(I originally wrote this as a blog post on my website but I decided to share it here to help out the community.)
Hello, everyone, my name is Imani Phillips (or MaddMoniArt online) and I'm the creator of Bleakville, an upcoming psychological thriller graphic novel series that I’ve been working on since 2013. Over the last 7 years, I've been researching on how to be a writer, storyteller, and creator of my own world. They’re two parts to storytelling for a graphic novel and that is the writing and the visual, but for this, I’m going to just talk about the writing aspect. These are my tips and I hope it will help you on your journey.
The most important part in storytelling is...
Knowing your own story
When you know your story you can tell it, get to know it by asking yourself these important questions.
What is the idea of your story?
What genre are your writing in?
Who is your intended audience?
What is your purpose as an author?
Your Idea
Obviously, an idea popped into your mind and you have got to write it down. It’s great to be creative and actually have an idea in the world full of mass media blasted in our face everywhere we turn. Now, Be honest with yourself nothing is 100% original, and that’s fine, inspiration is a good thing but more importantly, it’s your our interpretation of a story that makes it unique.
Organize your thoughts by taking rough notes. Not all of your ideas will be good but don’t burn yourself out, keep taking notes, and take care of your notes, so you won’t forget it.
It doesn’t matter how complex your story is to try to summarize the idea of your story in one sentence. Imagine if someone asked you what your story was about, what would you tell them? This strategy has helped me stay focused on the main idea of my story. If you need help with this, look at your favorite pieces of work and check out the summer or synopsis and see how their strategies.
Your Genre
You can have an idea and tell it in two different ways, for example, a comedic way or a horrific way. Of course, you can have more than one genre in the story. Make sure you do research on whatever genre you’re writing to understand how it can impact a story. Look at other forms of media like movies, video games, TV shows, comics, manga, poems, in the genre you’re looking to write in and find the similarities in each piece of work.
PRO Tip: I like to find the best qualities in a specific genre and take notes. It really helps for reference when I’m writing out a scene.
Your Purpose
What do you want to achieve when you complete your story? Do you want to make the audience, scared, cry, laugh, or think about a new perspective? Artist expresses with their craft and through that, they aim to convey a particular emotion.
There is a skill to writing and I believe what makes a good writer is being a good reader. My favorite technique is “Rhetorical Analysis”.
Here’s a definition I found helpful while writing this blog, the source is from, https://www.thoughtco.com/rhetorical-analysis-1691916
“Rhetorical analysis is a form of criticism (or close reading) that employs the principles of rhetoric to examine the interactions between a text, an author, and an audience. Also called rhetorical criticism or pragmatic criticism. The rhetorical analysis may be applied to virtually any text or image—a speech, an essay, an advertisement, a poem, a photograph, a web page, even a bumper sticker. When applied to a literary work, rhetorical analysis regards the work not as an aesthetic object but as an artistically structured instrument for communication."
You can use that technique to communicate a certain message through your own piece.
Don't just look at the best work, look at newer work, or work that isn't so good.
Who are you writing about?
Characters
Who are you telling the story about? The characters tell the story. How? Well, the characters motives, actions, reactions, fears, achievements, and setbacks drive the plot. What is stopping them? Who is the antagonist? Why does the antagonist have problems with the protagonist?
These simple questions are important to know because this is what gets us as readers invested in a story. It’s good to know even the smallest information about your characters. I found these two websites very helpful when I was creating interesting characters in my story.
World Building
Put some time in developing the atmosphere of your story. Treat your world just like a character too. Think of the characteristics of a neighborhood, cities, civilians, villages, or where ever the location of your story is. Think of your favorite fictional places like Gotham City from Batman, The world of Pokemon, any fantasy world in anime, even a real place like New York City, a time period like medieval Europe, or even the future.
I'm pretty sure your story will have specific locations in your world that your characters would typically hang out throughout the series like their home, schools, workplace, cafes, hideouts, etc.
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Plot Structure
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Now that we know what the story is about and the characters who are in it, together, we reach the final destination through the ups and downs. I'll give you three tips on how to put it all together.
TIP #1
How do you move forward when you don’t know where you are going?
I find it helpful not just knowing the very beginning of your series but also the very ending of it all.
Do you know how your story starts and ends?
I'm talking about Naruto Uzumaki who told us in chapter 1 that he wanted to become hokage! Spoiler alert!
699 chapters later then he does eventually become hokage .
TIP #2
Every story has a conflict and its centered around the main character. There are many obstacles that the character has to get through to reach his/her goal.
Let's find out how to organize those events.
Elements of Plot
Source: https://literarydevices.net/plot/
Exposition:
This is the beginning of the story, where characters and setting are established. The conflict or main problem is introduced as well.
Rising Action:
Rising action which occurs when a series of events build up to the conflict. The main characters are established by the time the rising action of a plot occurs, and at the same time, events begin to get complicated. It is during this part of a story that excitement, tension, or crisis is encountered.
Climax:
In the climax, or the main point of the plot, there is a turning point of the story. This is meant to be the moment of highest interest and emotion, leaving the reader wondering what is going to happen next.
Falling Action:
Falling action, or the winding up of the story, occurs when events and complications begin to resolve. The result of the actions of the main characters are put forward.
Resolution:
The resolution, or the conclusion, is the end of a story, which may occur with either a happy or a tragic ending.
My plot diagram
This is what I use to write a chapter, volume, or an entire series. I created this diagram, feel free to use it how like.
This is the plot diagram I use
if you re-post it online please credit me at maddmoniart.com
My tip: when I’m outlining my chapters, I like to write down the climax first. If the climax is interesting to me it's worthy of being a chapter.
Setting:
Where your story takes place.
Theme:
The true meaning of your story.
Mood:
The vibe of your story.
If you want more in depth descriptions check out https://literarydevices.net/
it's a great source for literary terms with examples.
TIP #3
The First Chapter is the foundation of your series. It’s the reader’s first impression of your manga. It introduces us to the main character, the problem, the world, it’s the start of the journey that we hope to never forget. What your readers need to know is the 5 Ws & H
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
- How
Believe me, answering these simple questions keeps you focused on the main idea of your chapter.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading! I hope you all got something out of this.
You’re going to write many drafts, just remember that writing is revising. If you have an idea, write it down somewhere, get honest feedback of your work, and keep going. I’ve been re-writing the first chapter of my manga series Bleakville for years and I’m finally satisfied.
This is my way of writing chapters for manga but my way isn't the only way, so feel free to share your thoughts about storytelling in the comments below!