I can’t seem to connect to any other stories I’ve come up with because It’s not my magnum opus

ChickenDogg 2023-07-24 23:30:00 UTC #1

Everyone says to not start with your magnum opus webcomic but the problem is is that I seriously can’t seem to make up another story because I can’t seem to connect with any of the characters in it, I’m just too attached to my main story that I just can’t seem to care about these new characters that aren’t related to my main one. I want to start with a new story to get the gist of webcomics and paneling, but it’s just so hard to connect to something that I’ve just made. I want to wait till I’m older to write my main story because I feel like I’m too young (and not mature yet) and I REALLY want my main story to be the best thing ever to me heh. (I also can’t for the life of me figure out a plot) I hope this makes sense, thank you!

river121693 2023-07-24 23:40:01 UTC #2

I can't either. I'm the type of person who only start a project if theyre really interested in it, but once I start that project, I will give it my all.
The reason people say you shouldn't start with your magnum opus is because you still have a lot to learn. Your most important story will not be as good as it could be. You risk rebooting once or thrice, getting frustrated, and losing interest. But its ultimately just an advice. You should ignore it if it means you start creating.
I also started with my magnum opus (though I've made comic zines and very short stories). I'm 100 pages in, and I would change so many things about it with what I've learned.

vapidink 2023-07-24 23:42:30 UTC #3

Work on your new ideas to get comfortable with them. It's normal to have little to no connection to your new characters because you haven't gotten to know them yet. It's the same reason the first couple chapters are tough to write. You're not familiar enough with the story to feel comfortable, but it'll be easier once you've written a fair amount.

morganicfoods 2023-07-24 23:54:52 UTC #4

I'm not sure who gave this advice, but they have no idea what they're talking about. Every single comic I've ever started to work on has been the one I was most attached to at the time. You can always redraw, rewrite, or remake it.

When I was 14 I started to draw a comic, I never ended up posting it because I wasn't happy with it and lost motivation. I still love and wanna make that story some other day, but right now there are other stories I'm more connected to. If it wasn't that story, I would've done nothing at all.

Then, two years later, I decided that if I wanted to make another webcomic, I had to be extremely attached and dedicated to it. Otherwise, it wouldn't make it that far. I still knew almost nothing about making webcomics, writing them, even drawing in general. But I learned so damn much from it. I made over 100 pages and don't regret a second of it. (Unfortunately, a bunch of bad things in my life caused me to be unable to work on it for a very long time, and I eventually decided I wanted to start something new and better.) There were an unbelievable amount of great ideas, characters, storylines, in that webcomic. Even despite not knowing how to do anything, how could I not choose that story to work on?

If you want to get a feel for how things work, I recommend doing a bunch of "test" pages. Maybe draw your characters doing or talking about something random. You could draw some part of a backstory or a scene you're really excited to show (and then just redraw it later). I personally decided to draw something silly when I was testing out formats for my current webcomic.

It was fun, and helped me see what I needed to change in terms of looks and speeding up my drawing speed.

As for the plot-- OUTLINE!! Make an outline, talk it out with someone (if you don't have anyone there are also servers & communities for these kinds of things or you can just dm me, im happy to help), and just figure it all out BEFORE you start drawing your main comic. Also, I would recommend scripting out the scenes then storyboarding them then doing your actual drawing.

ChickenDogg 2023-07-25 00:36:41 UTC #5

Thank you so much this helps a lot!!

Mallory 2023-07-25 00:48:12 UTC #6

I started with my "magnum opus". I can see sense in the advice - I've learned a lot and have had to redraw things. It would be more productive if I learned the things I learned on a practice project and only had to make my favourite story once, but... it is what it is.

If your "magnum opus" is super long though, I do recommend planning a few soft endings early on. It's really important for your own confidence and mental health that you feel like you've completed something - and also to have places where you can take a break. It doesn't mean it's over and done - the ending can be pretty open and meant to be continued. But if you set yourself up to draw 34 chapters at 100 pages each and the only end you accept is the last page of chapter 34, when you've never made a comic before, you'll find it a bad time.

SleepingPoppy 2023-07-25 01:18:04 UTC #7

At the end of the day the best comic to make is the one that get's you sitting down and drawing.

I suggest either writing stories that directly connect to your main story- write things that expand and flesh out the world or characters that you're already into. You also don't have to make your practice stuff for publishing. It can be just personal things to round out your skills. This means without a fully fleshed out story, you could start drawing some scenes from your story for practice, and redraw them later when you're making the "real thing".

I would suggest trying not to get too stuck on the idea of this story being your magnum opus. Maybe it will be, maybe it won't. But if you always put off making it for better skills, you might never make it. And if you're not inspired to work on anything BUT it... well you're getting your self really stuck! If it truly is the most important story to you, and that doesn't change, as others have said, you can make it more than once.

Generally our first attempts at a comic don't blow up, but there are creators here that have had multiple versions of the same story that grew and gained more success as they dialed in what they needed it to be.

UrMom 2023-07-25 04:41:27 UTC #8

You know, I have this one story I've been developing for probably close to 20 years now, you can say it's my "magnum opus". I've been wanting to officially start it for ages, but every year or so I would grow, my interests would change, and with that the story and characters changed. Eventually I decided upon a sort of "prototype" comic because I didn't feel confident in my ability to tell a story visually, made it to 3 chapters, never finished because I wasn't really invested and I didn't know what I was doing. DESPITE THAT I learned a lot about making a comic, so once I got the idea for my current comic I felt a lot more comfortable with it, now I'm ready to actually work on this original comic. Recently getting the first 2 chapters jotted down, I'll probably work on concept art once the whole thing is outlined since it'll be heavily reliant on setting and lore.

With all that being said, as River put it, you're going to be doing a lot of changing and growing on your storytelling journey. As much as it sucks right now, maybe pick something really simple with things you like, and get as far as you can with it. Hell, you can even try little shorts that don't really go anywhere. Even if you don't finish it is still experience under your belt, and at some point when you feel comfortable with what you're doing you'll look at that magnum opus with much more clear vision. (Not so many redraws of old chapters. Lol)

Of course if you don't want to do that than do what you want. It's not like anyone is paying you, so at the end of the day all that matters is that you're enjoying what you're creating.

ueonts 2023-07-25 04:56:28 UTC #9

Are you chicken dog gamer on discord? I think I know you haha. Otherwise, I think that you are fundamentally thinking about this all wrong. If you have a time limit then yeah, don't work on your magnum opus until you get good since you want to focus your time grinding smaller stuff. But if you are just scared the story wont turn out "good enough", well then you are in for a rude awakening haha.

konori 2023-07-25 06:38:34 UTC #10

What I think could be making it hard for you to be attached to your new story and characters is that you may be "forcing it" instead of letting it happen naturally. It's like you're making the story for the sake of making a story. This could end up feeling like an obligation/chore rather than something you want to do.

You could either wait for the inspiration to strike for a new story or idea that you really want to try out, or, you could also just make fan comics of stories/characters that you're already connected/attached to. The first webcomic I ever made was a fan comic, and the only regret I had was that I loved it, but I could not monetise it, and so I had to drop it when I was ready to draw my first original story. So, if you're looking to draw a comic for practice without expecting any monetary returns (apart from selling copies in conventions or putting it behind Patreon), fan comics are something to consider.

For me, I wouldn't start with my magnum opus simply because I do not want to do redundant work. If I know that my first comics will not be at the level that would be able to effectively convey my magnum opus, I would rather start with a less significant story and give it my all, rather than have to do a reboot down the line. (The time spent on making a reboot would be better spent working on a new story I want to convey.) I have many stories in the back burner so I can pick and choose which ones I want to work on at any given time, which may be why I had the option to hold off my magnum opus in the first place.

TheLemmaLlama 2023-07-25 08:20:49 UTC #11

Been there For me, I could never muster the motivation to do a short 'practice' comic like people suggest until I had a crack at my 'opus' ... and realized how hard it was. If you have trouble with plotting your opus, I feel like you'll have a similar experience Honestly, I feel like it's a blessing in disguise. I feel bad for people who get 100+ pages into their opus while still inexperienced, only to end up wanting to reboot the whole thing Whereas I gave up after like 5 pages, and my brain is finally free to wander and get attached to smaller ideas now that I have a visceral sense of my opus being 'level 90 zone; expect to do 0 damage to the monsters in this area'

With a lot of advice, you just have to try brazenly defying it before you can truly understand it XD

smokesalty 2023-07-25 08:38:41 UTC #12

I thought this would be the case for me, as I still have my "magnum opus" on the backburner until I'm ready.

When I first made my current comic, I couldn't care less about the characters at first, because I didn't really know them. I was going to make it as a short comic to practice for my magnum opus. The good thing about this was that I had way less pressure to make it "good" because I wasn't as emotionally attached to the story and characters. And this allowed me to make story decisions that benefited the story rather than just indulge in the characters.

It took a while before I started caring about my characters. Writing the story was like slowly befriending and getting to know the characters. When I did, I became really interested in them and their journey. And because I had a less biased view, I was able to see from the perspective of a reader as to whether characters were likeable and interesting. This challenged and benefited me while writing. I had to give myself and the reader a reason to care.

A notable instance I remember was when my character's original personality was just "friendly and caring." I was bored by him. (seen below)

It was only through writing and re-writing that I was able to make him the character I know and love now. I got to know the character through writing. Now, he still has the core character trait of "nice and caring" but has been expanded to be someone who ends up being self destructive at times to protect others, can hold strong grudges but tries to hold himself back to prevent consequences on the people he cares about. He can also be emotionally distant and closed off to prevent his own problems affecting other people.

This was something I had to find out about my character over time. And I'm glad I had the freedom to work on something that wasn't my magnum opus to better my character writing skills and to prove to myself I don't need a "big epic amazing idea" for everything in order for it to be good.

Now I work on more stories because I don't feel this pressure for perfection. And strangely enough my "magnum opus" isn't concidered that anymore to me. It's a story that's been with me a long time and is special to me, yes. But I don't think it'll be the peak anything I make. Cos I'm not looking to "peak" with my work. I want to make works that I would enjoy reading. This current project is one that I'm very passionate about and believe has very high quality, and that happened through hard work and an f ton of editing, which I think is better than just "happening" upon an amazing idea.

Okay ramble done haha

darthmongoose 2023-07-25 08:41:55 UTC #13

If you need to start with your magnum opus because it's the only way to motivate yourself to get a comic drawn... do it.

But just know that you may need to consider this a "trial run" at it, and reboot it later if you both want to make your magnum opus and want it to be polished and popular and stuff.

It's really not such a bad thing though. I mean... the version of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein we tend to read nowadays isn't the version she wrote when she was eighteen. It's the version she went back and edited when she was older to fix the problems.

Sometimes, you know in your gut that your "big comic" is the right one. In my case, I've rebooted the same comic four times over about twenty years. I did other comics in-between, like short comics for competitions, anthologies and publications, but in terms of pages made, Errant, or "Fan Dan Go" as it was known for all the previous versions, is by far the comic I've devoted the most time and pages to. It took me four versions to make a form of a comic about these magical knights that can gain more than a hundred-odd readers, but I did it. I am over 300 pages into my magnum opus now (the furthest I've ever got. I think my previous record was about 130), and it has nearly 3k readers, one successfully funded print book and it's on a Tapas programme and stuff. I did it! After twenty years I freakin' did it!

I'd warn you it's not the most efficient way. You will learn faster if you can make more of a variety of comics, and make some short comics, because there are some lessons I think you can only learn by experiencing making a comic from start-to-finish (like how to end one, how to make a comic consistent in style and presentation ready to print, that sort of thing)... but also, making a comic is always better than not making a comic, and some people just get stuck like "but I don't know what to make!" if it's not this one passion project. Personally, I find themed competitions (like the manga jiman in the UK) or anthologies, or making stuff for a publisher with specific requirements and favoured elements can help with that, but your personal mileage may vary.

UrMom 2023-07-25 14:25:36 UTC #14

Same. I used to have this grandiose vision for my "magnum opus" story, that it would be the most epic thing ever! After getting really into my current project I realized I just want to enjoy myself, and do the best I can. It'll still be pretty big given the cosmic elements (And literal chapter amount.), and there's a whole mythology around it that I want to make into a separate mythos type of book, but it doesn't feel like this big thing that is going to be my life's work anymore.

ChickenDogg 2023-07-25 15:33:10 UTC #15

Nope I’m not haha! Thank you for the advice!!

ChickenDogg 2023-07-25 15:36:34 UTC #16

This is very helpful, thank you!

ChickenDogg 2023-07-25 15:39:49 UTC #17

Thank you so much for this!! Yeah If I do start with my main story I will probably (definitely) reboot it in the future!

KevinReijnders 2023-07-25 17:28:05 UTC #18

Tell a short story, set in the world of your 'Magnum Opus' featuring your main character. Have it be a little isolated adventure, just to try out the waters and get a feel for the workflow.

You'll get to both experiment with the format and you get to explore your character a bit more. Win-win