of the month’s scripting and layout in 2 marathons(5-6 hours each), then all the sketching in 1-2 marathons, then all the inking in 1-2 marathons. By staying in one mode for longer periods of time, I can get in the groove and have a month’s worth of comics in one week.

I’m going to have a lot of days where I feel like I should be working on a comic. I’m having one of those days right now.