I have a question for artists, how long do you make your episodes? Share your experience.
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Dec '20last reply
Dec '20- 14
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For my current comic I try to reach upwards of 20 panels (the webtoons maximum) but I will end an episode early if the pacing needs it, or if I can't get up to that number in time. For my comic, my chapters span multiple tapas episode submissions, and currently chapter 1 isn't done yet (going reach the halfway mark in the next two updates though.)
I've gotten up to about 6 episodes of chapter 1, discounting the prologue, and I'm currently working on the 7th update. The more recent updates haven't fully hit the 20 panel mark, they stop just sort of one or two panels away from it, mostly for the reasons in the paragraph above.
For a colored Webtoon, 1 page of episode for me has a minimum of 5 panels and maximum of 8 panels each page --- and 1 page takes 3 days as the fastest and 5 days at most.
An episode of my webtoon have a minimum of 15 panels to around 30 panels at most.
So for 1 episode, it usually takes around 6-15 days at most depending on how many panels there is for that episode.
Before I can create 2 to 3 episodes per week with less details. But now, I make adjustments on my comic like I made my backgrounds better and I put little details like shadows and hair hilites. I can make 2 episodes a week. But, I am making story animations currently for youtube. So, Right now, one episode a week is good enough for me since I have buffer episodes good for 1 month. 
I make 1 episode per month, it consists of 20-30 pages approximately that have about 40-50 panels depending of size and content. I only draw on weekends and sometimes evenings after work. I try to make each episode a concluded part so that readers don't get hanging for a month in the middle of some action and lose the flow while all the episodes add to the bigger story bit by bit. My top speed is 10 panels in day ( weekend) but I also need few days to lay out the whole episode and plan speech bubbles ( I start with those) , so I can't really say the episode will be made in 4-5 days if I have no job.
For my first comic (that is already on Tapas and Webtoons) I was using page format and did the "page a week" thing with my uploads, so each episode would be between like 4-8 episodes averaging on 5-6.
The current (unpublished) project that I'm working on is a vertical scroll comic and I've had the episodes average at around 15-30 panels each so far. Sometimes they start to exceed that amount so I find an earlier stopping point and add the excess panels to the following episode, or make a "part 2" or whatever works best in context. For example my 4th and 5th episodes were originally 1 single episode that was like 40 panels long, so I split it in half. I don't want to commit to doing episodes much longer than 20-25 otherwise they'll take too long to finish xD These already take like a month each...
Average of 14 panels per episode (released weekly). I am considering releasing biweekly with ~30 panels per episode on our next project. It's a tough call.
1,5-2 months or even longer. My chapters consist of 40 pages, so it's a long process to complete one chapter.
My episodes range from 20 to over 40 panels each week. I'm mostly focused on breaking at a good stopping point than how many panels I hit. But that lower panel episode bought me extra buffer time!
I used to post a lot of pages at a time (sometimes 5 or 7 pages in one update) but since then I had to take a hiatus because of a small burn out and since then I've kept a massive backlog and I post 1-2 pages pr week.
My pages are about 5-6 panels.
I upload on a per page basis so my 1 chapter and 1 episode are very different lol.
I typically take 3 days of out of work hours or half a day of time off to create 1 page (normally 4-6 panels)
Meanwhile I've been working on my current chapter for about 2 months and I'm still not finished yet 
Started taking a month for one chapter, but after feeling I didn't fleshed out most of the stuff I wanted to, I made more pages and released the chapters in two parts, one part each month for a total of two months per chapter.
To put some context, my chapters started being 32 pages long, and last one was 65 pages long, but with bigger panels
I think episode length often depends on two factors: how frequently do you want to update vs how are your storybeats structured.
Using my own comic as an example: I post on a page-by-page(6-10 panels) basis to tapas, because I decided that I wanted to shoot for weekly updates, and on average I am able to produce pages at a rate slightly higher than my update schedule.
On Webtoon, however I post less frequently, an average of four pages per post(after they have been uploaded to tapas) that would be something around 30-40 panels per update depending. I break pages into contained story beats and try to keep relevant actions together. I could have posted on a chapterly basis since I had decided to shoot for bigger chunks for webtoon, but again, i decided to factor update frequency into my decision.
If breaking updates via storybeats is your jam though,(and you'll excuse the tangent) you might consider drawing updates with that first in mind(i chose to structure my story as though for traditional print comics). Creators well practiced in digital webtoon style comics will often take advantage of the episode format in the same way a novelist might treat chapters. There is room between episodes to allow for time between scenes(change in location, day/night changes, time skip), and provides a fluid way to move between scenes that may not mesh organically otherwise.
Of course there is no requirement to think about these things, its not even something I get the opportunity to think about when writing often because I have chosen to format my story in a way that does not rely on this easily. Its mostly something interesting to think about playing with.
Chapter length is something I am very concerned about, as far as pacing. I'm curious to know as well.
A chapter for my comic is typically 15 pages, with on average 5 panels per page. But I worry if I put up all 75 panels at once, it would be too much to read in a sitting.
Would it be useful to break up the chapter in half?