Novels or comic?

[irene_addler]

Tell me the pros and cons of publishing a novel as opposed to a webcomic! I have stories I could publish as novels, but am not sure if I should so that or wait forever and take the time to eventually draw them and turn them into comics.

[joannekwan]

I've got a bunch of stories waiting to be published. How I decide which to make into a comic or novel depends on a couple things.

1. The story's length and complexity. If it's super long with lots of components, I am definitely going to write it out. The two longest comics I'm working on now I've been drawing for almost 5 years, and their stories are fairly simple!
2. The intricacy of the setting. If it's a historical setting based in reality, and visual references are hard to come by, I am more likely to write it out. Or if the setting is super detailed, like a story set in the Winter Palace let's say, there's no way would I personally have the patience to draw all that. xD
3. If the story is heavy on the visuals. Say I want to evoke a very cinematic experience with heavy moods and compositions, I'm more likely to draw it.

But publishing a novel will definitely give you more of those feelings of instant gratification of having it done and out there.

[Maps]

From what I’ve noticed posting both, I had an easier time gaining subs with a comic than I did a novel. I think the comic community is probably larger than the novel community. But both are fun to do!
Maybe post one of your stories as a novel and create a comic using another.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Comics will get more eyes on you, no doubt about it. Even from people who regularly read which is already not a big number, it's much easier to consume a comic because it doesn't take as long to read.

However, comics take more to make in comparison, by a LOT, and some things in comics can't be replicated in a novel and vice versa. It's really about what you feel you can take on right now and your time in the foreseeable future.

As a personal example, Splitting Image is actually part of a larger universe, but the "main" story it branches out from is actually a novel I write/plan out when I have some downtime. Because a lot of the lore is already set in stone however, it allows me to focus more on the writing and visual aspects, so there's a lot of benefit in working on the comic first even if something prevents me from finishing it.

[nostalgicroxas]

Personal flow of pacing. Writing can move 1000x faster than comics, even if you were drawing doodles and stick people. Dialogue comes out of your brain faster and it's easier to tweak scenes, chop it up and re-write. That said, a lot of comic peoples start or have a written script they're working off of (including pro mangaka from Japan). One of the few who doesn't have his whole thought together famously is Miyazaki (look up the process for making Spirited Away and you might cringe and feel bad for the artists and team).

Comics will get more eyes on you, no doubt about it. Even from people who regularly read which is already not a big number, it's much easier to consume a comic because it doesn't take as long to read.

I will go to my grave debating this. When I'm into a story, it's done in like hours. And I'm not talking about skipping every other word or anything. I read every word and just down it super fast and forget to eat and drink. Comics or manga on the other hand ACTIVELY take more time. I read all of 5 novels in the span of 7 days once for college and later that same month, I read through the monster of Saiyuki's manga and that actively took me closer to two or three weeks - and that's a dense series true, but it was not fast. A single volume of Saiyuki, or faster stuff like YuGiOh, will take me on average 45min to plow through, 30 if I'm fast. I'm finding a similar pace with reading comics even on tapas. I'll binge read something and lose 4hrs of my life and be only "two chapters" into the comic. bangs head on the table repeatedly So... fricking... slow...
But everyone has their own reading pace. If I was just reading text bubbles, comics and manga would be way faster. But half the fun of it is the visuals handed to you on a silver platter. "What the heck is a candelabra? I DON'T NEED TO GOOGLE IT IT IS RIGHT HERE IN FRONT OF ME AND I DONT NEED TO CALL IT A CANDELABRA". (I swear to god, the weird words I have to use in my story sometimes to illustrate exactly what kind of furniture it is. Candle on a metal stick that stays up by itself. Candelabra. bangs head on the table more)

[irene_addler]

I am so much faster at writing, and so much more comfortable doing it (I've finished National Novel Writing Month for like 10 years now!!! sorry, had to brag...ehehehe), but I want to do a difficult thing and finish the comic I started haha! but I do feel like I'm much better at writing. Maybe I'll give it a go and try posting one, see if I get any readers. I don't even have 25 subs for my comic, which I get cause I know my art still needs work, though I feel the plot itself is fairly decent, although I'm not far into it yet b/c it's such slow-going.

[Iris-Grimoire]

I wish I still had that speed with prose :c College just took out the fun of reading for me, I remember eating through whole series in weeks but now that's the time to get anywhere with a single book. On the other hand, I read the entirety of Wilde Life(well until the previous chapter anyway) in a few days, only a few hours per day, and had stop myself to have something to read later.

[irene_addler]

I get that. I probably should have majored in English, but I was so terrified of burning out when it came to writing and hating something that's such an integral part of me

[elyss]

I'm currently working on turning my novel into a comic. I wrote about 10-18,000 word chapters that translate to about 25-30 pages. I can write about 5-8 chapters for a novel for how long it takes to do one comic chapter.

[irene_addler]

Yeah, same here. I definitely write way faster than it takes me to make even one page of my comic.