Short stories are burning me out. What can I do?

[SeasonofTreason]

I've started a completely different story unrelated to my main one and I'm struggling to get anything done and find that I'm stalling and can barely get past penciling the first couple pages. I also can't really envision an actual ending and find myself expanding on the lore and constantly coming up with cliffhangers that are asking for more.

I understand the importance of starting small before delving right into your Magnum Opus but I'm having a hard time with putting that into practice.

I'm having a lot of trouble with coming up with short, concise stories that actually make sense and aren't there just for the sake of mileage.

Is there a way to get rid of this feeling of "how long until I get to my actual story"? Considering that my "Magnum Opus" has a lot of detailed world-building and characters, maybe I should rather focus on self-contained vignettes within the same Universe? What are your thoughts?

[Lensing]

Why don´t you write short stories / scenes which are part
of the story that you would like to write?

Everything else that you wrote sounds like a perfect recipe for a
burnout

[jwabeasley]

So you want to write what John Falstaff calls "the book of your heart," and you can't really conceive of writing anything else until it's done? And you don't have any kind of ending in mind for it, either?

Those are two separate problems.

First, to write a story, you should have an ending in mind. Your ending can change, it can increase in detail and complexity, it can need to be revamped quickly - but if you don't have an ending, you don't have a story, just a series of events that happen. So spend some time and think of a few. I have this issue with a potential story of mine - no ending I can think of is right. That story is on hold until I figure it out.

Second, everyone advises short projects so that you can gain the skills you need to do all the parts of writing and publishing a story that you've never thought of without having to make all your mistakes on the baby of a story you've worked on for 10 years. But if you really can't write anything else, then by all means go ahead. But take John Falstaff's advice and put it in a drawer after you're done, and go back to it after you've done a few other things. I guarantee that there will be major overhauls that you will want to make to it after you've developed your skills further, and you will be glad to not have released it right away.

[SeasonofTreason]

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[SeasonofTreason]

Interesting take. Honestly it's not that I can't write anything else (plenty of ideas) but I do extremely poorly with following through and what I envision usually goes wayy past a few pages shorts when putting it all together and writing the script and doing thumbnails, hence why I can't come up with an actual solid ending.

I've only managed to complete a 5 page short and it was basically just a glorified fight scene. The way I want to structure my comic is an episodic format "what happens this week" style. Is there a way to practice storytelling/structuring?

[kyupol]

I just dove right into writing long epic stories with my skill level at this:

Had 0 idea of how it would end. Wrote scripts as it went along...

Which it reached this point after a few years... the final battle with the big bad boss... and it's pretty much self explanatory... BOOM! BIG BAD GETS HIS ASS KICKED AFTER LONG EPIC BATTLE

Don't think too much. It can be to your detriment.

[SeasonofTreason]

Haha nice! I think the unpolished look makes them interesting tbh. I guess another factor is being insanely perfectionistic about my art/writing and wanting it to be as flawless as possible. I'll just make stuff anyway!

[ShidoDraws]

I'd say this is your sign to start your big project. The big learning curves come from those experiences the most. Small projects help in some ways, but you can only practice for so long until you stop learning or lose interest.

Plus, this sounds like you already have your heart set on this bigger story, this doesn't mean you can't write short stories anymore. Some short stories don't have to be self contained, it can be an expansion of your bigger story.

And just know that "wanting to make something" is not the same thing as "willing to make something". So ask yourself if you're willing to make the thing that you want.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I have to agree with @ShidoDraws-- if your Magnum Opus is really living rent-free in your head that badly, you'll honestly be doing yourself more harm than good by ignoring it and doing other stuff to "prepare". Intense, unrelenting inspiration is some of the best preparation there is; you should take full advantage of it.

"Starting small" doesn't necessarily mean starting with something self-contained and unrelated to what you actually want to work on; it just means starting with low stakes and reasonable expectations. If you want, you can "start small" by just diving headfirst into your story to see how far you get before you run into a problem. ^^; The point of the advice is to avoid setting yourself up for disappointment or failure...so if you set a goal that you can't really fail at, by simply exploring your story and testing out your skills, that's totally fine.
Basically, just do what you want; in the worst-case scenario you'll just end up with a rough draft of your story to improve on later.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

starting small before delving right into your Magnum Opus

But we have many instances of authors whose first published book is as thick as a brick.

[jwabeasley]

Follow through is hard!
5 Pages is a good start.

I write in an episodic format similar to what you describe - my structure has a building narrative episodic structure similar to many others. I find it helpful for each chapter to have its own story structure, with opening, development, climax and resolution, even though a comic chapter is more like 7-11 minutes of a TV show.

My method is to create a short numbered list of each scene and what happens in it. I get 22 pages per chapter, so if I have 6 scenes, that's just under 4 pages per scene. I'll thumbnail them out with that in mind, drawing out the whole story and all the dialog there. If things don't fit, I think of ways to tell my story more efficiently without sacrificing quality.

[ButterflyEmpress]

I'm kind of in the same boat. I got a few big stories I want to do too. I thought of practicing by doing a few short stories based on fairy tales, but my mind is not into that at all. Like a child who wants dessert before dinner.

Based on the advice here, I may just make some shorts based on the ideas I actually want to do.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

I've heard more than one (okay, maybe just two) professional writers assert that a good short story is many times harder to write than a good long-form story. Perhaps that's why some authors seem to start out writing 500-page tomes.

If this is true, we may be making a mistake to believe writing short stories is how to prepare for a big saga. If it is true, then short stories will probably make us better writers, BUT only if we survive that more difficult beginning.

Another thing I heard just yesterday, from another professional. He spoke about "writer's block" & offered that it's often due to "I can't think of anything good to write." The workaround, he said, is to write something bad. Because you can always delete it. Or you can fix it. But getting the bad ideas out like that, can make space in your head for better ones to present themselves. I believe that's relevant in this way: start writing your magnum opus. If it sucks, fix it, or throw it away & start over knowing that plot or character doesn't work. You'll be learning & getting better along the way.

[ShidoDraws]

I've heard more than one (okay, maybe just two) professional writers assert that a good short story is many times harder to write than a good long-form story. Perhaps that's why some authors seem to start out writing 500-page tomes.

If this is true, we may be making a mistake to believe writing short stories is how to prepare for a big saga. If it is true, then short stories will probably make us better writers, BUT only if we survive that more difficult beginning.

It's true, and I say that because you can't cut the unnecessary scenes without knowing what that looks like for your story. That's why so many professional writers need editors and proofreaders for their draft way before they can even write the final draft. Those steps are just as important in the comic making process.

I have a personal editor, but I sometimes get feedback from people who read the first 15 chapters of my story that said they saw a grammatical error. Overtime I try to edit those chapters like redrawing certain panels or just editing certain dialogues. Although I would never ask for feedback, I still appreciate it and willing to make them better when I can. It's not my editor's fault, I am just too lazy to edit them, resize them, re-file them and import them. People happened to stumble upon it. :T

However, the first rule of thumb that I have is: never go back and redraw the entirety of old chapters. It can be easy to fall into the trap of redrawing your story, and because I am only on chapter 20 of my story, my art style could very well be completely different in the next 50 chapters, or when I am writing my next story.