Not confident in my writing

[Gexten]

Hey!
I made a story some time ago and i've decided to make it into a comic now that i've somewhat made it better.
I am a bit shy about my writing so i will sadly not share it, but my problem is that i am far from confident enough to actually making it into a comic. I have this fear that the story is bad with lots of plot-holes, obvious plot twists and all that. I am just wondering if it really matters? should i just pick it up and make it into a comic anyway as some kind of a starter, or should i put it down and let it be for a year or two longer so i can improve it when i have more experience?
In all honesty, i am a huge noob when it comes to writing, that's why it worries me ; v ;
I've made people read it and i've gotten neutral to positive reactions from all of them, but you know, unconfident people don't tend to be convinced that easily hehe //sweats//

[joannekwan]

It's really up to you but I say it depends on how long and involved the story is. If it's a grand epic that can span many books, then I'd give it more development time. Let it simmer and work on those plot-holes and make it tighter as a whole, especially if you see it as like your magnum opus or something.
If it's a shorter story, why not dive in and go for it? You'll only get better with practice.

[shazzbaa]

I don't think plot holes and plot twists are as big a deal as people think they are!

The original Star Wars: the idea that this space station is the size of a planet but everything the gang needed was in within walking distance of where they landed is completely implausible.
Lord of the Rings: why did gandalf not use the freaking eagles
Harry Potter: Time turners that never get used again!! A guy named "wolf" is a werewolf, surprise!!

These are all extremely beloved stories, which tons of people consider to be well-crafted and good. Plot holes and twists that you see coming aren't actually that big a deal if you're having a good time while you read it and you can believe in the characters! We have a tendency to worry that someone will find a plot hole in our stories and then it will suddenly be ruined, but like, there are a lot of classics with plot holes, and we still love them!

My own comic has a plenty of things I could probably do better if I was writing it today. But the reason I could do it better is because I have the experience that I got by telling my story the best that I could in the first place! If you want to sit on the story a little while because you really aren't feeling it yet, and it's not quite the story you want it to be, I think that is okay to do! But there's so much that you really can't learn until you do it for real. If you want to wait until you're "better" and you're not gonna make any big mistakes -- I really think there's no amount of time you can wait that will make a mistake-free story!

[BladeRabbit]

Hey man, nobody is gonna expect a masterpiece from the very first thing you do, to get more experience in anything, you have to just start doing the thing.

My one regret in making comics isn't that my stuff was bad at first, it's that I didn't start sooner.

[NickRowler]

OK, I am also a very shy person who is not very confident and my current comic is based off of something I wrote years ago. So this is what I have to say...

1) You have to start somewhere. We are not all pros the first time we try something new but the more you work at it, the better you get. Studying other people's works which you enjoy also helps.

2) It's OK to rewrite. If you feel there are issues, than change them. Like, I felt like there were WAY to many dead parents in my original story so I went through and changed it (ended up changing 4 characters).

3) If worse comes to worse, get someone to co-edit your writing. They could point out issues and help give suggestions to how to fix them.

4) If it does seem like too much pressure now, than it is OK to wait on it. If you are not OK with sharing your work, than don't. You could take time to practice writing and maybe at one point in the future, when you have more confidence, you can post your comic.

[Kura]

Personally, I have confidence in my ability to tell a story, but I have absolutely no confidence in my literal writing skills. My spelling and grammar is poor, and my understanding of the English language is low. As well as there are more rules, methods and techniques to writing that I am NOT aware of then the ones that I am aware of.

Despite that I still choose to make my stories as well as make them public, because I believe that I will not improve if I do not at least try. Additionally if I'm trying why not put it out for other people who MIGHT enjoy it. Sure it also opens me up to flames or unfavourable replies but those can also be learned from (as long as they are not completely malicious, and though really hard to run into when first starting out is something you can eventually get a thicker skin to)

Everyone starts somewhere, you learn with work, practice and experience. Some people like to do smaller stories before they work on their 'main' story to help with their writing skills before tackling their 'baby' project. So maybe you can try that. Alternatively others (and I fit under this category) will work on the story they're most focused/in love with working at right now, knowing that when this story is done a new 'baby' project will eventually come along for them to put the same amount of focus and dedication into.

One thing you can do is have someone prof read your story before you send it out. Either to see if it makes sense or to catch grammar and spelling mistakes. (I have someone helping me with grammar and spelling, as I mentioned before that is my weakest area so I need help with it)

[TomSawyer]

I have confidence in my ability to tell a story, but I have absolutely no confidence in my literal writing skills

This pretty much
I keep rewriting stuff, because it never captures the feeling properly

[Aspie_Gamer]

Building off what @shazzbaa said, you should consider it a good thing when fans are over analyzing every little thing in your story. That said, if stuff just happens or can be seen coming a mile way i.e its too obvious a twist ("what a tweest!" to quote M. Night Shyamalan), then yeah you should be concerned about where your writing is heading. Anytime I feel like my writing won't be good enough, I think about my favorite bad movie The Room and Tommy Wiseau's staggering amount of ineptitude at making a movie. That movie is full of unconvincing dialogue, phoned in performances, and more plot inconsistencies than you can shake a stick at. i.e Lisa's mom randomly announces she has breast cancer, yet it goes nowhere like the rest of the "sub-plots" like Denny getting involved with drugs or the guys playing catch football in their Sunday best. (no really, this actually happens in the movie)

What I'm saying is that it is okay if your writing isn't always firing on all cylinders all the time, but if readers aren't invested in your comic or if they keep asking you why X happened or how Y makes any sense, then that's when you should probably practice working on your writing chops for awhile.

[lunaartemisasama]

Well l am not confident in my drawing or my writing or even my English skills.
But one day I woke up and realized that.. nobody cares!, now I have the awesome amount of 5 subscribers and 168 views. And I say awesome because if I never post anything then I would have gotten 0, in my first try I got zero lol.

I know that what I do is not the best, but I do it because I like it. But in the end is up to you Just consider your priorities and what makes you happy.

[AnnaLandin]

Gaining confidence in your writing skills is a tricky task! I know I spent a lot of time before I reached a level of confidence where I felt comfortable saying "Yeah, I know how to write a story!".

My advice would be to practise. Instead of going full steam ahead and writing a big comic spanning multiple chapters and running over several years of updates, might I suggest doing something smaller first? A oneshot comic, perhaps, or less than 30 pages?

That way, you can practise the stuff you feel you're weak at - the plotholes and the twists seem to be the main thing - without investing all your time in it for years to come.

And in the meantime, you can tinker with the bigger story you want to tell. If it's plotholes/twists you're worried about, it seems as though the majority of your time needs to be spent tinkering with the outline and the planning. My advice is to worry less about how obvious your plottwists are, and more about filling in those holes - the obviousness of the twists don't matter as much, as long as there are no gaping holes in your story-logic.

Considering that it's your confidence that's lacking, though, I'm pretty sure those plotholes aren't as bad as you imagine. If you feel the need for a pair of more objective eyes, might I suggest finding someone to help you beta-read it before you release it to the wider public? A second pair of eyes can help judge your story's flaws better than you can yourself; we're nearly always our own worst critics.

[Gexten]

Thank you very much everyone and all your advice!
This is why i love Tapastic so much, the community here is so nice ; v ;
I think i'll make someone look at the script a few more times and just jump into the comic making after that!
As some of you stated, you have to start somewhere! Thanks!

[jgallo405]

I'll give you the same advice that was given to me as a writer.

"When you have a story, write it till the end. Once you finished, accept that it's crap and remember that it's just the first draft. So work on it until it isn't crap."

But if you want something more helpful, here is a link http://www.writingexcuses.com/ to a podcast that I listen to. It's a great resource for writers and more importantly storytellers. The podcasts are short and they offer exercises that you can do to improve your writing.

[scythe]

This is probably going to scare the bejesus out of you, but I wrote about 150 thousand words before I felt I was any good at writing. And by that I just mean the prose and dialogue, nothing about actually crafting a narrative.

I suggest just try to write regularly and read lots. Also, there are some good books on writing fiction out there which have been invaluable to me.