I give up. I CAN'T "show, not tell"

[unknown_user]

After over a year of work on my comics, I've revealed barely 10% of the plot.
I can't continue to work in such a format. It's time to admit that I can't tell my story as a webcomics in a reasonable time. And I can't spend a time on fillers, jokes and developing not-major characters, or it will take forever.

I think, I would like to end the 3rd chapter and continue in format of classical visual novel after that. But I want to also share the intermediary stages of the process, because readers support is actually so important and helpful for me.
If I will upload consecutive screenshots of visual novel in a new "comics" series, will anybody read them?

Also I want to move all "info sheets", art gallery, etc. into the distinct "extra" series. But in this case, all comments will be lost. I liked some of the comments. What should I do about them? I'm really lost.

[LCT_m_a_d]

It seems you have a strong audience so even if the way you reveal your story isn't the way you intended, its definitely working. What about the way ypu reveal your plot do you find particularly unsatisfying?

[QueenofBabyLoon]

I am not sure what a classical visual novel is, but where I am concerned, since I always prefer words to images (though I love images as well - however, they often cause me to get distracted and obsess over details that just derail me from the story at hand, I think you've noticed that), I, as one of your comic's fan, will definitely continue following it, in whatever form you wish to share it with us.

Taking into account that chapter 3, for now, is very mysterious and that at this point in your story, even at the end of chapter 3, you will leave the readers hungering for more, I am pretty sure people will easily switch over from comic to visual novel (whatever that is). You have a very strong and engaged following, I am sure people are into it as much for the story as the art.

My suggestion is for you to keep what you did up until now as is, as not to lose the comments you like. But from now on, put your art and info sheets in an extra series, if you so wish.

[Zaboem]

I think that I might be misunderstanding you, Tired. Are you saying that you want to move away from sequential art and into a format of books with fewer illustrations? If so, this is a legitimate style-choice that you are considering. It's not a problem that you know your own strengths.

Post the revised version and keep the old. It's not an all or nothing choice.

[unknown_user]

It seems you have a strong audience so even if the way you reveal your story isn't the way you intended, its definitely working. What about the way ypu reveal your plot do you find particularly unsatisfying?

1. My drawings don't express what I want. They are not expressive at all! I can achieve at least something close to what I want, only after several days of work on one picture. But I can't do it, if I'm working on a comics, where I should use different pictures for every panel, even if I copy-paste some of them.
   But if I would work on visual novel, I could make just a several pictures of the every character very-very neatly, and then use them many times, just with different background and text. Also classical visual novels style allows to avoid explicitly draw action scenes.
2. I'm extremely unsatisfied with a pace of my work. It depresses me a lot to think that I should draw for a 10 more years to end my story. Initually, I've began to draw a comics to understand how to organize and show events in my story in the best way. I planned to rethink the story and make a video game with its plot, AFTER I will end the comics. But I had no idea, how much time it will demand. In the most optimistic case, I will end it in 7 years or so...
3. In parallel to drawing comics, I investigated a ways to make a game in reasonable time alone. I would like to make a 2D platformer, maybe RPG. But eventually, I've realised that only thing I REALLY will be able to make in reasonable time with revealing all my plot, is a visual novel. I will not manage to implement any non-trivial gameplay and level designs alone.
4. My audience is very active and grateful. But it's also still small (if considering of how much work I put into making and promoting my comics), even after a 8 months of publishing. I still haven't understood, do I have "target audience" at all. I don't know how and where to promote, despite I've tried so many ways to do it. Even paid ads haven't bring me any noticeable usefulness.

I'm sorry for a sloppy way to express my thoughts today. I just feel tired and sad.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I don't understand exactly what changes you think of doing on the comic. Especially in relation to the title. Do you mean illustrations with a lot of text + speech bubbles? like the following example?

In any case: do what you feel like doing, but if I was you, I would take the time to work a little bit on the other format in parallel, for a short time to see if you actually like it more, rather than switching for good right away. If you do that, I'm pretty sure you won't even have to ask yourself these questions: if you like the new form better, you'll instinctively will work more on it and abandon the old one,

As a reader, I'm not too sure what I would prefer because I don't understand exactly how would the new look be, and I don't really think you have an issue with showing without telling (I actually think last update was really efficient at that!), beside the time problem, of course (but I don't understand how the new form will improve that).

Extras.. I don't know if people will read them as much as the comic, but that's the way I'm going to go too. I do think it's better, as interested people will get extra material, and people who don't like the extra won't sub, but won't be annoyed by them in main comic.

[unknown_user]

I think that I might be misunderstanding you, Tired. Are you saying that you want to move away from sequential art and into a format of books with fewer illustrations? If so, this is a legitimate style-choice that you are considering. It's not a problem that you know your own strengths.

Yes, I want to move to much more text + fewer illustration + reusing the same illustrations many times.

Post the revised version and keep the old. It's not an all or nothing choice.

Sure, I will not delete my old comics. There is no sense in it, I don't want it. Moreover, there is a decent probability that I will want to work on comics again after some time.

[QueenofBabyLoon]

Please don't be sad.

The fact you are questioning your work is a proof that you are committed to your art and to take it to the next level. That is a beautiful characteristic to have. People who don't question don't improve and thus don't evolve.

I think @vothnthorvaldson had a very good point when suggesting that you should try doing a few pages of that visual novel of yours and see whether that corresponds better to the pace, the style, etc. you are looking for.

Now, about target audience. You know, every creators' community is a little bit of a niche. Depending whether you use Tapas, Webtoons, Kuaikan, etc., you will see that the most popular webcomics are often a variation on the same team. Most probably, at one point in the history of these platforms, a person made one type of comic that appealed to a reader and that reader invited the members of his community to join reading and bam … that type of comic became popular on that platform, other artists joined the bandwagon. And there we go, that one platform became renowned for that one type of comic. That does not mean that other comics with smaller followings are not good, not worthy, etc.

In fact, where I am concerned, all my favorite comics have a smaller following compared to the bestsellers (bestviewers?) on Tapas. And pretty much all of Tapas most popular webcomics are far (very far, though I respect the artists' talents and creative drive) from what I like. So you shouldn't compare yourself. Tapas seems to enjoy its Boys Love romances and manga/manhwa or American TV cartoon-inspired art very much. It is its niche. Webtoons has its own.

[unknown_user]

I am not sure what a classical visual novel is, but where I am concerned, since I always prefer words to images (though I love images as well - however, they often cause me to get distracted and obsess over details that just derail me from the story at hand, I think you've noticed that), I, as one of your comic's fan, will definitely continue following it, in whatever form you wish to share it with us.

Classic visual novel is the "video game", which is actually more like an interactive book with illustrations. It shows you images (often not animated), texts, and sometimes give a choice between several options. These choices give you an opportunity to reveal additional information about things, additional dialogues, or even change a plot in particular direction. Plot of the classic visual novels is often branched and allow different endings. I like this aspect very much, and I have an idea about at least 3-4 endings for my story. In the comics I will have to choose only one of them, but in the VN I can implement all of them and show causal relationship, which will lead to one end or another.

Quick examples of visual novel gameplay elements from "Tsukihime"

Normal plot revealing:

Choice:

Taking into account that chapter 3, for now, is very mysterious and that at this point in your story, even at the end of chapter 3, you will leave the readers hungering for more, I am pretty sure people will easily switch over from comic to visual novel (whatever that is). You have a very strong and engaged following, I am sure people are into it as much for the story as the art.

I will glad if it will be so. But I'm not quite sure...
Many people think that the more pictures, the more interesting things are, and become bored with a ton of text, and I totally understand them. I like read comics and manga with a good art, too. It's just to hard for me to regularly make so much art, as comics requires.

My suggestion is for you to keep what you did up until now as is, as not to lose the comments you like. But from now on, put your art and info sheets in an extra series, if you so wish.

What do you think, if I will duplicate old info sheets into the new "extra" series, will it be ok?

[unknown_user]

I don't understand exactly what changes you think of doing on the comic. Especially in relation to the title. Do you mean illustrations with a lot of text + speech bubbles? like the following example?

I want to continue in a format of a fewer amount of different illustrations + more reusing of the same drawings + more text. You'll see, if I'll begin to do it (I think, I'll create the distinct series for this experiment).

In any case: do what you feel like doing, but if I was you, I would take the time to work a little bit on the other format in parallel, for a short time to see if you actually like it more, rather than switching for good right away. If you do that, I'm pretty sure you won't even have to ask yourself these questions: if you like the new form better, you'll instinctively will work more on it and abandon the old one

I think @vothnthorvaldson had a very good point when suggesting that you should try doing a few pages of that visual novel of yours and see whether that corresponds better to the pace, the style, etc. you are looking for.

Yes, it looks like a good way to sort things out and to understand, what will be better to do next.

[QueenofBabyLoon]

You know what?

I like that format, too! However, as you mentioned, you are completely shifting from classical webcomic to something that is closer to the Chinese/Japanese webnovel. Dialogue-centered, short episodes/chapters, and definitely more literary oriented than webcomics (though webcomics are also writing, just different). How about you produce a few panels/pages of your visual novel, post them and make a poll to see what people think.

Where I am very personally concerned, I love it either way (btw, if you ever need some help around the writing, correcting some minor mistakes, etc., you know where to find me - I love your work that much).

I think your idea of duplicating your infosheets and adding them to that fact-folder comic would be a pretty smart thing to do. I think it is an excellent idea.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I'll be totally honest with you, for me, this kind of format is totally off putting. I would still read it, but only because you got me interested with the comic first. This kind of style SCREAMS cheap to me, and even if in your case, I understand it's not the case, that it will still take a lot of time and energy, I do understand time constraints etc (I am also worried about the 10+ years to write my comic), I will not be able to forget the general 'quickly made, quickly consumed' feel this kind of style gives me.

Now, I would say there is one thing that may make your specific story a little bit better than most for this format is the fact you may be able to play with the oldish computer look you already have in your comic. If you manage to make the style looks like it's there for technical restrictions, a la early 90' videogames, it may be way more attractive to me.

[ble]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[Darkstrong]

After over a year of work on my comics, I've revealed barely 10% of the plot.

That's ok, I think. We are working for almost two years on Hexameron (year and a half if you don't count our hiatus after the first two chapters) and we are about 10-15% into the story.
Your point about you not being able to express yourself - visual novel won't fix it. There you must be really good at writing, you are basically switching from comic to a book with pictures. I wouldn't say that it will be less work, unless you are really confident in your writing.

[unknown_user]

This is true. If I will draw less, I will write more, and then the work on writing will take more time
I think that I will take an advice to work on two formats in parallel for a while, and see, what will be more comfortable and produtive to me.

[OttoGruenwald]

Hang in there! Try to use dialog to get exposition across. When delivered through dialog you not only key the reader into the exposition but the personalities of the characters involved in the dialog.