So how do I shrink my story?

[Flios]

Cut out arcs that are unnecessary or particularly long but don't develop quite well. Emphasize the character development and worldbuilding, but don't make anything over-complicated. To shrink the story into something that would be possible to draw, I would recommend hiring an author to help you with the plot(maybe the author would do it for free). A good shot for that would be here on the forums.

[AnonymousHouseCat]

My advice would be:
1) It's great/helpful that you have a whole complex universe/story fleshed out, but maybe choose one/a few compelling areas or events to focus on for now instead of doing the whole thing? Then you can get back to other areas you want to explore after you finish the first part if you want, as sequels or spinoffs or something?

2) Another idea is to do a super stripped down version that mostly features just major events and leaves out other stuff. It could feel rushed, but it would be easier to finish while staying engaging. Like just the scaffolding of a story basically (not necessarily less interesting though)

3) I feel like often, the exact details/logic/coherence of a story doesn't matter as much as the feelings or atmosphere it creates. So maybe you could leave out some explanations or worldbuilding info to prioritize interesting/impactful scenes or just the experience of being in your story's world (I feel like Ghibli films are a good example of this).

Anyways, those are just some initial thoughts I had. Good luck!

[JoshRaed]

So how would co-writing a story work when I have a very distinct and specific vision for it?

[JoshRaed]

I feel like I should find a way to get the plot going to a certain part much later but the parts before that are tied to some major character development and the character ends up in the other place only because they went through some development. Like so much of the story I could shorten down if I hadn’t planned the character development a certain way that ties directly to the plot.

[HGohwell]

Either cut out everything that is not advancing either plot or character and makes sure it's doing double duty on world building too. Combine characters and plot points where possible. Skip unnecessary steps. Break down your plot entirely to it's absolute bare bones, remove side plots and ask yourself what is absolutely requires and can't be done without. Be brutal.

Or, embrace the fact that thousands of pages is not weird for a webcomic, it's standard to be going at a couple of pages a week for years. To many people, that's the appeal of webcomics. It's a slow burn approach to story telling, embrace that.

[Flios]

You may have a particular view for the way you want your comic to go, but it's not like the writer won't respect your plot. All they'll really do is give you advice and rewrite some stuff. Ultimately, the story is totally up to you to dictate.

[Rai_Muffin]

I cut out a lot of fluff by scaling back on the amount of characters I designed.

For example I had one character who was constantly drinking, another who had doubts about if she was on the right side or not, and a third character who's powers I liked.
Rather than trying to cram in three characters I combined them into one that had the traits I liked.

Or keep some characters and story lines in reserve; maybe they would be better suited for a different narrative once you've finished this one?

[TheLemmaLlama]

My personal approach is to just start drawing the darn thing I find when I hit the more boring and tedious parts, a part of me goes 'uggggh I realllly don't wanna draw this', which motivates me to cut it out and convince myself it's not really necessary If you're anything like me, you'd be surprised how much you end up cutting out just by hijacking your laziness XD

Or if your script really is so tight that it actually has no fluff or filler, you're going to have to sacrifice some fidelity. What's the overall 'point' of your story? What's the climax, the big scene everything is building up to, and what impact (emotional or otherwise) are you aiming to have on the reader?

• If you can identify this, target everything towards achieving this impact. I'd be surprised if you could write a 5000 page comic where absolutely every scene is absolutely crucial for helping deliver this impact
• If you can't identify this, see if you can split your script into 'seasons' that each has a distinct 'point'/intended impact. Then just treat the first one as a standalone story, for now.
• (If you can't do that either, I'm sorry to say you might have bigger problems on your hands than the length of your story )

[Iris-Grimoire]

Sometimes it's right down at the roots. Observe your setting and see how much you need to explain of it - I don't mean just exposition, I mean all of it: are the politics complicated? Is the magic system a whole university subject? does the setting change the way we think of modern concepts? As cool as those things are, they all balloon the plot.

If it's political intrigue,a world spanning trek, multiverse stuff it's always going to be long - focus on another area of your world that can be tiny. A family just trying to get by, a merchant on a ship voyage, a wizard trying to find the perfect formula for a spell, etc.

I had the hardest time planning short stories until I got to this technique. Get the conflict and a small cast first, everything else is secondary, if not unecessary.

[JoshRaed]

Yeah but if I do one page a week I will end up with the one episode a year and the plot will be done in 80 years. I can’t do that. Even a fourth of that is insane.

[JoshRaed]

The magic is extremely soft, and is basically “force lightning I guess, also you can raise the dead if you do this very specific thing”

The politics are pretty complicated and I have no idea how I got there. Like there are three factions, all some breed of evil and all an antagonist at some point, and each one working to its own end and each one baked into the plot. I’m not sure how to fix that.

[Kelheor]

First of all... Unless you start it, you won't get anywhere at all. Calm down. Depends on your art, it may take less than a week to produce one page. You need a plot for the whole thing, but you still produce it episode by episode, chapter by chapter. First write something, then sit and do some thumbnails.
It will be overwhelming, but you should start with something to understand how it will go.
Yes, comics are a long process, there's nothing to do with it except making a tighter plot and tighter pages. Less water, more action. Otherwise, maybe it's better to stick with a novel.
It doesn't seem like you have any script done yet though, so I would definitely start there.

[JoshRaed]

The script is kind of there but not nearly as much as it should be. Like maybe there’s an 8th of my plan.

[JoshRaed]

Should I start with thumbnails for one of the chapters i’ve already kind of finished, or finish chapter one? Or should I make sure the chapter i’m thumbnailing is in its final draft?

[Kelheor]

Well I dunno about others, but I don't see much reason to thumbnail any other chapter so far except the first one, the beginning, since that's where you will start. Unless, of course, you just want to try yourself at thumbnailing in general, if you haven't done it before, as an exercise.
A lot of things will also depend on your style of creating, here's where the "plotter vs pantser" comes in. Many people just wing their pages without a complete chapter structure, but if you are intimidated that you are facing too many pages, you might want your script to be as precise as possible.

[LostKelp]

Cut some plot threads. Some of your characters do not need development. They can be supporting roles. Some relationships do not need to be explored in this one story. Some settings don't have to be seen. Make one overall arc (eg. Defeat the villain) have a small number of side stories exploring your themes and characters that are linked to the overall arc. (Eg. Learning to overcome/live with trauma caused by main villain) that way the overall plot holds personal significance. make this arc overall arc completable in 100-200 pages and once arc is complete decide if you want to start a second arc.

Split your story into several chunks maybe 150-200 pages. Do that one chunk with its own internal storyline so once you finish it you can decide whether or not to continue.

[JoshRaed]

So, my story is an adventure story about the characters going everywhere basically, and it's about a team of heroes. The story is told in episodic chunks of chapter, like it's a TV show. There are 3 villains that are each baked into the story and each one being a major source of development for each important character each plot that happens before their defeat.

What do I do?

[SoftWonderBun]

I've seen quite a few threads from you over the months asking a lot of 'how to' questions which is definitely not an issue but I'm just curious if you've completed any small projects?

The concept of creating and the actual work it takes are very different paths. It may be too soon in your art journey to be worrying about starting your 'big project'. If you want to continue to develop the characters for that story, while skill building, you can always use them for smaller, one-shot style stories that will both help develop them and their part in the larger story but also let you know if you truly want to make comics or maybe prose is a better path.

Everyone is different. I'm not sure anyone can give you the concrete answers you seem to be looking for without you taking the time to try and potentially fail on your own.

[LostKelp]

If it's episodic then just take out some episodes, put their emotional/plot beats into different episodes. As for the villain/character thing, like I said not all of them need to be fully developed main characters.
Some of them can just have mini arcs resolved in a few episodes. Pick out some of your favorites (1-3) and develop them throughout the series and anyone else either gets small sporadic arcs or just bits where they support the mcs.
This can feel a Lil harsh if you really like em but you can just make spin offs later or promote them to a main character after a previous MC finishes their arc. Like in Jojos. As for the villains - you vacancies have the characters fight them all simultaneously (like batman) each taking over certain episodes to process one arc and other episodes progressing others. But I'd suggest just taking the first one and fleshing it out and have that as your main series of you get exaughsted by the end and relegate the rest to potential sequels.
(I personally have a main story that mostly resolves the story and a couple epilouge series in mind for more character exploration/turning characters into cowboys for a laugh)

[JoshRaed]

I actually did cut some episodes kind of. I think I could probably cut some more of them, or combine similar ideas into one thing.

The characters are all pretty built into the plot honestly. Like team avatar maybe.

3 characters are the most important ones specifically, and the other 3 get also complicated arcs that are just as meaningful and tied into the other characters arcs. I’m not sure what to do. I guess I could give them like one bit of character arc a season. But one of them starts out as someone who rejects being a friend to any of them and they can’t stay that way the whole series, they’re the adventure team. So they kind of have to warm up to other characters, and that’s something tied to her character arc. The other character ends up pushing the main main protagonist to change as a person after a character arc where she realizes her own worth.

These characters arcs are explicitly built around the other characters also. Like one of them joins the plot because she really wants to beat her brother in a fight, and a major part of his character arc is leaving her behind at one point only to realize that was a mistake and he wants her in his life.

One villain group is hunting one of the main heroes and his entire motivation at the start is to escape those villains. This hero is one of the major un-cuttable characters. He’s the chosen one of this chosen one story. The other villain is the one that controls the main main character, so his story only works with that group in mind. The other villain group is the one containing the dark lord, and the whole plot itself is about stopping the dark lord from conquering the world so he definitely can’t be cut. None of these plots can be separated really. There can’t not be a dark and light empire in this story anymore than avatar could just not have the earth kingdom and fire nation.