I shortened this one comic idea I have, but if I wrote it as like one page a week, it would still take like a year to make a chapter, and I have 48 chapters planned. What do I do?

Hayka 2023-01-25 05:57:16 UTC #25

Everything I work on is long running, but I'm a novelist so I don't need that much time to complete stuff. Can you write complete story as a webnovel and start working on the comic little by little till you get an artist who's willing to collab with you? Like how Tbate used to go, I think the comic still hasnt caught up with the novel despite going on for years. If you have a good story and a big world that is good the way it is, then why change it? If the world-building is not essential to the story and its more character driven and not plot driven, then you can cut the parts that don't really help with what you're going for. I have a series called Lawful/Lawless I want to launch and the huge world-building and the hundreds of characters that come in whenever in diferent arcs, and the endless worlds and different places is the thing that makes it good, so I'd rather have it take a while than to rush things

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 06:11:08 UTC #26

No. How do I do that?

Lensing 2023-01-25 06:15:33 UTC #27

There are many ways. First thing you can do right now is to write a summary and test it here in the forum.

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 06:15:59 UTC #28

I actually plan to do that. Like a webnovel which I then adapt into a comic.

Though i’m not sure what to do. Should I make the webnovel as long as I feel like and then make a webcomic in shortened comic-length form, or write it in the comic length from the start?

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 06:27:11 UTC #29

So the premise is that the main character grew up thinking he was going to be the chosen one but years later he’s still not. He still expects to be the chosen one one day.

Then one day he meets the real chosen one. The real chosen one is apathetic to the world, only trying to save it because he’s destined to, and expecting to fail.

But he can’t do anything about it, and if he tells anyone this will cause chaos. So he has to keep the secret and be a fake chosen one who wishes he was while accompanying a real chosen one who wishes he wasn’t.

Lensing 2023-01-25 06:32:49 UTC #30

How does the main character want to save the world?
How can the chosen one save the world?
Why does it lead to chaos?

TheLemmaLlama 2023-01-25 06:35:37 UTC #31

Yeah, I won't deny it's hard to find a small idea you care about; there's a reason just telling us 'do a small comic first' doesn't turn us all into functioning creators overnight even though it gets repeated so often XD

The best advice I've got is these:

(ideas for shorter stories that you ... might have a higher chance of caring about than some random unrelated idea)

What should my first proper story be like?

I have two suggestions:

- One is a 'fanfic' of your own series; pretend it's something that already exists and something you've read, and write something with the same characters set in the same world, but exploring a different theme
- Or do the complete opposite; identify the theme of your big story, and write a shorter novel-ish thing to do with that theme with completely different characters, setting and preferably genre

These are two ways I could think of to make your First Proper Story something related enough to what you want to do, so that you'd have some motivation to do it (since a common barrier to the advice of 'write something shorter first' imo is it feels like something you just have to do to get experience, some 'homework' you have to get out of the way before you can do the thing you Actually Care About :'D)

This might not be very helpful if the only reason you care about your long story is because it's a Big Long Epic Saga and you always thought it'll be super cool to create a Big Long Epic Saga (which is valid, that's how I started off when I first tried to make a webcomic :P) - but if you love your long story for other reasons as well, it makes sense to make a short story that shares those same traits you love

(other short comics to reference if you're struggling to fit stories into very few pages)

Sounds like you'd want to write a long novel, and get it popular enough so that other people are willing to help you adapt it into a long comic :]

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 06:35:51 UTC #32

Save the world from the dark lord.

The chosen one is the only one who can beat the dark lord.

If he’s revealed the chosen one he’ll be killed for it because he’s the one-universe version of an orc, and then the dark lord will conquer the world.

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 06:41:39 UTC #33

I guess I could make a spin-off of my main story, exploring a certain small part of the world in detail.

It could probably lend itself to a pretty great story.

Lensing 2023-01-25 06:42:17 UTC #34

Tell me something that makes me as a reader care about the main character.
And what is the main characters role in the story when he can´t beat the dark lord?

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 07:00:26 UTC #35

He has to unlearn the serious emotional abuse he’s experienced and stop considering himself solely responsible for everyone’s problems and let people in.

Also his role at the start is to be the big face of the chosen one stuff, he saves people from villains and stuff. Then he fights an evil king and stuff and destroys the monarchy.

Lensing 2023-01-25 07:11:00 UTC #36

Have you given your story anyone to read or have you told anyone the whole story?
That´s something I usually do when I have a story idea that I want to try out.
I usually sit down with the person and tell them about the main character, the world
they are living in and what the story is about and how the main character solves the problem
and see if they understand it and can relate to it

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 07:20:59 UTC #37

I haven’t really done that before. How will that help me shorten the plot and stuff?

Lensing 2023-01-25 07:27:58 UTC #38

The reaction will help you.
Do people read your script or do they lose interest after one page?
Do people listen to your story? Do they questions? Do they know what´s going on?
And then you have to find the reason why they lose interest, why they can´t connect
etc

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 07:32:24 UTC #39

People read half a chapter.

I’m hoping the new outline is better received than the last few.

Lensing 2023-01-25 07:44:24 UTC #40

Feedback is the important part.
I have read a lot of scripts when I worked with writers and I always told them
when I can´t relate to something. Some scripts were hard to read and to understand
and I could only understand it with the writer explaining it to me. That´s how writers learn
to get better at writing. Many scripts/stories/worlds/universes are too complicated and most stories
which are successful are not super complicated

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 08:00:13 UTC #41

So the current version is like, he’s told a story about how great he is, and he’s shown to feel like the coolest boy ever and better than his sister is.

Then we cut to later and he feels like a failure in life because everything is still bad and he’s done nothing, and he’s not who anyone wanted him to become. Also he’s pushed everyone away so he can force himself to become perfect and good and like the hero he was told he’d become. Then he reunites with his sister and they fight because she’s been training for years to finally beat him in a fight or something.

Would this opening draw the audience in? Would you want to keep reading?

Kelheor 2023-01-25 08:04:39 UTC #42

What's the deal with his sister though?

JoshRaed 2023-01-25 08:07:12 UTC #43

He’s Gamora/azula, and she’s Nebula/zuko.

system 2023-02-24 08:07:26 UTC #44

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