How far do you plan ahead for your series?

[irene_addler]

I do this! Not necessarily with comics, as I've only ever worked on one and it's been less than 6 months, but with my writing, I've been working on basically different variations of stories with similar plot points for probably 10 years now

[spadesart]

spire has an ending, and i have up to the end of season 1 fully plotted out, and about 1/4 of season 2.

book 1 of sundown is finished in rough draft form, and i knew the ending of that before i started, but ended up filling in a lot of planned stuff as i was writing. book 2 of sundown is still in the planning stages, i have a couple ideas for the endgame that im trying to work out and want to leave it open for a possible spinoff that takes place much later on the timeline.

i usually have up to the middle planned before i start actually deciding that its a project i want to work on, and kinda figure out the ending a little after i start it. probably not the best thing but it seems to be going well so far.

[nostalgicroxas]

Novelist here.
Once when I planned, the story happened so fast that developing character was ignored hahahahaha
I do plan things, or rather keep track of the questions I've raised. Is Crow's mommy alive? Where is Will's heart? Is the pearl really inside Crow's daddy - and does he have to die to release it? How OP is Rhys? Things like that. I'll consider the story done when the important ones are answered - Rhys being OP is not one of the important ones fyi haha I think it'd be more interesting to close on the note of Rhys is King so he has awesome negotiating powers - c'mon the guy became king before he was 16.

I honestly hate planning an ending. If I ended my story one way or another, it'd be different threads of emotions. Like ending the story at an early ending arc point would just result in the reader questioning things about the world, the gods, and Will's motives. I'm writing the story more for myself than readers, so I like to be surprised too.

That said, I do plan out a scene or so in advanced. Like Mateas is bloody and injured, so gotta get him into care or let him bleed to death, which is Will more likely to let happen since he considers the guy a friend? Well certainly not abandoning him and leaving him to bleed to death. Which results in "how to get moron numero uno to worried moron where there's doctors..."

[qwerty]

I write and storyboard the whole thing before starting to draw (given, I only make one-shots so far).

If I did a long-form comic, I'd definitely have at least a rough outline with all the major plot points and the ending worked out before starting. Just the idea of starting a story without knowing how it will end (or how long it will take to finish) is intimidating to me ^^;

[WriterLinXiaolong]

I usually divide my story into segments or arcs. So before I start writing/publishing them, I have the whole rough drafts done. Yes, it's novel but I think it's still related to the questions

As for comic, I would try to avoid it until I have finished at least 70% of the story. I mean, yes... I've never even published one or even have the skill to publish one but really, the thought of making the story into a comic never crossed my mind until I know the story would be ending soon.

Recently, I found an artist that would offer me collab and I have just learned scriptwriting for future use. Though they say they won't be able to start until after August, I thought I'll get an early start on the script. I've tried writing the script without reference first because I remember my story from A-Z, and found it alright, but it was much easier when I referenced my own already written chapter.

In short... for a novel, I plan one arc before I start writing and publishing them, and for comic, won't start until the story is 70% done.

[tchotchkeco]

For my comic, I have basic outline written all the way. However the actual script is written at least 5 months or so ahead of the actual story since the story is very plot heavy and requires a lot of foreshadowing and planning so it all makes sense at the end of the day. Small events and dialog are the only things that are improved.

For my novel, it's all done. I just slowly do updates twice a week since it's all ready to go.

[Lucca_Vendramel]

I wrote my whole story in summaries for each chapter, and I write the details in the actual scripts. But I always have the summaries for a type of "scaffolding"

[indagold]

Planned out my story for about 2-3 years, started working on it once I decided it was finished. I have all the pages designed out until the end which will be around spring of next year. I think I was just frustrated in the past of being disorganized and my stories going no where so changed my game.

[nostalgicroxas]

I did this. It's why the story ended. I had to kill my favorite character (not the MC) and I just nope'd the F out of the story. I still have the chapter summaries somewhere in my files.

[Lucca_Vendramel]

Sometimes a character dying is necessary for the story to end. It can help the MC to become stronger or evolve, and that's always nice to play around with.

[liamnaughton7]

I've a very, very loose outline for the first story and I just storyboard the next chapter while I'm drawing the current one but I'm not meticulous. Like to give wiggle room for stuff to change.

I've got an outline of whole thing somewhere too but again, very loose.

[Darth_Biomech]

I didn't had much planned ahead, and it eventually bite me in the ass, when I unexpectedly caught up with the end of written script and was forced to pause the comic because I have no stuff to draw left. Currently I'm doing outlines for the whole story up till the end of volume one (Or ark one... I'm hazy to what's the difference yet), to never get in such situation for at least another year or two.

[Shanny8]

I'm currently working on Ch 3(the comic), I have Ch 4 loosely plotted right now, and have hints of plots for at least 4 more chapters after that(Ch 6 is more plotted than 5, 7, or 8). I'll start on the script for Ch 4 once I'm close to finishing Ch 3 and will most likely finish it during the break that I take between chapters.

[TeddyLemon]

Ahh, I envy you hardworking people who plan out the story by detail from beginning to end before starting out ><;
I've tried it out but my mind has a complexity of its own. Like I know what's going to happen, I write in the storyline, the arrangements and such but the final output somehow always strays off from what I've written. But it's still in the track that I wanted it to be. So I guess I'm the kind of author that goes with the flow. I let the characters and the setting take in charge 0_0;; but I try to control it because it sometimes leads to unnecessary things thats irrelevant to the plot.

On a serious note though, I do have a rough plan in mind like the idea of the arc but not being sure of how it would play out. When I go into the details I swim straight into my working chapter and while doing it, I try to plan ahead of what the next chapter would be like.

[TheNiceZombie]

So what I do is I have the beginning and a couple of endings planned out, that way should I decide to quit I can do so with a bit of finesse. Then "since my genre is slice of life" I plan out what each chapter is going to be about. What the major plot points are.
And finally I storyboard as much in advance as possible. Depending on the scene I'll go in depth on the storyboard or I'll keep it vague so that when I actually drawing the pages I have leeway to improvise ~

I also stay ahead of my readers by two months. This gives me enough room to setup punchlines for jokes that I come up with along the way and giving the illusion that they where all planned out.

One time I even drew an entirely new page, just because someone made a great comment and I wanted what they said in the comic : >

[TheNiceZombie]

OH an interconnected story! I like the sound of that ~
I'm gonna check your stuff out : >

[Beatrush]

I have 3 Arcs planned out for my story. Each Arc I have planned out all the minor/major events, characters, themes and conclusions already. I have also planned alternate endings for each Arc if we decide to cut the series short.

Scripts I try to be at least one chapter ahead of the previous one. Also usually try to have 3 weeks worth of buffer if possible.

[Jevlin]

I don't do long comics for now, so I pay for the writer to write the story all the way to the end. After that, first I storyboard, then thumbnail the whole thing before starting to work on the actual pages. Though, it depends on the writer, too. My current one makes very detailed scripts with informations about the camera angles and what each characters are doing, so in this case, I don't do storyboard but thumbnails only.

So, all in all, I'd like to have the whole story fleshed out if possible and if it's my story. In a collaboration or partnership where both partners are equal, I just trust in my writer's directions and workflow.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I script until I can't script anymore. All the way to the end, if possible (although, so far, only one of my scripts has actually reached completion ^^; ). So I think it's fair to say that most of my comics are planned years in advance, possibly decades.

As for visuals...not so much. Sometimes I don't even do character designs until the character is IN the comic. And sometimes my plan for what the page will look like changes as it's being drafted. Often, it comes down to how lazy I am that day: if I can't be bothered to figure out the weird 3-quarter worm's eye view shot that I thought I might draw, I just throw it out and work around it. I do what I want.

[Coati]

My script is finished, but sometimes I change a thing or two. I just need to make the pages and this took a looong time. If nothing big happens, my plan is to finish the comic in 1 and half year.