What’re some things you wish you knew before starting out?

[Bokyongyo]

Made previous webcomics on Smackjeeves and Tapas years ago which I deleted due to not liking how they turned out in terms of paneling and composition of speech bubbles as well as my Art not being as clean for what I attended it to look like back then.

Wish I knew that to be patient with all the likes, following and the rest of the things that everyone whom is just starting usually thinks about in the back of their mind and to just make a schedule in order to be consistent.

What are some of y’all tips?

[Rhonder]

I don't mind having found this out through trial and error, but it would have been nice to know up front:

The writing half of comics has thrown me for a big ol' loop consistently over the years. When I was really young there were a lot of comics that I just entered with no up front planning and would flop quickly.

When I was a little older and working on my first long series, I ended up over-planning and got stuck in the pre-production phase for years. I was writing out the story in Novel form rather than just trying to script it, thinking about random chapter and arc ideas in the future but without ever laying down a coherent outline, etc. There's quite a lot of written material strewn about in regards to that series, but none of it amounted to much in Comic form. I just never left the pre-production phase.

With my first Tapas comic that followed the above one, I wanted to get started really quickly so I wrote out the whole script and gave it a couple of editing passes... but I ended up rushing the process and completing the script in like 2 weeks. It worked out fine for just that one-shot, but then trying to add onto it afterwards was hard because the world was built around that particular tale and not very solidly in general.

So for my newest attempt where I'm returning back to a long-form story, I want to try and hit the Goldilocks "juuuuuust right" I've had to force myself to slow down and actually give the writing the quality time it deserves- meaning that I want to outline the whole thing start to finish so that I can like... edit it a few times, work out exactly how long I want it to be, & etc. But at the same time I want to stay focused and move swiftly so that I don't spend a literal decade on it again before starting properly.

[Maps]

I wish I knew not to dump a ton of chapters, but to have posted steadily twice a week. I'd probably still have a buffer if I had done that and I've been here for over a year

[Iris-Grimoire]

The real time to get through a scene in comics vs. novel.

Because my comic started as the latter, I wrote the first chapter's script (just dialogue and pointers on actions and locations, it's just for myself so nothing complex) just adapting things and keeping a lot of the dialogue, thinking I'd probably get through it real quick then get into the new stuff. Nope Approximatedly, one page in the word document is 5 pages in the comic. Suddenly the script isn't so small anymore.

[artemficta]

To keep a tighter focus on a singular character in a smaller time frame, since in my previous comic I jumped in time a lot and switched focus more than I probably should have. This works a lot better in script/novel format than in comic format because of how slow making webcomics is, and how each update needs to be engaging enough to keep readers.

Also, don't use a really time consuming art style XD The hours add up and will become torture! And work from a finished script that isn't a ten year commitment, lol. Condense, condense, condense! My original comic was part of a really complicated collection of many comics and nobody will read all that if they're not super invested in the first one. So it's better to condense the story into a more tightly focused one comic than spreading it out through a bunch.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

The importance of proper speech bubbles use and readable fonts for mobile. I originally intended to only post my comic in traditional format for printing.
Then later I realized mobile was probably a better fit. Like 24 pages later. I restructured everything, and even then...my old fonts and bubbles look...bad and hard to read on a phone. If I had to point to one thing that hurts my comic...24 pages before it gets easier to read.
I just don't have the time right now to fix all those mistakes.

And another...make sure the medium you're using is the one you'll stick with. I started in Pixel-Art only to drop it... hey...24 pages later. (Technically there are 32 pages in Pixel-Art...but I scrapped the other 12.)

[WolfUnderTheMoon89]

Well for me, I'm writing a novel and my chapters were too long. So from chapter 1 to 30 they're all above 2k words. After that I started to split them up. I can't add chapters in between.... so.... if I had known that earlier...
A few things: more chapters, updates four times a week instead of two (now they're on four) and I think a lot of readers were turned off by the long lenght

[BlunderingAlbatross]

That writing improves the more you write (duh). Getting better at writing is such a gradual process that you don't really realise until you look back on stuff you did years ago, or someone else points it out to you. Gotta be patient and keep on writing as much as possible!

Also, try to use more than one sense when describing something. Don't just describe how it looks, describe how it smells, feels, sounds, or even tastes.

[Legendofgenii]

You artwork will continually improve, so be prepared to redraw early pages (totally me right now).

[Bokyongyo]

For the one shot that was only meant to last for one tale is that referring to TreasureHUNT?

[Rhonder]

That's the one, yeah. The whole thing was conceptualized and scripted between... right after the Super Bowl (mid-February) and early March in 2018. Basically busted it out in 2-3 weeks xD

[WisdomChimp]

I wish i knew how to cook. I still don't. This may not seem relevant since a lot of us forget the break we need to take after staying glued to a screen cause of inspiration or the idea that "we're getting somewhere". But when i finally take that break the only thing i know how to make are sub par pasta, sandwiches and/or egg sandwiches.

[rajillustration]

It would have been nice to have done some research on where to find my audience--I kind of assumed that Tapas and Webtoon had better search features? It presents itself like a social media tool like facebook or tumblr with all of these linking features but...they really aren't. You have to assume that Webtoon and Tapas will do zero promotion for you. So, instead I've been promoting elsewhere, but a little too late. I really didn't think about doing that until a year after I started posting. If had done that from the get-go when my comic was just starting, it would have boosted my visibility significantly.

[Bokyongyo]

I remember reading through it and thought the ending was conclusive but also can be added onto. Ain’t know it was meant to be purely a one shot but it’s crazy how that works out sometimes.

Something starts off as a short idea but can turn into a work that’s longer than first conceived.

One piece is an example of this that comes to mind.

[Rhonder]

Ah yeah, I wrote the ending to be open in case I ended up wanting to expand it into a full blown series later (and in fact was on board with doing so for a few months there toward the end) but after taking a few months off and returning to the outline, I wasn't feeling it anymore Back to the point of my previous replies on this thread, I didn't put much care into the world building and so most of the decisions were made just to serve the plot and setting of the one-shot rather than being a good foundation for a larger series. It could certainly have worked but it didn't feel like it would be as cohesive or well-thought-through as it should be lol

Looking to avoid that and exercise more care and planning for the next project

[Bokyongyo]

That’s also could be seen as a good thing.

I know some people including myself just be in a loop of constant world building and not actually beginning the comic itself. Sometimes just starting without an idea for a grander world in mind is better than not starting at all

[ButterflyEmpress]

I wish I known about the whole "don't make your first comic a grand story" advice. I heard it's better to start off with smaller stories so that you can improve your art and writing. That way, your epic comic wouldn't start off so bad or be so stressful to work on. But I'm too far in to quit now. Sometimes I wonder if my comic's story is over convoluted for me and my audience.

Also, I wish I had a double take on my comic's outline or at least have someone else look over it, before I started illustrating. Since I've started I realized that some of the character interactions and plot elements were really REALLY bad. This caused me to slow down in production to research and rewrite those errors. But if had just went with it you could tell right away that I don't get out much.

@Iris-Grimoire Exactly! I just realized that too ever since I started converting my outline into scripts. Panels can only hold so much information before you have to use another one, and then another page, especially if it's really thematic.

@nathanKmcwilliams I think I screwed up on the font thing too. I prefer being on the computer than my phone or tablet, but I have to remember that the rest of the world doesn't think that way. Most people reading webcomics aren't sitting at their desktop.

[azzy-m]

I would tell past me, "Plan your entire story first before drawing the episodes instead of planning only the first season, you absolute clown."