How do you avoid getting overwhelmed from your projects?

[aqua03]

So I've finally started to pull the trigger and work on Drachenseele proper as a comic beyond the worldbuilding and preproduction I have been doing. (I feel I have enough of the broad details to have a solid enough foundation to figure out the finer details as I work on proper it.) Mostly now just kinda focusing on writing the character bios/arcs and main story outline before finally writing and drawing the thing proper.

Just one problem, I realized that I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with the character writing Bios as well I feel. I feel I need to get everything in the character bios and arcs down pat as well to make sure they are the best they can be. Kinda sorta that perfectionism and need to have most everything fully formed from the first go that is the mindset I'm exactly trying to fight by just pulling the trigger with what I have ready and working out the finer points as I write and draw. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of character bios/arcs to write before I plan (7 main protagonists, their six dragon partners, their 2 or 3 main allies, and then the 5 or six villains, then the main story outline and then start writing the script as a whole for the story chapters.)

How do you guys not get overwhelmed with your work and do you think that it would be okay to have regarding the character bios and arcs? How fleshed out does the story outline and character arcs have to before you start work you feel? What do you guys think? How much work should I do before i pull the trigger? how do I make sure i don't get overwhelmed and breakdown again? how do you stay happy with all your ideas enough to stick with them for the whole series even if you tweak other things as you go forward? how do you stay consistent when doing that?

thank you, I need help to avoid burning out like i did last time. please help.

[cherrystark]

For my character bios, I start with a few key points, like hobbies, skills, maybe a key bit of description. I really don't spend too much time describing my characters physically because we're all going to imagine something different.

After that, I add more descriptions as the stories progress. One of my characters is a single dad. Career-wise, he was an assassin. So, naturally, he's good at all the fighty stuff that goes with that type of character. But, because he is also a single parent and a natural-born protector, he knows things about first aid, repair, even a bit of sewing. His character also enjoys cooking because he had to learn to take care of his kid. He is also smart and self-taught on a lot of subjects because his super-genius little girl would need someone to talk to about all of her amazing ideas. A lot of his character development didn't come until I started writing.

If there is another "key" trait from the bio that needs to be mentioned for the sake of the character, I mention it straight away. For example, tattoos. It's not uncommon for a person to have tattoos. For me, I don't see a point of mentioning the said tattoos unless they are important to the story like Aang's arrow tattoos.

[LCT_m_a_d]

A big mistake I constantly made when trying to work on comics was visualizing what I wanted the product or outcome to look like.

Instead of treating the development as a means to accomplish a goal, I recommend really embracing it as a creative challenge. Maybe more important than what you make.

I would dedicate more energy in figuring out a way to make the process interesting... not easier. Make sure you have a cool story of how you came up with the idea (even if no-one ever knows about it).

If the best part of making art is being done, why go through the trouble of making it to begin with?
People will see the "what", but they'll remember the "how" and talk about the "why"

[HGohwell]

Ok so I redacted some of this for spoilers but lemme just offer up how I do bios (also wow spelling mistakes):

Part of the reason I have such terrible bios is because I know the character really well. My actual deailed bios tend to be very basic, who old are they, who are their family, how tall are they (especially relative to other characters, height charts are a must). But really I don't need much else. Your character's arc should make sense with the rest of the plot. For instance, this particular story is about a murdered student that the Idiot MC accidentally stumbles onto. He has to stop being such an idiot and face things. Where are others have to get over their guilt because they didn't do anything. And I can tell you all of this without an actual outline. You can search all over the place and get things like 30days of character development questions, but they question is really, do you know your character.

For instance, you have a friend irl. Do you need a character bio sheet to tell you how they've changed over the years, or what their backstory is, or how they might react to certain things?

Try asking your character's interview (yes jobs interview) questions or writing short character focused pieces to really get to know your characters like this one (I wrote this 10 years ago, but it was the first one on hand don't judge me too hard. But I did finish the novel that I now cringe at but it's finished). They will give you more idea of character than your stuffy bio ever could.
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How much work should I do before i pull the trigger?

Honestly, no matter how many times you ask this and no matter how many different ways, the answer is still the same. When you're ready. It's an annoyingly vague answer, but it's about all you can really get because it's different for everyone.

how do you stay happy with all your ideas enough to stick with them for the whole series even if you tweak other things as you go forward? how do you stay consistent when doing that?

Webcomics and things that don't got out all at once are fluid. Pretty much everyone expects there to be changes. Don't try to stay consistent, go with it. Be the reed that bends in the wind rather than the oak that breaks. Louis wasn't supposed to have as big a role as he does in the 1st Rule, people liked him, he got his role expanded. Go with the flow, but keep moving down the same river (and don't mix your metaphorical advice).

[Rhonder]

Basically agree with HGohwell's above post, but generally:

Bios:

I've never personally been much of one to do very in-depth bios tbh. A lot of that information comes out naturally while developing the characters up front, and then after that point they're catalogued and I don't find it particularly helpful to write down their favorite foods or color or zodiac sign or wev, unless something is plot relevant. Basically:

For instance, you have a friend irl. Do you need a character bio sheet to tell you how they've changed over the years, or what their backstory is, or how they might react to certain things?

I think some of the approach can change with how many characters are present for a particular project too. Maybe a more in-depth, nitty gritty forum RP style bio works for a story about just a couple of characters, for example a drama or a romance where you're deep diving the protagonist, their closest friend(s), love interest, rival, and maybe a few additional characters.

In a series with... 7 + 6 + 3 +5, 21 prominent characters, you can probably get away with starting with their general characterization and crossing additional bridges as you get there.

Character Arcs:

Now these are important and deserving of some pre-planning, however again I don't think these need to be completely 100% work through and set in stone before starting, especially for a longer project. Of course that couldn't hurt (especially if you're planning to do a full draft before starting which is... a lot of work lol) but generally you can probably get away with defining the beginning, end, and a few key mid points. Connecting those dots can be done as you go and how they naturally fit into the plot. Something like:

A.) Character starts here
B.) failure
C.) realization
D.) development
E.) triumph & growth, end of arc.

There's almost certainly stuff between those points that connects the dots, but as long as you have a clear idea of where they start and end up, I don't think you have to go in-depth on each one... especially since the character arcs should be advancing alongside the main plot anyways.

This also goes back to character quantity- there are so many characters here that there probably won't be a whole lot of room for miscellaneous stuff if you want them all to have arcs and for the plot to not grind to a halt every chapter or two. These developments will need to be very tightly integrated into the plot I think to keep things moving forward, so I would develop the main plot and character arcs together, instead of trying to fully bake a bunch of char arcs only to find that you don't know how to weave them together later.

An example that stands out to me that I've been watching recently is the Digimon Adventure reboot that has been airing this year. This cast faces similar challenges by having 6 kids + 6 digimon partners that all have their own personalities and character arcs. The way that they achieve the needed character development across that many characters while still keeping the plot moving forward... is simply by keeping it really streamlined and hitting a major character development moment every episode right along whatever plot point is being covered that episode. There's not a whole lot of room for extraneous scenes or fluff because there's just so many characters to get through, but they manage it and it's a relatively enjoyable (if not formulaic) experience.

[joannekwan]

Character bios: As I'm the only person referencing this, I only include what I need for the story. (Of course, it's different if you were working with another person though.)

For example in my historical fantasy, I mostly just keep track of characters' ages and the year they were born. This is so I can keep track of their lifetime and how real historical events that I include in my story affect the characters. Like, was so-and-so born when motorcars were a common thing? Were they born in wartime?
For that story, I don't really write down their personalities because I already know how they are in my head. Whereas for a brand new project with characters I haven't thought on much, I might jot down notes like "he's like a frat boy" or "dependable, but is unused to great responsibility."

Don't feel like you have to come up with your characters' favorite foods if it's not story relevant. It will just bog you down from focusing on more important things like character arcs.
I once answered a long list of 50 'interview' questions for two of my characters. And you know what? I only ever went back to it a couple of times simply because readers asked when their birthdays were and I forgot what I wrote.

Character arcs, however, are an important thing to keep track of. I keep notes of where the character starts, where I want them to be at the end, and any crucial turning points between points A and B. Since they are integrally woven into the story's overall plot, it's best to have this as organized as possible.

But you don't need everything set in stone before you start. I like starting a document when inspiration strikes me. I may get an idea for a scene or dialogue out of the blue, and I will write it down lest I forget and regret it later.

I'm happy with ideas when I keep them simple! I had an idea about my mc finding about her heritage in the first book but with everything else that was going on, I thought it just crammed too much into the story. So I scratched that and went with a simple course of events.

One of the rules of thumb in the creative industry is Keep It Simple, Stupid (or KISS), and sometimes it's nice to remind myself of that.

[rajillustration]

Do you have an example of what you mean by a character bio and arc? I'm not sure since I kinda just pants writing scripts but then I super don't pants comic-ing. Maybe because I was trained in art but never trained to write.

I think it really depends on the person and the process that person has for making their comic. My preproduction stuff for comic making is mostly just me trying to make my life easier once I get to the comic phase-- so for me writing character bios are just not important at all. Like I'll draw a character a few times--but only a few times before I'm like "yeah I probably know it well enough now and I'll change the outfit eventually, it's fine." Also I don't really use my glossary for more than to remind myself "hey, this character will betray everyone" or "hey, this character is your han solo" or to keep track of invented terms and words.

A part of the reason why, is that I really don't get to know who my characters are until I start writing properly. And I try not to think of my character arcs before thinking of the plot--mostly because I want those arcs to happen pretty naturally. Characters will grow as you write and if they don't grow, then they probably didn't need to be there in the first place. But that's a sort of chicken before the egg situation--hard to tell sometimes if the arc happens before the plot or if the plot happened because of the arc.

So, I try to dive into writing a script fairly early--often not writing much in form of an outline, even--and from writing scenes, I can visualize what the pages will look like. I can get an idea of how long this will actually be. I can decide what parts need to be shorter and which need to be longer, and which need to get cut entirely. And I do that by just writing like 1200 words every day I can. That's it really. You do that nearly every day you'll have a book eventually.

I think the biggest thing about not burning out is managing your time so you have a bite-size thing every day and not overdo it all in one go. To acknowledge that making this script or bio or whatever it is that no one sees is as fulfilling as the final product. You don't have to post pages to feel good about your work. And don't get me wrong, I love posting pages, but I also really love this part where no one gets to see what I'm doing. It makes it a less overwhelming process because I can just vibe here in preproduction just kind of forever.

But I'm a special person that really likes planning, so I just...I write scripts for quite a while before I pull the trigger and draw. But as for writing, I pull the trigger immediately, since to me writing is the preproduction process, and I need to be doing that or I will not have any way of visualizing what the comic will look like.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I can't help much here, I don't have any character sheets like what you're describing. I almost always know what I want to do with a character.
I definitely don't pre plan character arcs. For me they evolve on their own. I just trust my storytelling instincts and go from there. Worked out so far.

Planning isn't fun for me, so I only do the bare minimum. And so far, people like my characters and their personalities so...I don't know if I need to change anything.

I write the outline for an arc and then let it evolve as I make the comic. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I really don't spend a lot of time on planning.

[DualDragons]

I'm a mix of planning and trial by error. Well, RotH has been mostly trial and error for me

I think what is less important is planning your characters and events and more important is to keep them consistent. If a character is introduced who constantly disobeys the rules for example, they may not care about coming late.

I most definitely plan out an arc and the events in it, but the interactions of the characters and how they deal with it is rather flexible and something I just fill in along the way (kind of doing a rp with my own characters really, I just throw stuff at them)

[aqua03]

That makes sense, and I get that everyone is different in that sort of thing as well. I guess I'm kinda half and half, like I need a solid enough roadmap to follow, especially with a more "serious" fantasy serial like Drachenseele (The thing that killed DRAGOONS was a lack of planning among other things), but still leave myself enough room to flex and be able to breath so to speak. (Kinda like how I organize to-do lists for the day, the more that I think of it.) I've realized that Drachenseele's a far different beats as a fantasy comic compared to a gag comic like EGT or a superhero one shot like Alpha Alpaca, but I also shouldn't completely overhaul how I work for it either, because that's just not me, either if that makes sense.

@DualDragons

That's a good way of thinking about things, actually. Might try to do something like that as I write. Also, I should definitely try harder to allow myself to make mistakes and be "trail and error" with Drachenseele so I can learn as I go in that regard, too. I gotta let go of my babies and let them grow and make mistakes more or less. It's fine to not be perfect, it's how we grow as artists.

[Legendofgenii]

Honest answer - I don't! I get overwhelmed all the time (and not just with my comic).

Mostly it's with the art side of things. I'm happy with my story, characters etc. I just get so frustrated with myself sometimes - especially if I can't put onto paper (photoshop) what I'm thinking. I also feel lost at times, but I'm still trying. I first started Genii back in 2007 (my prologue was done in 2010).

I chose to stop in 2014 to finish my degree, get a job, start my own business, get married, have a baby etc. But I did keep writing, and making notes and constantly thought about the story, characters & world etc. I got back into it during Lockdown (wake up call!) and I'm still at it 6 months later.

Coming to this forum really helps me. Everyone is really friendly and encouraging here.

[cookieroach]

I've also had trouble with planning too much and feeling that it's never good enough or "done". The one thing I've found that helps is to not try to plan too far ahead and take small steps at a time. If you think of everything that needs to get done, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Create small goals and celebrate each step that gets done.

Another tip related to getting projects done is to start practising with a small one, and finish it. Because actually finishing a project is a skill in and of itself. I had a really big project in mind for a long time, but kept procrastinating on it. But then I decided to do something smaller, and it was much easier to get started!

[scribesunlimited]

Character Sheet. you'll want this.

Allow us to share one of our favorite tools for writing about and describing characters. Your goal obviously is to visualize near-perfectly how your characters will look - but there's a lot more to do. So here’s a very useful character sheet that should enable you to really know your people inside and out. Name: Obvious. What's in a name? And you'd be surprised how hard it is to come up with. the name means something to you. Giving your character a name gives it life, and you can then create f…

By far, one of the best instructionals, we hope, in teaching people all about embracing, describing and giving life to characters.

At least we can help with that problem. Others have mentioned story outlines already and that's another big plus. Take a lot of notes too and keep them on hand. Writing a story in this method is no different than a building. Lay the foundation of the project, and build up/expand from there.

[JoshRaid]

I focus on one over the others most of the time.

[aqua03]

That sounds like a good idea setting smaller goals and steps for myself in that regard. I think I'll try to do that then going forward.

Also, I have actually completed multiple smaller projects as well before in that regard, too as well. So that's good as well. Thanks for the advice!

[Tanako]

Someone once told me they have multiple comics so when they get bored they switch. Me personally I think that's a "BAD IDEA". reason behind it is that, you may never finish. two projects may be okay but anything more than that is a death sentence. personally I just try to do other things like maybe draw illustrations, watch a movie or just save image reference from the internet. but I never try to overwhelm myself. lol