I am new at comics and i would like to learn somethings about the whole procces of making a story ( not draw the story ) just write the story.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
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Mar '17last reply
Apr '17- 14
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It's highly subjective of how the artist perceive a story, it also depends on what genre you want.
Personally I like to start with what I consider the foundation, the meaning of your story ? What kind of theme or message you want your story to convey ?
Once you know it, it would be more easier for you to create a story because you will rule out ideas that doesn't match the theme (but still keep them for other projects).
When you have an idea that you like, try to think of how the ending may look like. It would be kinda blurry since you have no idea how your story look like in a micro perspective (it doesn't need to be in full detail but just get a feel of it). Think of your ending like the peak of your theme, readers should feel what all the story was all about.
From that ending, you can begin to write from the ending to the beginning.
Why I like to start with the ending first ? It's because it gives you a direction to follow, everything you do, it's to prepare the reader for that ending. If you start by the beginning while you are writing you may not know where your story will end up so you will write tons of things that may be shallow which can affect the rhythm.
There is obviously ton of things to consider but it's a start ^^
If you want to know more about how to write a story, I advice you to find a book called "The Anatomy of Story" by John Truby, it's a great book that helps you understand what make a good story while giving you structures and guidelines.
My process:
- When I'm just starting out and I don't really have a story yet, I just jot down notes and ideas and ponder how they'll fit together
- eventually, I try to make an outline of the whole thing, the scenes or things I want to happen in the story
- I'll try to figure out how one thing leads into another, i.e. instead of just saying "the first thing happens, then the second thing happens" I'll try to figure out how "the first thing happens, which causes the second thing to happen"
- once I have this, it's easier to see where I have holes in the plot or transitions I still need to work out
- I don't detail the entire story all at once -- when I have an outline for most of the story, I just focus on the first chapter I have to do.
- I make a list of all the scenes that chapter will have ("they find a dragon, they try to fight the dragon, they run away")
- I break down those scenes into individual pages, with a sentence describing what's going to happen on that page ("p1 they approach the cave, p2 they realise it's a dragon cave and get excited about treasure, p3 the dragon emerges and they all panic, p4.....")
- after that, I make a more detailed script for each page!
Nixxusnibelheim's suggestion of figuring out the ending early on is a good one -- you don't have to START with an ending if you're not sure where you want your story to go, but once you have a good idea of the kind of story you want to tell, it's good to know where you eventually want to end up so you can steer the story in that direction.
For me, though, I don't tend to sit down and figure out theme early on, because for me theme is often something I'm not consciously aware of until I already have a lot of story figured out. But I will try to figure out, like, what I would like to say about a character. Like "this character needs to learn not to judge a book by its cover" or "this character needs to learn to stand up for himself" or "what this character is doing is wrong, and it's going to destroy her." A lot of times important story moments can come out of figuring out what can highlight these qualities, or what encounters might give the characters a chance to learn and change.
In my experience, stories are like chicken eggs--you need to sit on them for a while before they can fully come to life. Granted, you can fall into the other extreme of never actually getting your story out there, but it's always good to think about them for a few months at least.
You've already been given some great advices here. I would just add that it's important to know what genre you want to write your story for. This could really help you have a better idea of the way it should be presented and what genre conventions you should respect. Also read comics which are from the same genre you're writing for and takes notes of interesting things they do.
I made an educational video about the very foundations of storytelling
It goes over the structure of stories and how to be efficient with characters (narrative theory)
Here2 you've got some part of the process 
It's a joke of course, I see that other people have given you great advices already. Good luck with the story!
For me, a story starts with an idea of something. A scene, or a feeling. Vague stuff really.
If the idea flows well enough in my head, then I just start writing the synopsis. If it dosen't flow, then I just write down words that will help me getting the flow going. When I write the first draft of the synopsis, I never stress to find the best solutions of every plot detail. In other words, if I can't think of a good way to get the character go from A to B, then I just write some random shit and move on. I find it much easier to on improve something weak than to find the best solution on the first try.
After all that fun stuff, I'll start thumbnailing the pages and write the dialog.
For me what I do is too imagine a interesting situation, What if you were in a asylum haunted by a ghost and everyone thought you were crazy? Then I work my way down.
