summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2012-08-10 08:07 pm
summercomfort) wrote2012-08-10 08:07 pm
Thoughts about writing comics
- Comics is not a genre, it is a medium. I know this intellectually, but I forget it when I sit down to brainstorm a comic. I jump straight to thinking about what stories I want to tell, when in fact I need to start by thinking about the genre and the format. Even if I want to tell a martial arts story, I can do it as a short story, a long novel, a series of strips. And I can tell it as slice-of-life, as action adventure, as drama, as comedy, romance, or deconstructed. Before I can even begin thinking about characters, plot, themes, I need to start with that.
- Not all stories make good comics. One of the things that I've had to slowly learn with role-playing games is that there are certain characters that don't make a collaborative story -- ones that are loners, that internalize too much, that don't have motive to interact with other player characters, that don't have issues that connect to the themes of the story. I'm slowly learning that some stories (plot, character, themes) don't make good comics. For good comics you need something interesting to draw -- interesting settings, cool character visuals, strong action and emotions. The plot can't be too slow, because everything takes 3x as long in comic time: something that can be described in one paragraph might take 3 pages to cover. While internal monologues are not impossible, it can't be an entire story driven on internal monologuing. On the other hand, there are some visual tricks that you can play that you can't in other mediums that allows for more thematic juxtapositions and time shenanigans.
- You can't always just "make a comic that you want to read." That's like saying "write a thing that you want to read." It's too general and there are too many limiting circumstances to consider. For example, I might want to read historical fiction about Wu Zetian that updates 3x a week. But there's no way I can maintain that sort of update schedule. Plus making comics also takes a lot more research than novels, because you can't just say "she walked into a room and gazed at the mirror" in a Victorian setting without actually drawing that room and that mirror in its full Victorian glory. Not to mention basic drawing and writing skills.
- Not all stories make good comics. One of the things that I've had to slowly learn with role-playing games is that there are certain characters that don't make a collaborative story -- ones that are loners, that internalize too much, that don't have motive to interact with other player characters, that don't have issues that connect to the themes of the story. I'm slowly learning that some stories (plot, character, themes) don't make good comics. For good comics you need something interesting to draw -- interesting settings, cool character visuals, strong action and emotions. The plot can't be too slow, because everything takes 3x as long in comic time: something that can be described in one paragraph might take 3 pages to cover. While internal monologues are not impossible, it can't be an entire story driven on internal monologuing. On the other hand, there are some visual tricks that you can play that you can't in other mediums that allows for more thematic juxtapositions and time shenanigans.
- You can't always just "make a comic that you want to read." That's like saying "write a thing that you want to read." It's too general and there are too many limiting circumstances to consider. For example, I might want to read historical fiction about Wu Zetian that updates 3x a week. But there's no way I can maintain that sort of update schedule. Plus making comics also takes a lot more research than novels, because you can't just say "she walked into a room and gazed at the mirror" in a Victorian setting without actually drawing that room and that mirror in its full Victorian glory. Not to mention basic drawing and writing skills.