How do you guys plan out your stories?

[Kaydreamer]

I'm making a comic so a good deal of planning is necessary - I can't go back and change things very easily. That would be the case even if it weren't a webcomic. Releasing parts of it while other parts are still being made only makes that worse! So yes, I'd recommend some degree of planning.

That said, you don't need to write the WHOLE thing. I have the script written for most of the opening act. There are still some gaps, but I have a good idea what I'm going to fill them with. There's enough content here for the whole first year of Blue Star Rebellion, at my current rate, so I don't have to worry much about running out of script.

Beyond the first act, I know the overall plot beats of the first major mission. I have little scenarios and bits of script written down. They're still puzzle pieces, not yet a unified whole, but I know what the picture looks like.

After that mission, there's another two which are way more hazy, beyond a general 'x happens, and they have to go do y'. Those stories are ages away, though, and all I need to know is the general shape of them in order to start building themes and foreshadowing toward them.

So, plot-wise, I've got some planning, but not everything. As for the characters and worldbuilding though, they're absolutely planned out. I've been working on them in some way, shape or form for a decade. I wouldn't start writing a character without having any idea what they were like unless it was a first draft and I knew my decisions weren't set in stone. If you're writing a story and releasing it to the public as you go, know your characters well before you start to share. They will still surprise you as you write - they always do - but if you know them well, hopefully you won't have to go back and re-write major chunks of the story in order to keep their behaviour and values consistent! Same with the worldbuilding.

[Wocalich]

Hey! I found this site which I think might help:

Home Page

It has a free membership option and I find it enough to help me figure out where I want to go with my story. I hope it helps you too

[Cyena]

Thanks! I'll check it out!

[Wocalich]

No problem! I hope it helps

[surenlicious]

I love to wing it with a general idea. What I usually do is write down additional ideas to my existing lore and put it down in a notebook specifically made for my novel.

My webcomic series of tiny comics is actually how I keep track of the'visual' parts of my plot, because I am hella lazy to make a good ref sheet or...anything that may help me remember just what I just plan on doing for which character.

So far it works though!

[Puck]

I´m a beginner in writing too
I don´t have a clue what I´m doing and I´m thankful for every advice.
I always develope the character first, but then his character had to change to fit to the story because
the story was pretty good and I also filled 48 pages of a comic plan with it but when I wanted to start
drawing it I realized that I disliked his new character and it felt like this is the most boring main character
ever and so I didn´t draw it. But that´s something I don´t like about other stories/comics too, the main
character of most stories is not very appealing to me and many stories need the boring good protagonist

[domisotto]

many stories need the boring good protagonist

I think it's a lack of planning, because a 'good' character imo is only boring when they are presented with an easy way out of each challenge they encounter or the challenges are too familiar. A rando evil guy is just as boring. A gray character who is 'just so, so gray' is also boring... Imo, it's the challenges measured to the character and their personality, their successes and failures and moral conflict that is tailored to make the character grip the soul that make them not boring.

[Puck]

I agree with you but I find many characters in my favourite movies boring too. I grew up watching Star Wars over and over
and it´s still one of my favourite movies but I didn´t find Luke interesting when I was a kid and I also don´t find Luke interesting
now. Walther White in Breaking Bad and Jesse Pinkman are two examples for interesting characters, what makes them interesting
to me is that are doing moralistic mistakes all the time. Mickey Mouse is the most boring disney character for me while I love
Donald Duck, but Mickey Mouse works for many kids. I want my character to be more like Donald & Walther White and less
than Luke and Mickey but it has to work with the story that I´m writing and I haven´t accomplished to combine that

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I really only plan out the world and lore aspect. Other than that, once I've created my sandbox, I just go and play in it.
I occasionally do character designs, but more often than not I come up with them in my head and wait until their first appearance in the comic to draw them.

So I'm a pantser for most of the story. I only plan when I feel like maybe an outline is necessary for fight scenes. Even then I'm likely to just drop or add stuff.

[domisotto]

Luke is a great example of a character who only has good choices without a price tag, or that price is not stipulated in the movie (I.e. Luke destroying plenty of slave workers when blowing up the Death Star under construction). Set a good character in the situation when they do not have a plot armour, like Jon and Brienne, and provide them with complex conflicts of loyalties and feelings, and there you go.

Star Wars supplies the most boring evil and gray characters as well, btw, take Anakin or Ren or Boba Fett... not exactly a pinnacle of character development. And as soon as they tried to put focus on Solo, to give him more than a few sassy lines... he turned out just like always with Star Wars. Disappointing & only notable by who he relates to in the original movie.

Just like Tolkien, Star Wars does not rely on depth of character and emotional conflict for its success.

Overall, while I understand the attraction of visual media, I think reading books and drawing on the written word is a great idea for a writer.

[myumyudapao]

My usual pattern I do (which is I'm not sure a practical way but anyway I tell mine)

I do comics though I always start with script,
I'll start first with the idea on what genre I'm focusing with,
then create a character that fits that idea , and other characters that fits the idea.. something like that..
then i'll write down how it will start, what will be the content of the mid part and decide what will be the ending
I always start with what will be the ending part ,then work on the content, I don't usually write the whole plot because I know I can't,
I have a sloppy way of writing a story so
then i'll start making the drafts and draw the scene,
I usually go with
write the first episode to fifth episode and then draw it..
and my story already has an ending part, what I'm doing is I'm filling up the content inside the story before I reach the ending part.

[Kendial]

For a few episodes I absolutely winged it with a vague idea of what I wanted in my head. It sort of worked but then friends told me they had whole seasons planned out so I took a day and made a plan for 50 chapters!

I now have very basic character profiles and a rough idea as to where things are heading and it's done wonders, even for the chapters I'm writing now. It defintely helps guide the bigger narrative.

But it's not too pinned down either as I love to throw myself curveballs in my writing and leave some things up to my imagination each eipsode so it doesn't get boring to create

[cherrystark]

I prefer Donald and Goofy over Mickey as characters too. Donald is the surrogate father of three rambunctious boys he is trying to support (Duck Tales). Goofy is a widowed single father who returns to school to get a better job for his son (Goofy movies). Mickey is simply there.

[Bokyongyo]

Haha like this question,

So for my comic Rewrite I had the idea for it for quite awhile and first prior to anything I wanted to get the world down pact so that's what I did. Wrote up some of the worlds and other events as well as completely outline some character bios. This also included world histories, and other things all this before actually putting a single word of dialogue in the script.

Which is why I realized while world building in of itself is fun it can actually be a detriment in creating a comic because as it continues to get bigger and bigger you feel that your idea is too big to actually put into actual fruition.

When I realized that I kind of scrapped the idea of looking to all that world building and start with simple short comics and also just short stories in general that are part of the original world I was planning for.

So currently I have completely outlined this one shot story from beginning to end thats currently ongoing and it feels great to finally have a end goal for it, keeps me motivated so I think just having a ending that you feel is reachable in the near future is a solid start

[rajillustration]

I start with daydreaming it, then I draw it usually. I have a pretty good memory for what I daydream and draw, so I'll just kinda make concept art and character art, until I get to a place where I feel like I want to start writing. I usually don't know exactly what will happen, but I have a broad idea. Then I just...go for it. When I see a need to research, I'll start researching. When I feel a need to write, then I'll write, a little bit at a time until it's done. I try not to rewrite at that stage since like...I can't really know what to rewrite until it's done, youknow?

then I rewrite...a lot. Once I'm happy with my rewrites, then it's usually ready to post or make into a comic, But, I don't like to post until I know that I've finished that writing part becuase that writing process does take...the amount of time it takes.

[Puck]

I think people can see themselves in those characters and that´s what makes them connect with and like those characters.
I´m not an expert for superhero comics, but I always found Superman the most boring one, Spiderman is more interesting
and so is Deadpool

[justasicanbesocruel]

When I first start out, there is usually 'the scene' that really sparks my interest in the idea. It's a scene I write out and expand on and then from there, I write other scenes which I feel like might have caused that scene to happen or scenes that would have resulted because of it. Once I really get a good idea of the story and the characters I usually add more scenes in no particular order until I can start sorting through them, put them in order, and a plot starts to take place.

And then it's time for a rewrite, lol.

Once I actually know the story (usually after about at least twenty pages of random scenes) I'll sit down and write down an outline. Though the story might change more, I usually stick to the outline so I know what I'm working towards. Probably about half of the time I stick to the endings.

And then it's time for another rewrite until it feels right. Once everything feels right, I stop having to tweak things.

[iHateFridays]

First of all I get the idea, and then I picture some scenes, as well as some characters. XD Then I usually write a plot synopsis coming up with more ideas along the way. And then I adapt that into a written story/script

[Azifri]

I like to have multiple storylines that converge and diverge as the story goes on, so my summary of the core events usually looks like this:

But besides the main events that I definitely want to happen (because they are the main point of the story), the rest is flexible and open to change.

Maybe if I did this for money or in collaboration with someone else I'd make a hard script, but for a project I do for fun, I prefer to keep things flexible or I'd get bored and likely abandon the comic.

[Lady_T_Musings]

I create characters that I really like drawing first. Most of my story ideas start in my sketchbook unless they were from a dream... I then think about scenes I want to see them doing (how many depends on how much I'm feeling their chemistry) and then I make an outline using the key scenes I want to see happen and build around them making sure to find an order for them and ways to connect them while leaving some room for growth.