Someone suggested that learning to write better would help me make a comic faster. How does this work?

[LostKelp]

Alright so a part of it might be that a) you don't have enough spare time - fair enough
B) you have a style that necessitates alot of time eg includes colour, shading, lots of fine detail, lots of complex compsitions, fine tuned anatomy, backgrounds etc. Having a style that is based around shapes and values is a way to make a comic very quickly, you stop focusing on detail or whatever and focus on the basic shapes required to convey what's going on - think stickmen, or the odds1out or that sort of thing. Not your jam? Cool. But it's gonna take longer.
C) the writing, when you say "no plot" in 40 pages. I'm going to assume you mean that it was the intro to the characters and the world. "No plot" in 40 pages in a high scifi/fantasy setting is understandable. If it's a horror comic, a slow pace may be required. It's bad if it's romance, comedy, drama, action or slice of life, if it's any of those things your gonna need some restructuring because they don't need much establishing. And if they do then they aren't great material for your first comic.

[igneriss]

I think it's writing as in pacing and overall plotting, knowing what is necessary to set up the story & build connections between characters while also knowing what to skip. Then, if there are no unnecessary parts, the story can be shorter and by that, drawn faster. Also, planning out chapters is easier when you have more practice in writing.
Let's take my story, as an example I started working on it almost 10 years ago. That's a lot of time, and my writing has improved between chapter 1 and chapter 19 which I'm currently posting. And while I think my story is great and would highly recommend, if I were to start drawing it again with my current skills, I would do a lot of things differently. I'd skip some parts and maybe even characters, change pacing a bit, which would make it shorter but better. That being said, it's good as it is. BUT stories that I've tried drawing before 6,75...? With barely any writing skills? That was a disaster and took me forever to draw cx
Maybe that's not your issue tho, but that's how I see better writing = making comic faster connection.

[JoshRaed]

You mean the pacing thing? But my comíc only took 2 chapters to get where it was going, and the problem was that this would take two years to draw.

[JoshRaed]

It’s the third one honestly. Everything was in the known world stage of the heroes journey plot.

[Kelheor]

Well that's the way of drawing comics...sorry I draw slowly too, it happens. If you can/want cut the corners in the process - you do it (use all the tools that can help you). Make a simpler style, etc. If you don't, you just learn how to draw, continue drawing and maybe you will become more efficient with that at some point

[IndigoShirtProd]

I think they were coming at it from the angle that the issue you having is getting out your ideas for a comic on paper and making a coherent and cohesive story out of it, rather than being slow paced in actually making the comic.

[LostKelp]

Yeah mate, structurally to the plot "the known world" is important for establishing 2 things, what a character wants/a flaw they have to overcome, and the world they want to return to after the journey. You could do this in 1-20 pages depending on who the character is and what the world is like. You could even skip it and flesh em out in "the call to action" and "The refusal of the call". Again nothing bad with taking it slow, but if you wanna get it fast you gotta cut the fluff.

[HGohwell]

So, part of the issue is that if you've taken to chapter 2 it's "only" took 2 chapters. That's too long. The best comics/manga will be at the plot in some way from within the first 5 pages. 2 capters is too long and 2 years is way too long. Better writing will help you with pacing and where to start. It will also teach you how to edit better. How to combine and cut and rearrange. As a general rule, at least a third of what you write should be cut, sometimes up to two thirds, for maxiumim efficent story telling.

[JoshRaed]

Oh. That make sense. It’s nuts how this was so easy to explain but @Lensing just gave up and then I had to go on this whole wild goose chase to find the answer instead.

[JoshRaed]

So before the plot happened a character had to break from jail, a character had to be declared the chosen one but not, and we needed to learn why that matters, and also the real chosen one had to be made an established character in the plot and also the hero team had to be brought together.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Okay, so something needs to be cut here. All of that can't happen, and the story still hasn't started yet. Instead of having the character break out, they could be on the run and learning why that character is not the chosen one can come later.

[HGohwell]

But here's the thing, I have similar vibes in similar stories, but I didn't do the team getting together, or the breakout or the fact that he's the chosen one and the issues of someone not being a chosen one, I skipped straight to the plot. I'm not going to go through your story and say if you're right or wrong, and just telling me these things doesn't give me any clue, if you want proper feedback that's for Feedback/Review threads, but you always have to ask yourself why is this important to be on screen? Everything, you should be asking why is this important? Why does it need to be on screen? A lot of good writing is good editting and you should always be asking why is this here and does it absolutely need to be here?

[JoshRaed]

So…

In the new version i’m making scene one would be the one where he’s the chosen one when he’s really not, after a worldbuilding speech.

The reveal of the true chosen one happens mid chapter one. Is that fast enough?

[IndigoShirtProd]

Did you say a world building speech, in the first chapter?! Does the reader need to know that stuff in a block of text you call a speech or can that be explained throughout the story? And what's the inciting incident?

[HGohwell]

I wouldn't be able to tell you without seeing an entire script. Just snippets isn't enough. It depends entirely how you reveal it and what the reveal is, how important being the chosen one is, how it effects their dynamic ect. But just off the top of my head, I get wary when someone says a worldbuilding speech. I've almost never seen it done well, it's an awful way to start and it kills the pacing and is a sign of someone more interested in their worldbuilding than their story or someone who doesn't know how to weave worldbuilding in naturally, so I'd be careful there.

[JoshRaed]

The inciting incident is the main character finding the real chosen one.

The speech is just that fantasy thing of like “long ago the 4 nations lived together in harmony” type deal.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Yea, uh, get rid of that speech. Especially if it's diagetic. Or, should I say, in my opinion, you should get rid of that speech. The story is supposed to be starting and we have to stop to have a history lesson. Like I asked previously, does the reader need, and I mean need to know this at the jump. Ignore the intro to ATLA, that happens in thirty seconds and a whole team of animators made it. Even in the context of the show, we were informed of the war in the first episode (from what I remember).

[JoshRaed]

The thing is that scene one is this character being told he’s the chosen one. Without that speech we don’t actually know why this information matters.

Also my stories speech is genuinely shorter than the 30 second one from avatar. The ATLA one is 85 words, mine is 66 words.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Like, @HGohwell said, a lot more context would be necessary for me or anyone else to do any amount of practical editing or script doctoring. But, I do have to ask, does the the story come to a standstill just for this speech?

[JoshRaed]

No. There is no story yet, and it’s not even one page of the comic. It takes up only 3 panels actually. There’s no way for it to stop the plot.