What does the process of making a story look like for you?

[kalmia]

I'm in the process of rebooting my comic after working on the original as a teen for over 5 years. Recently, I've realized how much of it was a product of it's time and my age (at the time or writing it). So now, i'm spending the time rewriting and developing the story all over again which is making me curious about how other creators go about doing the same! Please share!

For me, I tend to spend a few months mostly ideating, which is hard because it takes a lot of time and I have very little patience haha, but that's when and how I get the majority of my plot and arcs figured out. It usually consists of gathering inspiration on places like Pinterest, or writing down tropes/elements from other media I quite enjoy that I could implement into my own story.
I spend very little time actually outlining, usually my outlines are very brief bullet points, and generally jump right into plotting as fast as I can, then reiterating over the plot and each draft until I feel it works.

How about you?

[Leyelle]

Concept. Daydream about the story constantly and come up with scenes I want to be in it. Make a numbered list organizing the scenes in chronological order and then design scenes to fit in between them to piece said events together. Then draft each chapter with a very lengthy summary including all relevant dialog. write the chapters and send them to my editor.

[Lensing]

First I have to say that I only write because I didn´t find a writer
who wants to write the stories that I want to draw. I talked to
hundreds of people before I decided that I have to start to write.

So first I didn´t have any process, it was chaos.
After a lot of trial and error I developed a process.

Here is the process that I have now when I´m doing a 20 page
comic.

1) idea phase. I had 52 situations, ideas, mini stories for the current 20 page comic
2) I pick one main idea, basic plot what happens in the story, which characters are
in it etc., one obstacle the characters have to face. I don´t have the resoltion for
the obstacle yet
3) the main story writing beginns. I divide this into parts and divide the parts into
story beats which I call panels. I limit the panels in this phase to only show the
interesting stuff
4) I go on walks to find resolutions for the obstacle. I can´t do that sitting at
home in front of the computer
5) I finish the script and decide which panels come into the comic
6) sketching phase/thumbnailing/composition etc for the panels.
rough lettering

then the usual process
sketching the finals panels, inking, coloring, lettering, finishing touch.

This is only in theory, in reality I will jump back between steps and suddenly
realise that I have to change something in the story even though I´m already
in the sketching phase

[kyupol]

1) do my normal job (welding and sandblasting)

2) my normal job is mind numbing. Not for the short attention span or for people who wannabe in the job. Only my body is in the job. The mind is somewhere else.

3) the "downloads" just happen. I can't explain how or why it happens. They seem to intensify when I hit an emotional stress point usually triggered by old memories that are sad or painful and force my mind to focus. To override the urge to cry or scream. Then the floodgates seem to burst wide open like a tidal wave. When I'm calm, it's like a faucet.

4) when drawing panels, more "downloads" arrive. Usually end up adding more panels than I originally intended. Rarely do deletions happen.