How hard do you think while deciding what happens next in your comic?

[Rhonder]

Hmm for me when I sit down to think of a story, or new material within an existing story, I usually can plot out the broad strokes pretty effortlessly/intuitively. Like the bullet point portion of an outline with the major events in order.

But fleshing out and connecting those bullet points always requires a large amount of focused, concious effort. Like when I'm in a writing phase I'll try to use some of my idle brain time to mull over the story in my head, and i can resolve some things that way, but it would take forever to finish. I get a lot more done when i park myself in front of my computer and am like "time to write!"

[Moxxi]

I write my next page based on how much I can advance the plot while also giving my characters breathing room with which to display their personalities. It's tricky when I just wanna do everything at once!

[aqua03]

Oof, I have the problem with DRGN. Advancing the plot in a reasonable amount of pages, coming up with a creative monster of the week fight for the group, and character development and interaction are All difficult things to balance. I recently decided to kind of fade the monster fights in the background and probably save it for the webnovel I'm making for it as well.

[Shanny8]

I dont really put a lot of thought into my comic on a broader scheme- I pretty much now know where my comic is going, where as when I first started a couple of chapters ago, I didnt have much of an idea. I think about the next step as I work on current material and try to figure out what feels right and what I need to toss out idea-wise.

[morcalivan]

I am more writer than artist, so I wrote the barebones story completely and then adapted it for comic. Granted, I am changing things here and there (even introducing an unexpected new character) as I go, but I still know what the main plot points will be.

[SilentHamster102]

I'm thinking hard. But it's not like "brainstorm" when I'm sit and saying something like "now I'll spend half-hour thinking about my story", it's unintended process that can start anytime when some idea pops out in my mind.

[jarklor7]

it depends on how big the comic is. You don't want to put a whole lot of effort into creating a comic only to realize you accidentally created a plot hole. I think the process is different for everyone. But as long as you are working to make something that is all that truly matters. I wouldn't worry too much on how you "should" make a comic, but rather find a way that works best for you.

[jarklor7]

Hey where are you on discord? You've disappeared. But yea, I'm the same because I'm good at thinking of the bigger picture of the story and that it takes me more time to mull over the details.

[skicoak]

I'm a hybrid I guess.

When I'm collaborating, I will put more forethought into pre-production stages. But when it's just me... it's more improvisational, like visual jazz that dances from panel to panel.

Also... and I don't know if this applies to everyone, but when I'm lettering, I always realize spending hours crafting the perfect paragraph is silly when I have to cut 15 additional words to get the word balloon small enough to fit between the police commissioner's head and the top right border.

[punkarsenic]

plotting almost feels like maths to me - maths with emotion. theres a lot of shuffling things around and thinking about dynamic and pacing and structure and set-up and all that tasty shit. so i spose i think pretty hard? formulating the first draft is a strain - though the redrafting is pretty breezy.

and then turning that plot plan into comic pages... also a mental strain.

so i spose i think pretty hard? but all the best moments and stories fall out of me like vomit

[punkarsenic]

Also... and I don't know if this applies to everyone, but when I'm lettering, I always realize spending hours crafting the perfect paragraph is silly when I have to cut 15 additional words to get the word balloon small enough to fit between the police commissioner's head and the top right border.

yeah! one of the weirdest things in transitioning from prose to comics is realising that dialogue has to exist within a visual space, and ive come to leave most of my dialogue pretty fast and loose until lettering day. though it still hurts my soul to have to diddle with a great line to fit the space.

[skicoak]

...though it still hurts my soul to have to diddle with a great line to fit the space.

I think that's a difference in visual approach. It's something that pops up in my debates with collaborators ...if it's a great line, give it a whole panel to itself. Let it have the spotlight.

Writer's burying great lines inside a bulky paragraph ... in a visual medium ... is just madness to me.

[OliviaMerteli]

For me, it's more about thinking about it constantly than deeply. Toilet breaks, showers, that moments I lie in bed before sleepling... all this moments will be used (consciously or not). And sometimes, it can be draining because I feel I just can't have a rest. But often, I'm glad I don't have to sit down and rake my brain because the few time I had to do that, I hated it and found the result kinda forced.

[Fox_Den7]

I planned this comic so hard in my mind I actually have several books full of the plot and how it'll thicken and widen. Even went so far as to draw the entire thing traditional in a book then in digital just to make sure it looks good and makes sense. But in the general sense? I think pretty dang hard.

[mrtoontastic]

I use the power of my four hyper-intelligent brains to come up with what happens next!

[indagold]

I basically just write up a barebones story of a few paragraphs and then keep coming back adding stuff when a new idea comes to me. I spent a good 3 years just coming and going back while working on a story because I either added stuff or deleted stuff to make it consistent. I found just sitting there and trying to brainstorm for hours wasn't gonna work.

[ble]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[LittleMissDevil]

I have my story planned ahead and I also experience this "ideas popping into my head" thing, but I mostly tend to think long and hard about which scene to put where. The decision process can sometimes slow me down quite a bit, but just not thinking about it, is not really an option I think about it constantly. About things like pacing, order of the scenes, dialogue and how to implement certain plot points naturally and of course how to do the layout (and throwing it overboard completely once I actually need to draw it, lol).

My comic also has some complicated political themes (coughterrorism*cough*), so I agonize a lot over how I portray these things. Do these characters come off as too sympathetic? Are there biases I put into my work, that could be harmful considering the content of my comic? Am I misusing the backdrop of my world badly or is it to heavy handed (I'd say this is a definite yes, haha)? Things like that. This sort of thinking is rarely productive, as I won't come to a conclusion myself. I need the help from readers to actually see if my story comes across the way I hope to. But I can't help myself, I think about this a lot, even though I should probably just use my time more constructively and actually work on the story itself ^^

[aqua03]

I actually kind of do a mix of both. Thinking the story out visiually in my head like a TV show and also planning or general scripting it later as well.

[simplykit]

i think really hard on it

cause i want the readers to like my ideas for the next episode

i think how it affects the story

how the readers will react

and how i should cut off the scenes that might get me flagged