Is it the right time to start drawing my webcomic?

[wendybirdx]

Hi, everyone! I'm Mandy, and I'm starting a webcomic this year. However, I'm having a little trouble with knowing wether I should continue to flesh it out or start drawing already.

So far, I've planned out the characters and events and designs to a point where I could start drawing already. I saw a YouTube video (this one, specifically) and the reccomendation that's given is to have a vague notion of the story and just start creating. While I know either extreme can be harmful (knowing nothing about your story versus overly planning to a point where you never start), I'm not sure if I've found that balance, that point where I can move on to truly drawing.

I've laid out a series of events that will happen. I have about 5-6 scenes per volume (which should be the typical 22-26 pages per book, which should eventually be published), and it's about the reccomended amount of scenes for a comic, according to my somewhat limited research. I haven't scripted it out in writing, though I've got some vague ideas of specific dialogue lines I'll want to use here and there. As a visual artist, I have a feeling that it might be easier for me to visualize the product as a whole if I start storyboarding isntead of writing a purely textual script, which I don't think will be a problem since I'm both the writer and the artist of this comic.

But has anyone had problems doing it this way before? What's been more effective for you guys - scripting something out in written form or just storyboarding with a vague notion of the events and their order? Maybe you do it some other way and you'd like to share? As a first time comic artist, any feedback helps and is much appreciated.

[hades]

Honestly it is up to you, hun. It'll be best to find your own process and method and stick to that. If you feel the urge to start the art then start the art! Maybe it'll lead to some different inspiration or ideas even! You seem to have a great grasp on what you want to have in your comic so I don't think putting it off will be a good idea.

[Ringarune]

I think you'd be fine to start. For my story, i have my ending planned out and some key events and honestly, that's about it. My ideas change so much and I keep coming up with better ways to present what I want to that working loosely works really well for me since I can change things easily.

[Dozzer]

A web comic is part planning, part drawing. Sure it's good to have a plan or outline, but I will say that there's some great ideas I wouldn't have come up with have I not started. Keep that I'm mind. Have a little something, then start.

My Series =) The Middle Crowd

[GoldenPlume]

Do you feel prepared to start? It sounds like you may have some underlying concerns. In that case, you should consider listening to yourself and possibly doing more outlining first. A common issue many creators run into is they have a "sagging middle". They have a great beginning and a great ending but the middle is lacking. Regardless of this they start, thinking they will figure it out when they get there. Unfortunately when they get to the middle they are hit with "writer's block" because they were not adequately prepared. Some get permanently stuck and give up, others work through it, but at the cost of having to redo a lot of panels.

You can never go wrong with pre-planning. Knowing each scene well, acting them out, rehearsing the dialogue, the more "blueprints" you do up front the easier it will be to build your webcomic when pencil starts to paper. Otherwise you can end up with dead spaces or spots where your speech bubbles are too big or are in the way or pacing seems jerking (fast-slow-fast-slow) rather than fluid.

Always consider doing thumbnails first for an entire chapter so you can see it from beginning to middle to end. Thumbnails are easy to change up. Then do yourself a huge favor and find one or two beta readers in your genre who are both a friend but will also give honest criticism to have them look your work over to see what they think. Such will save you a lot of time intensive editing later down the road.

Finally, always consider having a good amount of "buffer" done before you start posting to Tapastic. If you start posting on a schedule you want to stick with that to keep your subscribers interest. Having a "buffer" of stuff already done means when something comes up that interrupts you, you have something to fall back on if you need extra time to finish up that week's posting.

Good luck!

[kristintipping7]

I've found that not having a script works OK for relay short projects (like a few pages). When I tried to do the the same with a long form comic it really blew up in my face, though. I have the same problem of being an extremely visual person, so I usual write the script and do page layouts at the same time. On the right side of the page i"ll have something like

Page 1
-panel 1: A happens.
-panel 2: B happens.

and on the left side I'll draw little thumbnails of each page. I would suggest you get a script and page layouts done for the fist volume before you start drawing the actual pages. If you don't like it you don't have to do it for the rest of the comic, and you don't have to stick to what you've written if you think of something better later on. You may decide your more comfortable winging it, but I would recommend at least giving it a try. A little bit of planning can go a long way.

[SeraphicMayin]

Hello and welcome to the world of creating webcomics!
I've been whet you are, being both writer and artist and while I thought the same thing, that I could better make the story visually,I was not entirely correct.
Being both artist and writer means you have to be willing to work both.
I work with a friend who is my co-writer and editor and what I've learnt in our pre production stage is this: writing to explore the story and creating concept art is not only helpful but it will help cement the comic firmly in your mind. Then, comic scripts are very helpful.

I know it sounds like work, but doing the drawing in tandem with your planning will satisfy your artist side and you'll be able to better see your story. It'll take time, but any meaningful endeavour always does.

[gateofselidor]

You don't need to have the whole script written before you start. In fact, it may be counter productive, because if you're going to be spending years working on it, you'll just end up making adjustments anyway.

Personally, I have summaries of every chapter written up, but my actual script is only one chapter ahead of the pages I'm posting.

If you know where the story is going, and you've got enough details on the setting and characters to start drawing, you might as well go ahead and start.

[indagold]

Seriously write a script/story. I used to never write those and boy what a mess that was. I'm now writing stories before all the nitty gritty stuff because you can hold onto stories and they take a short time to write. Best thing is you can go back and rewrite the story or make changes. You can't do that when you have a comic already made. Unless the comic is not story driven, lacks one or is a stream of consciousness thing, I think a full fledged story prevents you from messing up halfway. Especially imagine you go on hiatus or have been working on it for years, you may forgot something.

[mintycanoodles]

http://jessicaabel.com/2016/01/27/idea-debt/ this is a really good article i read back before I started my comic this time, and i think it talks about this problem of when to start really well.

[wendybirdx]

Oh, wow, so many replies! I expected it would take much longer to get proper feedback, thanks so much to everyone who contributed!

@hades Yeah, I think I'll try both methods and try to get a feel for each of them before starting. I don't know if it's too early to say, but so for it seems that writing and storyboarding simultaneously has been working best. (:
@Ringarune I do hope so! So far, I didn't to have any trouble doing a test storyboard, so I'll see if I can plan everything out that way without running into too many obstacles.
@Dozzer I think that's been my problem for awhile - just being afraid to start. Love the series, by the way! It's hilarious!
@GoldenPlume I do feel prepared to start storyboarding. What I do seem to be lacking is a good notion of pacing, though since it's such a sensitive and relative aspect of writing, maybe it would be best to storyboard and ask for feedback on a few initial pages? I think I'll try that for a bit! And thanks! c:
@kristintipping7 Maybe I'll try to have a bit of both! It seems to be what I'm naturally doing with the first few pages as a test, so it seems to be working with a good kind of balance.
@SeraphicMayin Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I think I'll definitely be investing a period of time to kind of let the story settle and see if it's really what I want.
@gateofselidor Yeah, I'm afraid of getting a bit too caught up in my own perfectionism. I'm about at that point, so I think it'll be alright if I storyboard alongside that!
@indagold Would you reccomend writing it formally as a script, or do you think another format of outlining would work? :o I just have trouble wrapping my head around the format and terminology, but I'm not sure if maybe drawing out ideas in thumbnails or storyboards instead of necessarily writing out how a panel is would get in the way.
@mintycanoodles This is so amazing, thank you so much for sharing it with me! I can definitely identify myself in this for many, many projects. I hope this one doesn't become my next debt. :o

[indagold]

depends, if you like scripts, then do scripts. I like writing brief synopsis. I think it all comes down to getting the ideas on paper first.

[yvettegustafsson]

What looks good inside your head might look OHMYGODAMAZEBALLS!! and when it's down on paper it might not be so awesome after all, so I think that's the important part. Get it down on paper. I prefer to

1. get the ideas down in written form, but very short synopsis.
2. I make a storyboard that's very rough. Just with an idea of what's happening in every panel and try to get most of the dialogue in the bubbles as well. If I draw these pages in too big a format the text always get to heavy, so if I can fit it all in on a A7 or an A6 size page it usually ends upp getting pretty ok.
3. I try not to be too critical about what's going on in step 2, just get it down on paper.
4. When I've finished storyboarding the chapter, then I go back and look at what panels I've been lazy with, which ones need changing (it's easy to spot talking heads this way) and look at the pacing. The small format helps me get a good look at these things.
5. After that I start drawing the pages up on larger paper and focus on the art stuff.

I need to keep the story and the art separate in my head, because otherwise there would be too many things to think about at the same time and I'd be filled with self doubt and nothing would ever be done.

Good luck!

[demthorshie]

I think it's great that you have all of your character designs, events and setting in place, but may I suggest that you put it all together in a fully functional script? It is a lot easier to layout your comics when you have a script. I think dialogue is one of the harder things to place in to your comic and when you have a script you can pull things from, you'll have a much easier time planning out what to draw next and how to draw each panel based on your script! If you have the time, you can set up a rough storyboard as well, which will give you the visuals and the dialogue together.

[Robosaur]

Hey Wendybirdx! I think that scripts are VERY helpful,even if it's going to be edited several times. The best part is that they don't have to be complicated! Personally, i found that having a vague description of each panel (EX: angle and action) makes thumbnailing faster and more efficient in the long run. It doesn't have to be too descriptive but, its good to KNOW what you're going to draw before working on the actual art.Here's a little example of how i scripted my comic:

As for the dialogue, writing them down and reading the conversation out loud will make unnatural speech more obvious. But in the end, it's totally your choice! C: Good luck! <3

[miseryhunting]

As for the dialogue, writing them down and reading the conversation out loud will make unnatural speech more obvious.

Totally agree! I am really bad with writing scripts, but I recently noticed my dialogue sounds really unnatural without one. It's definitely worth giving it a try.

[69Michi]

I might not be the best person to reply in here for any suggestion/advice... but I think so far I'm doing good with my planning stage and drawing stage in my first comic! (Granted that I only had a Prologue up for now... )

To answer your question, I had done both storyboarding with a vague notion of the events and their order AND scripting something out in written form (storyboarding first then write out script) I found this to be the most effective combination because I usually found myself changing the layout of the events midway as I work on the rough drafts of the comic. When it comes to writing script though... personally, my scripts are usually very simple and not as detailed as the scripts you found on the pros' guide. (Ain't nobody got time for that jkjkLOL) But yea like I said I found myself switching the events around, tweaking the dialogs, so simple script like:

[Location: A | Atmosphere: Dark and gloomy, raining outside]
Person A: [exhausted] "Dialog 1"
Person B: [confused] "Dialog 2"
[Note on the current scene/chapter [Optional]]

that work best for me.

[wendybirdx]

@yvettegustafsson Ahh yeah, that does sound legit. I think I'll give scripting a try after all, even though the formatting and such seems a little scary at first xD
@demthorshie @Robosaur @miseryhunting I think you guys have summarized my exact problem that I've been encountering jumping straight to storyboards haha while I did give it a try, it felt weird not shaping it around any specific dialogue (which will be very important to the story, ultimately). A script seems to be worth the trouble, then!
@69Erocento Yeah, I guess I kept backing away from it because the formatting and length seemed a little intimidating, but I think I'll be needing more direction.

[miseryhunting]

Hello, @wendybirdx!
I've mentioned in various posts in the forum that I am in the same situation (people around are probably sick of hearing of how I feel I'm under prepared no matter how much I try).
The best advice I've heard from numerous people id to just start - that you're gonna learn times faster when you're actually doing it.
So I was wondering (f it's okay with you) maybe we can both start together? :] I can use some help/genuine advice / motivation and it seems less intimidating when you know someone else is going through the same.

I welcome anyone who has the time and is willing to give me an honest opinion if I am ready to start by having a quick look at a sample page on my WIP blog (with password "sidekick").
I've had serious anxiety for showing my art for a long time, but I do look for a critique too. I know story writing is going to be the most difficult aspect, but I also fear people are going to look at my pages and say "there are so many better comics, why is this person pretending to know how to do it". :/

[wendybirdx]

@miseryhunting Hey there! c:
That actually sounds amazing haha I guess one of my greatest troubles is having this fear that something I think is cool is actually missing something really important or doesn't have the same appeal to others. It's a little weird having zero feedback because I feel like I could be making something awful without knowing it. But I'd love to have someone to accompany my work and to talk about theirs, as well! ^w^