[Addy]

Sorry if this doesn't belong here, but it is entirely pertaining to writing, so...


I used to be a writer in high school, and frankly, I was terrible, and stopped pursuing that and went more toward comics and culinary arts. However, story is a very important part of comics, and then I realized that I left my story-driven comics suffer by stopping the focus I had on writing.

I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN IN PLANNING ANYMORE.


Do you guys start with the end in mind? How soon do you plan your endings? Or do you just sort of let them happen?

I have a lot of ideas and I'm frankly just unsure of how to tackle them. I'll try to type something up and post it here so you can help me out here and there.


(Also, bonus question for comic artists - when you're working on a longer, story-driven comic, do you write the whole story before you start drawing?)

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I tend to work on the entire story at once -- obviously over a period of time. I tend not to actually get down to the writing business until I have a solid outline laid out, which makes it easier to iron out plotholes and line things up, for me.

Though, on endings in particular, I normally don't begin with those. For the trilogy I'm still outlining stuff for, I actually began with the exact middle, then worked backwards to the beginning, and then plotted it out to the end, but it's, on the whole, a very fluid process for me.

[Rem]

I can't answer for writing, but the comic writing question I can -- I don't always plan the whole thing, beginning to end, but I do definitely outline it -- it's more that I know where I want it to go, and generally the ending, and I fill the middle out as I go. I outline it, and sometimes there are specific scenes I -want- to happen but sometimes the flow of the comic kind of writes itself, and will change from what I initially wanted. But I definitely GENERALLY plan everything out, I try to have at least five issues completely thumbnailed before I start drawing one ~

[Addy]

Suzerain - That's pretty interesting. I haven't ever done anything like that; starting in the middle I mean. I usually have this interesting-sounding thing and then have to make that somehow relevant and the story sort of sprouts from this tiny seed.


Rem - That is quite helpful. I should probably stick with that rule for thumbnailing, too. Much appreciated.


I have the whole story figured out, roughly at least, for this comic. Now to fill in the rest and begin thumbnailing...

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Never tried a comic book approach but I've thought about it for a couple stories I have. Basically, I picture a particular panel, or more than one, and work around that. I do find that I need to take care of one thing (ie the story) before the other (the art) or I get overwhelmed trying to juggle both. I have some stories where I didn't get past one or two significal panel as far as the art part went, then tossed it and went with the written story instead which, by the way, is still unfinished. I think adapting a written story to a comic can be tricky. If you are starting something original, maybe consider thinking of it in pictures rather thatn in narrative. Comics books are about using image to show content rather than words.

[Addy]

Oh for sure!! I just wasn't sure what the usual approach for it was. I want to hammer out a lot of dialogue and I figured writing it out like a story would help. I guess script-based would be the way to go for a comic, wouldn't it?

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I imagine, probably something like a play or screenpay would be written, not that I'm sure about that, and maybe sketches or brief, direct description for the panels. I'm not sure there is a "usual way" to do things, apart from what people have found that works for themselves.

I keep thinking bad to the comics that I have read, not many, but in particular one "issue" of Watchmen (I have graphic novel format). The chapter is called "Fearful Symmetry" and I read an interview talking how it was the most difficult chapter to make because the panels on the first half of the chapter are mirror images of the panels in the latter half, so something like that would have had to have been done with the panels first and then fitting the story and scenes to them, rather than the other way around.

How things will ultimately look on a page would affect how a stroy is presented to I figure an outline is good but flexibility is important too.