On Working Consistently on a Website

[Corrupted Unicorn]

So, today I'm going to talk about one of my most embarrassing flaws when it comes to be a webmistress... and that is, updating it often 

I have a lot, A LOT of ideas for my site, but I struggle keeping my website updated to my whims. It's probably impossible, because I do not have the code mastery or the speed to make art required to just dish out a webpage exactly how I imagine it as soon as I imagine it, so instead of an impossible approach, let's use this topic to discuss healthier ideas on how to work on a website consistently, and have it get along with other things we have going on at life 

I hope this is going to be an useful topic for people who struggle like I do!

Even if I am here asking for others' advice, I do have one proposal on how to approach this: getting things done over getting things perfectly. I'm not going to namedrop, but I've seen a website that focuses on getting content over looks, so most of their webpages are plain text. Yes, they plan on adding graphics and other fancy stuff to them, but what they have to say goes first over how what they have to say looks. Content over form.

Those were my two cents, now I'm waiting for you to pitch in.    Do you have an approach you'd like to share? How often do you put time aside to work on your site, and for how long? Do you schedule it, or is it more spontaneous? Or a balance of both?

[Melooon]

I think I'd say that I don't think its healthy for humans to be constantly creative  Creativity is just like moods and interests, and the night and the day; it comes in cycles and waves, and the task of a creative person is to ride those waves, not to force them to appear.

However! I do think that people can and should consistently work on living a creative life. You can focus on finding media that inspires you, in taking time to explore new things, taking walks, and cooking good meals and traveling when possible, on being bored, and encountering things that push you forward as a person.

I slip in and out of that kind of life myself, but when Im in it I always notice that details stop mattering and I become able to recognize projects as a whole - Whole projects are not a chore, and they don't need a trick or a method, they just arrive and form themselves like the tide 

I very much don't believe that content and form are separable, form is content and content without form is like wind without air!

As for more practical tips, I very much do take notes and write ideas down, so when I'm starting to work on something in the future I can reference them and remember what I had wanted, and usually improve on it a little. I also gather images that give me ideas for later reference, like a permanently growing mood board.

It's also totally a good idea to set aside time and a space for webcrafting; I don't think it should be results based, it could just be time that you browse other peoples sites, read up on HTML documentation, or orginize your files; but having a period to spend thinking about web crafting will keep you thinking about webcrafting 

[TheFrugalGamer]

think I'd say that I don't think its healthy for humans to be constantly creative  Creativity is just like moods and interests, and the night and the day; it comes in cycles and waves, and the task of a creative person is to ride those waves, not to force them to appear.

I'd also like to add that you can also think of creativity as a muscle, in that it needs to be exercised in order to grow strong! I also take notes whenever ideas come to be, whether they're big or small. I have a text file on my phone specifically that's full of little ideas I've jotted down over time, and when I feel like working on something, I go through it until I find something I'd like to work on.

I'm absolutely with you on avoiding perfection, too--I always have that saying, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good" in my mind. The quest for perfection can be devastating to creative people, and I've seen it tank many projects. One thing I like to remind myself is that whatever I'm working on doesn't have to be my "one thing." That is, no matter how many things you come up with or make, you can always make more, and believe it or not, you can always make them better. You can absolutely have that one thing that got really popular, that you're really proud of, that people know you for, but if you don't move on from it, you'll never have the chance to make something even more amazing.

[nobo]

Even if I am here asking for others' advice, I do have one proposal on how to approach this: getting things done over getting things perfectly. I'm not going to namedrop, but I've seen a website that focuses on getting content over looks, so most of their webpages are plain text. Yes, they plan on adding graphics and other fancy stuff to them, but what they have to say goes first over how what they have to say looks. Content over form.

I'm one of those content-first people.
When I update my sites, I'm generally not thinking about style and appearances at all.

There is some busy work aspects of it,
like any graphics I want to include have to be thumbnailed and optimized
but I have scripts that make that easier for me.

So maybe you don't do it exactly like I do, but this is still solid advice:

Make it easy for your future self to find a place to stick new things.

I did want to point this out though:

Getting to where you can think about content first and make it easy for yourself is a late-stage web developer mind set that you come to after a lot of time and earned skills. To some extent you have to spend time in the trenches, taking a long time to make a simple page look a certain way to get to the content-first mindset.

But yeah, I agree that content-first should be the celebrated goal more often than it is. It makes for longevity of the website  both for the creator and the viewer.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I think I'd say that I don't think its healthy for humans to be constantly creative  Creativity is just like moods and interests, and the night and the day; it comes in cycles and waves, and the task of a creative person is to ride those waves, not to force them to appear.

You know, that's fair enough, trying to make a masterpiece a day is a sure way to get burnout - yet, there's this thing I do... I keep a sketchbook with me and I try to fill 2 pages of it a day. I can draw anything I want there: whether I want to make a more ambitious work or just doodle whatever comes to mind, or experiment with new techniques (trying coloring pencils nowadays!). The quality doesn't matter, what matters is to get two pages filled everyday. And I'm loose about that: for example, I still need to catch up one day, but I'm in no rush. If I'm feeling extra creative, well, I can fill in more.

I'm using this sketchbook as a way to draw anything I feel like drawing, since I spend most of my time doing art for studying (composition, perspective, figures...). It's good to study, but it's also good to be able to draw whatever you want, no matter at what stage you are as an artist. It's a great medicine against perfectionism, when the goal is not pretty, but done.

Now, if I could find the webweaving equivalent of a sketchbook...

However! I do think that people can and should consistently work on living a creative life. You can focus on finding media that inspires you, in taking time to explore new things, taking walks, and cooking good meals and traveling when possible, on being bored, and encountering things that push you forward as a person.

Yesss, those are true words. It's easy for me to believe that, in order to be good at something, you must do that something and ONLY that something. Another terrible way to live... It's good to experience many different things, and sooner or later, they'll all reflect back on your art. 

I very much don't believe that content and form are separable, form is content and content without form is like wind without air!

While you're not wrong, I'd rather stay with my stance on the topic as a way to detach myself from perfectionism. However, it is true that since my website is very art-based, it's hard to make some of my ideas true without some art... 

By the way, thank you for your practical tips! I would like to try them out and see if they work for me. I love making schedules but later I barely follow them at all. But this constant cycle of planning, doing, failing and then "catching" myself and doing the cycle all over again... something's gonna give in, some change will finally happen, you know?

Also I want to thank everybody for pitching in their thoughts and advice  Some wise things going on!

[nobo]

Form is important, but in a lot of cases, it should be worked out to suit the type of content, and then put in the backseat.

For example imagine if every time I wanted to write a post on this forum, I had to align the columns where the post goes, where the text goes, where the avatar links go. It would be impossible to write a post.

The reason we're able to do this without thinking about is because someone already put this thought into it in the past.
With your website, that person in the past is you.

[Karvellers]

Thank you all for this post, I as struggling with this ever since I made my neocities account. Premade help but I need to make my own stuff now and that's intimidating as ever! I made some baby steps but it's still a long way from my vision. Still a lil lonely tho...

[chipyowo]

I was discussing this with a friend some time ago, so let me put my own two cents on this topic.

I think it's all a question of balance. Specifically, finding your OWN balance on how to work.

Because there are pros and cons to both sides of the espectrum: putting a LOT OF TIME or putting NOT A LOT OF TIME(sorry I forgot the english expression anyway move on).

While writing my story and updating my site, what I'm trying to do now is just asking:"Will the message of the current page/content be any diferent if I put hours vs days of work into it?"

Because, if the message of your content is good, anything is forgivable.

That's not to say you can use it as an excuse to make ""BAD ART"". But if you can smooth your workflow PLUS actually finishing your content I consider it to be a win win.

While it's ABSOLUTELY AND COMPLETELY NOT ENCOURAGED TO DO SO, I always look back at Homestuck and Andrew Hussie's approach on it(at least on the first acts of the story).

While the artstyle was not "Great" or "Detailed", it made it possible to him to write a 5000 pages long story in just two years!

Don't do that, though, because it ended up absolutely burningout him, but it's an interesting idea if taken on a more light approach!

But hey, these are just MY experiences and thoughts on the topic! At the end of the day, what's really important is if you're liking it, if YOU are confortable! ^^

 

[ValyceNegative]

Melon said it best! Burnout is a very real issue with folks like us that study or work in art. I use my website as a means to stay creative and contribute to my own made up universes when I'm too tired to work on commissions or published projects, so it's very important to me that I don't burn out on that side... otherwise I won't be able to put pencil on paper neither for work nor for pleasure xD

The advantage of a webspace as a creative project is that it can include much more than just visual art- as in, drawings. For webmasters that keep a site mostly to have an art gallery of their own, we usually tend to forget that: there's been a few times where I've said to myself "wow I haven't drawn an illustration with my charas for a while!" and I couldn't distinguish wether I was saying that because I was itching to draw my characters (good instinct) or simply because I realized the latest piece I had done was a couple weeks old (bad instinct). "Forced" content* like this enables uninspired mechanical work and that's something everyone would want to avoid for their webcorner.
However, since the site is indeed a multimedial project, I know I can constantly upkeep it with other things. Some suggestions you can use for your site too!

- I enjoy writing a lot, which means I love doing long and articulated blog posts. It takes me weeks between writing and research to do them so I write them offline bit by bit then post them once complete. Even if it's just text and no art, a good blog post with pleasant paragraph spacing, usage of bold and italic to both highlight arguments and keep the text from getting stale and uniform, and photos or screens of what you're talking about scattered here and there (at times, even just one is enough!) are all sufficient ways to produce an interesting and intriguing journal.
- The update log is there just as much to keep things interesting as to keep people informed, so don't be afraid to use it as a condensed journal log. Are you currently obsessed with a song? Did you take a trip to a nice venue and took a cool pic you wanna show? Are you in the process of completing some big art and it's not just done yet but you still wanna show a WIP? Wanna muse about future stuff and keep a list of things you'd like to do on the site? Update log gets you covered: even a few lines can suffice, and visitors will always have something new to read.
- You can make up a tiny little "Poll/Photo/Video of the week" section that requires very little effort but can keep readers entertained as they'll see a little new thing on a regular basis before enjoying bigger more substantial updates on the art gallery when they arrive.
- Seeing new site banners popup in your affiliates is another great idea, keeps the surfers jumping from site to site and discovering new places and keeps them returning to see more! Speaking of,  @Corrupted Unicorn your site is fire! I always like to exchange banners with fellow artists, wanna lik? X3




*I hate to use "content" as a word to refer to art because it promotes social media's negative notion of an artist's work being fickle and temporary to be consumed in one go and then forgotten. However, I realize that in this specific context, it ethimologically makes sense.