Adaptation help?

[kirayuin]

Hi guys! So, I'm currently trying to adapt my novel into a webtoon format and after doing that for a few weeks (published like 4 episodes), I made a sudden decision to put the series on hiatus for 2-3 months because I'm having trouble with the story pacing and how it didn't flow right compared to the novel.

My issue is that I'm stuck between sticking exactly to the novel's storyline and remastering it to a condense version. Because novels are pretty descriptive, it's alright to be a little slower in pacing. However, if I try to adapt it exactly like it is, it'll be quite slow to catch up to the good parts (like 8 chapters in the novel and everyone knows that the first 3 episodes of Webtoons have to be eye catching ). Not to mention, I'm worried I'll end up becoming like one of those webtoons/mangas where it could take like 3-4 chapters but all it's doing is drone on and on about a bunch of explanation and stuff. I believe this is also the issue when it comes to adaptations of mangas or webtoons into anime where they try to cut out and condense as much stuff as possible and it ends up being super fast-paced.

So my question is, to creators who have or are adapting their novel into a comic AND to readers who have read their favourite novels and compared it to their webtoons/anime adaptations, do you prefer it if it's exactly like the original or do you not mind if it's a more condense, crammed version?

For example, taking myself out of the perspective of a creator, I don't mind it when the anime leaves out a lot of things (like long explanations) from the manga as long as it makes sense in the end? It will take a while for me to see the full picture though (which is also another issue of adaptations). But, I also do know that there are a TON of manga/webtoon readers who'd go like "WHAT? They literally crammed 6 chapters into 1 episode!" So uh yea, idk what do you guys think?

[Hazumirein]

Not sure if this'll help, but here's my experience: When I was doing a comic, I wrote the script in novel format. With 10pt, single spaced text, I usually wound up with about 10 comic pages for every one page of script. What I could write in a couple hours took weeks to draw. Plus, a lot of descriptive and character-thought-process text got left on the cutting room floor because it just didn't work in a comic format. Comics are a much, much bigger time commitment than novels are, and you're probably going to find that you can only condense it so much without losing big chunks of story or characters, or messing up the pacing.

I actually wound up scrapping the comic and switching to a visual novel format so I could have a fair amount of art without having to draw literally everything out, and I now have some hope of actually finishing the story in the next few years as opposed to sinking decades of my life into a comic haha. Not saying you shouldn't do a comic, but make sure you know what you're getting into, is all. It's really a matter of what you're willing to/are able to cut out and still have the story make sense and for you to enjoy creating it.

[DogshitJay]

They're different mediums and you should treat them they way that they work best! What I mean is, don't excessively slow down a comic's pacing just for the sake of accuracy to the novel. And, definitely don't info dump or use the exact same dialogue as the novel.
One of the top things that chases me away from a webtoon is too much text. Let the images handle a lot of the work!
You're the creator, do it to match your vision of what is good, don't worry about reader entitlement yet.
Good luck

[HGohwell]

Assuming you have all the novel complete, you should know what's actually important and what isn't (something lots of anime adaptions of manga struggles with if they're adapting arc at a time) so that definitely helps. And you can adjust things as you go. For instance, it gives you a chance to maybe foreshadow something stronger or earlier or something.

I think the best advice is to imagine it as a movie. There for no narration and pretty much everything has to be visual. Approach it in a similar way as you would when imagining it as a movie or anime. I remember that was one of the biggest complaints when Occultic;Nine got adapted was it condensed an entire book of roughly 250 pages into episode 1 of just introducing the characters and then BAM exciting stuff but book 1 was all build up and mundane lives that works well in a book when you've got 1st person pov but not when you have to watch a kid sit in a cafe typing for hours. (And also episode 2 went back and did book 1 in flashbacks after getting to the interesting part at the end of book 1). So don't be afraid to rework it, a straight adaption can be absolutely awful.

I think, while actually focused on book to movie or series, you can still get a lot of tips on what makes a good or bad adaption like what to leave in or out ect from things like Lost in Adaption or The Book Was Better S1 and S2 since, as I say, imagining it as a movie helps.