Oct 2019
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Oct 2019
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Mari
Oct '19

I make a character design, think of a basic backstory for them and then see where that goes. Sometimes it goes nowhere (like my poor old lesbian scarred pirate captain that was just an outlet for me to work out my love for mermaids and pirate costumes )Sometimes I'll be mulling over the story's minute details for 5 years.

Just keep doing what you do. If you don't feel invested in something you're writing, it's not wrong to just drop it. If it's something small that irks you, that's a different matter, but if the entire thing brings out nothing but dislike in you it might be better to give up. If you actively dislike what you're doing, it will show in the finished product.

borzoiteeth
Oct '19

I mostly design by themes. Questions I want to ask and have answered. Such questions can range from, "are characters who lose their original flesh forms when thrown into isekai stories become trans characters regardless of who they were from their original world?", "What if the Bermuda Triangle was a fae land?" to, "what if I designed a chimera beast made of dogs and fish won't it be funny that they will thirst for food twice as hard lol".

I've mentioned before on here that as a creator I luck out on enjoying the process more than the results. Not to say there aren't stories/characters I love, but I never expect to enjoy the finished project. I don't need to love, I just need it to be interesting.

Sometimes it can really in the blood for people to be able to just create- but for most its a learning/training process. If you have never finished a story before, I can't stress enough- give yourself goals. A lot of stories die young due to perfectionism running wild with no guidelines. You start with something cool and your mind just loves it but its still sitting in a very vague space in your head. Then once you start defining anything the story already starts loosing its luster as nothing can stand up against this better "idea" which is really only a "feeling" of greatness that doesn't even explain why it is. You might have something really good but when against the vague undefined need of perfect, no idea can win.

So set yourself something basic, even with stuff that you feel is pointless to mention because you love that genre/theme so much. Just put it down. Ex: urban fantasy, 3 main characters, super gay, what is fate, monsters, etc. Make a goal of a possible ending. Yes, saying you want an open ending or no defined ending (even perma-hiatus) result of the story is stating a kind of ending. The point is to help give your mind the right kind of expectations so when you drop your story you know its because it simply couldn't work in general, not just because of lost interest.

These goals can also change. You don't have to stick to them unless you discover that you are the kind of artist that flourishes best with defined set challenges.

And finally, please consider, most creators creating process is like an iceberg. All the work it took, edited story or tossed ideas are unseen under the ocean. I have hundreds of characters and a ridiculous amount of stories that will likely be never seen by anyone. Some of them I love much more that what I have shared, but the ones I share just happened to pull themselves together to be worth sharing.

AVXP
Oct '19

The first:
Push, pull, add, edit, subtract, build upon, tear down...rethink, retrace, narrow, expand, work, rework the thing
until I feel giddy. I try to never stop at 'good enough' as in "That's good enough."

There's an excitement about the reader's experience too. Dying to see how they react when they get to certain parts or see certain things. Half the fun is creating, the other half is sharing.

When I love an idea and I think it's brilliant...it gets considered.
The second, which is tougher, is to let it marinate.
Sit on the idea and keep thinking about it and see if it holds up over time.

The only stuff that I've lost interest in, was stuff that had a huge interest spike at the start and I went with it and over time my feelings waned. Wait. That's an important lesson I've learned. If something is a really, really good idea, it will stay a good idea for a very long time.

Rhonder
Oct '19

I've always been a very reactive & inspiration based writer. Like I'll see a cool thing in a show I'm watching or game I'm playing or whatever and be like "wow, that was awesome! I want to try that out too :D"- obviously putting my own spin or ideas into it and trying not to blatantly copy, but yeah~ So like I'm writing about concepts that I'm already excited about which helps to keep me excited about the project as a whole.

The other "secret" that goes into my planning process is that, for better or worse, I tend to begin building my stories by first thinking of really cool scenes or interactions that I'd like to try out as the starting point and then craft a lot of the rest of the plot around those scenes. Like how do I get to this really cool moment? I find that having those cool moments sprinkled throughout helps to give me a "carrot in front of the donkey's nose" effect :joy: like even if the slower moments aren't super cool, you know that the next big scene is around the corner and you wanna get to it, so away we go! I couple this with brisk pacing so that there's not too much downtime between the big moments: the biggest issue with my prior project to my current one is that the pacing sucked relative to my drawing speed (I was pacing it out like a weekly shonen manga series but could only draw 1-2 pages a week) and it was going to take like a year to get to the first big cool scene... I don't have the patience for that (and wouldn't expect readers to either :joy:) so I gave up on the 8th page of the re-re-reboot and moved to this new shorter project.

For a quick example of my process with my current comic, it went something like this:

  • Was playing a few videogames that had a focus on elemental magic, and specifically combining different elements to get different effects
  • Wow that's super cool, I wanna try!
  • What elements should I use for this comic? I wanted to create a more tactical fighting scene rather than a brute force one, so I thought using water, which is typically not a very offensive element in combination with something else might be interesting. Decided on water + fire = steam (which was a combination which showed up in both games I was playing hehe).
  • Got to thinking about what might make a cool comic, and envisioned this panel:

Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 6.20.05 PM.png747x947 677 KB

And after that literally the whole writing process was just structured around how to get to this cool moment xD

Spoiler for the basic plot development of my comic

"well I want this water mage to team up with a fire mage to create a big steam effect to win a fight... so maybe the opponent has vision based abilities that the steam interrupts? Who is the opponent then... well maybe the characters are treasure hunters and the opponent is someone who steals a treasure that gives them a reason to team up?"

  • and so on.
AVXP
Oct '19

I do that too. Work backwards.

CarltonIsaac
Oct '19
Adeca

I haven’t read what you said since you posted way after I did.

Referring to you quoting my post, I outlined my approach to writing as requested by the OP. This is the method I have used for the last 25 years. I structure the entire story with dummy character fillers, and then flesh out the characters within the context of the narrative as the story moves along.

burginlewis
Oct '19

@Klaustasya

One of the most helpful things I ever did as a writer was make a list of all the things my favorite stories, shows and movies have in common. I bet several of your top 10 movies, for example, have similar themes, characters, plot devices, etc. Do they all involve a countdown? Is the heroine always a redhead? Is there some sort of treasure hunt going on? Are there fantasy elements in all of them? Do they all take place in 1920s train depots? Etc.

I'd try starting there.

Klaustasya
Oct '19

Yes, this sounds like a good starting point! I'll try it out, thanks!

XxKonspiracyxX
Oct '19

I feel I get inspired exactly the same way you do. For about four years straight, when I was with my ex, I had the same exact problem. I love all my stories and characters, and I thought about them constantly, but no story ever seemed to breach past chapter 1.

Then, some drastic life changes landed me single and homeless. Put me in shock to some degree. Then, the next thing I knew, I started drawing and writing my ass off. I rewrote my first book, Wicked, then got 4 out of 5 books written in my Doomsday series. I also have volumes 1 and 2 of my American manga done, currently working on volume 3.

It's not really advice, I guess, because I can't explain why terrible luck, betrayal, and homelessness inspired this sudden streak of productivity. But if I had to try explaining it...

I would say this.

You don't have forever. Your comforts are taken for granted and often temporary, and so is your life. You don't have forever to procrastinate and entertain the depression and discouragement--if you don't get it done now, while you CAN get it done, then it will never become a reality, and it's a regret you will die with.

I know that sounds drastic, but that's the way I think. Both of my parents are excellent writers and artists, but they spent their lives trying to keep a broken marriage going before divorcing and sinking all their time into work and court drama. Life often gets in the way of living. It's a damn shame to see people with such talent never make use of it.

And I'll be damned if that's gonna happen to me.

Stop posting on forums and get started! I swear, getting over this hump is the hardest part, because once you're past this, you can NEVER stop!

AVXP
Oct '19

You should probably get some kind of best-advice-ever reward for saying that.:writing_hand:

LunarSushiCat
Oct '19

For me it took years to get anywhere near a story that feels completed, it went trough countless remakes and changes before it was anywhere near a clear vision. Even now it's still changing,to reach the vision that i have for it.
Only advice i can suggest is to organise your ideas,and and write a list of what aspect of story telling you enjoy the most what stories you like the most.
Explore the world where those stories take places,write shorts with weird concepts till you have a list of things you would be ecstatic to work on every single day.
And that's how you get a story, if everything else fails there is plan b

make a simple setting,and make short comics. and expand on it a little each time
hopefully it helps

Adeca
Oct '19
CarltonIsaac

Well now that I'm re-reading it... I didn't say it the way I meant it (cause I'm not very good at english). I knew you didn't read my comment before saying that.

DiegoPalacios
Oct '19

I go with the tought of "characters make the story happen", so my proccess is more character based.

The trick that works for me to give a plot to a character is to think what situations/conflicts are interesting to explore said character.

These conflict varies a lot, it could be them having a crush, a goal, a mission, a dream or just them dealing with daily life. Everyone wants something, even wanting to do nothing counts.

There is a chance that your story has more than one character, see how they relate to the MC/MC`s and if they affect the MC possitively or negatively on their goal. Sometimes the main obstacle for them to reach their goal may be themselves!

Sometimes, not all your OC`s will fit on the same story, due to story tone or other reasons. The ones that dont fit, save them for another story.

hope this helps you to give your OC`s a story to be. :slight_smile:

Cavechan
Oct '19

For me, my comic contains a lot of thoughts, feelings, beliefs I have that I can't express well in words so I try and show them instead. It's rather personal for me. If there is something you care deeply about, it might help to include it in the story somehow.

XxKonspiracyxX
Oct '19
AVXP

Thanks xD I was just speaking from the heart. Kinda dark, but... it's true. I don't wanna be on my deathbed thinking of all the stuff I wanted to make and never got around to it.

ViktorGrim
Oct '19
Klaustasya

How do you come up with stories and comics that you're too excited about to put down? - Very simple. Discipline. No one will absolutely love their story at all points. This is the problem behind waiting for "inspiration", which is in effect what you're doing. That, and it seems you've having some trouble with your own self esteem in coming up with a story. What you need to ask yourself, and I mean truly sit and ponder on this for a while, "why do I get tired of my own stories?"
As for them lacking a "real story"? Says who? No story is ever, EVER thought up wholesale and complete upon its first conception. No story survives the creative process unchanged from the initial thoughts that get it down on paper. Perhaps it's a problem if perception and expectation that you're having?

As for coming up with characters and OCs first. This is not a sin as some would claim. Contrary to @CarltonIsaac, I'd say you can easily come up with characters for a character-driven plotline first. You can develop a good story if you have a good character and know them intimately. Do you do character bios? Do you write full backgrounds? Personalities? Likes, dislikes? Secret thoughts, idiosyncrasies, tics and habits? Have you determined their upbringing, and fleshed out the milestones in their development? Events that have shaped them into who they are? Are they right handed or left? Are there any minor or major injuries or defects in their physical prowess that would influence the way they interact with the world?
When you know who you characters are, you can determine that motivations drive them, and perhaps come up with something to base a story around. Do you have a character that's a pathological liar? Well you've got a great basis for a story that explores and deals with the actions and consequences of being a pathological liar. Have someone with an ego, and someone naive and trusting? Great chance for some stories there if you pair them up.
It's not a matter of "why I like my characters so much." I have characters that I absolutely despise sometimes writing about them, not because they affect me personally, but because it's not something I'm resonating with at the time. I push through it anyway, even if I leave a note to myself that this part was half-assed and needs further development.

Writing and story telling are not Just Talent. They are skills, and like all skills they can be trained. Someone with a natural affinity for something will always be surpassed by someone who puts their 100% into developing and training their skills if they don't train it. They may have an initial "boost", but in the end "natural talent" counts for extremely little.

To give you a little inisght, I'm a pantser. I've always been a pantser. I was surrounded by creativity in my youth, my family got me into D&D when I was 5, though even before then they encouraged whatever creativity I came up with by, as a toddler, telling THEM bed time stories (because the "normal ones are kinda boring now I heard them too much"). I started "writing" in second grade, first for a Halloween project (write a scary story). I'd always loved to read, and would read almost anything from any genre. I never planned anything out, came up with a concept, and went from there. Still do that to this day, and so far it's working out great. No, I never publish the first draft, that's not what Pantsing is as some salty plotters would tell you (insert writing group war flashbacks here). I also have an intense burning passion for science, and the only reason I'm a writer and not an engineer, chemist, or physicist, is because I was led to believe that ALL SCIENCE IS MATH and that, because I don't particularly process math the way school wanted me to in the 90s, I would never be able to get a career in my original dream jobs.
Going back over my ancient works from before I was, say, 10? I can remember each and every influence in that piece. I was fascinating reading over some of my old stuff and tracking my progress over the years. As I was exposed to more stories, more variations, more content, the better my stories got. The more I wrote, the more I experimented and exercised the writing muscle, the better crafted my sentences were. The better I was able to utilize the vocabulary and concepts I had internalized. Every new scientific discovery, every philosophical question, every bit of science, fringe science, and pseudo science I learned about gave me new elements to weave into my stories.

To which I ask you. Do you read? Do you study interests outside of writing? Do you have other hobbies? What are the influences on your work? Read and read often. Read wide, and read deep. Find the passions you're interested in. Study, practice, read, train. Everything you do and experience in life will only serve to increase your storytelling capabilities. And remember, the first draft is never the publication draft. Revisions and editing exist for us to polish the rough sculpture we initially create. You think Michelangelo created such beautiful sculptures just by smacking the marble a few times? Hell no, even sculptors will ofttimes do a few practice sculptures before working on the main piece. Consider the drafts your practice blocks.

I have two exercises I'd suggest.
1) Character Q&A. Come up with some questions to ask your characters. Get some questions from friends. Sit down and "conduct an interview". If you haven't come up with some details yet, just letting whatever comes out of your character's mouth can fill them in. Don't think, don't consider. Don't go "Oh, but he wouldn't do/say that!". Just let them talk.
2) World build. While you can get a fairly good character-driven story out of just the base characters alone, it's much easier to have an environment that you can draw elements from. So? World build. There are dozens of, hundreds even of videos and blogs dedicated to world building. I find the ones for tabletop RPGs like D&D the best, as most of the ones i've come across for writers tend to be a lot less granular.

Beyond that, something I've come to understand in engaging with writers in groups and forums over the years, is that there are really 3 ways of crafting a story.
1) Plotter - The one who will spend most of their time making a book in actual research, plotting out the story each and every step of the way. Can get even as extreme as determining what the characters will do and think during the outlining process. Characters are slaves to the plot, and in my experience much of the time the character can feel a little too cookie cutter, a little too structured and robotic. These tend to be the ones that get the books done the most often, as the story is often written out before they even start writing it, it's just a matter of applying the dressing for presentation.
2) Pantser - The one who will just write things as they come to mind. Usually doesn't have a lot of structure, and most of the time making a book will be spent editing out unecessary parts, filling holes, hunting down lost plot threats, tying off loose ends, and in general a lot of re-writes. Mostly for continuity. Characters are inserted, created, and developed as you go. The downside to these types I often notice tend to be, as I said, lost plot threads, gaping plot holes, continuity errors, and the like.

Those are the two most commonly accepted methodologies. I'm sure I'm not the one who started this third, but I never see it spoken about beforehand. I started doing it when I started writing stories in my homebrew D&D worlds that I would always come up with for campaigns, but those campaigns would always die because my groups tended to... Not last long.

3) World Builder - The one who designs a world, then decides what stories can play out within it. Usually the style that has multiple stories in the same setting, often disconnected from each other. Can be as simple as coming up with the world, the rules of the world, a few nations and cultures and a bit of geography and go from there. Can get as granular as filling out every town full of shops and "npcs" your story may never use.. The way I do it, admittedly all I can tell you as I'm the only one I know to do this, I like to come up with the history and rules of the world, for at least a few thousand years, in broad strokes. Fill out a few nations and cultures, populate with species, etc. Then I start looking around for interesting story potential. Political intrigue, wars, otherworldly invasions (I write fantasy and scifi mostly), etc etc. Sometimes, if the world is created very granular, I'll just come up with some characters that seem interesting and drop them in to see what happens. This method's worked out well for me so far, and for reference I do mostly pantsing, with a little plotting.

That's a lot, sorry. Hope this can give you some insight that you can utilize.

Klaustasya
Oct '19

This is probably the best answer i got so far, i literally just came put from my session with my therapist and talked about my current problem, i really feel like screenshoting what you just said, your words are truly inspiring! (Sorry i wish i could define my answer more but english is not my first language.) but to put it straight i couldn't stop nodding at almost everything you said somehow it really reasonated within me! Especially the initial Discipline thing which is exactly what i ended up talking about it with my psychologist today.
Thank you! I'll hold dear your comment!!

ViktorGrim
Oct '19

Well, I'm glad I was able to help. I wish you luck and fortune in all your future creative projects!

CarltonIsaac
Oct '19
ViktorGrim

In my method of operation, that is a waste of time. I sell stories, not characters, and that works for me and my bank balance.
To emphasize, I stated my modus operandi, and not a plan that others should follow.
If what ever you do @ViktorGrim works for you, that's great and I have no reason to correct you, just as much as you have no reason to "fix' the way I work. Cheers!

LCT_m_a_d
Oct '19

I wonder if it would be helpful to have 2 stories. One story which is "practical", while at the same time have one thats all passion and freeflowing. Kind of a way to keep from being emotionally compromised.