How much do you plan ahead for your story?

[GrimRose]

Do you plan every single detail, every line said by your chars even their clothes, habits, etc.

Or do you go with the flow. Come up with a loose plot and chars and take the story from there and come up with story on the fly?

My plan is to roughly plan out about 50% of the story with the other 50% being loose bare bone ideas to give me some wiggle room Juuuust in case i decide to take the story in another direction.

If it is broken up i would say that there are 3 parts to the story
I would have part 1 planned out exactly to have a strong start along with about half of part 2. And then i could take short break between parts to work on future story. Since the story is prettty long, this is what i was originally planning to do.

Any suggestions?

[sarrowsmith10]

Here is a really good thread on the topic:

Hi all! I've already looked through quite a handful of posts related to this subject, but since I'm brand spanking new to this community I figured it couldn't hurt to ask some of my own questions for a change. (And to say Hi!) Now that I've gotten to a point where I'm (mildly) comfortable with my art and tools, I'm starting to head down the road of actually telling the story I've been wanting to tell. How did y'all prepare for it, story wise? How detailed do you plan ahead of time when it come…

and another one that had good comments:

I'm hoping to start my first comic, for fun mostly and to have something on the side that I'm not being told what to draw or how(too much). Would you guys recommend that I just start drawing it out or should I have some stuff planned out?? I've seen some suggested ways of structuring a story, but they kinda stress me out at the thought of it. Would it be fine to have no real "plan"?? Thanks in advance! :3

[Iris-Grimoire]

I throw everything that comes to mind in a text file, then I sift through it later. Does this scene work? This note file is only for me to read, I can talk to this with a friend or simply come back in a few hours and see if I like it. Does this lore hold up? Ctrl+f the notes, see if I didn't write about it already. When it had enough, then I went into character design, script, then the comic itself.

[Rhonder]

My preference is to plan the whole plot out up front, as I struggle to plan foreshadowing on the fly, and also aren't very good at gauging pacing without having it all kind of laid out in front of me to edit around

Granted, I change/make up dialogue on the fly all the time: While my storyboards will usually have dialogue set in, it's usually just a placeholder and is 100% subject to change when I actually get to those pages.

Also I'm content with making up details about what extra details a location might have, or background character designs, or etc. as I go.

[Wumbl]

I like to have most of the plot sorted out before I start writing, but when it comes to actual scenes, I only write key scenes in advance. Plenty of fights, conversations etc. are completely written on the fly without any planning just to make them feel more organic.

I'll chart out the beats of the story, and I'll make sure a large chunk of my script is fully written before I start drawing. As a general rule, you should have a rough idea for how and when your story ends, before you start making it public. In my experience not knowing how it will end only kills the project early when you inevitably write yourself into a corner.

[nostalgicroxas]

I world build and get basics for characters done. This guy's the son of this guy, who's the husband of this gal, and best friend to this dude, and this other guy is the son of this guy, who is friends of these two, but the son doesn't like him, and blah blah blah. Then I pull in what could be a central bit besides family/people dynamics - magic, parallel worlds, magical items? All? A little? None? And then an idea for the start of the story happens which is like a "core" idea and then I can start work on the story - actual writing. Sometimes it goes nowhere, and sometimes it makes pretty good ground. Sometimes it goes well until I hit a wall on how to keep it interesting, and then I just drop it and move on to step1 all over again.
When actually writing or working on a story, I use my down time to think of the next scene and scene after that based on what I wrote last. ie: Crow had to go back to his house cause it's the end of the day, and Will let him go, and when Crow got back home he found a friend and blood. Like that's interesting- do I follow Crow or Will and which is more important, or which boy is shouting louder DON'T JUST LEAVE ME HANGING I HAVE BLOOD AROUND MEEEE. Something like that.

[PaulieBlade]

The story I'm currently doing has a definite ending that I've had in mind since the very beginning. The most important points that would lead there were also set in stone pretty much since the beginning. The blanks are being filled whenever I feel like it. For instance now I'm finishing chapter 3 and regarding chapter 4 I know very roughly how it is going to play out: I know of 2-3 major events that need to take place there, but regarding the minor stuff and most of the dialogue I'm allowing myself to wing it. A bit of an improv, an organic process of creating a page is what makes it exciting to me - otherwise creating the page would be very "mechanical" and probably dull.

[Maps]

I basically had three main points to my story: Start, Middle, Ending. So I knew how I wanted to begin, I knew where things would end up for a while in the middle, and I know how I want to end it. Other than that I’d say about 80% of my story is on the fly. Sometimes I just have to sit down and start typing a chapter for new ideas to arise. I also have been able to make connections in the story by re reading my past chapters.

[lorphis]

I have general plot and character design/personality. I'm not good with sticking to plans so even if I wrote a script for my story I won't use it for long since I most likely would think new interesting way the story could go, but I won't divert from the main plot point.

[icarusmask]

I have a weird solid beginning, solid(ish) ending. Then wander around to get from point A to point B.
Would not suggest.

[mariusthered]

my current running comic is written in full 21 chapters and will take about two years to complete

[Toxic_Vloth]

I make my stories long & I try to keep them entertaining. Must of my stories take about a year or 2 to fully complete. If I don't like how something turns out, I fully remove it & redo it. That also takes a bit of time. It takes longer for me if it's a comic but, throught & through, it's very fun.

[WriterLinXiaolong]

Before, I just write as I go. But about two years ago, I decided to try plotting since I know I need a lot of research for one of my series. So I thought up of their introduction, meeting, major event (1, 2, 3, 4...), conclusion, then finally ending it.

[BlueWorldComics]

I made a similar topic, basically I have to start the story ASAP. I do as much planning as necessary before letting the story take me where it wants to go... After that, I do some solid planning.

For The Skyman, I'd say at least 50% of it, including the origin story, was completely off the dome. But the climactic ending of Year One was prepared as far back as the planning stages.

[Humbug]

The great thing about writing a short form comedy with no real over arching plot, I just note down good ideas that come to mind. I have notes for over 50 strips now. But just because I don't have an actual plot doesn't mean I don't have twists and backstories planned.

[ble]

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[Shanny8]

I plan enough that I know where the story is head, but still leave it loose to add in stuff if I need to. I dont have every minute detail planned out- I create as I script out the chapter, but leave the next chapter loose enough to do the same thing when I write that one. I currently have up to at least 10 chapters loosely plotted(working on Ch 3 right now), and still have far more loose plot material out there to possibly reach 20 chapters.

[TheNiceZombie]

Yeah, I do the same thing!
Although most of my story is dialog-driven so the images go hand in hand with the text.

I always have a massive buffer too so I can set up jokes ahead of time or have time to do cool side project without
going into hiatus : >

As for planing. I have the beginning done, the ending planned and a bunch of story-beats in between and I improvise the way between them. Most if not all the humor comes spontaneously as I work so without a buffer I would just be left with a ton of lost opportunities.

[azzy-m]

I have a general outline, meaning I have the major events planned + the ending during brainstorming, and specific events like character development and romance is something that gets added when I start making an outline.

[ZatchZ]

By chapters, arcs, and entirety; in that order.
It depends on your story. If it's episodic, then you can probably plan ahead by two issues.
If it's a story based project, then you'd need to figure out the arc, the themes, the plot, etc. Otherwise the story will meander without a proper end.
You can probably do a loose plot that might have an end. If that's the case, then you'd need to figure out the arcs and the chapters, each chapter affecting the previous to escalate the plot and build on top of each other.