Do you have your stories completely written out already? Or do you only have a vague direction on where they are going? (Feel free to post both your comic and novel in your message)

stiatent 2024-10-05 08:49:51 UTC #21

Season 1 it's written chapter to chapter till mid-point, but the rest are on a MIRO board as short notes and concept art ( in mind map form). such a handy online tool : https://miro.com/

The other seasons are in skeletal form with more attention on the true ending (currently aiming for 4 seasons), just enough to plan characters and foreshadow stuff. Each season is just days apart and season 2-3 the story shifts into a battle royale, just wanted to ensure it feels continuous.

Some future scenes are inspired by artwork and characters I've done in the past also.

Yep exactly it felt like it would become FAR too much work and overwhelming.
Sometimes limitations for my computer to render heavy 3d scenes and effects like fur or new ideas come after building props for the comic. Because of this, its become common for me to change scenes that were previously written and improvising sections can make the process feel fresh at times.
So because of this I don't worry too much to have it completely written.

daeygurart 2024-10-05 11:20:12 UTC #22

I do episode by episode. I had to write a new script and outline because I was just pansting my way through and it didn't make sense so now I'm having to redraw everything which is fine because it came out better than expected!

megumibex 2024-10-28 21:28:57 UTC #23

I had a buffer of about 15 chapters (broken into about 30 episodes on here) when I started. Now my buffer has shrunk to about 5 chapters, and when the current arc is concluded I plan to take a break to finish writing arc 2 before I start posting again.

Cheekybee07 2024-10-28 22:38:46 UTC #24

I'm usually more of what they call a 'pantster'? I kind of make it up as I go. But I usually have an idea where to start and what characters i want to build and go from there. They tend to have a mind of their own after that

Here's my latest story. It's kind of like if 'Solo Levling' met 'Stardust' and put a pinch of Egyptian mythology set in modern day Japan

skidiggy 2024-10-29 02:25:13 UTC #25

Ooh, awesome question!

For Apparent Secrets, I have an extensive outline, calendar, and plot beats written in advance to maintain continuity. There are tons of "fixed-firm" events and plot points that need to happen (in order) for the narrative and mysteries to fit together, so having everything plotted in advance is essential. As of right now, it's about 50% written, with more chapters coming after the Action Fantasy Tourney wraps up.

That said, for Of Lowlifes, Lutes, & Liars, I have a rough idea of the events that need to happen in the story, but I allow chapters to form organically as time goes on. Honestly, I treat it like a one-person Dungeons & Dragons homebrew, with a few "fixed-firm" events in mind, but nothing concrete.

Here are links to both, if you'd like to see what kind of results each method yields:

Jwebtoons 2024-10-31 08:58:30 UTC #26

I know how it ends or some details of how it ends. Like who the final boss is, do the protagonists end up with someone etc. Then I plan my beginning. I have some ideas of events and arcs in between that I see as milestones or checkpoints. I make up the stuff in between those checkpoints as I go along.

Except this last one. Already wrote out the whole story. It was an idea I wrote out as a video game, but I'm rewriting it in a book format to be presented as a novel.

pablo-costa 2024-10-31 09:04:01 UTC #27

Kinda, yeah. Part 1 and portions of Finale part (ending as well) are already decided on.
Portions of middle parts are up to change, tbh.
Like I had in mind a larger group going on, but I decided to leave one of them behind to do background stuff.

GumshoeComix 2024-10-31 11:01:29 UTC #28

Honestly, My biggest mistake was not finishing the script before posting it
It's done now thankfully but when I was halfway through the story I was still working on the script too which caused a lot of inconsistencies and issues with the story, not to mention Haitus's from a lack of backlog

heyroxi 2024-10-31 12:43:44 UTC #29

I have finished novel because I simply lack of motivation to continue it. It was just random and the plot are just like adrenaline rush to my brain compared to my other novel that everything planned out. Anyway sharing the link to it, it's not romance more on friendship so enjoy!

dayworks 2024-11-14 02:36:25 UTC #30

I do have it all written out already. Actually the whole graphic novel is my adaptation of a book I wrote quite awhile ago. While I was writing the book I did chapter illustrations that implied the book was a paperback of an existing comic. I still use these illustration at the beginning of each chapter. At the time I became interested in how visualization and written description worked back in forth in my head and how they were both aids to each other (at least for me) In any case the pandemic rolled in and I decided to graphically adapt the whole thing to keep myself from doing too much daytime despair drinking. The latest chapter is out now.

Stix_art 2024-11-14 20:11:31 UTC #31

Right now I'm working on my new comic "Mudderflue", and my process was (and still is) all over the place haha

From the start I had a good idea of what my comic was gonna be in my mind. But something I have only realized now, is that I visualize things in scenes (like in a movie) and not broken up into panels, which made it very difficult when I sat down to start working on it. As this is only my second "proper" comic, I felt the need to learn things my own way, and not listen to people that have already experienced these things. And now that I am continuing work on the second part to the comic, I have quite a bit of self learnt experience, even if I had already seen it online.

As for if I already had my story completely written out or not, not really. At first I made some simple sketches of the locations the story takes place in and otherwise i wrote down the dialogue in great detail, almost like a screenplay visualizing the story as I went.

Funnily enough, this didn't only help me prepare for my next comic, but in a weird way also wormed its way into the comic itself as the entirety of the first act to the story.

Another thing I never thought I would have to learn the hard way is to back up my work on the cloud more often, jeeez I created a lot of extra work for myself there hehe

enderdragon 2025-03-26 19:35:47 UTC #32

I have the general overall concept, characters, and major story elements fleshed out in broad detail, so I'm free to just fill in whatever I want in between naturally as I go along. I don't like to be too rigid with my planning, because I value freedom.

I'm also loosely outlining numerous strips in advance so that I could just draw them immediately without getting stuck or having writers block or something.

So yeah, its kinda the middle ground between rigid structure and loose, liberal planning.

skullforceagents 2025-03-29 15:57:02 UTC #33

I have a story arch mentally planned out for Skull Force Agents. I have a bunch of characters as well, some of whom still need to be sketched out. But I know where I’m going with it

Kyanbu 2025-03-29 16:18:57 UTC #34

I keep an outline of the entire story from start to finish. Right down to small notes, changes, and Chapter count. I then make changes as needed, as I go along.

annuskabriar 2025-03-31 03:24:51 UTC #35

book/part one of my comic is pretty written out already, and i know how the overall story ends and the major plot beats throughout the entire story, but theres still a lot of missing gaps in book/parts two and three. though all the scripted parts are subject to change too, haha