The Making of: Your Story

[eristeine]

My Chemical Romance, my dude.

Dude, yo. Dedication! What game was it? How many of you are working on it right now?

Nah, go ahead and ramble, I don't mind If u don't want to ramble here too much feel free to PM me or something

[375]

Damn D: Thats depressing to hear.

[Rivana]

Ah I've heard of My Checmical Romance. I was just not familiar with the acronym.

We RPed in Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2. Right now there are two other people writing the story with me. Eventually there will probably be one or two more that we need to consult with since their characters are going to be included in the comic as well. We arent including all the characters in our RPs , just those who were integral to the story.

Considering that this story has been my sole motivation to draw since 2009/2010, I guess you can say that it has affected me in a huge way lol.

Here is the comic so far but there isn't much yet:

Eon : The Curse of Forgotten Past | Tapas

Thanks for listening (or reading) in. I appreciate it. What inspires you to want to do a comic? I am really curious

[LortiaMJB]

Even with this comic I still got stuck sometimes! ....I actually just go and think up two ways it could go if I really can't decide, and just flip a coin and stick to it. It's strange but it helps me a lot. XD

[LortiaMJB]

What helps with writing it as a script too, is that I don't have to get everything done completely, at least for a webcomic, that is. I usually script a new chapter once I'm close to finishing the previous one, often getting up to 5 pages into the one after that.

It creates a premise for me so it's not a completely new setup, but I also don't have to worry about thinking up the whole story immediately. Even if it's a big story as a whole, this makes the parts I'm actually working on feel bitesized. ^^

[eristeine]

Adding that to the library, my man! I'll check it out on the weekends, when I'm free to revel in good art
No problem~ Anytime! As for me. Well. As much as I've loved art, I do get kinda bored when just looking at a stand-alone still image. I love stories. I like writing. So I figured, why not combine the two?
Hmm, do you have a tumblr? We could just chat and ramble at each other there

[eristeine]

Bro, I've been trying script writing, though I can't seem to kickstart anything XD
So today I just. Uh. Made a random page. I think it's turning out well!

[LortiaMJB]

Well, show it then! Sounds awesome!

Sometimes you just gotta start somewhere, even if it isn't what you expected at first. ^^

[eristeine]

Sure man, whenever i get the colors down im gonna use it to hammer down a comic art style too, so there's that.

[LortiaMJB]

Best way to do it! I already had a pretty defined style before starting this comic, but it has improved a million times since I started. The more you're on it the more it improves ^^

[eristeine]

yooooooooo a discord, for all our nerdy selves to ramble on, if you'd like to join?

Discord - Free voice and text chat for gamers

[djwaglmuffin]

That can eat at you and even if all you do is write a quick treatment for it, at least you can say you put something towards it. If it doesn't work, it's fine. It stays in your library of ideas and it might be used in a different story somewhere, know what I mean?

I get it. Creation is anxiety inducing.

[hjfsdh2222]

The story I’m doing now was supposed to be a one-shot...... but then I started liking it and now it has 3 long chapters
I really hope you can keep your short project short unlike me

This story isn’t my “dream story” though:3 I’m saving that one for later​

[eristeine]

Yeah, that's exactly it, actually C: Well put.

[eristeine]

haha! Same here, actually. My 'dream story' is gonna come wayyy later after a few practice one-shots. What's the story?

[hjfsdh2222]

I really hate give the good parts away. So I just say that it’s the story about the schemes of a cold trophy-wife, Renée, and a cocky teen tramp, Rudy, set in circa 1930s. But really that doesn’t give a real idea of the plot:3 A lot of surprising things happen in the first chapter(which hasn’t been fully published), that’s why.

Here’s a link to it if you want to read what I have posted so far:): http://crimeandcars.smackjeeves.com

[punkarsenic]

i never did oneshots, launched straight into the great longform beast. i kinda regret it, but also dont - its what i needed at the time, its what i continue to need to keep me working, but it means that im left with a lot of decisions i wouldnt have made now, and im playing catchup with myself.

however, im working on making oneshots alongside. the most important piece of advice i can give is spend some time with your characters - its through your characters that your audience see your world, and you want them to resonate. you can go through this methodically, jotting down lists of traits and attributes, but really, i just recommend you write some dialogue between your characters for fun, and just play with them in your head. think about how they mesh together, what they want and what they lack - if you cant find a plot, build it from your characters needs.

also, a really good take from filmmaker taika waititi on short stories:

"Short film: you can be poetic and you don't have to answer anything. You can make whatever you want. You have creative freedom with short film."

dont be afraid to leave things untied, and really have fun with it. these are your exercises, so look for the things you really want to see done - make a wish list of every story you want to read, every line or character or way of telling a story that you think would be really cool. draw from that.

[Eleven_MA]

How many pages were those preludes? Also how did you get the idea of doing them?

Depends. For things like establishing narration and voice I went with some 10.000 words, more minor things would wrap down in 1000, 2000 words. Before I went on with the full novel, I did a novella of about 20.000 words just to test how everything works together. Once I saw that it worked out, I could set out with the project proper.

I came up with it for several reasons, tbh. For one thing, it divides the project into smaller, more manageable bits. Working both your storyline and how to tell it at the same time is biting more than you can chew, in my experience, so I started with the tools. For another, I needed a confidence boost. Writing a novel is really daunting, so I wanted to prove that I can tackle it - and preludes let me raise the difficulty bar one step at a time. Third I wanted to test out what does and doesn't work, which turned out very important. The first prelude was a complete disaster, so I had to re-think my whole approach to the story's narration. If this happened while I worked on the novel proper, I'd certainly get very discouraged.

Finally, it was a trick to make sure I'll see the story through. Psychologically it's called the rule of commitment: The more we invest into something, the more difficult it is to drop it. By writing several short, easy stories, I put a pressure on myself to keep going when things have gotten tougher. After all, I already put so much work into it. Wouldn't it be a shame to give up now?

[eristeine]

You know, I hit one hell of a slump today creativity wise, so your advice gave me some direction on what to do. Thank you

[eristeine]

That's what I'm trying to aim for too I didn't quite have a very manageable system as yours, though, so thanks for the, accidental?, help