I have a few questions for webtoon creators!

[yoboketto]

1. How do you prefer to outline? Do you have a bullet list? 3 Act Structure?

2. When it comes to scripting your episodes, do you already have it written down or do you work on it as you sketch the first episode?

3. How do you go about creating your Webtoon after outline? Do you sketch a few episodes first or do you work on one episode at a time?

4. How do you go about promoting?

5. Do you want to create another webtoon in the future? Why or why not?

6. Is there anything that you have learned as a creator that others should know about as well when getting into Webtoon making?

[LostKelp]

1. A bullet list is good. the most important thing is to know how your work ends and begins and from there you try to find the most interesting way to get from point A to B.

2. It depends on the kind of story you're making, if it's a very intricate plot-line scripting first is good. if the story is pretty flexible you can get away with a lot, I recommend a simple overarching story or just a slice of life for a first comic where you can work in plot details into whatever you feel like drawing that day. Also with slice of life you can afford to not do backgrounds or props.

3. I thumbnail my comic pages in big chunks then refine them over the course of a few weeks.

4. (I am bad at this) Get a few pages out then when there is something to latch onto post it onto your socials and share it with your friends, the first few weeks can be very discouraging because few people can get invested in 4 pages.

5. I do want to make another. I have lots of stories that I have invested my time and effort into and I feel that it would be a shame for them not to be shared.

6. Lots of people are gonna tell you to succeed you have to be consistent, the best way to do this is to keep some of your comic pages in reserve, make 3 pages each week and post 2 that way you can build a stockpile that you can burn through when you're not feeling it.

I would also like to say that nothing guarantee success in webcomics, so when you make one that shouldn't be your only reason, your webcomic can be something just for you and something you want to do if other people like it as well, Great! but if not that's ok because it's for you in the end.

( I've completed one comic and am currently working on another so I'm hardly an expert)

[darthmongoose]

1. I tend to outline in bulletpoints. I work in sort of "arcs" or "books". Then I elaborate more, usually by writing a script to block out a scene. I'll often not use the exact words of the script in the final comic, but it helps me get the overall flow of a scene and sometimes I'll get some important key lines down here.

2. I write a script, but use it more as a guideline, the real stage where a scene truly forms for me is thumbnails. I draw out thumbnails of my pages and then start to really understand the actual pacing of the scene and how much space I'll have for the writing, as well as how I'll pace it out as the 2-pages stacked updates of Errant. Since I can't just switch scene halfway through an update, and every update needs some kind of interesting revelation, character moment, action beat or punchline, I find it easier to feel how a scene breaks into updates when I draw the thumbnail. Sometimes a single line like "Rekki punches the demon in the face!" is an entire page in the comic!

3. My episodes are basically two print pages with the panels spread out a bit and stacked to create a mini long-scroll. I work on pages two at a time.

4. I promote all over the place. I post on various social media for starters, I've found the most effective social media platform for me is twitter, but that's because I've been on twitter for like 12 years and already have a following there and a lot of comics mutuals to give me a boost. Trying to build a following on twitter is a lot harder now, so I'd recommend looking at options. I think the most effective place to get things rolling is the Tapas forum. I avoid sub-for-sub and instead concentrate on threads where people post sample pages or panels from our comics or talk about them. I've also done banner swaps with other comics, starting with people around the same sort of sub count or friends from the comics scene; the more similar the sort of audience for the comics doing the swap, the more effective the swap. Finally I've tried paid ads; insta wasn't effective for me (but I think It'd be more effective for somebody with really cute art and a strong insta following) but comicad does okay.
   Ultimately the most effective possible promotion on Tapas is to get featured, so I definitely recommend giving your cover and logo plenty of time and attention to make them polished and making sure your comic is easy to read on mobile, then being sure to promote on the forums and on the Tapas discord to maximise the chances of a "new from the community" to give you an initial boost. Your art is more than good enough and very polished, so just make sure the presentation of your comic is good and you have an appealing concept that's easy to get into and you should be all set!

5. My next comic may be a children's comic for print, or it might be a webcomic, I may even try long scroll. I'd definitely like to apply some things I've learned making Errant to a new series. That said, Errant will be going on a while, so a new comic would potentially be running parallel, or be a while off.

6. Oh god, lots of things, too many to even list in a single post. Some key ones are:

-Modern webcomics are largely read on mobile devices, so like it or not, that's where your audience is reading; either make a comic somebody can read on a phone or miss out on tons of readers.
-Webcomics are an attention economy. Make sure to establish either an intriguing premise or mystery, appealing characters or at least show something really cool within your first few updates.
-Treat your comic like it's an IP or brand. Consistent logo design, colours, visual style and trying to have recognisable, bold character designs or key props or visual elements will get you a long way.
-On a related note: ALWAYS GOOGLE THE NAME YOU WANT TO CALL YOUR COMIC BEFORE COMMITTING TO A NAME!!!!!! I cannot stress this enough! Don't give your comic the name of an already popular show, book or especially another comic or webcomic.
-Most people care way more about how your plot affects the characters in your story emotionally than they care about the intricate details of your plot. Also always aspire to make your readers feel clever, not to show off how much cleverer you are than your readers.
-PLAN AHEAD. If you don't, you will almost certainly paint yourself into a corner eventually.
-Make friends and support other creators. Comics aren't a zero-sum-game, so don't think of other creators as competitors; if a friend is doing well, that may well benefit you too by bringing in more of your kind of readers to the site, so help each other out!
-Hit a balance between making something you love and making something that will appeal to Tapas readers (typically around 20 year old American women who like character-focused stories) You have to be having fun and feeling motivated or it's just not worth it (there are plenty of not-enjoyable jobs in the world that pay much better than comics), but if you want to build an audience, you'll need to appeal to the platform. Look for "comp titles", comics that have done well on Tapas with a similar vibe. For example, if I had to list comp titles for Errant I'd say "Pandora's Devils", "Alien Heart" or "Hard Lacquer".

[TheLemmaLlama]

How do you prefer to outline? Do you have a bullet list? 3 Act Structure?

Bullet list! I think structures should be used as a tool to inform you of pacing and direction, not a template you have to fill out. I used to fear outlining because I thought I had to follow a structure, and have been much freer after breaking away from that mindset :]

When it comes to scripting your episodes, do you already have it written down or do you work on it as you sketch the first episode?

I have about 4 episodes scripted ahead of my illustrations, plus some future scenes that I scripted in moments of inspiration XD I also tweak the script during thumbnailing if I feel it works better

How do you go about creating your Webtoon after outline? Do you sketch a few episodes first or do you work on one episode at a time?

One episode at a time, usually

How do you go about promoting?

At the moment, I feel like the degree to which I naturally run my mouth provides sufficient promotion XD Once I finish my first arc, I plan to ratchet up the promotion by posting relevant content to certain subreddits and other outside (non Tapas/Webtoon) communities I have in mind that some content from my comic will be suited to.

Do you want to create another webtoon in the future? Why or why not?

Yes, I'm doing worldbuilding for another webtoon while I'm working on my current one Why? Because that's actually the comic I'm most excited about and my current comic is partially practice for that future comic (although my current comic would also take somewhat long to finish and I am passionate about it for its own sake as well XD)

Is there anything that you have learned as a creator that others should know about as well when getting into Webtoon making?

Long stories are made up of short stories. If you try to write a long story without knowing how to write a short story, often what'll happen is either:

• you'll think of a beginning and end, but you have no idea how to get from one to the other. it's just too wide of a gap to leap across. and you'll either get stuck and give up, or

• you'll kind of just do random things with the story and meander about, artificially delaying the ending because you've gotten it into your head that the story is 'supposed' to be long and you 'have to' fill in the parts in between with 'stuff'.

If you try to tighten your writing and avoid that meandering, but you only have the overarching 'long story' and no subplots (short stories), you're just going to get a short story. It's like squeezing the air out of a bag of marbles without filling it with marbles; you're just going to end up with a squished up bag :]

[iHateFridays]

How do you prefer to outline? Do you have a bullet list? 3 Act Structure? - I just write out the whole plot like how you'd see it described on a wiki page or something

When it comes to scripting your episodes, do you already have it written down or do you work on it as you sketch the first episode? - Already scripted

How do you go about creating your Webtoon after outline? Do you sketch a few episodes first or do you work on one episode at a time? - One ep at a time

How do you go about promoting? - Sometimes I promote on the forums, sometimes in discord servers, and sometimes on my social media

Do you want to create another webtoon in the future? Why or why not? - Yes, still a bit on the fence about it tho

Is there anything that you have learned as a creator that others should know about as well when getting into Webtoon making? - Do some research and make practice panels XD

[AmandaJ-art]

1. I like using Pixar's story structure. After that I go in and widen it by adding even more points - Like - The main things that happen each scene.

2.I like making thumbnails first to see the visual. I find that it works best for me.

3.It depends on the webtoon.I work on mutiple most of the time. I'd go in and sketch like 6. Then I'd line them and so on. Some are weekly comics, so I might just go ahead and work on one at a time. (But I always have multiple rough sketched out)

4.I promote on my art social medias and on here.

5.After I finish these yes. I have already started more as I made one since I just wanted to so badly. I'd never wanna stop.

6.You'll always improve over time, so you should never feel scared to just start making. I have one comic that is 3 years old and the start looks nothing like the end.

[smokesalty]

1. I outline through dot points sorted into scenes. I tend to make the outline pretty detailed so that I can get some ideas down and in order to not forget any subtle/smaller parts of the scene. I usually already have a start, middle and end planned and my outline is me working out how the story gets to that point.

2. My entire script is completed before I start my comic just so that I can edit and cut down on useless content as well as add in foreshadowing. I like having my script complete so that I don't have to worry about writing when I'm updating every week.

3. I usually have my script open and I'll thumbnail my pages to work out the composition and where the speech bubbles will be laid out. I work episode by episode (around 3-4 pages a week)

4. I usually promote here on the forums, on my instagram story, twitter and tiktok. On instagram I'll usually just tell people a new episode is out, on twitter I'll link my comic on comic shares and I'll also link it if any of my posts do well. On tiktok I use panels I've already made to audios and make sure to name my comic in the description and comments.

5. Yes, absolutely. I love making comics and I have a ton of cool ideas I want to work on in the future.

6. I'd recommend having a plan. This includes the story, character sheets, location designs, comic making schedule. While yes it might not be the most exciting thing ever it can save you a lot of stress later on. It's mainly because I'm really big on planning and I want my comic to be the best that it can be!

[descendantsofether]

1: How do you prefer to outline? Do you have a bullet list? 3 Act Structure?

Outline? Nah, everything remains in the dome.

2: When it comes to scripting your episodes, do you already have it written down or do you work on it as you sketch the first episode?

The writing is done first and is considered pre production. Once PrePro is done, it gets shipped off to the cages I keep my artists in.

I mean my art team.

3. How do you go about creating your Webtoon after outline? Do you sketch a few episodes first or do you work on one episode at a time?

One episode is produced at a time, but pre pro is currently about 7 chapters ahead. Trying to keep it that way so the voices in my walls don't get angry.

4: How do you go about promoting?

Mosty vague shitposting on Twitter and the occasional shit post on Tiktok. I pursue Twitter for maybe 3 hours a day looking for scraps of promotional tweets I can leech off of. Oh and posts on the Tapas forums of course.

5: Do you want to create another webtoon in the future? Why or why not?

The storyline I'm producing right now has upwards of 50 years worth of production content at its current pace. Assuming I'm still alive by the time I finish the story, I'll think about it.

6: Is there anything that you have learned as a creator that others should know about as well when getting into Webtoon making?

Promotion is draining, art is draining, writing is draining. Everything is hard. But so is everything else, so just do it In guess? Be confident in your work and take the opportunities set before you or you may miss them. Oh and if you read my comic you'll become famous (no promises).

[powerplantanimations]

1. I make a bullet list. I just do whatever I feel like regarding structures if I'm being honest.

2. I have every written down. I don't know how to draw :v

3. Do to how simple my comic is my artist can do whatever he wants.

4. Getting familiar with Tapas. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I also plan on making a YouTube Channel with lore that connects to my webcomic. I also plan on making exclusive content on Instagram.

5. YES. I have like four comics planned.

6. Start small.

[system]

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