What do you think about a revamp? (Patreon)

I'd keep all the old content here to revisit anytime, though I'm still on the fence about starting a whole new webtoon page or re-publishing it on the old one with all the subscribers attached to it.

---SWFTD is the first major comic project I've ever worked on. I started out as a no name hobby artist making OCs and the occasional fan art. Patreon is my first real art job. I've never worked for any company as an artist before, so jumping into self-employment from the get go is kicking my ass, to be honest.I come from a background working shit paying entry level jobs like food service, manufacturing, and warehouse grunt work, so this independent art business thing is something I'm still figuring out. The mental / physical health issues I've addressed in the past have been there since the beginning. It just added a higher level of difficulty to an already unstable path, and I figured people don't want to see that side of me, so I tried to keep the focus on SWFTD.

I'm really grateful for the people who gave SWFTD a chance, whether they became patrons or not, whether they are still here or have moved on. I've never had this many eyes on me before. The pressure is immense, especially as someone who struggles with basic day to day things (eating healthy, getting sleep, and moving around enough etc), but I feel like that could serve as an interesting perspective. It's not just me that's struggling to adapt, right? Like life is more complicated than it's ever been with the advent of the internet, all the technology, bureaucratic bs and political theatre. All these things just further complicate relationships, and I want to talk about that. I want to explore it, but in a way that's entertaining and human. Like fun, but sometimes serious, and real.People say the romance between Ellie and Grave progressed too quickly and that was because I wanted to do a test run of the story to see if it's worth the years of effort investing in a particular version of SWFTD. It blew up and I felt pressure to make things more polished, which slowed production down. The initial script of the story had too much action and a focus on world building / political intrigue. I'm thinking of focusing more on the relationships between the characters and have their interactions drive the story. It'll be way more manageable than trying to juggle this massive universe if I reduce things to a smaller scale.

I also feel like Ellie is not as multi faceted or human as I'd like her to be, and her design could be more interesting. I wanted her to be more relatable, but in doing so, she doesn't stand out much from the thousands of other romance protagonists. And I could have introduced way more characters in the beginning so it wasn't just Ellie and Grave interacting all of the time.

I've experienced a lot of things these past 4 ish years since the beginning of SWFTD. I think I could spend more time on the romance and building the relationships up in a way that better resonates with readers. I feel like the story as it is lacks warmth and soul, and that's because my own life was lacking in those areas. I've since developed a lot of new relationships, overcame major challenges, which gave me a lot of perspective on how difficult loving, trusting, understanding, and caring about others can be. It's rewarding, but it's fucking hard.As for an update on where I'm at: I will be moving back home to be closer with my family since the isolation was quite literally killing me. I managed to grow closer to them despite the massive distance between us with persistence and patience, and I'm still working hard to cultivate and grow my relationships with friends and such. I don't think there's any shame in trying and failing to build something on your own. I underestimated how difficult it can be to establish new connections and community as someone who already struggles with the most basic, human things.Let me know what you think about a potential revamp in 2025 or just anything on your mind, please. With love and much appreciation for you all,-Ajoji ❤️