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Hey, I need a bit of advice. I'm kindof new to writing, and I know that there's a lot of stuff that goes into writing before you start the story, such as building the characters etc. Do you have like a basic overview of the things that should definitely be done before I try to write things out into a story? Also, what is a character arc and how do I write one? I hope this ask makes sense.

Hi!

There is so much going into a story. But this is not the format to analyse every little detail of it and you also just wanted a basic overview before you start, so here it is.

Basic overview: How to write a story?

Theme

What kind of story do you want to tell?

What do you want to write about?

What genre do you want to write in?

What is your target audience?

Is there a message you want to convey?

Specific issues you want to highlight?

What narrator do you want to tell the story?

 Structure

Before you start you need a rough idea on where to start and where to end

Beginning

Who is there in the beginning and where are they?

Ending

Who is still left and where do they end up?

Bear in mind that a story doesn’t need a happy ending, it just needs a satisfying one

Middle part (you don’t need to know this in detail)

you just need a few scenes to make a timeline

you need to kind of know how to get from the beginning to the end

you will need ups and downs and twists

Some major plot points for the middle part

Places/stops

Plot twists

When and how does the MC meet the other characters?

Key scenes to further the plot

A few scenes you already know you want to have in the story

Characters

How to create a character? (Tips for creating and developing characters)

Who is your MC?

How many MCs do you have?

How many important characters do you need?

Character arc – your character can’t stand still; they need some kind of drive or problem that is a change to what their life was before

You have to send them on a journey, they have to overcome things you threw in their way

At the end of the story something has to have changed for them

 This is just some basic stuff, so if you or anyone else wants some part of this a little bit more detailed let me know.

- Jana

Making a Webcomic

I have collected all my advice for webcomic making and compiled it into a long resource post. Keep in mind that these are not set rules but just advice and things I have learned while making comics over the years!

Where to start?

Generally when making a comic (or anything in general) you need an idea. It can be an elaborate concept or even just something small. For example, “I want to make a comic about coping with depression” is a more conceptual base. You don’t have to start with a deep message though, you can also start with something small such as “I want to make a comic about [thing]” which can be a place or a type of character, such as “I want to make a comic about a forest” or “I want to make a comic about bunnies.”

You can keep things this simple if you want to, or later apply a deeper message to it- “I want to make a comic about forest wildlife (focusing on bunny characters) that is symbolic for societal structures.” You don’t have to go that deep at all if you don’t want to, though. The point is that you don’t have to keep your plot as what you first came up with, and you can develop and get new ideas as time goes on.

For those curious, I started out my comic with the concept “I want to make a silly comic about horrible evil nurses, because I want to make fun of and cope with my bad experiences with them.” The first thing I did with that was design a bad nurse character, and from that decided it was just a silly bad hospital, and so on.

If you get stumped, there’s no need to focus on just one part of the world you’re developing. You can expand things by starting another branch. “These bunnies live beside wild deer. These deer have problems too.” You can switch back and forth between focuses in order to get the bigger picture, and in my comic, I did that by thinking about the outside world outside of the hospital.

If it’s hard for you to think about things in terms of groups and locations, it can also be switching between focus of characters you’re developing. Does your bunny protagonist have friends? What are they like? What’s their individual stories? You can also decide what is and isn’t important to the story you’re trying to tell. If your comic is just silly, maybe there’s a running gag about your protagonist and the way they interact with others.

Actually Writing

The biggest piece of advice I can give when it comes to actual production of your webcomic: scripting. Script everything. Literally everything. When drawing a page, you need to know where to position things based upon speech bubbles and panel content. If you draw a really fantastic detailed panel and forget you need to put a lot of text, you can lose progress that you worked hard on by not having space to show what you drew!

When writing a script, start with an outline. This can generally be a simple bullet point list of each event in your comic. After you have your major events in mind, fill in the gaps with smaller sub-bullets that have information of what happens in-between each major plot point. Even these don’t need to be particularly detailed- when you’re writing the actual script, you can use your outline as a reference or “skeleton” for what you want to happen.

Once you’ve figured out those major bullet points and the filler details, it’s time for actual writing! The best way to go about scripting is to section everything by page. On page one, how many panels are there? What all happens? How is this page going to lead into the second one smoothly? What happens in the first panel? How about the second?

A HUGE piece of advice I wish I’d known sooner: do not write your comic like a storyboard. If you’re like me and have an interest in animation, you may be tempted to have a panel for every change of position or movement that a character makes. While this sometimes can be good for dramatic effect, doing this at all times can be very bad for pacing and make your comic boring to read. Here’s a nice article that explains this a bit better than I can. There’s lots of more resources you can find online with pacing. If you’re unsure, try thumbnailing out your pages and think about how long it takes for things to happen. Are these characters sitting around talking for 5 pages, or have they finished talking and gotten 3 more things done? Have a friend or two review it and let you know how they feel about how easy it is to read.

When writing a script, do not make it for just dialogue. How are you going to know what to draw and how to make each panel look if all you know is what a character is saying? What are they doing? What’s the position of their body? What is going on? Include panel content alongside any or dialogue narration. You will not regret it, and your future self will appreciate it. You might know what’s happening now, but if you spend 6 months or more writing a script like I did, you might not remember every detail as you vividly did when you first wrote it. If you have visuals in mind, write them down.

I heavily advise that you have someone else read your script before you start production. See if it makes sense and flows coherently to someone who doesn’t know all the background. What is the experience of reading your comic going to be like to a first-timer? Is there too much background information you need to know beforehand to know what’s going on? If a reader is too confused by a flood of expected knowledge, it can make them lose interest and not want to read your comic. It’s always good to take a break after you finish and re-read it a few days later with fresh eyes. You might come up with something new or change your mind.

Actually Drawing

After you’ve perfected your script, it’s time for the fun part- also the most frustrating and time-consuming part– the drawing. You might be excited about it now, but a rule of thumb is to remember that you probably are going to get tired or bored of drawing or lose inspiration at some points. This is why it’s important to take breaks, don’t force yourself to stick to a strict update schedule if you’re just starting out. Update when you want and as your physical and mental health provides. Create a lengthy buffer before you start uploading if you need to. It helps to be able to post something even when you don’t feel like drawing, because you already have it done and can rest all the time you need.

If you have each page scripted out, start with thumbnailing and page layouts. What is the position of each panel on the page? Where do the speech bubbles go? Are you going to have room for that brilliant big illustration panel you want to do? Remember that your thumbnails and layouts do not have to be magnificently detailed. You can keep things simple and messy and off-model. Nobody is going to see them except you or your artists. It’s a personal reference to help you know where things go. Here’s an awesome article about thumbnailing and planning page layouts, and a pretty helpful dA post.

Once you’ve had your layouts completed, you can start working on sketching out the final pages. Once you’re satisfied with your sketches, you can ink and color, and so on. I personally find the inking and coloring parts to be the easiest, but those are the ones I need the most help with, because I deal with a wrist injury. Drawing comics is my favorite thing in the world, but I’ve suffered because I ended up doing it too much and hurting myself.

I cope with my injury with physical therapy and regular exercising, but the most important thing that helps is to limit my drawing. Never overwork yourself, even if you really get on a roll with working and don’t wanna stop. You don’t want to deal with a wrist injury like carpal tunnel. If you love drawing, this will hurt your ability to draw and can depress you like it did me. I know my injury may never go away, so I just do my best to learn to live with it despite everything. Remember to take breaks, do stretches, get up and walk every 30 minutes to take care of your body and posture. Take care of yourself so you can continue doing what you love for as long as you want.

Resources

To finish things off, heres a compilation of more resources I have found particularly useful and insightful for comic making!

50 Tools and Resources to Start a Webcomic

Makewebcomics.com

The Biggest Mistakes People Make When They Start A Webcomic

Sites to Publish Comics

Where to Host Your Webcomic

FERAL TANJIROU

Coming into a fandom late