I have so many comic ideas! Sometimes, I work from old comics I have wrote before. But I want to finally post a webcomic, but I can't pick one that I could stick to. It sometimes put me in a creative rut. Any advice?
Jun '20
Jun '20
Pick an idea that you are trully passionate about. Maybe give yourself some questions like would I really like making a comic like this?
I've started many comics but never finished them until I started a comic that I'm really passionate about.
I'm not sure if that helps.
I understand having so many ideas and not knowing where to start!
Ideally the first comic you should start with - as a beginner - is one that is short and can be completed within a year. That way you don't have to struggle through a comic in the case you lose the motivation/love for the plot. Maybe one of your ideas can be condensed into a one-shot, and getting started on that will help you clear out your to-do list.
But seeing as you've stated that you have already created comics before, I suggest that you chose the idea that is fleshed out the most. Which of the possible comic plots has a beginning, middle and end? Which one can you visualize best and have enough material for to get started right away? Of course, as @AmandaJ-art has mentioned, you have to be passionate about it - enough to stick to it and not give up mid-way through (though sometimes it happens, and that's fine).
As for getting over a creative rut because you're practically overflowing with fun ideas, I think that you should draw out whatever you want whenever you want. Not everything that you work on has to be published, and it's beneficial to take time and draw for the fun of it rather than holding yourself to an idea for a full-length comic. Have fun working out characters and writing outlines, or even a short series of panels depicting scenes you're excited to flesh out. Doing that might even help you figure out which of your ideas you're willing to stick with in the longer term.
The way I had to phrase it to myself was "If I could only tell one story and never be able to tell another, what story would I tell?"
same. I just work on the one's I have the most idea where there going. Really I switch working on projects alot. Like when I was writing my current comic script, I made characters for another and outline another. So one day I edit my script , another day I work another one.
The main one publish is the one that came out was most complete
From a writer's perspective, if you are just starting out in the realm of storytelling (I don't know if you are but I'm making the assumption), I recommend one thing to all younger writers-- go wild and experiment, and most of all FINISH things. You have a billion awesome comic series ideas, but so many of them require huge time commitments, and the stories you are most inspired by typically took teams of people and years or even decades of work.
I recommend one-shot comics, trying out every sort of genre and style you are even remotely interested in, and even try things you aren't. Make one-shot "pilot episode" versions of ideas you might want to do in the future just to see how you enjoy writing it. Make intentionally bad comics and stories, trying to discover what ways you can make a story worse (so that you can avoid them in the future). Try different mediums, like poetry, one-act plays, and short stories, just to see how they work (this piece of advice may not apply as much to comic creators). The most important thing I think is to create things you have finished and can look back on years from now.
Even if it's not good, even if you never post any of it, it's more valuable to your writing (and art I assume) to make many varied short works and complete them than to work on 2-3 giant ambitious ideas that go nowhere.
This is advice I give to new prose authors but I THINK it applies to comics just the same.
Do the shortest one first! Basically this:
I wish I'd known this when I started doing comics...I've been working for years and it's only recently that I've actually started finishing things. And those are recent ideas that were specifically made to be short and finishable; all the old stuff I'm either still working on or have been forced to give up. >_<
Strongly echoing the suggestions of others that starting with a short story is a REALLY good idea! Especially if you know you're fickle and loose interest quickly. In that case I'd say the shorter the better. Plus it takes time to build the skills to really be satisfied with your work, so starting with some huge epic story can be a real drag.
That said, it does also depend on your own priorities and what works for you. But in most cases creators would benefit from starting small and working their way up to bigger projects.
It's really common for new people to leap into making some huge epic series, thinking "this is gonna be the big one! This will be my magnum opus!" and then you only get a few strips in before you come across every newbie problem, and you learn to fix them, but now the old pages look like crap compared to the newer ones and...aaagh. So making short comics is the best way to go.
Short comics, you have to really think about setup-climax-ending and pace out your pages to a specific count, you can't just start and see where it goes, so they will teach you a lot about pacing. Plus you get to test run ideas, see what elements of your work the audience reacts to, and what type of comics people like from you.
Finally, you're not pinned to one genre or story. If you're overflowing with ideas, this is so great. Posting individual pages, some of my short comics in the past have included:
A hopeful, lighthearted story set in a dystopian sci-fi world drawn in very stark, blocky black and white:
A very fluffy shoujo manga inspired romance about a message in a bottle causing two bored teenagers on the beach to meet.
A comic for kids about accepting people who are different.
If I'd been chained to one comic I couldn't have tried these things out, or done these little style tests to find ideas to take to my longer comics.
My other advice is, you can always write an idea down for later. Some ideas are really cool, but aren't enough to support a whole comic on their own, so sometimes I stick ideas together like lego bricks to create something bigger. Like "hmm, I like these characters from this idea, but the rest of it kinda sucks, so I'm going to keep them but put them into another story..." (this is actually what happened with Rekki and Subo in Errant. They were originally guard characters for a spoiled prince in a sort of....isekai-ish story about girls from our world who find a portal to a magical world in the woods. I kept the runic magic, the square-shaped swords, Rekki and Subo and... dumped like everything else from that).
Oh and to reply to myself with an addendum, remember that the most famous mangaka of an entire generation Toriyama Akira didn't get a success for years and years. He has TONS of one-shot one-off comics printed in old magazines that weren't picked up for longer series like he had hoped, including a Dragon Ball prototype story. It took years until finally he got to make Dr. Slump and then of course Dragon Ball itself, but he has lots of shorter works as well (some of them are super great btw).
My advice is to start with the shortest ones and easier to implement. When you have those done, it will be easier to focus on your longer stories.
I am sort of someone who was in the same boat. I feel like I have too many ideas and it can get overwhelming. If you already have outlines for old work you want to adapt, I would suggest picking the one you are the most confident about. If you are more passionate about a project, it is much easier to continue posting for it.
If you only have story ideas, I would suggest doing some story planning and see if you can develop it. I have had stories which I started to plan out but ended up scrapping due to not being as strong as I originally thought.
Short stories are also helpful. If you feel like you can develop it further, you can add on to the story. However, if you feel like you can't develop it, that is also OK because it is only 20 pages.
Even if you’re really passionate about this one idea, just condense it into a short one shot. Something that’s manageable and helps you dig your teeth into what goes into producing a Web Comic, so by the time you actually formulate your true idea that has been lingering in your head your not only mentally prepared but also you got the experience to back you up in moving forward with said idea now.
I too struggled with the same back and forth before I decided a One Shot would be much more beneficial in the long run.
My advice would be to cut everything down into an oneshot. FINISH it. Then you can expand as much you want. In my comic (https://tapas.io/series/Tales-ofThe-City2 if your interested) I decided to creat an anthology of all the different stories I have for the same setting. Although I haven't even finished the first story. I plan on telling many stories of varying size, I think even some one page comics. Like everybody else already said: Just don't box yourself in and enjoy creating any story want to tell, don't care about the order or quality, only about what you want to achive each time you sit down and draw/write. Many small steps towards the first small comic. Then some larger steps, but never overexert yourself.
Duke that concept sounds cool, so the one shot(s) are pretty much in the world of your big project you plan on creating?
Yes, although there is no entirely overarking story or big project, currently Tales of The City is already big enoug for me 
Er, actually I could say ToTC itself is the big project.
For example the first story (4. Prince) will consist of about 25 episodes. But especially ep.1-10 each could be expanded into their own story. Luckily I have some self-control and stoped myself from feature creeping even more.; 4. Prince was originaly 15 episodes long.
I too can't stick to one idea. This is why my main comic is an anthology! The comic is now a year old with 7 finished stories. I made myself a rule that no story can be more than 20 pages. Giving yourself rules like that will help teach you how you create as well as how to self edit your ideas.
A few of the stories I finished were PAIN because I loved the idea so much and the potential just screamed that it could easily span more pages- but it is so, so important to teach yourself how to finish a project.
