2 Panels a Day for 2 Weeks

Last month, I started reading Amie McNee’s book We Need Your Art: Stop Messing Around and Make Something. In it, she calls procrastination, perfectionism, comparison, and burnout the “four horsemen of the creative apocalypse.”

Procrastination and perfectionism are my creative apocalypse besties.

Without external deadlines, I struggle to make comics—and when I DO start, I get overly ambitious and then quickly overwhelmed by the length of what I “need to make” (my comics tend to sprawl even when I genuinely try to keep them short). Recently, I got truly stuck trying to start a commissioned comic and a Substack post with Paris life updates. Enter guilt…and Amie’s serendipitous section on a “Two-Week Reset Challenge.” The premise: Choose a bare minimum of creative output. Do it daily for two weeks. Don’t go beyond your selected minimum.

Comics are sequential—in contrast with one-panel cartoons—so I figured the absolute bare minimum would be two panels a day.

Here’s how it went:

The 2-panel constraint was so hard for me — there were many days where I wanted just…one…more…panel. But I think it actually helped me focus on better storytelling, i.e. “what was something interesting or funny that happened today” versus “document everything that occurred.” (My first comic kind of fell into that trap, but I learned as I went along).

Not every comic is amazing, but I showed up and was able to prove to myself, once again, that making comics doesn’t have to be a Big Deal. And I ended up with another long Substack post — I just made it a way that felt achievable and fun. ✨

If you’re a creative person and this post resonated with you, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Amie’s book! It’s a fantastic read, and has been making me feel very seen and supported emotionally as an artist:

Buy the book

You can also follow her on Substack here.