Hey all,

I was wondering how many comic creators here plan their stories from beginning to end before getting down to making the final comic. I have read a lot of comics here with great artwork, but after about 20 to 50 pages in you realize the story is not really focused on where its going. After awhile of reading I lose interest and just move on. Then again I wonder if having so many free comics at hand gives way to too much window shopping and not enough solid time with each title you find. I have found some good stories here...don't get me wrong. Just wondering if a lot of people know their ending?

Really tough question. I hope Nadya never ends up like this.

I've practically planned out where I want this series to go until it's 70 or 80 percent finished. I thought I had the absolute ending down, but I planned on having one little detail changed, which turned my previous ending to mush. I'm still working on writing the story down.

I have most of my story planned in a brief plot but no actual heavy details.

The hard part is continuing to draw the comic until i get there... im already starting to feel the weight of a scheduled update process.

I know every major thing that will happen from beginning to end. All I have to do is fill in the events between every story point in my story.

And I have a general idea how each of those places should be filled already too =P

Well, my whole comic is a collection of poems. Most of the time I seperate each poem my the stanzas and create one page per stanza. If it's a haiku, it's usually one page. If it's free-verse, I seperate the lines in pairs, three's, or four's. Usually I like to keep the same number of panels for each page of the poem, then the last page is usually a single panel. I have almost a hundred poems written, and I'm always writing new ones XD. So yes, I always know how the poems end before I'm done drawing them out. :D

I also have the whole storyline worked out - but converting the story into daily strips is something that I do as i go along, so I do have lots of opportunity to fine tune things as i go. So I know exactly where I'm going - I just can't tell you exactly when I'll get there.

I usually make a crappy ending in my mind, and then with the time, I start changing some things, but overall its still the same...though, I havnt finished many comics yet so...the ideas are floating there XD

My comic is a series of short-ish episodes with a larger background plot. I have most of the background plot planned out, but I change some of the details when I get them down on paper, and some of that has developed into a new direction. I plan the outline for each episode before I draw them (which is necessary, since many of the episodes are mystery/detective cases). None of my episodes are completely "stand-alone," though. They all advance character development and plot.

When I actually begin drawing, I already have the beginning and the end solidly planned out. They will receive editing and additional padding as time wears on, but they're relatively set.

However, often the middle of the plot is a big nebulous blob. I don't really know how the characters will reach the end; the characters themselves will give me ideas and inspirations as I flesh them out with page after page.

Sometimes this works out great. The characters click and the story progresses smoothly. Sometimes I hit big obstacles, in which case the original ending would have to be scrapped. Or I have no idea how to get past the obstacle and I'm just hoping I'll have an idea by the time I draw up to it (usually 200 pages in, so I have plenty of time).

Well, I had the beginning planned out, and I know what the ending of PT will be (eventually). I have up to chapter 5 scripted out, so I know exactly what's going to happen up to that point, too. Beyond that, it's pretty open, although I have the major events pretty much planned out. But I like to keep things pretty changeable while sticking to the main idea of the story, because sometimes I'll come up with something better than my original idea for a scene while I'm drawing a page, lol. Sometimes it's little inconsequential changes, sometimes it's story-altering.

Plus, I have to say that I have more fun writing when I let my characters more or less be my "co-writers". =p Sometimes they end up doing things that I wasn't planning on, but it works out better than what I had originally intended.

PT is a huge experiment for me, so I'm mostly just trying to have fun while improving as an artist and a writer I go along.

My comic is kind of a long story and I doubt I'll finish it anytime soon (I'm at 360 pages but I'm not even close to the end. xD; ) But I do have a vague ending planned for it. I know whats going to happen, just how it will happen is in debate. Who knows, I may just do the rest of the comic as random episodes that tie together (like most kids tv shows) until I get sick of it. ^^' I'd probably cry whenever I finish Anarchy, I've been at it for so long. xD;

silentkitty
Plus, I have to say that I have more fun writing when I let my characters more or less be my "co-writers". =p Sometimes they end up doing things that I wasn't planning on, but it works out better than what I had originally intended.

I do that a lot! Actually, a few times, I had a distinct plan, but for the dialog and events to flow "naturally" I had to use an entirely different strategy. (Like I intended for a character to go off alone, but one of the other characters would not leave her side -- and his presence became important for the resolution of the episode.) Writing is both easier and more exciting/interesting when the characters are dictating their own actions.

(Used Books is supposed to run more like a serial thing and less like a movie, so it's important to stay flexible and let new things develop.)

Everything in American007 is planned out, from beginning to end. I have all the characters I want to introduce written out, all twists explained, all episodes listed. So yeah, American007 has a planned ending. I only go back and change some story elements if I want to add any other characters or add/expand a segment to a certain episode, but that's it.

I have benchmarks for Broken Things , but I've chosen to allow the path to those benchmarks to be less ridged. I like to leave a little wiggle room to allow the characters some freedom to develope themselves, but I'm always aware of of the bench marks, & won't hesitate to real characters or situations in a tad to make sure I get where I want the story to go.

Terran Sandz is handled the same way. I generally have an idea in mind, benchmarks in my head, & then I develope the story while I thumbnail the pages. I keep my pacing constantly in mind or the story can get out of hand.

Dead is quite the opposite. I literally have no idea where I'm going beyond the next few pages. I'm curious what will happen when I don't reign in either the characters or the situations.

Of course if I were part of a creative partnership I'd have to spell things out much more meticulously to avoid misunderstandings & to better insure we're on the same page. Thankfully, all my books are all me. I like it that way.

Later,
Chip

Sure is interesting to read everyones methods of madness in getting their comic done. I actually thumbnail my entire comic out scene by scene before I start illustrating the pages. I change a lot of small things as I go along, but the scenes pretty much stay the same. I did rewrite the ending and then wrote a sequel of sorts to the original ending. I am happy with my book now:)

I asked this question originally because of American comic books. Since a lot of our comic books are published as serialized magazines per say...they never write an ending to these stories. I used to love the x-men, and still do, but the suspense of the stories are diminished when you realize no one is in real danger, because they can never die due to the continuing format of the series. Also there is never a sense of satisfaction in the stories, because nothing is ever truly resolved since it is always to be continued. Just thoughts:)

ahumphres
I used to love the x-men, and still do, but the suspense of the stories are diminished when you realize no one is in real danger, because they can never die due to the continuing format of the series.

That's why it's nice to mix things up a bit. Let relationships change. Kill someone off (best when in a world where you don't conveniently write people back to life again -- that's cheap), but do everything deliberately and significantly, not just to generate interest. Even if you know a main character (esp. a title character) can't be killed off, there are ways to keep things interesting. After all, there are "fates worse than death" sometimes. Emotional twists, changed relationships, betrayal, and hundreds of other ways that can change the tides either temporarily or permanently.

Serials have to be written differently than a typical novelist approach. The sense of completeness at the end of a story-arc is different than what you get at the end of a complete book. But the end of a chapter or volume should have a satisfying conclusion itself. A series should never be an endless quest but rather one complete journey after another. You also get a fun continuing "life" -- provided the writers don't run out of ideas, do the same things over again and again, or become predictable. That's kinda tricky to do, but when it happens, it's great.

A good series also knows when to stop. Look at any TV series that has now ended. Most lose momentum and often try desperate moves to renew interest (a new character with little explanation or development, randomly killing someone off, etc.). Very few maintained a constant level of greatness throughout the series. Those that did either ended abruptly for one reason or another, or they have a concluding episode. Though, to be honest, conclusions of series rarely leave me feeling "satisfied" and instead are just a let down.



(BTW, just to clarify, I'm not contradicting myself with the first "mix it up" and then talking about the desperate cheap tricks to revive a dying series. What I'm talking about in the former is not a sudden thing. It should be happening all along. You should set precedent early in the series, that people can die in this world, that relationships will be dynamic, and that every chapter or volume will be different and build upon the previous ones.)

Well in that case... seeing as how I thought you meant the WHOLE story =P

My comic won't have the American comic problem. I'm not much for never ending stories that never give you anything, nobody is really gonna die, and you just keep getting strung along from "TO BE CONTINUED" to the next "TO BE CONTINUED"

Don't get me wrong. I like continuing stories. But I also like change and getting something from each comic/episode.

So my whole story is a group of smaller stories that are grouped into even smaller stories that are finally grouped yet again into a smaller one. The last being the actual comic. I want each comic to be it's own story.

Yet it is a part of a slightly larger story (chapter) which then is a part of a larger story (volume) then all together they make up the whole huge story.

So I make up the volume 1st. Then I make up all the chapters in each volume. Then I have to figure out how to make a bunch of stories to accumulate this whole chapter.

Cause each comic has to be it's own entity and still advance the chapter further even if at times only slightly.

This is the spot where my characters can take control of the story and I at times will have to tweak each chapter or volume.

I know what all my volumes are about, I don't know all the chapters they will take and the actual comic and characters dictates that to me. So I brief descriptions of how each issue will push the story for the chapter. Then I make a story to fit the events that will occur. Sometimes the story takes over and I have to take away or add more descriptions. But I won't start the comic until every page in that chapter is drafted and every issue in the next chapter has a brief description so I will know what I will be setting myself up for long in advance.

I have an ending to the series mapped out. I have a vague idea of the smaller stories between the start and the finish story, and I'm writing them now. My biggest fear is I'll write all 26 chapters, get bored and never finish the art.

I have always had the story for my comic (PYC) mapped out with detials and events constantly changing. In fact, the current version of the story bears very little resemblance to the story as it was planned back when I came out with Issue #9. Then again, this is kind of the stage where the comic is in early story development so it can still change.

In fact, I even have at least 30 years (in the PYC universe, not real world) worth of events that happen BEFORE PYC's beginning and about 1 year of events set after PYC's story ends.

But yeah, the details are not nearly as planned out.

And to think that I run 3 webcomics. At least it helps that one has no plot and the other one is too early in being a comic for me to need to completely worry about making it's story just yet...

my stories end, my strip... well...

Usually, I have an idea for a begining and ending, then just write up diagrams to fill in the rest. MOSAIC on the other hand is planned out up to the start of volume 7, after that, every thing else is up in the air.

I usually plan out my stories all the way through, but those plans are easily changed, right down to when I'm in the middle of drawing a page.

the hard part is deciding how long i want the story to be, i already have some kind of ending planned but i have other events happening along the way, at that point its still not concrete so i really dont know how it'll end, or what other crap i might want to add before then.

JustNoPoint
I know every major thing that will happen from beginning to end. All I have to do is fill in the events between every story point in my story.

And I have a general idea how each of those places should be filled already too =P

I couldn't have said it better myself :)

I've pretty much just started drawing my comic, but I started the concept a year ago last summer knowing absolutely nothing but two characters. From there I built from the beginning to the end. Then I scrapped it because I didn't like it, and as the characters developed I changed the story. Now I have a beginning, about 80% of the middle, and an end. I keep adding things to the middle though, I'm totally addicted to it. I think I'm delaying the inevitable end. :0

Well, it looks like I'm the odd one of the buch here. I just can't do planning. At best I have an idea about what I'm doing, and where I'm going, but that's not the norm.

Sometimes I envy people that can plan their projects...

I spent a lot of time thinking about my story and the various things that go into it, and I know that it WILL eventually end. But I've kept myself from thinking out the endingg on purpose. If I already know how it ends, I feel kind of done with it already even though it's not on paper yet. So I leave the ending open until I'm ready to finish it.

I....KIND OF know the ending to my comic....kinda...sorta....

Well for me, my work is all planned out to an extreme level. Every panel has to mean something and has another purpose for its existence. Every character has a purpose in a bigger over arching story that will become more apparant as new penis keeps going on.

I've set it up to where I could do 10,000 pages of the comic. Upon the 10,000th page (which would be years off, so don't worry) everything will change. I've only now started the "attack of the story arcs" with a seven pager and then less than a week later a ten page one, followed by almost all of October being one story. Then I'll probably start one that will run for about half a year. Then one that last a full year. Then one that runs the final remaining time penis has. "minor" pages will appear from time to time, so don't get your panties in a bunch that you'll be missing Buttman sneezing poo on someone, but the stories are what people are going to remember penis for. Its just going to get more and more intense and serious from here. I got a story that could run well over 2,000 pages outlined, and began scripting it out the other day. Its going to be nothing short of "epic". And its all written so that a person can come in at any page and feel like they've missed nothing, but people who have been reading it daily won't feel like I'm holding their hands the whole time. Its a hard balance to hit.

So if you thought penis was awful, wait until it starts getting serious.

I have a complete story set up for Crimson Shifters, all the way down to a finalized script.

Well, I say 'finalized', but if I'm in the middle of creating a page, and an idea or a character's line doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, I'll tinker until it fits. If need be, I can make an overhaul of a scene, while still keeping the general feel of the narrative.