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miramiee
May '20

With the new Webtoon contest happening, I'm really excited to see everyone's try at a short story! Usually I'm more comfortable reading and writing longer stories. This new contest is deceptively challenging!

So, what are everyone's tips for writing a good short story (novel or webcomic)? And also what are some ways to incorporate the category-specific elements of heartwarming and mindbending?

Personally, I found that:
- A good short story has more of a focused, simplified plot. I think fun world building is great but when I was trying to write for my story, my brain got all fuzzy and confused when I tried to incorporate everything I brainstormed. Not to say that short stories can't be complex. They can! But I think it's easier when the story doesn't need to explain too much to get started (I literally used a whole chapter or two explaining mechanics before I had to scrap my script).
- You really don't have much room to write, so the story is almost like a poem. Every word counts!! I'm seriously having a hard time cutting down on unnecessary dialogue--this contest is really testing me. But it's teaching me that you really have to imply something with every strand of dialogue.
- Short stories are hard.

As for incorporating elements:
- I'm gonna enter into the heartwarming category, and I found that brainstorming words and associations with "heartwarming" really helped me focus my main character's motivations into something heartwarming. I live for angst but I realized my story was suffering for that. Happy thoughts actually help..
- Find things that resonate with you. Something that makes YOUR mind or heart hurt. I found that when I tried to make everything purposefully relatable to anyone, my characters' personalities suffered.

Also, if any of you guys happen to be writing scripts for your chapters, how long are they? My first chapter is like 9 pages...that's a lot for a chapter I think....How long should they be though?

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    May '20

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Darkstrong
May '20

Short story usually has 2000 words or less. The script for our submission that took about 50% of total possible space (5 episodes 100000 pixels long) was about 1000 words long. So, about 350 words per chapter
You can check it out here for reference

Cavechan
May '20

I'm currently working on a one-shot for the Tezuka manga award. Honestly, I don't even know if my story is good or not. I feel like it has a lot of usual elements in it, but done in a different way. I'm trying to push myself to do some different things and hopefully... hopefully make an impression.

Definitely. Mine has some weird stuff in it so I just kept terminology as simple as possible. For example, there's a universal agency of sorts. Giving it some kind of funky name is probably too much for a one-shot, so I just call it "The Agency". It gets the point across without adding in unnecessary info that could confuse readers.

There should be one or two main points that you really want to hit on in it. My main point is like being at the mercy of the universe. And I was able to add some smaller points in there too like the "humanity is awful" "no, humanity is great" rhetoric and how loving someone forever literally means forever.

My one-shot is 41 manga pages long.

madocallie
May '20

With regards to your own story: I don’t think there’s an exact “cap”/“length” for short stories, but if you’re adapting a script for a short story webtoon, 9 pages sounds like quite a lot...

Of course, that also depends on what you’re writing too - so it may be that 9 pages could be more than enough for your entry to this contest.

Here’s some things to consider:
Is your story dialogue-heavy?
Does it require explanations of complex concepts?
Does your descriptions for scenes in your comic take up some of the wordcount/pagecount?

When it comes to writing a “good” short story though, I think one thing that can grab people’s attention is by coming up with a simple, but unique premise.

I’m definitely not the only competition enterer that used the ocean as a theme, but I tried to make a one-of-a-kind story by having my character be an unconventional oceanographer who tries to make her way down to the bottom of a trench. It doesn’t have to be super complicated to catch a potential reader’s attention.

Here it is for reference:

As for what makes a good “heartwarming”/“mindbending” premise... I can only speak for “mindbending”, since that’s the theme I’m running with. It’s a pretty vague descriptor - but I think taking a look at the sample comics Webtoon provided for the category can help.

For me personally, I interpreted it as “horror mixed with social commentary” - since one of the examples was “Friday: Forbidden Tales” - which did that all of the time.

I hope this helps!

miramiee
May '20
Cavechan

I think calling it the "the Agency" is really smart, and I agree with keeping terminology simple. But when you have a fantastical concept, how do you work around certain aspects without over explaining? I have a bad tendency to complicate and form systems.

miramiee
May '20
madocallie

No yeah this really helps! The 9 pages I have written is mostly dialogue that can be condensed. That's something I'm still trying to learn--how to condense dialogue without sacrificing pacing.

Also, I read your comic and I'm seriously in love with the way you write in tension concisely and efficiently!! May I ask how exactly you plan/script your dialogue? Do you think of a character's motivation first and then a scene? Or do you think of your story as a whole and then break down parts that you need to get to a specific ending?

Cavechan
May '20
miramiee

I would just focus more on the story and characters and the main points I want to address. I'm sure there's whole teams and levels of skill and abilities, but none of those things matter in my story so I don't really address them. I have my main character and the antagonist comes along and intros himself as the MC's student. They have a brief conversation about the wrongdoings of the Agency so we also see motivation for why the antagonist left and an idea of what the Agency is like without having to go into a boring or long-winded explanation of it.

It may be helpful to ask yourself "Does this pertain to the main point(s) I want to make?" If not, then maybe leave it out.

madocallie
May '20
miramiee

Glad my advice could help!

And thank you...

When I was first conceptualizing SEVEN MILES DOWN, I gave the protagonist of my story a simple motivation - “get to the bottom”. I felt that, for a short story, a simpler goal was more effective than a complicated one - since more people could follow it with ease and/or empathize with it.

Afterwards, I constructed a story around that simple motivation. I had vague ideas of the setting I wanted to work with before I came up with the motivation - (in my case, the ocean/a deep trench) - but after I devised it, I built a three-act structure around my protag’s journey down to the bottom. On top of the core three episodes, I also wrote an “epilogue” chapter to tie loose ends/themes brought up in previous chapters,

When I was making the story, I had my protagonist’s ending planned from the beginning. For me personally, I’ve noticed that the stories that end up the strongest/most memorable are generally ones that have a very strong ending. So I think one of the most important things you can do for your story is have an idea of where it will eventually end.

I hope this helps!

miramiee
May '20

This really helps, thank you so much! I've seriously tightened up my story's plot just by simplifying my character's motivation.