My story isn't interesting. Any ideas on where i should take this plot?

[drewburrell19]

Update: i received a great answer and know what to do. Thanks for everyone's opinion. I appreciate the support!

So recently i have noticed that im not the best writer because i don't really have anything to exciting and new to think up (story wise). My stories are pretty cliche and and rushed in my comics and i really want to change that with some help from the experts out there.

Here is what i have so far:

[punkarsenic]

its hard to follow with the screenshots.. could you just copy/paste the text into the forums or share a google doc?

is this a standalone story, or the next chapter of something? of what? if its on tapas, can you link to it?

if youre struggling with story, i recommend john truby's anatomy of story - it walks you through creating a story that works well and ~means something~. im reading it right now and its very cinema-focused and male, but im learning a lot and i think its a good place to start

[drewburrell19]

Lumière

Btw Is this john truby guy on youtube?

Or is there a readable guide online

[DiegoPalacios]

Here are some tips that may help:

1-My first recommendation is to have a clear idea about what the story is gonna be about and the key events and twists.

2-pacing:

If the info in the conversation isn`t relevant and/or entertaining it is unneccesary to add that.

There is no need to repeat information. Instead of the mom telling Kathen about the classmate they can just hear it in the news.

3-emotion: Make sure to convey emotion, if the mom is worried abouth Kathen being late, something on the lines of "where have you been, it`s 8 pm?!" may fit better.

4-characterization: a character`s personality can be conveyed in the dialogue and body language. Use that in your favor. This affects how will they react to the situations and to what others say.

5-have fun!, make sure you enjoy the story you are telling, this will give you the motivation to work on it.

hope this helps!

[jensrichard77]

Everything that @DiegoPalacios said.

Also
Write down the goal for the story, then let the characters aim for that goal.
And let you the writer be the one to misguide them.

Have fun, you got some good thing going. You just need to map the story, then fill it with the good stuff you already have

[racheldenucci]

Good writing skills take a lot of practice, so don't get discouraged and keep improving. Most of us writer spend years perfecting our craft so it won't happen overnight.

[SuperRazz]

Ok, so first thing I noticed there's a lot of unnecessary dialogue which could be removed and the story is still understandable. You could skip kathen's and his mom's convo and start with an establishing shot of the living room. He hears the t.v. , listens, and reacts to it. Cutting the unnecessary convo saves you time from having to draw it's panels. And you don't have to illustrate the mom telling kathen his friend is outside, he could just look at the window and see the friend there.
When writing the script ask yourself; will the story, mood, progression, and pace be just as good if I remove this?

And about plot...a good method is to figure out your ending and theme. That'll be your guide on how to build the plot's progression.

I'll make something up from your story as an example. Let's say the theme is about naivety and how trusting others easily is a harmful to yourself. So from that, the ending could be his friend being a murderous stalker and almost ends up killing kathen but somehow he survived and the friend goes to prison. Based on the ending and the theme, you could first establish kathen blindly trusting his friend and as the plot progresses, he notices stalkerish signs about the friend. BUT he ignores every sign because he believes everyone is kind (which shows the theme) until we get to the ending.

I'm not saying that should be the plot, but the structure could go like that. Use the ending and the theme as guides. Ugh, I say this because this is the same mistake I did and I only found out about this 5 chapters in my comic. Good luck writing!

[punkarsenic]

hes not on youtube himself, but theres lots of interviews and videos where the book is cited. i believe its cited by either just write or lessons from the screenplay (i get them confused haha)

now, what is your story about? where is it going? what does your protagonist want? establish a want, establish an opponent (not necessarily a villain but a person or entity thats obstructing your mc from getting what they want), and then plot out what the mc does to achieve their goal and how theyre foiled by the opponent. cut out everything that isnt pushing the story forward, bc thats the boring stuff.