Anyone else decided to shelf a comic/story idea for when they're more experienced?

[smokesalty]

I'd love to hear other people's stories on what their project is and why they've shelved it (or whatever you want to call it)

(If you don't feel like reading mine, just ignore it. I just felt like talking about my story)

Here's my experience!:

I've had this fantasy story since I was 13, and quite honestly it didn't have a plot until 2020. All I knew is I absolutely adored the characters (and do to this day) and that it was the one idea I really wanted to turn into a comic one day.

I now know that the story follows 3 main characters during a war in a fantasy context (these dumbasses:) as they work through a lot of their trauma resulting from growing up in a very war torn environment as well as explorations of LGBTQ+ identities.

Elizabeth is a trans woman who left the military in hopes of furthering her education (hence her very military- esque get up.) The way she was raised before transitioning really effects how she shows her emotions as well as her views on war.

Erika is runaway royalty, as her expectation to marry for political relations ended up completely falling apart due to her actions and want for her own happiness (which leads to a lot of guilt and need to prove herself.) She becomes a pirate, which I think is really cool.

Eduard is the son of the dictator who started the war in the first place, and he has an expectation to follow in his footsteps, but him deciding to run away and oppose him causes him a lot of trouble with trying to live a normal life. He also spends a lot of the story figuring out his identity as a man, realising that enjoying feminine things and dressing femininely doesn't make him any less of a man, as he views himself.

(more art of Eduard because I ended up editing his outfits)

I ended up shelving this story because I really wanted to do it justice. It's also a super long story, as I wanted it to be a fantasy epic, and quite frankly I was worried I'd never finish it, especially if I felt frustrated with my art and writing. I just know I'd benefit from having experience from other stories beforehand.

It's for me what I consider my 'magnum opus' and I think it was a good decision to shelve it as I'm still new to comics! Your first work isn't going to be your best, so I decided I was going to work on a shorter story before moving on to this one.

I ended up writing 'The Commune' as a sort of test short story, but I ended up falling in love with it (and making it much longer than intended ) I'm happy to let myself learn and grow with 'The Commune' as the story is easier for me to execute as I have around 5 main characters, and the locations are limited. It's just much smaller in scope, and once I finish it I'll know I can move on to a longer story!

One day, I will make this fantasy story a reality, but for now I'm happy to give myself time.

Anyways, here's my current comic! It may not be my 'magnum opus' but it's a very big passion project of mine and I absolutely adore it.

The Commune | Tapas

[Aeneas1]

I've had loads of ideas that I've had to shelve for when I'm more experienced. The problem, of course, is that I suffer from a thing called "Ric Madoc Syndrome" where I'm constantly tormented by a barrage of ideas that I cannot get out all at once. Many of them don't leave my head because I keep forgetting to write them down. I hope to incorporate as many of them into Nixvir as I can.

[smokesalty]

Yup, I get that. Sometimes new ideas can be very distracting when you're working on current projects as well

[Lensing]

I decided to shelf them all before my art is how I want it to look

When I was young I didn´t care at all, I just drew but I have different exspectactions now.
Many people said that my art will maybe never feel good enough but that´s true in
my case, I made progress and I know 100% how I want it to look and what to work on
and I´m also not unhappy with how it looks like. The workflow is also important for
me, I think it´s better to put some work in preparing the workflow instead of being
interrupted when you work. Interrupted because you have to figure out file sizes,
panels, 3 models, references etc

[Christy_Oshima]

A few years ago I had this incredible story in my head based on a character of mine from a D&D campaign. I had his backstory shorted out, I even created his nemesis and worked on the bigger idea; what's his purpose and whether he fulfils it in the end or not... But i reached a point then where I simply let it aside. The work it needed was too much for my self back then and I knew that I wouldn't be able to complete such a difficult project. Now, 6 years later, I've sheepishly started working on it again, but i don't think I'll ever be entirely satisfied with my writing skills...

[iHateFridays]

Whoa I love your character designs! And ye I have a few WIPs that are pretty full on lmfao

[UrMom]

Oh wow, which one do I start with? I guess my main one.

So I have this one story that's been in development since I created my first OC at the age of 13, it started out as something super small, but grew into a super massive story. To summarize it's a cosmic horror/buddy roadtrip story about a mysterious god becomes trapped to a world after contributing some of itself to the world's development, after some bad experiences with the mortals it becomes a hungry monster that brings plague, devours souls and messes with everyone. Part of the reason why it changed like it did was because a friend betrayed the god, which leads to that friend trying to get the god's forgiveness while keeping it from devouring the world. Eventually the god is strong enough to leave the world to fulfill it's purpose, to eat the god that created it and the universe, taking it's place. The friend tagging along, slowly changing the god's perspective while they travel to their destination.

While the characters the main focus a massive amount of attention goes to the settings, it's supposed to be a story that showcases the complexities and beauties of life. That being said there's multiple cultures, languages, beliefs and such, along with the main lore revolving around how the main god character and other gods work, and there's also a lot of astronomy in there. I plan on putting together a mythology book to go with the comic once I actually get around to making it because there's so much to unpack, plus I wanted to have my own developed universe so I could set my stories in that, and not have to deal with world development. Sooo it's been on the back burner because it's just massive, I still need to do some more mythology, culture, astronomy and language studies before focusing on it.

Another story I have is a horror/sci-fi/fantasy about a vampire who escapes from a war testing facility run by humans, gathers other creatures like it who've been subject to horrible treatment and wins the war, leaving a massive amount of death and devastation in their wake. It's sort of a protagonist-to-antagonist story where you start out rooting for the MC, but waver off as their actions become more questionable. Originally I put this on the back burner because there was still some things in development, and I didn't quite feel skilled enough to tackle it. (Also the story is set in an alternate Earth, and I was going to have space nazis in it, but as I got older I figured it wouldn't be a great idea. Lmao! Don't @ me, I was a stupid kid.)

Both of these stories came about when I had no experience in comics, so I didn't feel I would do either of them justice. My current comic is basically an experiment/prototype to help me improve, while there are complicated aspects of it (Because I'm just that type of person, apparently.), it's generally easy since it's character driven and set in the real world. You don't gotta do anything with the lore, just focus on character! It's ironic too because I was never a fan of RL based dramas, used to think they were boring, but here I am working on one. xD

[Aleksei]

Yeah! I totally get you!
The story that I am doing right now I made it also just to learn how to do things. To get used to drawing, get better at it, learn a bit about scripts, etc. I wanted a story easy to draw, and maybe short, but I ended up doing it medium lenght. It's good for me because I have learned way more than I could had with a short story.

About the shelved stories... I have several sketchbooks, and in the last page I always writte the ideas that maybe could be a good storie someday, when my abilities can do them. From time to time I go back to the last page and read the ideas, and see if some of them keep as strong as when I wrotte them. And some of them are! I really will go with one of those for my next project... but I still have to finish this one first, haha!

[NickRowler]

The comic I am working on now Frostpeak West, it's sort of that. It's an idea I had since I was a teen but never knew how to go about writing it due to my lack of skills. I made many drafts over the years of how I would start it but was never happy with any of them.

That is why I created Crow's Worth, it was to help prep me. Crow's Worth was based off of a story I wrote in high school and all I had to do was just adapt it and make appropriate changes, so super straight forward. It just got me used to the process of writing and story editing. You can sort of tell because the first few chapters are very close to the source material while the later ones tend to have much different tone. I guess I also had a similar downside to you where I had more ideas of the series but knew that I should be focusing on something else.

I don't think Frostpeak will be my "magnum opus", but I do feel more confident then I did before to write it.

[TheGentleArtist]

Yeah, I have. I had this amazing idea for a comic and plotted out the begging parts of it and still remember to this day. I have shelfed until I feel that I'm more experienced to share it; currently the comic I'm working on is to help me test the waters on comic making and telling a story.

[igneriss]

Oh my where do I even start

Back when I started working on the first version of 6,75 (over 10 years ago) I had an idea, I had first chapter planned out and I started drawing pages, however something just felt off and I couldn't grasp what exactly was wrong. I decided to shelf it until I can do it better.
After few years (and another dropped story in the meantime) I resumed working on it- combined it with scraps of other story ideas, redesigned most characters, changed world settings, and I've been working on it ever since

6,75 | Tapas

I have a lot of other story ideas which I like and 100% want to draw them in the future, but they are currently waiting for me to finish 6,75 and for my skills to get better. But this reply would be too long so I'll only go with my faves
I have those character which I love and for whom I have written multiple short stories and started writing a longer novel (my nanowrimo project ), but I can't turn it into a comic yet, I have a problem with a starting scene. Also have to improve my writing and digital art for it, as well as designs for creatures. For now, my OCs just get one illustration after another to ease the wait.

There is also a story set in a haunted house, but I have to learn how to draw horror-ish arts first. While it's mostly fantasy, there are some parts which are supposed to be scary, and my art, well, is not scary at all. But we'll get there one day!

[Mallory]

Yeah. I have this super duper long-winded multi-arc epic of a sci-fi/urban fantasy mash that I've been stewing for oh, I dunno, a decade (at least). For me, I'm shelving it not because I don't feel like I have enough experience (I don't, but working on it would be the best way to gain said experience, lol) but because... I don't know. Actually working on the writing and the pages for it just doesn't bring me joy the same way my current projects do. I've sat down and tried many times. I love the characters and the premise. I even love my opening scene and the first few chapters that are outlined.

That's Vincent, aka Jerkface. He's an exorcist who's a half-demon.

Peppermint, a possessed doll/witch's familiar.

Angela, a witch from an ancient witch family who maybe doesn't get along with them super well.

Together they plot hijinks and go on grand adventures and maybe like, save the world. Over and over again. And as I'm typing this, I feel an intense urge to pop it open and start writing it again, but I know that feeling will completely disappear in 30 minutes, when I start. So... there it sits, in my files.

[smokesalty]

looks like all the heavily worldbuilded and lore heavy stories start when we're 13 You have such cool worldbuilding in your stories, and I hope one day you'll be able to do them justice one day!

[smokesalty]

Your story and characters look so cool! Do you post your art on social media anywhere?

[Mallory]

Ah, thank you! I have a twitter that's about a year old, and I'm setting up my instagram right now so I'll be dumping a bunch of old and new art on there in the new few months, haha.

[Chocolate]

Me! I’ve tried posting several comics, and one in particular caught some attention. The one ️I'm referring to is my current comic, Larvae. But I’m not confident nor have the expertise enough to jump all in by myself.

[TheLemmaLlama]

looks like all the heavily worldbuilded and lore heavy stories start when we're 13

And here I thought I was all alone :') But I think there's a reason for this; Rome [or rather, a well-developed fictional world] wasn't built in a day and the amount of deep, intricate lore we see in the games and franchises we all know and love just isn't something you can pull out of your arse. You can sit down and write enough lore for a good story in 2 years, but developing enough lore for a fully-immersive, lived-in world that people make analysis videos and wiki pages about can take a lifetime.

As for me, I guess I'm 'shelving' my magnum opus in the sense that I won't draw a page of actual comic until I've finished my current one, but I am very much working on it in terms of worldbuilding and doing designs and stuff. I'm delaying the actual comic because:

• Art skills: I want it to have awesome backgrounds so I want to build my spatial intuition first by working on a shorter comic
• Writing skills: I intend for it to have political depth and involve some '200 IQ plays', which is not something I believe I can pull off just yet
• I want to develop the world to develop a bit more

Okay, now for the boring part; my actual future project The First Principles series has 2 entries planned:

• 'After the World Was Saved' (ATWWS), which is a fantasy slice-of-life that focuses on exploring my world and seeing all the cool magical stuff. I'm aiming for the feeling that you just finished the main quest of an RPG (like Morrowind) and now you're just going around doing sidequests and seeing the world. It's pretty chill and meant to evoke a sense of wonder
• 'Golden Child', which is set after ATWWS and is more plot heavy and involves the aforementioned '200 IQ plays'. It focuses less on natural/scientific lore and more on society and politics. Even though I won't get to this one for a while, I felt the urge to write some lines for it recently, and screw it, I'm just going to paste them here:

---

"If my survival was dependent on others using my services as an alchemist, I would be incentivised to guarantee the necessity of my services.

I would be incentivized to keep my knowledge scarce rather than sharing it freely.

I would be incentivized to encourage the notion that I am uniquely intelligent and qualified to learn alchemy, that alchemy is an inscrutable, arcane field inaccessible to the average mind.

I would be incentivized to encourage the community to see me as the best alchemist in town. I would be incentivized to be a competitor rather than mentor to promising young aspirants. I would be incentivized to use my experience to argue myself as the only 'expert'; that all those who come after me are inferior substitutes. One can see then, how this is a path to abusing my de-facto leadership status.

Fortunately I am not dependent on such patronage, and thus it is more of a bother than anything when people seek my services, especially for mundane matters. And thus I'm incentivized to do the opposite; encourage others to learn alchemy so those in need of medical assistance may bother them instead. It is not difficult; everyone has the ability to at least gather and mix the ingredients in my basic handbook.

I did not study alchemy to acquire a rare skill to use as leverage against my fellows. I studied alchemy because it fascinates me; because learning about the world brings me joy."

[powerplantanimations]

I have a story called the "Remarkable" Red Giant (I've renamed it).

I've been working on it ever since I was in High School (2016). I've shelved it to get other projects going or until I was ready and I've returned only to find out "Aw crap, I have to restructure this comic". I think I've changed everything about 15 times now. I had to change it again recently because the format just wasn't right.

Now it's 2022 and I managed to turn That Stick Figure Isekai into one big prelude. Spoilers btw but a character shows up that'll make people excited for ma magnum opus lmao. Also gives me an opportunity to practice writing them while fleshing their personality out.

HOWEVER I do want to work on another isekai before I get to the Red Giant with ma' best friend which serves as a prelude for the wacky shiz I'm about to throw down.

That Stick Figure Isekai | Tapas

[UrMom]

What @TheLemmaLlama said, also I can see it being a nostalgia thing. Like other good thing of your childhood some people probably hold into their first story, having it grow with them because they don't want that part of their childhoods to be left behind. I myself hold those kind of feelings for that massive story, and it's only became what it is because I've kept it with me for so long. Going from being a generic fantasy het romance to something completely divorced from that, only related in setting and some of the character's in-world origins. If it weren't for that little spark happening when I was a child I wouldn't have the story I do now, and I'll always cherish that as corny as it sounds.

Yeah, though! I really hope to tackle it some time after my current project is done. Outside of needing to do concepts (Because I haven't had the time with what I'm doing now.) and the stuff I need to study up on more, I'm pretty much ready to go. I've been drawing the MC's for years, and they've evolved with the story, I'm also much more confident in my comic skills, so I'm ready to see them come to life.

[Zhengo]

Nah, I'm too impatient for that at least not with Luma, even though it'll eventually get grand in scale and will probably go a few years.

And the reason is kinda because Luma was pretty an idea I've had since I was 13. It's been around and focused on for so long that it's kind of become important to me on a personal level. There's a level of catharsis associated with working on this story at this point that I kind of don't want this quality to be lost under the pressure of a "magnum opus". I've already made a number of decisions with this story that I feel may not be the best choice for a high fantasy story, but I've still decided to go with it because it makes me feel good on an emotional level.

I know there's like a general writing advice out there to let go of personal attachments to characters and whatnot to write a good story, and it's not like I don't want to make Luma good. This current iteration of Luma is actually a reboot, and before that I actually did plan to shelve this project for a few years to try to work on some shorter comics to get experience. It's just that I always ended up coming back to this story, and made little progress on my short story ideas, that I realized that I just want to work on this because I enjoy it, and maybe if I complete this story, I can work wholeheartedly on my other story ideas in the future

I have plenty other ideas I plan to work on in the future after Luma, and that I plan to be more "detached" about and not let my personal emotions influence the story too much. Who knows, maybe one of those future stories will be a "magnum opus", though I try not to think about that too much, it's too much pressure And the planned ending for Luma will be kind of open to show that the characters will keep growing, so who knows, maybe I'll also write a continuation of that one day a few years after the first series ending, and maybe at that point I'll have a head screwed on tighter so I can write a more objective story XD