I said I would update everybody about the Short Story Contest hosted by Webtoon. I committed to the project back in March when it was first announced. Now that it is the end of June and the contest wrapped up, here are my thoughts on the whole process.
To read the comic I submitted, Man on the Rooftop, go here!
I think I had a lot of optimism at the start of the project. I thought, while my other comic has a modest amount of subscribers, it might be enough to elevate the contest entry to have at least some competitive edge.
Oh, my friends, it did not. I was rather humbled by this assumption. Webtoon’s method of viewing the contest entries are similar to the regular entries found on Canvas, minus the ability to get promoted on occasion by the Webtoon Canvas staff. I could never be seen on the algorithm and my social media game sucked, but at least the few times my first comic has been promoted really helped it find an audience. Not so much with the contest entry. It tanked. HARD.
Seeing little fanfare for my entry was a blow to my ego. I’m glad my friends had different results with their entries. I know that they pushed theirs more on social media. Some said that they experienced dumb luck. I wish I could have promoted mine more, but it felt humiliated to try and push something that nobody had interest in reading.
Not to say, I didn’t appreciate those that stuck around. Thank you for your comments! They helped me push to finish, even when I wanted to quit and go back to my other comic.
Needless to say, finishing the last two acts became a battle of wills. All of my motivation was gone and I more or less was trying to rush to complete the entries. Part of me wanted to quit, but I was too stubborn and also convinced myself that quitting would negate all the personal gains I wanted to make with this contest. I *think* I’m glad that I finished, I didn’t want to leave the story hanging, but it did come at the cost of my energy and drive (see all of the above already mentioned).
I find myself a little jaded by Webtoon’s entry process. On one hand, I totally get the need to include audience participation as part of the score. It’s an easy way to avoid having to look at all the contest entries (which there were THOUSANDS) if all they need to do is check out the entries that scored top marks on audience and then proceed from there. But that’s the part that also bothers me as I’m sure there were so many good stories that got lost in the flurry of entries. I hope those contestants don’t get discouraged. It’s definitely not a slight against their ability.
I’ll be happy to return to my other comic now that this wrapped. I’m glad to say that it didn’t sap my desire for webcomics. My one worry is that all the time spent away from working on The Grievers for the contest might harm any momentum that I’ve built. Hopefully not.
This is all to say, I’m not sure I would try again for any future contests (I could be wrong, I want to be). The amount of time and energy needed to enter is just too much for so little return. Again, I would caution others in the future, make sure your personal gains from the process exceed whatever expectations you have. That’s what you’ll need if it doesn’t work out as you expect.
I do appreciate everything that Webtoon/Webtoon Canvas does to create a community and help out creators. I thought the contest premise was fun and unique and it stretched my brain and my skills in ways that I have not exercised before. Hopefully if I ever decide to participate in a future contest, it will be a different outcome. I’ll be excited to see which short stories get chosen.
Onward and upward!
Megan Frauenhoffer 