In February 2020, I handed my publisher the final pages of my second graphic novel, which I had been working on for years. I’d spent many very long days drawing by myself and I was excited to get out into the world. A few weeks later, the world shut down due to Covid. For some people, the timing was amazing for productivity. Personally, though I had been publishing comics regularly for ten years, I struggled to crawl out of the post-book malaise and make comics, especially anything self-motivated. In the four years that followed, I published fewer than thirty pages of comics. That is, until…

As 2024 approached, I decided that I was no longer happy with this. I am kind of a sicko for behavioral psychology and habit building, so I designed a little habit to get myself making comics again. I kicked it off at the beginning of the year, and it worked.

I teach comics to graduate and undergraduate students at the California College of the Arts and the Center for Cartoon Studies, so I like to share things like this to help my students and also anyone trying to get a footing in their comics-making practice. So here is what got me making comics again.

Gentle Comics Habit

The Rules

1. Spend one minute drawing/writing the first comic.
2. Try to draw a comic every day. It’s okay to miss a day, but don’t miss two days in a row.
3. Spend an additional minute each time you draw a comic.
4. Post to blog.

How It Went

Two and a half months after I began, I’d drawn 50 small comics, and published them all to my website. It was a joy and not a slog. I’m even rather proud of many of them.

The definition of “a comic” for this is very basic: words and pictures. On day one, I drew a comic for one minute. On day two, I drew for two minutes. To begin, I just captured moments or thoughts. No panels. I tried to withhold judgment and simply post them.

I continued the habit for a few months with almost complete success. The rules allow for skipping one day at a time. In those months, I fell off for longer than a day only three times.

Once I hit 50 minutes of daily comics-making, I decided to cap it there. And eventually I decided not to do this every day. But by that point, I was back in the groove, and I could whip one out casually. The result of one of these casual comics was the most viral comic I’ve made to date, and through making these comics I also found some ideas for new longer comics as well.

I’m going to start the habit back up as 2025 hits. If you want to do it with me, tag your posts with #gentlecomicshabit and/or share in the comments here.

The Comics I Made

Journal and nonfiction comics are what come most naturally to me. You could try this habit with journal comics, or you could go into it with a plan to write something about dinosaurs every day, or if some particular type of fiction flows from you, you could go for that. But I must emphasize: do what comes most easily.

Here are a few of the comics I made during this experiment:

A comic about skateboarding with my friends.

A comic about doing poorly at a Magic: the Gathering tournament.

A comic about my obsession with bite-sized linear progression.

A comic about a Skateboarders for Palestine event that I attended.

Many of these are from moments that I would not have thought to capture if I didn’t simply have this exercise in place, but I’m glad I did.

Let’s Break Down the Habit

Rule 1: Spend one minute drawing/writing the first comic.

Habit researcher Leo Batauta says that when you’re making a new habit, you should make it “so easy you can’t say no.”

I needed to start with a habit so small it would be more psychically painful to avoid doing it instead of just getting it done. I needed to make it sound laughably easy. One minute it is!

Rule 2: Try to draw a comic every day. It’s okay to miss a day, but don’t miss two days in a row.

James Clear is a pop psychology writer who shares research and anecdotes about habit building; in his book Atomic Habits, he shares an oft-repeated story about Jerry Seinfeld, who tries not to “break the chain” of writing jokes every day. James Clear recommends modifying this to allow for missing a day. Building imperfection into the habit means it can be more flexible, which means a higher chance of feeling successful. Tracking progress and feeling that you can succeed are big parts of maintaining habits.

Rule 3: Spend an additional minute each time you draw a comic.

Adding a minute is bite-sized, and it lets you build stamina slowly.

Oddly, according to Clear, the research shows it’s also important to avoid going over. Every time I sit down to draw, I want to remember how short the last session felt. If I let myself work for longer than the allotted time (even if it feels good in the moment), it warps my expectations for the next time I sit down. I might start to experience some dread, and dread is the enemy of making things.

Rule 4: Post to blog.

For me, this habit isn’t just about drawing. It’s also about publishing.

Posting to the blog accomplishes a few things:

• Expose myself to the feeling of publishing “imperfect” comics again. Once my work achieved a certain level of visibility, I became more precious and guarded about what I published. I wanted to move through this anxiety.
• Shift my primary publishing venue to my website. I don’t want social media to be the first and/or only place I post. Now I always post on my website and then I occasionally repost some of the work to social media.
• Publishing creates accountability. Telling folks about a habit makes it more likely that the habit will stick.
• “Practice on Stage.” Illustrator and podcast host Andy J. Pizza encourages artists of all stripes to take a page out of the comedian playbook and share work where you can get immediate feedback. I agree that this can be valuable.

Beyond the Rules

Beyond the most basic rules of this habit, there are some additional factors to consider that could help you succeed.

Choose Where and When

Choosing an environment and a time to perform the habit increases your likelihood of completing the task.

Where

Honestly, I didn’t put a ton of thought into environment when I started this habit. However, I had just moved to a new place, and I began to work daily at my local library. It was a good environment for a few reasons:

• A new environment is an easy place to build associations with a new habit.
• The library was an environment full of other people doing something at least pretty close to the behavior I wanted to encourage. People typing, writing longhand, and sometimes even drawing. It’s not a shared studio space with a bunch of artists and writers, but for me it’s the next best thing.
• It was a big, beautiful space full of books. Some of my comics eventually become books. I look up from drawing and am constantly reminded that books are amazing.

When

Early on, I squeezed the habit in between other tasks I did while at or on my way to the library. If I didn’t get it done during the day, I drew on the couch at home after my partner went to sleep. But the research shows it’s best to choose a specific time of day, or a “trigger” after which you will do your habit. Eventually, I chose a location based trigger. I would go to the library every day, and after I get to the library, I immediately start drawing my comic for the day. So arriving at the library was my trigger (although, I did have to get myself there first). If you’re doing it at home, it could be something like: after I brush my teeth in the morning, I will draw my comic.

Chunking

When the habit gets bigger than 25 minutes, it can be useful to break it up so that it doesn’t feel too daunting. Do a single 25 minute block (a Pomodoro’s worth), take a 5 minute break, then finish up the rest of the time. Keep breaking up into 25 minute blocks as it gets bigger.

Helpful Tools

When I decided I was going to go all in on this habit, I bought a reMarkable 2 e-ink tablet for making my comics. It has some great basic vector drawing tools, and out of the box it can’t open a browser (no matter how hard I try). If you want to stay off the internet but can’t or don’t want to drop a bunch of money on an e-ink tablet (understandable), I recommend good old paper, and capturing the drawings with an app like CamScanner.

If you are someone who can draw on an iPad or tablet without ending up sucked into a Wikipedia hole, I am envious, and you can obviously use a tablet like that instead.

Before I kicked off the habit, I also made sure my website and blog were fully functional, so I wouldn’t be troubleshooting while trying to post my first comics.

Forever, or Not

I started this habit thinking I would expand it until I was drawing all day — but I decided to plateau at 50 minutes. I have other obligations with teaching, library work, and various comics related gigs. I took a pause, but I’m ready to begin again. It’s nice and flexible like that.

Go Forth Gently

You made it this far. Maybe that means you are going to try this out? Let me know in the comments if you think you’ll try it and what modifications, if any, you’ll make.

If you do post to social media, consider tagging your posts with #gentlecomicshabit so you can find each other, leave a link in the comments, and/or tag me: @sophieyanow. And please share this with someone you know who is struggling to build their comics practice — I know I could have used it.

Happy comics-making!