Jul 2018
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mrtoontastic
Jul '18

Usually, especially when you're a writer and artist on comic strips and novels. The ideas for expansion is always a drive for me. Sometimes, the confidence to start a story often comes from the comic strips I've drawn and the characters or situations I shed some light on in the past, making them expansion-worthy when I started writing. Sometimes, its what you've done in the past which helps kick-start an idea for a story. Think of it as, "I have characters that can do A (save the world/fight monsters/cause trouble among themselves and others), and I have characters or settings that are B (villains/misunderstood outcasts/vindictive/domineering/otherworldly). What would happen if I take characters from A and put them in B?)" And then the rest kinda kicks off from there! Another thing that can help immensely is to read and watch some of your favorite movies and/or books. They often can graze on a topic you were thinking of, but can give you inspiration to either make it your own or expand upon ideas that were glossed over.

Shihwi
Jul '18

I am never confident enough in the stories I make. But if you don't make them and let others see it, I think you are hindering yourself from the opportunity of learning new things and progressing as an artist. So, I say, don't beat yourself too much towards perfection. You will get there.

Just do it. You'll improve along the way. And there is no other thing more satisfying than watching yourself from day one until now. You'll never know the results if you don't have anything to show to begin with :blush:

Hope this helped. Because it did when one of my friends said the same sentiment to me.

zigmenthotep
Jul '18

I just don't care and start anyway, the worst story written is still better than the best only dreamed of.

Wumbl
Jul '18

I basically get most of my confidence from internal satisfaction with my work, and if I need it, proofreading.

As far as I'm concerned once the script is at least 50-60% done you're ready to start drawing.

The only thing that might cause a slight lapse in confidence for me is that there might be small errors that I haven't noticed. That's why I mentioned proofreading! Having a co-writer or even just a friend to flip through your script and check for mistakes as well as give you some feedback can help you get into the zone.

aqua03Party Planner
Jul '18

Thank you so much for all the advice and help guys! It really means a lot to me. :slight_smile:

Also, one other problem I realized I have when it comes to starting is the fact I love coming up with ideas and fleshing them out, but when it comes to putting those ideas into an actually story, I get cold feet and can't flesh them out in an interesting manner for a full story. Do any of you guys struggle with that?

eochoa92
Jul '18

I like to handwrite my drafts.
I'll have several handwritten pages of edits with scribbles/doodles, notes on the sides, etc that I'll go through before deciding to type up a story.
That's sort of my process.
And each draft looks different. I can copy something from a previous draft, but stop middway because I thought of something better and follow through on that. It's stuff like that which makes me prefer handwriting to typing. It's a bit sloppy, yes, but seems to work for me.

monotone_ink
Jul '18

I started by creating a one-shot3/focusing on shorter stories - when you do this, you have a better sense of what you're trying to aim for, and you'll find it easier to gauge what people find interesting in your work - it was only then that I really tackled the bigger project.2

If you want confidence in your story before starting, one thing you should establish is the ending of your story - this way, you'll never get lost, as you'll always have some sort of destination for your story to go towards.

LNRDink
Jul '18

I think a lot of people have already hit the nail pretty much dead on the head but I don't think it's healthy to build confidence to release your stories. In fact, I believe you must reach such a point that you stop caring about what you write.

Like, no matter what you do, someone will find your writing/drawing and want to eviscerate it. Of course, you don't want that to happen while you're creating it but, once you finish it, you have to be okay tossing that baby to the wolves and just keep running.

fnflgbtcomics
Jul '18

Our comics are dual-written by myself and my partner. We talk a lot about the characters and their stories, and sort of "banter" back and forth to feel out their dialogue.
It's difficult to resist starting a story when you really get that pumped for it and you're having that much fun with it. I find that, after awhile, it's something that I end up doing because I'm so excited to show everyone else what I've been thinking of, ahha. Of course, that doesn't mean it's ready, or even great, but it makes me happy so I assume that others will feel the same.

Velome
Jul '18

I never did, lol!

The comic I'm currently drawing was my third attempt since the other two stories were poorly planned. I only made one storyboard of each previous story and in that moment I realized the characters were weak. For some reason I didn't feel that with the characters of the comic I'm working on now.

erma
Jul '18

I didn't have much confidence at all when I started my series, to be honest! I think it was a combination of unexpected free time between college programs, and the fact that I'd been saying "I'm gonna post a comic one day" for years. With those two things combined, I told myself to just go for it. Something I saw going around recently on twitter was something like this: "the beginning of your first comic is going to be far from perfect, but there is no "perfect" time to start your comic." This is definitely true for me - but it's a (very fun!) learning experience, and I think as long as you're enjoying it and asking for feedback when necessary, you should be fine! :smile:

Jenny-Toons
Jul '18

It's all about love. :heart:

The stories I work on are stories I want to see finished to the end. Of course, I do want other people to see them because story-telling is just in my blood.

I'm confident that not everyone will like my work.

But I'm also confident that I will like it, and I guess in the end, that matters more to me.

So what kinda drives me to get working on the script and the pages is my own love for the story. I want to see those stories come to life, and I personally wanna read them once they're finished. For me, as long as I am my biggest fan, I can keep working on my stories and improve them as I go along.

I can definitely see why it can be hard, especially if you go into comics with also the purpose of finding an audience. It's downright scary sometimes because hey -- most of us know not everyone will love our stories as much as we do. Sometimes, people will tear into your stories like sharks.

I guess my way of seeing it is that love has to be your confidence. It's not always about how well you drew the panels or how perfect the writing is. All of that can be improved with time and effort.

Sometimes, it's more or less the case of "do I love this story enough to follow through?"

If the answer is yes -- you got it made :blush:

Even if you are your biggest fan, that's still a fan in my book. And that's what can get a story finished. :blush:

Hodge
Jul '18

Kinda just went "JUST DO IT!!" and then fail, learn, try again, and repeat. Don't really know if I'm confidant, it's more just sheer desperation and hoping for the best.

lunaartemisasama
Jul '18

What really got me in trying to do webcomics was Questionable Content, for me is not a matter of confidence but a matter of guts. I feel if you enjoy what you do and continue trying to improve and don't give up you will get to a point when you will think, wow! did I really made that? did I really improve so much? or did I really made a complete webcomic by myself? (I am better giving advice than following them XD).

aqua03Party Planner
Jul '18

Again, thank you all for the wonderful encouragement and advice! I am thinking of maybe making an unrelated one-shot as practice, but I'll keep working on both and see how I feel and what happens. :slight_smile:

ar-ninetysix
Jul '18
aqua03

I run into this idea of having ideas and not knowing what to do with them often. What works for me is knowing what I can't afford to leave out. It's fine to have world-building lore or details, but I personally feel like.. I should only include it if it's gonna come up in the story later on. If anything, I'd have it be like a bonus page of information or something. Like fun facts, I guess.

If it's ideas for the plot that you're struggling to put into the story.. again, see if you reaaally need it. If so, think about what way makes sense for the idea to be introduced. How do you get there? Is it even possible to get there? Break it down into steps of how to make it work, these individual steps should be easier to incorporate your idea into the story. It'd be like a checklist or a recipe of events.

Here's an example. Say you want a boss fight in a game, how do you come to that point? Have the level dedicated to them. Ok, but is it out in the open? Probably not, hide the level somewhere. But how does the player find it? Hint at it throughout the game, or have a map vaguely telling you where it is. Would be easy to get in once the player finds it? I doubt the boss wants anyone to just walk in, so have the place leading up to it be dangerous or put a locked door where the player needs to find a key. Is this hypothetical key easy to find.. etc.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Overthinking an idea can benefit you at times when you're in a creative space. Try your absolute hardest to see it from the perspective of everyone reading your story, it's not easy because you, yourself, are the writer, and you know the ins and outs of the story, but yeah. Take small steps instead of jumping over the whole staircase. Hope this helps!

2 months later
SilverLugia456
Oct '18

I actually didn't have a lot of confidence in entering in contests but Tapas as helped me gain the confidence to publish my stories for others to read. I have been looking for a place where I can share my ideas through stories in a format that will work for me. Visiting this site I found it to be great to help myself. I've always wanted to write out stories with my ideas for others to see. So I guess I gained the confidence as I continued to work on my own pieces and talked to others who shared my passion.

jasxsilva
Oct '18

If I allowed myself to doubt and try to have the most perfect idea, I would never had started any of my comics. I don't think anyone is really ready to bare their soul with a story, entirely. There is always a gamble, whether there's feelings of inadequacy about skill or not knowing where the story will lead. Planning will help greatly but there needs to be a point where you stop waiting to be good enough and just draw it out.

I was working on a story idea for years, constantly changing the themes and character motives. I was so bogged down with making it perfect that I fell out of love with the idea all together. More than anything I just wanted to make a comic and be proud of it. So I started fresh with a new concept that was very simple, but I liked it and ran with it.This way of making comics doesn't work for everyone, but if you are like me and have doubts, but compelled to create, you sometimes have to throw yourself into a project.

Confidence is built over time, with a lot of mistakes in the process, but you adapt eventually. Start with finding something your passionate about, and don't weigh yourself down with every detail. When you figure out a story, draw it out, and be consistent. Lastly, don't measure success by readership, subs, or relevancy to an audiences. Measure by every page you get done, and pushed through the doubt.