How do I even begin?

[dabaluchii]

I am an artist and my art skills is what I have developed for years and now that I want to create a comic or webtoon, I found out I can't write a story.

I have ideas. But i can't develop the plot and the characters. They say i have to put myself in my character's shoes, but irl i am not an empathetic person. I can only put myself in others when I have experienced the same thing they went through.

The things is, i really want to develop a story just by myself. Should i just let myself write anything i want without caring if it makes sense or if it's engaging first? How do i take the first step. What is the first step?

[CarltonIsaac]

Start by reading everything - comics, novels, short stories, etc.
Then think of how you would tell the story from another perspective, mainly yours.

That should be where your imagination takes over from.

[DesiredUsernameTaken]

Start by reading everything - comics, novels, short stories, etc.

Personally, for an empathy situation @dabaluchii I think this advice right here is the key. There's been studies that writers, in general, are empathetic people. But there's also been studies that reading can help make people more empathetic (a quick search will give you articles on the research conducted on this, some more recent, some more old if you want to read them).

In addition to helping you to get into the shoes of others' characters and try to understand where they're coming from and why they feel what they do, and figuring it out, it will also help you understand story structure better, pacing, etc. You can figure out what from the creator you liked, what you didn't like, and why.

It can also help foster your imagination. As someone who's extremely empathetic (it can be debilitating almost every day), my imagination and willingness to reconstruct reality helps with putting myself in other people's shoes. Reflecting on myself helped a lot, as well, because we've all felt a variety of emotions and while there may be a situation where someone makes a choice that I wouldn't have made, there's always some similar cousin scenario where I either did make the same choice, or almost did. Realizing those threads are there and seeing it's all connected in some way (kind of like the concept of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon) really aids my empathy.

Since this is for empathy purposes, I suggest getting a list of recommendations from people that they feel had great characters, nice character development, etc, and if you want to bring it further even get their criteria of what they found great about the characters and the development (something that's badly written or has characters who are all the same and make no choices and only have 2 emotions is not going to help). Far as novels go, those written in the first-person can be very intimate, which can be more helpful with getting into someone's head. There's also close third-person, but I find it's harder to come by.

Good luck! You'll find a way

[chestnutriceeee]

People say put yourself in your character’s shoes, but your character is what you create. To write a good story, you don't need to look at the world through someone else's eyes, doing so will only hinder your efforts.

There was a thread here a while back about how similar everyone is to their characters, and the most common answer was how characters are just bits of themselves. Your characters will be part of you, and that is the only way to make them believable. If you need something that strongly contrasts some personalities, you have tropes to help with that.

As for thinking if it is engaging, I’ll cite another thread. https://forums.tapas.io/t/story-vs-writing-skill/62053

Again, the most common answer is that skill is far more important than the story itself. Even the dullest essay can become a legendary epic with the right storyteller. Storytelling and writing are skills that you can learn and improve with experience, and the more stories you tell, the better they will get.

And lastly, as the other comment says, READ! Read as much as you can and keep reading. Read comics, read novels, read the best of them and read the worst of them. Learn from what they do wrong and learn from where they go right.

Of course, all I say is my perspective on this matter. If you don’t agree then there is no need to listen to me, you will eventually get it. All the best going forward!

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I have ideas. But i can't develop the plot and the characters.

I'd say start with setting a goal.

Like, what do you envision when you draw your main character(s)? Do you see them slaying dragons? Stealing treasure? Overthrowing governments?
Or maybe just planting gardens? Going to school? Cooking food? Start with the activities that resonate with them, and plan a story from there.

For example, if I see my characters as 'dragon slayers', I'll try to write a story where at least one of the goals is 'slay a dragon'.

How do we get to that point, though? We need to set other goals. Maybe the dragon lives in a faraway castle...so we add the goal 'travel to the castle'. Or maybe even 'find the castle'.
But why is the dragon living there? Perhaps something happened to the original inhabitants. If we want this as part of the present story, we might add 'have the dragon kill the people in the castle', or 'have the dragon move into the ruined castle' (and perhaps 'have the dragon find out how the castle fell'~).

If we want this as a backstory, we might add 'have the characters find out how the castle fell, and what the dragon has to do with it (if anything)'. This could be broken up into smaller goals sprinkled throughout the story...maybe there are side characters that will each give them some segment of this information, and subplots attached to each. The story is getting pretty big already. ^^

In the end, all you have to do is choose the goals you want and put them in order:
'have the characters find out how the castle fell' 'find the castle' 'slay the dragon'

^That's pretty much a basic storyline right there. You could leave it like this and create a comic with a very simple story (like a children's picture book, for example) or you can break up the goals and nest other goals within them to add complexity.

Should i just let myself write anything i want without caring if it makes sense or if it's engaging first?

This may be an unpopular opinion, but yes. ^^; Deciding if a story is 'engaging' is extremely difficult if you haven't written it yet. Same for whether or not it makes sense.
There are plenty of amateur writers who get so obsessed with those worries that they get trapped in recursive loops of starting to write the story, trying to figure out whether something is wrong with it before they're even halfway done, becoming overwhelmed with anxiety, scrapping it, and starting over.

Obviously, it's not fun, and you don't want to be one of them. =[ And the saddest part is they learn very little about developing a story past the beginning stages (which is arguably the hardest part) because they never let themselves get that far.

So yeah. Start with writing what you want (and finishing your work) and THEN try to gauge how good it is and how you can improve. It'll also be easier to get feedback when you can hand people a complete story to judge, instead of just bits and pieces.

[Caro]

Structure structure structure!!!!!

You’re probably familiar with story structure without even realizing it just by passive media consumption alone.

Save The Cat is a very beginner friendly book that describes the three act structure and breaks down the beats within that structure.

Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet

I actually think more people in comics should think about structure like this a little more tbh.

[dabaluchii]

@Caro This is really helpful!! I think i can try and stem out from here​ thank you for sharing this

And to everyone, i do read. It's one of my favorite thing to do when I'm not drawing. But i think when I read I don't analyze and observe the structure. I read like a consumer. So i'll try and observe more closely​

[Kaydreamer]

I'm surprised nobody has said this yet, but if you're an artist who struggles with writing, and you want to make a webcomic... why not team up with a writer?

There are so many writers who come onto these forums looking to team up with an artist to make their webcomic a reality. And one of my favourite webcomics at the moment (Ebisu) is by a writer/artist duo who match perfectly together.

I will be honest, many writers who come here looking for artists can't write - you can see it in their grammar, and the shallowness of their concepts - but every now and then, a writer with some really clear skill happens by. If you keep your eye out for such a person, you could find yourself with a great comic partner.

It's not going to be easy to find that perfect writer, but it may be a better idea than trying to force yourself to do something you find extremely difficult.

[smokesalty]

Story is usually driven by character choices through their motivations. It would be good to have a clear view of what your character wants and why. Try thinking about what choices a person would make, and allow those choices to have consequences! You don't have to empathise with characters to understand why they do things.

If you have these ideas for certain plot points, try think as to how a character would get to that point, and why it occurs.

It's good to write your ideas down or have an outline. Some ideas are trash and don't work out, but that's normal. You're able to see what does and doesn't work. For me, I ended up working out my characters motivation AFTER outlining, which altered my script, but the same plot points occurred. Scrapping ideas and coming up with new ones is part of the process.

Sometimes you just have to write your characters and see what sticks.

[crimson_mystery_cake]

I say simply have fun coming up with funny scenarios for whatever characters you come up with or something. Just like with art, writing and coming up with a story is also a skill that you can learn and polish. That’s probably not something you want to hear after spending years learning how to draw, but I can imagine when you first started to draw you were also like “where do I even begin??” Imo the most important thing is to have fun while also keeping a mind to learning where you can improve. If you could find writing prompts or maybe character story games or roleplays that could be a good start. Also maybe work on some fanfic for a story you already like. That idea may sound cringey to you but trust me, fanfic is actually where a lot of the greats start. And that was something that was true WELL before the age of the Internet.

[crimson_mystery_cake]

Also if you’re not very empathetic then you could also try drawing from real life experiences. Isn’t how the saying goes: “write what you know?”

Well actually personally I’ve never been the biggest fan of that saying. I feel it should be more “know what you write.” That means studying, talking to people , and gathering first and second hand sources for inspiration

[dabaluchii]

@Kaydreamer Ah yeah. Im already doing collabs with varieties of writers​ but you know it's still different when everything comes from ourselves. The reason I decided to collab too, is to learn from them and to ask advice, but so far i haven't learned anything​ there's a different pleasure when the characters and the story comes from you. I know you guys have that feeling too (○ﾟεﾟ○)

[dabaluchii]

I can somehow understand. I also read something like this. Sometimes, it's just i feel like i am the one deciding not the character? Then the doubt starts. Should it really be like that? Will this character really choose this option? I have things like those. Then my mind starts to get blank... I guess i lack understanding of the character (￣へ￣)

[dabaluchii]

This is a very good advice!! Thank you​
I should get back from the start and start like a child without worry. I should just do what i want and then after, i'll revise. This is what I did too when i started to draw. I was a kid back then, and thoughts like "anatomy should be right" didn't occur to me. I just see if it looks good. Thank you for this reminder. I'll go and apply what everyone said bit by bit​(^ω^)

[smokesalty]

I get what you mean! I get to points where it ends up me deciding because I know a certain character action needs to happen.

I think starting with basic character personalities can help, and you can build on them as you go. For example, my main character is really shy when I myself am not. So I take the basic concept of they wouldn't talk as much and don't cause conflict and made that clear though having him talk less than other characters and stay silent when another character confronts him.

Just try breaking down their personalities. Getting to know your characters takes time, just like when you have a first impression of someone and you get to know more about them as you spend more time with them. They don't need to be masterful in-depth characters at first. You're not going to know everything about the character and the story when you first start.