How do I make it so the hook of my comic is shown early on?

[Legendofgenii]

Maybe you could copy what movies do, where they show a fun exciting scene at the beginning, then flip to “One month earlier…”

[darthmongoose]

Expanding on what Genii said, putting the exciting plot catalyst first, and then backfilling the background or setup by flashing back to it, is a really common approach in popular Tapas comics. It goes against a lot of storytelling advice about pacing and things, but seems to work well on platforms like this.

[CarltonIsaac]

To add the show to @Legendofgenii 's tell, here're some visuals -

Read PASSION OF PARIS | Tapas Web Comics

[Ayumi]

I wanted to advice the same. I have the similar issue with my planned comic, and I have no other idea yet. @JoshRaed Thank you for this topic, I'm interested in what other ideas will come up.

[NickRowler]

Sort of set up what the goal of the series is in the beginning. If you are planning a longer story or epics, have the inciting incident that causes the hero to start their adventure. One Piece is a super long series, and right away we are told their is a bunch a treasure and a lot of people want it. It does set up what the end goal might be, and everything leading up to it is the adventures that leads the hero one step closer.

[TheLemmaLlama]

If it just takes a while to draw but doesn't take that long to read, I'd probably just hold off on uploading until you've finished drawing the hook, then upload everything at once ('Make your first upload 3 episodes long' is advice you'd hear from a few people)

[IndomitableX]

Your story/comic should have a middle point (where the tensions increase mostly). Most times, as you see in movies, it can help if you show the middle point of the story in the first set of panels (since you mentioned 'comic'). For example, if your story is romance, and the middle point of your story was when the two people broke up, then you can show that at the beginning of the panel or story/comic with much emotion involved which will leave readers wondering why it happened. After you do that for the first page of first few pages, then you may start telling the story from the beginning.

I have many other examples or ways for many genres but I hope this sufficed.

[JoshRaed]

How do I identify what hook my story should have specifically? Like i’m not sure which point in my story would be a good way to sell the concept.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Do you know what the hook is?

[JoshRaed]

The premise that the story is based around is the whole fake chosen one and real chosen one thing. But i’m not sure what moment could sell that specific concept to the audience.

[darthmongoose]

Okay so... here's a good overview of the Plot Catalyst, also known as the "Inciting Incident":

It's basically the big event that changes the protagonist's life.

In normal stories, you'll get a setup, where we meet the protagonist, then get scenes showing what their life is like and the problems, and THEN something incredible happens that shakes it all up and they get the chance to go on an adventure or do something new .

But in modern webcomics, it's not unusual to join the protagonist at the very moment where something big is happening or just happened to them "Omg I just woke up in a magical world!" and then after that exciting thing, it then goes back like "I was just an ordinary college student struggling with a boring life and stress, and I liked to escape into my favourite novels... and then I was hit by a truck!"

[IndigoShirtProd]

Having read your first chapter through multiple drafts, I feel as though you've included that aspect in each version but to different degrees of success. In the latest draft I've read, I thought it was pretty clear that Heiroe was supposed to have certain powers that the chosen would have but by the end of the chapter, we find out another character has them instead. I think the only thing that may still be struggle is figuring out why that matters on a grander scale, like beyond it being disappointing for the main character. Like what is the end goal: to defeat the dark lord. Why: because darkness is spreading in the light zone.

The thing is, (here comes the tangent) Nobody, the chosen one, is fully capable of defending himself and is aware that his powers are some how related to being the chosen one. It begs two questions, why hasn't he escaped the witches before and is he aware of the prophecy about the chosen one and the dark lord? This is something I never considered in our past discussions, but for the story to work better, Nobody should be very ignorant of the goings on around him. That includes his powers, the prophecy, and the battle between the light and dark zones. And this can easily be explained by him being prisoner to the witches.

What I'm trying to say is, why does it matter that Heiroe is not the chosen one? Because he has all the training and support and drive to defeat the dark lord. But who has the power, this literal nobody who only cares about getting away from the witches and nothing else. Why would Nobody follow Heiroe to defeat the dark lord if that means he may conflict with the witches or get captured by them again? You may need to change Nobody's personality for the story to work if you intend to have a character driven plot.

[JoshRaed]

for the story to work better, Nobody should be very ignorant of the goings on around him.

Why does that make it better? I’m confused.

[LunarScyphozoa]

Because it’s less annoying for the audience

[JoshRaed]

Less annoying how? I’m confused. What’s annoying about him being aware of the conflict?

[IndigoShirtProd]

Why does that make it better? I’m confused.

Because it’s less annoying for the audience

Well, I wouldn't use those words exactly. Rather than annoying, I'd say I'd be frustrating to the reader, but let me go back

At times like this, an I'm it's been mentioned to you before, you need to really consider why a person giving you that piece of advice or bring up opposition to point or decision you've made, and also look at the grander point of what they've made rather than focusing on a specific detail. You're focusing on me saying it would be better to having where Nobody is ignorant, but you're missing the following paragraph where I explain myself. But let me further explain... by asking you more questions.

Is your story character driven? If it is, then Nobody being well aware of the conflict and not doing anything about it doesn’t make that much sense for his character. In your most recent draft that I've read, there is a conflict with the witches at the end and when Heiroe is in a tough spot, Nobody is willing to throw himself into battle to help him, despite it being a fight with the people that he escaped from. Why would he jump in for a stranger unless he knew that he wouldn't be recaptured by the witches? Oh wait, he doesn't know that, but who does know that? The author, you do. And that's where the frustration will come in for the reader. Because it stops being about why a character made that decision and more about why the author wrote the character that way.

If your story is character driven, character motivations need to line up with character actions. In the same chapter Nobody is introduced to be running away from thr witches, he makes the active choice to fight them. If he's capable of fighting them and defeating some, why was he running away from them? Because he needed to run into Heiroe? One, that's not a good enough reason, and two, if Nobody can defend himself, is aware of his powers and of the conflict between the zones, and that there is a chosen one, why hasn't he made any attempts to escape thr witches and defeat the dark lord before?

Look, you may know the answer to those questions, but the reader doesn't. And you need to be considerate of that.

[Headypigeon4180]

That might be why the first chapter of my comic was so well received I have 50 comments on a 92 sub comic Lol.

Read Hawk and Flo Adventures! | Tapas Web Comics

^The opening of the Ice Cream Truck Of Doom storyline has a strong hook that works early on. At the beginning the comic opens up like a romance story, with a couple professing their love for each other.

An Ice Cream Vendor notices them and decides to offer them Ice Cream. The rest of the scene is the Gurford happy that the love of his life feels the same way about him that he does about her. Then Suddenly the Ice Cream Vendor shows up and reveals a monster that then eats them.

The scene is abridged here admitedly this isn't the full chapter lol.

There's even a bit of dark humour before the Climax of the scene happens. Here Malcolm has achieved the peak of his happiness and is expecting to live a long and happy life with his girlfriend Sasha. Only for it to turn out to not be the case.

It's a fairly traditional horror movie opening but it catches people off guard particularly online where Romance is the main genre of comics. That and my art style has kind of a 'cute' sort of vibe going on for it. So nobody expects it when the couple actually get eaten by the monster lol.

I hope this helps ^^

[JoshRaed]

Is your story character driven? If it is, then Nobody being well aware of the conflict and not doing anything about it doesn’t make that much sense for his character. In your most recent draft that I've read, there is a conflict with the witches at the end and when Heiroe is in a tough spot, Nobody is willing to throw himself into battle to help him, despite it being a fight with the people that he escaped from.

It was mainly because I took your advice that he would be more interesting if he acted in a way that showed he cared even though he claimed not to.

Also there is a lot of distance and a lot of people looking to kidnap/kill him in between where he is and the actual destination he has to get to.

[Lensing]

My tactic is to write it in a way that makes me excited to write and draw it.
I used to make long introductions to finally come to the interesting parts and
now I think that´s a mistake. If it´s not exciting for me how can I exspect anyone
else to find it interesting. And I´m also trying to write / draw things that are
easy to understand and don´t need long explainations.

I learned to be better at this by writing 12 panel comic scripts. Trying to
compile an eisode into 12 panels and then think what you really need for
the story

[IndigoShirtProd]

It was mainly because I took your advice that he would be more interesting if he acted in a way that showed he cared even though he claimed not to.

Sure, but then after giving the story more thought, I gave further advice that I thought would make more sense storywise. If it contradicted what I said previously, then I'm sorry for the confusion.

Also there is a lot of distance and a lot of people looking to kidnap/kill him in between where he is and the actual destination he has to get to.

But doesn't negate my advice. Even if there are more people looking to kill him, the people he's escaping from are the people he goes out of his way to fight them. Which is inconsistent.