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Jul 29

I know it was like 1-2 weeks ago, but I went to an anime convention in July called Anitomo Convention 2024, next to a shopping area near “industry city”, called Japan Village. I only go a comic book from there by Jim Grue, called “Bluehilda” and it’s a good comic despite not a manga /anime. The part that bothered me the most in the convention was the fact that I didn’t speak to most of the people there, and I was nervous. My mom who was supervising with me in the event, stayed there for a short time and din’t want me to stay for the whole event. I want to make short story comics/anthologies for myself. I wanted to write and draw just like them, but this event only happens once a year! And I felt so upset when I keep getting art block or writer block/burnout and I can’t do anything about it unless I got a break for weeks, even months.
I want to write comics, and draw comics! And while I already have stories, I don’t have time to maintain my online presence! I always and usually only appear on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays! And other that days where I have no school and some tablet time, I can’t go beyond 8:00pm. I have nothing to work on and I need to work hard and play hard on everything and I am stressed out!
6 questions for all of you!:
1. How can I draw a lot when I don’t have money for more storage in my tablet, and when my screen art tablet has too much stuff in the way, and I want to draw something but I’m scared that people will hate my art?
2. What is your writing advice for people who want to make stories?
3. How can I practice making short comic stories (like a complete comic with no cliffhanger or “to be continued” area in the end)?
4. What can I do if I feel stuck in a rut in writing, as in not writing or feeling nervous that you writing isn’t taking you anywhere because the character is stuck in one place not doing anything or taking your story (such as a problem then situation and then solution), and then being boring because your character goes back home with no problem to go in head on?
5. How can I write my story when I feel upset, and can’t find any advice or ideas from the writer itself?
6. What can I do to be a writer who writes stories in my journal and make comic stories from there (writing with words not the comic picture stage at this moment…)?

Please help, and I’m just stuck in a huge rut with my art and life. My family keeps limiting me to do whatever they want me to do and they don’t take me seriously, because I’m 19 years old, I have no one to support me (except part of my family who never contact me back!), and I’m angry at them.

Pleeeeeeez help!

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I never realized until my thirties that comics were my thing. It's admirable to start out so young. Here's my advice, mostly based off personal experience:

  1. There are free cloud services online you can store drawings. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. Research a few and see which ones work for you. No one hates art, but everyone wants to be a critic and offer advice from their own egos or from genuine experience. But it all depends on you if you want to take feedback and work on your craft, no amount of words on a screen should stop you or discourage you. The more you expose your art, the easier it gets. (I only been online for a year and a half, and it's been a rewarding experience, when I have the time.)

  2. Write out your plot points in a bulleted list, beginning, middle, end, and make sure the events have a cause (don't worry about the logic in the story, as you are starting out. Nonsense can serve a purpose, least for starting out, you can refine your stuff later.) You just gotta get into the habit of putting words out.

  3. Give yourself a deadline and a panel limit (if you are drawing). Like 75 panels in 3 months (recently did this, got it done much faster, but the limit helped keep my untamed creativity in a box and not spiral out of control.)

  4. Finding problems for your character to solve tend to come from many places. Sometimes within the character themselves(what flaws do they have? what can't they do? ), and sometimes, it's things in the environment. Doesn't have to be big things, that comes at the climax, but it can be something fundamentally wrong with the world around them such as evil people(villains or everyday people), maybe they disagree with how everyone ties their shoes? who knows. You can look up types of conflicts in stories to get some ideas.

  5. Write down your upsetting thoughts and take a break from writing. Go for a walk, relax, listen to music, get your mind off of the problem so you can return refreshed and perhaps come up with a solution. Watch your favorite animes or read your favorite books for inspiration. It's okay to borrow ideas, you can put you own spin on them as you get in the mode. (I used to steal/combine loads of ideas from media I enjoyed, which helped me practice my storytelling, but I did so offline until I could come up with a fully original story years later)

  6. Not sure what you're asking here, but you can start writing here, on Tapas. You may not get noticed right away, but take relief in that as you work, and when you feel ready, you can start promoting your works.
    If you're talking about writing a script for comics, there is a software I know of called Celtx. I think it's still free, but it offers a format so you can draft the beginning of a comic, like panel descriptions actions, lines of dialogue, etc.

That was a lot to unpack, but I'm hoping some of this can help you get started, which is often the hardest part. Others may have better experience and advice as I am technically still a newb (over one year publishing a comic)

Oh, and it's okay if not normal to be burned out for long periods, this happened to me a lot cause I've technically been drawing for three years, not one. Doesn't mean I'm a pro XD

  1. What kind of tablet do you have? If you have a laptop/phone, move some of the data from the tablet onto that. Drawings shouldn’t take that much data, and you can always upload/delete them from the tablet as you make stuff. Don’t be scared, just make stuff and always try to improve on what you made in the past. Even if its imperfect, or outright bad, everyone starts somewhere, so just get used to putting stuff out there and look forward to one day making something great.

  2. Write stories you would want to read. It’s easier to write something you’re passionate or already knowledgable in. Understand the basic beats of most storytelling (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax), use them or go against them.

  3. Think of about how many pages you want it to be (24, 32, ect.), write an outline for a short story, then try to morph it to fit the amount of pages you want it to be. Often this is cutting stuff out/condensing plot points. After that just keep making more of then, build experience and a portfolio.

  4. Take a walk. Let the story/characters breathe in your mind for an hour and see what new ideas form into your head. Try experimenting, think what is the worse thing that could happen at this point in the story, what would be surprising, then have your character face it. General writing point: coincidence can cause a problem, but can’t solve a problem.

  5. Maybe focus just on an easier part of writing, like outlining future story events/character backstory. Sometimes you just have to force yourself into it, spend 10 minutes trying to write dialogue, and if you still can’t then, back out. Try using the emotions you feel in your writing. Not always a good idea, especially if you’re really depressed/cynical like me, but it can add a genuine quality to it.

  6. Read your stories to yourself and imagine what it would look like as a tv series/movie. Think of what the characters/locations would look like and practice drawing them. Eventually storyboard some comics and learn your art style and visual storytelling methods.

Best of luck. You’re still young enough you have time to make this at least a good hobby (maybe even more!).

If you need help organizing your ideas to make a story I found this website that looks pretty helpful. I haven’t used it myself yet, but it’s free! https://app.milanote.com/1Sxxql1tu7Xjhr/home3
From my experience, ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS BEFORE YOU START!! Both of the comics I’ve started I also restarted because I didn’t plan well in the beginning :sweat_smile: I think I’ve learned my lesson for the next time I try to start a comic.

If you need help organizing your ideas to make a story I found this website that looks pretty helpful. I haven’t used it myself yet, but it’s free! https://app.milanote.com/1Sxxql1tu7Xjhr/home2 space waves2
From my experience, ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS BEFORE YOU START!! Both of the comics I’ve started I also restarted because I didn’t plan well in the beginning :sweat_smile: I think I’ve learned my lesson for the next time I try to start a comic.

Your suggestion is so great. This is exactly what I was looking for.

You will get better with practice.
Trust the process.
Draw a lot of pages.

Learn theory but don´t overload your brain because it leads
to overthinking.

I restarted at 40, I´m a slow learner, my art looked super embarassing.
I didn´t know what a sketch is or anything about the human body, perspective
etc. I went to a 24 hours (24 pages in 24 hours) day and drew a 24 pages comic.
It looked like an 8 year old would have drawn it. Then I drew every day and made
very slow progress.

9,5 years later and I teach drawing to kids, I won some comic contests, I do a lot of commissions.

What do I want to say? Don´t give up, draw a lot. When you want to learn how to draw
comics then draw comics and get through the embarassing phase, I guarantee you that
it will get better, but only when you start and get through it

  1. How can I draw a lot when I don’t have money for more storage in my tablet

Paper! Amazing stuff. You can build whole religions with it.

I want to draw something but I’m scared that people will hate my art?

People will hate your art even if you're at the top of your game. It's part of the package of being a creative.

What is your writing advice for people who want to make stories?

Write it. Run it past people you know who have keen minds about media and demand they give you what advice they think will help you improve. Friends will be gentle about it, internet randos probably won't.

How can I practice making short comic stories (like a complete comic with no cliffhanger or “to be continued” area in the end)?

See above.

What can I do if I feel stuck in a rut in writing, as in not writing or feeling nervous that you writing isn’t taking you anywhere because the character is stuck in one place not doing anything or taking your story (such as a problem then situation and then solution), and then being boring because your character goes back home with no problem to go in head on?

If your story is shit burn it and start again.

How can I write my story when I feel upset

Unless you have mouths to feed you don't have to do a damned thing if you're not feeling it.

My family keeps limiting me to do whatever they want me to do and they don’t take me seriously, because I’m 19 years old, I have no one to support me...

Are they telling you that making comics is a stupid fucking plan and you need to do something better with your life if you hope to make the transition into the real world? They are correct.

Storyboards definitely expediated the process for me. You can set up the more impactful panels for your story then work out the layout of the pages separately with a pre-existing concept in play.

My advice? Get a real life job, earn some money, practice the drawing basics in your free time (by basics I mean doing studies of de-constructing complex shapes into basic ones, not cluelessly jumping directly into drawing, that kind of newbie art is not even worth being criticized).

Then one day when you have money and drawing skills in your hands you might think changing your career. Just don't get married, or you'll screw it all :wink:

Ah, and if you dont have room in your tablet, there's an amazing human invention called "paper".

How can I draw a lot when I don’t have money for more storage in my tablet, and when my screen art tablet has too much stuff in the way

Paper, for starters. Drawing digitally is great for convenience's sake, but I honestly do think it's worth it for every aspiring artist to work on paper when they start out: there's just some je ne sais quois about the tactile feedback, as well as the level of commitment it forces out of you. Sure you can always erase or use white ink, but the lack of a full-blown undo feature really helps build confidence and forces you to move forward.
With that said, working digitally, storage space shouldn't be that big of an issue. You can buy a cheap little 16 or 32 gig flash drive and store hundreds of high-resolution work files on there, to say nothing of the lower resolution flattened images. As long as you have a USB port available to you, you can store your digital work without issue.

I want to draw something but I’m scared that people will hate my art?

The fact that you're bringing this up at all tells me you're starting off on the wrong foot. This isn't an uncommon problem, but you need to ask yourself a very important fundamental question about WHY you're doing what you're doing. If you only care about people loving your art, then you're in the wrong game.
Make your art because you love making your art. People being fans of your work is a bonus on the side.
People are going to like your stuff, people are going to hate your stuff, people are going to ignore your stuff. That's just the nature of what you're doing. There will be ups and downs, fans and haters, dry spells and surges. Get used to it, they come with the territory, and you can not use something so inconsistent as a metric for your motivation.
Make your art because you enjoy it. Whether people hate it or not, you didn't make it for them, you made it for the joy of creating something you're passionate about. Focus on that.

What is your writing advice for people who want to make stories?

This is an incredibly broad topic that I can't even hope to fully explore here. There are entire 4 year college courses that are literally nothing but advice for people who want to write.

The guiding star here is to make stuff you would enjoy. Make things that YOU think are cool, not what you think you 'should' make, not what's popular or conventional, make stuff that interests you.
There are a TON of youtube videos, essays, blog posts, and discussion forums centered on nitty-gritty details of writing technique and characterization and narrative structure and all of that, and you absolutely should go consume those, but the primary thing to worry about, especially as a newer artist, is maintaining motivation, and you're not gonna be able to do that unless you're making stuff you WANT to make.

How can I practice making short comic stories (like a complete comic with no cliffhanger or “to be continued” area in the end)?

3 panels.
Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, so make one image for each of those things, boiling down those 3 major elements into the bare minimum possible for representing those elements in order to practice going from one to the next.
When I was in college, they had us do an exercise where we made a 3-page comic (page 1: beginning, page 2: middle, page 3: end), then forced us to tell the same story in 1 page, then again in just 3 panels. It's a great exercise to force yourself to cut away fluff and reduce your story down to the bare minimum necessary to tell it.

I would suggest doing something similar:
Come up with a character, give that character a goal, then have them accomplish that goal. It doesn't have to be fancy or complex. It can be something outright mundane and boring, it might even be better that way: It's not about whether the story is interesting, it's about you getting practice with the tools at your disposal to portray a sequence of events in a clear, readable, efficient fashion.

What can I do if I feel stuck in a rut in writing, as in not writing or feeling nervous that you writing isn’t taking you anywhere because the character is stuck in one place not doing anything or taking your story (such as a problem then situation and then solution), and then being boring because your character goes back home with no problem to go in head on?

Based on the way you've worded this, it feels like you've got something specific in mind that you've struggled with. The more specific your problem, the more specific the solution, and I can't help you out with your exact story without knowing the details.

As for being stuck in a rut and feeling like you aren't going anywhere with your story, I refer to the above answer: Cut the fluff.

Boil your story down to the bare minimum. What is the next item on the agenda? Make that thing happen. It's okay if it isn't perfect: You can always fix it on the next page. If your story is a little clunky, that's fine, you can learn from that and improve next time. The important thing is to keep the story moving forward, keep finding interesting things to write/draw.

The more you do it, the better you'll get, but you can't get that practice and experience until you actually put pen to paper and do it.
Also refer above to the first answer: Make things you find interesting and fun, not things you think you're 'supposed' to do. Oftentimes when I feel like I'm spinning my wheels in terms of storytelling, it's because I'm including stuff that I think "should" go between point A and point B. I don't actually always need those, and even when they are necessary, they can usually be trimmed down pretty extensively, allowing me to feel like I'm moving forward at a faster clip, thereby giving me a sense of progress.

How can I write my story when I feel upset, and can’t find any advice or ideas from the writer itself?

This one is a tricky balancing act. On the one hand, you don't want to burn yourself out or push yourself too hard to create stuff when the creative juices aren't flowing: it'll wreak havoc on your mental and suck the joy out of something you're supposed to love.
On the other, you can't just sit around and wait for inspiration to strike, or else you'll never get anything meaningful done.

Literally anyone can create something when inspiration strikes: that's what inspiration IS.
The difference between someone who is an artist and someone who isn't is making art, so make some damn art already.

If you want to do this just for fun, then there's no need to push yourself to really any degree: do stuff when you want to and don't worry about it.

However, if you're serious enough to be here posting to a community of artists, looking for advice on how to improve, then I take that as a sign you're serious enough to go a step further.

Treat your art like working out. Get up and do it regularly. Don't sit around and wait until you just 'feel' like it.
Even if it's just a little, even if you don't really feel like it, even if you aren't really enjoying yourself, get up and push yourself a little to create something better than you could create the day before.

Sometimes you don't wanna get up and go to the gym, but you do it anyways because you care about doing it. You do the thing you don't necessarily WANT to do because you know it's what you NEED to do.
If the long-term results of improvement are what's important to you, then you'll have some miserable days where you hate it and don't have 'fun', but you put in the hours anyways because you care more about being a better artist/writer than you do about whether you enjoy it right here right now.

What can I do to be a writer who writes stories in my journal and make comic stories from there (writing with words not the comic picture stage at this moment…)?

You'll have to experiment and figure out what works for you. Some people are 'discovery' writers, who discover the story as it's created (I'm very much so a discovery writer myself, almost to an extreme), while others are 'outline' writers, who plan their stories extensively ahead of time and write out everything in broad strokes before going back in and refining each section.

Try writing some outlines: Do you work better just throwing out a jumble of ideas and blurbs with arrows pointing to one another like some crazy conspiracy theorist, or do you prefer to keep it extremely tight and organized? Or do you prefer not writing outlines at all?
Try writing scripts, see if you prefer breaking things down panel-by-panel, or if you're more comfortable with a screenplay style that lets you come up with panel breaks as needed?
There are a million different ways to plan, outline, script, and thumbnail your comic, and everyone's gonna have their own personal way they like doing it, so this one really comes down to experimentation and finding out what works best for you.

My family keeps limiting me to do whatever they want me to do and they don’t take me seriously

Don't expect them to start taking you seriously because you decided to make comics, and don't make comics because you want them to take you seriously. Don't make comics because you want to make money or support yourself either.
In addition to being very unlikely, it's also just not healthy to get into an artistic field for the purpose of making money with it. If you need to have a regular day job to pay the bills and you make comics on the side, that's okay. If you can't dedicate much time to making them because you've got other stuff to handle, that's also okay. It's not about hitting some arbitrary threshold or deadline, it's about doing something you're passionate about because YOU care about doing it.

Don't make comics for someone else's sake, don't make them because you want your family to take you seriously or because you want to make money doing it. Make comics because you love making comics. Full stop.

3 months later

Your advice is incredibly helpful; it's precisely the guidance I've been seeking.