Let’s share our Story building Tools! ((spoilers?))

nostalgicroxas · Sep '20

Writers and comic creators have a wide variety of tools at our disposal. Some of them are built into software we use and some of them are piles of sticky notes all around our desks.

I used to keep physical notes (I'll have to find the actual images on my other laptop so I can share them, so stay tuned!) of stories - specifically for "Nearly There Nicely". I knew from the outset that this was going to be a somewhat large story so I wanted to have somewhere in my busy college life to keep stuff I could refer to fast. I don't have a two-monitor situation and having a notebook next to me worked for a while. That's actually how I ended up making a list of things I wanted to happen as I built up the backstory, and it ended up looking familiar to a 1 through 20 bullet point list type outline.

As time has passed I've spread out and adopted more tools evil laughter Some good, and some.... well just cause chaos.

One of the first things I did, since I noticed the comic (at the time was going to slow) I needed to keep track of the major events that would happen in a chapter and what locations they were at. So I made a cheat sheet in Word with a table.

I'm still using this all the way up to ch103+ One of the things I do that's important for me to know is if something.... super important happens, I bold/underline/italicize and make it a tad larger in a different color. So when I'm scrolling through skimming, I can find it fast.

The next thing I ended up doing and have kept it up is I created with the help of simple math, was a table for how many chapters I do a month, so how many do I have done total. As you can see below, I started the notes and comic in oct but officially abandoned that comic idea within a month lol I also have moved my "average word count" number to over there because it's easier to see since in the same form I have other information -so I can see it all at once.

Just to the right of it in the center of the cells is a graph. It's just a visual representation of that number list. Sometimes it's good to see it in both ways.

Just below that cell list is a dot graph that visually represents how many words per chapter happens. I had to break them up based into clumps just so I could still keep reading them without having to scroll lol That's the only difference of colors. But you can see that although I'm writing less chapters now, they've gotten progressively chunkier. Group "A" being the first set of chapters, and the yellow group "D" being the most recent.

I'm not done yet because that dot graph needs to get it's word count data from somewhere! Not these are fluid numbers that I have continually updated as I've edited the works. If I was smart I should've kept a pre-edited set of numbers but oh well. Live and learn.

Lastly on this page is the visual word count representation broken up by how the physical books are broken up. I knew I had started to write fatter chapters, but that literally the last third is the same length as the first two thirds? Oh my gosh this is when it started to sink in.

Here's how I see that whole page

Summary

Then. It became real. I get physical books that I have sold and I use those as editing tools. For formatting and to make a new mental map so I can see the work fresh to edit it more effectively (a trick I learned in college). But as I said, it became real, and book 3 came in... And well. it... It was a tad ..... thickkkkkk.
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Then one day I decided I wasn't done and wanted to make the kingdom a thing I could see - a continent - then a damn planet. So more notes started. This is just the short version of them, but trust me, some of them are very detailed (including the continent that I flushed out down to what it exports and imports and is the central/only location for a NaNoWriMo story that takes place at the same time but not directly involved with Nearly There Nicely....)

Then well, I can't decide if I hate myself or really like the story... so I went on to start creating a timeline. See I was thinking up stuff for the backstory of how much Crow and Will had spent together and why had they been seperated, so on and so forth, and so I needed to get ages and times and... well what I ended up with are two timelines. One for "in story" and one for "backstory".

And the backstory one well... It kind of became a monster as I was writing it. I kept having all these ideas that suddenly made sense! So I had to write them down. Mistakenly on my part, both of these tables were made in Spreadsheets instead of in Word, so printing them out results in the far columns being cut off usually QQ

Now don't get me wrong, I still refer to this stuff all of the time. And if anything it's good to have the grounding basis of the world as a whole in my mind so I don't have to stop later and be like UHHHHHHHH and have to jerry rig something together.
I also have notes somewhere in regard to -when- Will and Crow were born, placing them into our Zodiac system, how much time specifically passed between Adell's amnesia and remarrying+new child being born. And the "in story" timeline even has me marking the passage of time so I can keep track of what month they're in so I can reflect the correct weather patterns

And then lastly, my most current tool is starting to use a dot journal to see if that helps me drum up ideas. It helped me to write down what I wanted to happen next (I've done this before and have the files saved, usually in notepads), but this way I was able to place down what in what order I wanted to have happen.
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Very lastly, is my digital files. My main laptop has the files for the timelines and such in them and I just haven't moved them over yet. I just moved over to my new laptop what I needed for the short term. Shorts, notes, and files for chapters to re-read. The "bookv" folder is specifically and only for the stuff related to the physical books - templates for the file sizes, copyright pages, and the files I submit and edit to lulu.com for the actual printing, as well as the image files for the covers.

So everyone - please show with me your tools you've used and how you organize. I'm always looking for new ideas on how to freshen up the ways I organize and hopefully this helps inspire people on how to organize their own works. You don't need to go into this kind of detail for every story, but since I knew I was "in for the long haul" I've always addressed this story with the mindset of "why not?"

rajillustration · Sep '20

Wow! this is so organized! I just pile everything on top of a single word document and change it later after I revise the story a few times So I make a glossary of terms, a character list, a rough timeline of events that precede the story, and a rough outline of what things happen where. No charts or anything. Just bullet points. Especially when doing comics, I have to delete just sooo much world building for the final edit that I don't make as much as I used to when I was focused on books.

But I will say that when I do a magic system and when I'm researching for that--I'll put symbols, words, and phrases in a sketchbook specifically for that project. I uh...don't know where mine is right now, since now I know it in my head so well, but I did at one point. Something about physically using my hands on paper really gets the brainstorming going.

DasIstWunderblyat · Sep '20

It's all in my head or in my notepad for things that are harder to remember (like date or sequence of events).
Being too organized makes me confused and spend too much time on organising it instead of actually writing.

WillowTree · Sep '20

I have bulletpoints of the main things that need to happen. It usually around 5-7 bulletpoints. Then I mostly follow a beat sheet from 'Romancing the Beat' for my romance arc. For 'The Love of a Werewolf' I also have two notes in the notepad of my phone where I was falling asleep and got a good idea for the story.

I find plotting to heavily beforehand can really zap my enjoyment of writing it out so I just figure out enough to make sure I know where I'm going

Crusoe · Sep '20

Sama haha, it's why I just keep a separate document for any notes and events I come up with. The major plotbeats have already been decided, but the stuff Inbetween I can change on a whimp

I'm also working on a comic that I will publish once I have an actual means of drawing the panels, but for now I use really dumb sketchbook thumbnails to jot down my ideas. A more visual way of making notes I guess.

nostalgicroxas · Sep '20

I used to be like that and minimally organize. Most of my stories and things in them happens and is organized in my head. I didn't start making things like this until I noticed simple notes and flipping through paragraphs of backstory wasn't helping me. The cheat sheet of what happens each chapter is probably the thing I refer to the most.

jensrichard77 · Sep '20

Respect. Most respect for your hard work.

I have my character sheet where I also make note of their relationships and update their time and place to make is logical of who and where they are able to meet other characters.

Then I use this online map tool to figure out my world
https://inkarnate.com/

Here is the map of the kingdom of yellowrod. The world of Bunneh The Rabbit I’m writing now

For more details and city layout I just use Powerpoint to place my stuff

Now I know where everything is and I can start writing my story.

And soon the entire Tapas will know Bunneh The Rabbit

nostalgicroxas · Sep '20

Duuuuude respect. I hate powerpoint with a fiery passion. It never does what I want. Your layout kind of reminds me of some sort of feature I think I've seen advertised for Scrivier?

God I love online map generators. I actually found one a couple of years ago that did random island shapes and I basically made like 100 shapes and started to combine them and resize them to make the planet for the story.

I used a simple art program to match them up together in a giant map, putting essentially desert areas around each other and so on so it was more logical. Then I finished and was like.... Crap. I have an entire planet now and I just wanted to know where the kingdom (Leinzilia) was since "mountains to the west, ocean to the east, rivers to the north, and forest to the south" stops being descriptive after a while. This map is actually what led into all of the big writings for the continents and more of the backstory.
https://www.deviantart.com/nostalgicroxas/art/NTN-World-379315569

I don't regret it. It was fun, researching and looking on all sorts of things about imports and exports and what can go in what kind of environment. Spent about a week just working on all of that and nothing else

VM-VM-VM · Sep '20

I use Scrivener, it helps me organize everything ,plot my plot (lol) and remember the names of characters and what they do, I'm not good with that. Anyway, this took a lot of time and effort. This is incredible!

VM-VM-VM · Sep '20

I used Inkarnate to make a map of my world, I had written everything down in Notes on my phone but it was too tasking. 10/10 would recommend.

nostalgicroxas · Sep '20

I keep looking at that app but I always feel like... it won't do what I want. I totally see the benefit of it though - everything all in one place.
Someone told me it's easy to organize and re-order chapters in there, too?

VM-VM-VM · Sep '20

super easy to organize and keeping track of your novel, or script or whatever. I'm not an ambassador for Scrivener but would highly recommend. Once you start using it, everything just flows.

domisotto · Sep '20

I simply use google docs, and the outline template from the Saves the Cat, Writes a Novel to work on my plot beats. I did try Inkarnate to make a map for one of my books, but I felt like I was wasting my time painting endless swathes of the single trees... lol. I am just not a consummate map-maker, I am afraid. I prefer to write.

gmaximin · Sep '20

@nostalgicroxas that’s truly impressive!
I’m an excel person. I break down my works into chapters (like the Stand(H)ard graphic novel), with one worksheet for each chapter and a main summary worksheet.
Then I link cells across the workbook to connect standard info that runs through several chapters by theme: character, mood (which I match with a band or album that I’ll put as background when actually drawing), clothe. Then location, weather, rough place arrangement like Verona’s house using cells border, object with related reference if any.
So it helps to get all consistent, and it’s easy to update automatically when I have a change of idea. Last but not least, I can work on it in the office in my down time without looking suspicious...

nostalgicroxas · Sep '20

Dude I want pictures of this majesty

nathanKmcwilliams · Sep '20

I'm not very organized with my stuff. Which is a purposeful choice, I get too bogged down with minutiae and lose the drive to actually create when I focus on organization.

But the biggest tool? SPOTIFY. I use music to come up with ideas...and I generally create specific playlists for the varied stories I want to tell. Plus I keep a record of my favorite albums from each year. (This isn't all of them either)

And then I do use Google Docs for a basic outline, and then before I start putting the comic down, I do a more detailed writing on it. Spoilers for the next chapter btw...

Beyond that, I keep it all in my head and let it stew whilst listening to all of those playlists. And while searching for new music too. Mostly I just listen to music and create. Easy peasy.

darkone4587 · Sep '20

Honestly at first I mostly used word and kept pages and pages of notes. Now I use Campfire to organize my characters and their look alongside some plot points and items.

allenT · Sep '20

I'll like to show my method. I can't say i'm as organized.
Because i'm a big-picture person, I work through my story by layering. (from bare-bones to details)

Back in 2018~2019 when I wrote 1st and 2nd draft of my story, I used physical notepad and pencil. From the start till the ending, I wrote almost 30~40 pages (my story is about the length of a 2~2.5 hour movie).

Then I create this sticker board which shows me all the scenes(yellow & white stickers) in "arcs"('acts' are more correct) so that I can do adjustment when I needed. I really enjoy planning the scenes here: which to show first or later, or omit. The bottom with the blue-tacks are estimations of where a chapter starts/ends.

The upper left is a story's energy flow-chart. Pretty self-explanatory.

And finally I wrote a more detailed final draft digitally. I use Notepad+ . Scenes are in bullet points but i tend to write it more and more detailed in later chapters. I don't write dialogues here, I only write them almost at the end of comic-page production. It's just my way. I'm now about 65% complete on the final draft.

(a bit spoilers are shown but nevermind)

The numbers represents pages the scene needs to cover. (here I have to play out comicpages in my head. The numbers are not final, just guidelines for later thumbnail stage!) Also, some remarks are added in case i forgot to put in/emphasize.

**
So these are all just the "script" side, not including comic drafts, thumbnails & panelings. Thanks for reading.

spadesart · Sep '20

Oh man, your organization is impeccable. I kinda just brain vomit into a word doc and hope I get something that I can build a script out of lol ..............

Taken from a post I made on tumblr recently, here's the process/drafts that a scene from my comic goes through from outline to finished page:

I have another comic in the pre-production phase that's merged the script and bulleted outline though, just to keep things more lightweight. However, with this one I have a full summary for season 1 already written from start to finish with more in-depth details. (I'm working off a pitch summary that I sent in to tapas premium, it wasn't greenlit but I figured hey, it's already written so I'll just make it anyways and see how it goes)

nostalgicroxas · Sep '20

I think the key is that I didn't do it all at once and I don't ask 1 file to do 20 things.
Like the world building stuff about exports and imports I talked about? That's in a word doc all it's own; And the extended information that's used in the spin-off is all in it's own file.
I wonder if you could benefit from reading how-to's or introductions on how to write Scripts for plays/movie scripts and such. From what I've seen, they're similar to what comic scripts can look like - since they have "Stage directions" and such in them. Or just reading a story that's written in that format (ie The Frogs)
Interestingly enough, that play is part of a group and provided by Project Gutenberg to have classics available to read online for free:: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7998

I'm actually going to get on my older laptop tonight and grab screencaps from that to show the extended system, and some older systems that I use for other stories and files.
Namely I want to find the images of the very first notes for Nearly There Nicely since that's essentially just character sheets and some doodles here and there - and you can easily tell I ran out of paper space.

I looooove bullet lists and that kind of .... "rp" sort of dialogue. I have a file or two of just "conversations" where I spoke the dialogue, recorded it, listened to it and then wrote it down as such.

One thing I do often is I email myself. Sometimes it's short ideas, a simple word I want to use (or find out wtf it's definition is), sometimes it's entire paragraphs. BUT I email an email that is not my main email that's attached to amazon and what not so I don't need to filter while looking for stuff. The only thing I should do since it's on google is make a tag system so I can always highlight with pink or lime or something bright....

I also make sure I use the old google email system which has high contrast for read/not read, so it's no trouble to skim through to find them. I mark them as "read" after I use them... which also makes them harder to find later... I see a system I need to perfect just in typing this...

With a smart phone I can do "speech to text" so I can just kind of narrate more or less what I want for a paragraph or two rather than type (I type 99.9% of the time but this was me trying the speech to text to see if I like it. I don't. STOP RANDOM CAPITALIZING THINGSSSS)

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