marsoid
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HOW I MAKE WEBCOMICS (part 2)
🕑 Added 2020-10-15 18:33:32 +0000 UTCDIRECTORY
PART 1 - intro, goals, when you should start, comic length
PART 2 (here) - inspiration, ideas, research
PART 3 - page sizes, hosting sites, patreon
PART 4 - characters, art references, promotional
PART 5 - outlining, scripting, thumbnailing
PART 6 - sketching, inking, coloring
PART 7 - updating, guest comics
PART 8 - merch, self-care, fandom and boundaries
inspiration
what's the best way to find inspiration for making your webcomic? i have no idea. here's what i do though: THINK about EVERYTHING i see/watch/read/listen to/etc. while you're watching a movie, really try to pay attention to what parts of the movie make you FEEL the strongest. maybe it's the fight scene or the car chase that got your heart pumping... put that shit in your comic! or the very specific way the main character confessed to their love interest... use that shit!
i know everyone has different feelings about stealing versus inspiration for writing/art, and i'm not gonna get into that because i don't care, but i will say you should really analyze WHY you like (or don't like!) something you consume in media. what is is about that fight scene or love confession that stuck out to you? if you can figure out the reason, you might find it easier to take inspiration from it and how to apply it to your story. i think about and try to analyze every strong emotion i get from the media i consume, and why it makes me feel that way. then i use that information in my stories.
ideas
let's say you've found inspiration and you've got an idea for a webcomic already. now you're trying to figure out how to turn that vague idea into a STORY. you might end up writing and rewriting a ton of different directions for your ideas, but you'll eventually gravitate towards one idea/direction more than the others. if that happens, there's probably a reason for it, and it's worth exploring!
feeling confidence in your ideas is definitely hard sometimes. i have a hard time taking my own ideas seriously and trusting my writing pretty often. i'm part of a writing group with my friends and we're all working on webcomics. i share my ideas with them and we brainstorm together. doing this always helps me feel more confident in my story's ideas, and i recommend starting or finding your own story sharing group if you can. OR at least, having a few friends who you can test your ideas on and ask for genuine feedback and honest critique! be careful putting too much of your idea publicly online before your comic has even started however!
if you're still having trouble coming up with just a general idea for the comic's story at all, look at the things you enjoy writing and drawing (you're gonna be drawing a LOT of that thing in a comic, so make sure you really like it). now combine a few! for my next comic, Ride or Die, i combined my love of street racing and demons (and Gay)! also try to remember that even if your story's idea seems cliche or has been "done before," it's never been done by YOU so it'll be new and different than anything else out there just in that sense.
research
i get asked a lot about how to write webcomics about LGBT people or characters of color, especially by people who might not be part of those groups themselves. the easiest answer is to ASK for feedback from people who are in those groups. that doesn't mean find a random brown person and spill your entire story dilemma to them without their consent. you can hire sensitivity readers, or just put it out there that you're looking for someone to help you out. just make sure first that the person you're asking is up for helping you in the first place!
this is really broad (and probably obvious) advice because "research" can mean SO many different things, but it's always good to look at books and research websites. i like to occasionally browse subreddits too since there's basically a subreddit for everything and you can learn a lot about what it's like to be a.. guy who paints the crosswalks on streets, or whatever. INFO!
PART 3
if you have any questions, ask away below and i'll do my best to answer when i can!
Comments
Allan Meyer
Gosh thanks again for taking the time to put these out. Guess there’s nothing for it but to confront the fact that being a “writer” does not mean being a good STORY teller. My field is technical and historical documentation which does not make for rollicking adventures- usually. The idea of getting a story group sounds great. Plus most of us know if our storytelling puts people to sleep in real life, it might help to spice it up on the page…
