How much planning and time did you put into your comic/project?

GrimRose 2019-08-16 20:08:48 UTC #1

If you currently are already making a comic/story how much planning did you originally put into your comic? How much time did it take you to finally start publishing it?

If you are still in the process of planning it (where i am currently rn), how much time are you currently putting into your project each day and how much planning are you willing to put into it?

Do you have a good estimate of how long your project will take to complete? From start to finish...

I think it's kind of important to be honest/realistic with expectations so that nobody gets burnt out or put off by the amount of work that it will take to complete their project. That is where i am rn... How about you guys?

NRScott 2019-08-16 20:14:16 UTC #2

This is a concept I wanted to do for awhile. A male/male (BL) romance based on some beauty and the beast concepts. I was waiting for my other novel to be returned from my beta reader so I finally started playing with this concept. It's not one that I'm planning on attempting to self-published or try to get traditionally published but I still wanted to share it. So I wrote chapter one and posted it! I'm using this as an exercise to get better at describing surroundings/settings/feelings as well.

I'm putting about half an hour every other day or so into this project. I have another book I'm writing that I will be publishing so it get the main part of my attention. Plus I'm going back to college so that'll keep me busy too.

No estimate. I'm just going with the flow for it. It'll be several months for sure though!

Jenny-Toons 2019-08-16 20:24:56 UTC #3

For My Demon Valentine -- very little planning was put into it. I just fleshed out a quick storyboard, added a little bit more story here and there, and ended it at 6 episodes.

For Our Universe, that had more planning to it, but it wasn't completely drawn out. It was really inspired by this very short story I did. I did a lot of the planning after I finished the first season and realized it would't be just a one-shot. As of now, I've completed a script for seasons 2 and 3 and just started the lineart for season 2.

The comics I've spent months planning are still in scripting mode, most of which are horror. Once I've finished Our Universe and the bonus content for My Demon Valentine, I'll start to work more on the horror aspect of my comics.

Rhonder 2019-08-16 21:22:02 UTC #4

Hmm, for TreasureHUNT!! I spent about 2 months on the writing and concept art (~ Feb-March ).

I spent a week afterwards in April storyboarding out the whole thing (it is/was originally going to be a standalone one shot, ~50 pages).

And then i got to work drawing my first 8 or so pages the rest of April and May. I had intended to finish those + a cover and icon and start posting right away afterwards but i ended up kinda taking the whole summer off xD so I got back to it in September, finished up through page 9 or 10 and released the first episode finally at the beginning of October.

Now I'm nearing the end, ~10 months later. I think it'll conclude around page 65ish and ~1 year of drawing or at least i hope it doesn't drag past October then after it's done I'm gonna take a break and start working on the writing and concept art for season 2

JRHoch 2019-08-16 21:35:34 UTC #5

"Afterlifer" is based on an old novel I wrote. A couple of editors were interested in acquiring it, but twice the deal was killed by the acquisition committees. So...years later, I decided to turn it into a graphic novel, with some differences. The original novel took 1 year to write; I suspect the graphic version will take way longer to complete, perhaps 3 years??? Who knows.

WriterLinXiaolong 2019-08-17 03:13:18 UTC #6

I am a newbie author working on several project but I'll just use one to answer most of the question here
https://tapas.io/series/The-Emperor-and-His-Thief

When I first started this, I was on my first year of university. The basic planning/research took me a year. The world-building itself took me a month. Then the research on how the imperial palace works took quite long. The Emperor's harem is the one that gave me a lot of headache that I gave up and simplified it. Of course, now that it is currently under editing, I decided to add things that I were not able to add before.

Back to the point. I only started publishing the story in wattpad after a year of planning/researching. As for how much... I can tell you that the amount of tabs I used for research for this story is more than the amount of tabs I used for my assignments!

For this one, I can say that I have one project that is currently in the process of planning even after a year. The reason for this is because of the settings. It is about a quick transmigration that was inspired by other QT novel. Because each arc is a different world, I have to plan out each world separately while also making links to the story. Choosing which kind of world setting to use is already hard enough. I haven't started writing even the first arc so I only throw out the introduction of the MC/System duo

Another one is this one:
https://tapas.io/series/To-Rise-Again-in-the-Apocalypse

I did not do much planning for this because it was set in a modern setting. The world building took less than a week, and the research for cultivation rank took around 2 weeks. After that, I began writing the first chapter which I separate into several episodes here in tapas. Wanted each episode to be a quick read so its only 500-800 in estimation.

As for how much time I spent on planning every day, I'd say only around 15minutes minimum (only because I have other projects to be done too)

Good question! Man proposes, god disposes. I can plan, and I can estimate. But the outcome is severely different from my expectation. For the first series that I linked, I thought it would be around 100-150k words (with 20k minimum for each arc/major event). It has five arc/major event. So it should take about a year and a half to finish. But I only managed to get to the third point of the story, and I have already graduated from university. The reason was... for 9 months, I couldn't write at all due to drumrolls broken pc! Luckily all my first drafts is handwritten so not much major damage done

But that is not all. My estimated word counts seems to be far off too. It is currently at 140k words, soon breaking 150k words. I did not plan for it to reach 100 chapters, but with the way it is going, it is reaching there (currently at chapter 86 in wattpad). Even if I remove the papapa scene, it will still be 100+ chapters

TJSchongar 2019-08-17 03:50:45 UTC #7

https://tapas.io/series/The-Round-Table-Chronicles

Planning for my novel took years, all told, between the research and the plotting. Literal years. And as it is written, there are elements that have evolved away from the original plan in a BIG way!

I put at MINIMUM 3 hours a day into writing, sometimes up to six. And then there’s the time I lie awake in bed, pondering what my characters should do next, daydreaming while I drive... I spend a LOT of time writing and plotting!

NOPE! XD I am literally anticipating years. I have main plot, side stories, possible extension opportunities... This is a BIG ol’ story!

Honesty is ABSOLUTELY important. Artists and writers need to be able to strike a balance between working off their love of the project and understanding that it is, in fact, WORK. Knowing what we need to do to keep motivated, when to take breaks in order to refresh our creative pools, when we need to push through the slog and just get things DONE — we should be sharing those secrets with each other so we can all be as successful as possible.

Shanny8 2019-08-17 03:50:46 UTC #8

Not much, coz I always want my material to be fluid-like, and I breathe life into as I grow. I sometimes feel if I do a ton of prepping before I start the work, my thought process matures and I'm stuck with a dilapidated story that needs to be re-tooled.

I tend to work better when my stuff is loosely created; it allows me to adjust and finalize as I create. I plotted about 35 issues of my print only series, but even that is loosely plotted where I can change at will- in fact I'm removing a plot that I had created for said comic long ago coz I was going to have that comic series "crossover" with a comic a friend of mine was working on; he dropped his comic and has taken quite a few turns moving on to comic project after comic project...so I can def fill that void with another plot.

tchotchkeco 2019-08-17 04:01:55 UTC #9

For my comic Detox: Well I started writing out my ideas in late 2016 in college when my comic was originally a video game. I started posting this year(2019) and durning the entire time in between I was planning and brainstorming. So that’s a long time of coming up with ideas!

It will easily take me at least 8+ years to finish this comic. Lol. I do have someone that helps me make it But I’m hoping to hire another artist to make it go even faster (and look better because I have no full grasp of art fundamentals). Until then it will take a while. I do plan to finish the first volume around April of 2020 and will try and will take a short break before doing the next volume.

I oddly don’t get burnt out even though I’ve been working on it nonstop. It’s probably because I have help in making it so that takes a load off. Since I’m also very ahead in my work if I notice I’m getting close to burning out I’ll then take a day off or so.

Though I will say I work on my comic in some way daily (brainstorm, scriptwriting, panel layout, colors, etc) BUT this is only possible because I’m fortunate to where I don’t need to work. I feel like I need to point out that most people can’t go this route that I’m take because 1) I work with a partner and 2) I just work on my projects for a living. So it’s why I can do more time then maybe the average person.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I don’t want anyone really looking at the time I put into my comic and try to copy it. I work in a very unique situation that just makes it possible for me to do it this way.

rajillustration 2019-08-17 06:22:58 UTC #10

My current comic is based off of a book I wrote that took about a year and a half to finish and polish. Then, I decided to start making it a graphic novel so I just kinda sliced up the dialogue and that...didn't take long at all. Designing the characters, sets, and testing out different ways of drawing it took a few months just a few hours at a time on weekends, and then I decided to make about 54 updates before I started posting, which took about a year before I started to publish? I made way more buffer than most people would do and I don't regret it, it was reallllly nice while it lasted.

I don't know if I'll do every part of the book or not, so I can't say how long it'll take, but I can do one page in about 1-3 hours, and I have an update schedule of once a week, so I'm planning on just running it for forever or until I feel like slapping an ending on there. It's a nice little part time project for me, and right now the thing that's been the hardest part is...marketing. Part of why I've been hanging out on these forums actually is just figuring out how y'all do that marketing monster for webcomics.