Hi guys new here and relatively new to writing but I wanted to basically create a comic, Now I can draw but not to the extent of a comic book! People keep saying to me "just write it out in the boxes and draw as best you can"(haven't tried this yet). I was thinking of writing a book but having 2-3 pages of images in between similar to a biography! Any help with what to do would be greatly appreciated as I would like to publish!
Have you checked out some Youtube videos on how to make your own comic book? - there are some pretty cool ones. A lot are straight forward and help you even with the story itself discussing conflict and resolution. Bruce Blitz has a few good ones.
then how will you be able to 'create' a comic book? and what do you mean by that term?... comic books feature a main character or characters who are featured in an ongoing series of stories, are generally not just stand alone one-offs... you'd have to be a professional level illustrator to be able to turn out a marketable book that publishers would be willing to take on... so, drawing 'the best you can' won't help, if that's not publishable quality... the only alternatives i see are: 1. hire a pro to do the artwork... which will cost a small fortune you'll have little to no chance of ever recouping... 2. write the text only and hope a comic book publisher will find it worth spending money to have illustrated... how is that similar in any way to a 'biography'?... and whose life is it that you'd be writing about? i mentor writers of all breeds, so feel free to email me if you want help getting this off the ground... though i have to say that from what you've said here, i haven't a clue what it is that you want to write and publish... and, by 'would like to publish' do you mean self-publish, or to 'get published' by a paying press? love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
This. I'm hoping to be a comic artist one day but my art skills are way below the necessary degree of quality to actually get it done right now, and I'm not quite ready for art school yet. That's why I'm writing a script and hoping a company like Dark Horse will accept my idea. Dark Horse has some useful guidelines to writing a script, by the way. But most companies won't ask for a completed script for a proposal, just a long summary. The script will come later. Still, I suggest you work on it now. Here's a handy guide to what different publishers will ask for, and which ones will or won't accept writing submissions.
Okay, so you want to write a comic. Good. At least you know what you want to do. However, you claim that your artistic capabilities are not up to par (that's how i understand what you just said -feel free to correct me if i am wrong). Now, i have actually tried making the odd comic page whenever i have the patience, but hand-drawing everything can be a challenge. I have heard of programs that allow you to make comics much easier than just hand-drawing them all though. However, I would suggest getting at least the first chapter of script down before you start drawing. That way you have everything fleshed out well in your mind. And as for the drawing part... practice practice practice. I am the kind of artist who can just look at something and learn how to do it fairly quickly, but i doubt that's your case. My suggestion is to look up other comic (or even manga) styles and try to figure out how your own drawing works when combined with those styles. I actually learned how to draw humans just by doing manga, and then branched off to semi-realism from there!
Sorry I didn't make it clear guys! New to forums! Basically I want to get in to writing books, novels etc but I love comics! TBH I will only ever self publish but if it took off that's cool also some examples of My drawings here!
This isn't a question as much as venting... Of course, the title is a little misleading; I know how I want to write...I just can't. When I sit down to write something, be it a short story or part of a novel, my plan is to bust through a bunch of pages quickly, not pay too much attention to word mechanics, sentence structure, typos, etc. I figure I can get all of my main ideas down, then worry about fixing everything later during editing. However...that just never works for me. After I write a paragraph or two - once in a while, as much as a full page - I end up going back and reworking/correcting/changing it right then. Fix dialogue, change wording, you name it. I get so bogged down in doing this that I end up not making much progress. Over the weekend, I had a mini-epiphany about a story I want to write, so the last three nights I sat down to start it. I'm exactly 1.5 pages in. It's almost like I do the initial, second and third drafts all at once and I CAN'T STOP DOING IT. The two worst things are that (1) even by writing like this, it's not like I end up with a finish product, it still needs further editing later and (2) I end up spending (wasting) time on sections that end up getting drastically changed or cut completely depending on what happens later on. Ugh.
Same, I find going off screen and writing notes and ideas down in a book helps. Then when I come to write I have a bare bones structure to meat up keeping me a little bit more disciplined. But paying little attention to the mechanics etc. can have the counter effect of making the MS unreadable, which in turn means you go back and correct it. A happy medium might be best idea. Or keep typing until first draft is finished, never look back almost lol
Nothing wrong with editing as you go - your problem seems to be a bit of perfectionism. I would suggest giving yourself an allotment of either time to edit or number of changes to make and then you have to move on. Also, start looking at the editing you're doing - are you actually improving or are you just making changes? Sometimes you have to step away for a few minutes so you can see which it is - sometimes that alone can help you move forward.
I edit as I go all the time. My first drafts are always as good as my final. The only problem with this is that your progress will be very slow, but it is really not so bad at all.
Editing as you go is fine - it's when you won't stop editing that's the problem. What I do is give myself a limit - when I find myself reading and reading ONLY to find flaws, I know it's time to stop and just move on, cus it's not productive, I'm just wasting time. Give yourself a limit. Write 1 complete scene before you go back (better anyway to check for flow etc). Allow yourself to go back over it X number of times - for example, 5 is probably about enough. And then NO MATTER how you feel or what you think, move the heck on. And do it. A large part of it is just discipline. Think of it this way - do you want to finish this thing or not? If yes, then get writing. There's plenty of time to edit later.
I edit as I go but I set limits - I can only correct for a few minutes, no rewrites unless I need the scene to go in a different direction and I usually wait until I've completed a paragraph or a scene or a stretch of dialogue before start corrections. It doesn't always go this way but it's smoother when I follow the limits.
I think the time limit or # of reviews are both good ideas. If I don't somehow limit myself, I'll spend four days going over each and every page and won't accomplish anything. I find this sort of funny, I think I did that when I wrote the first novel but I was done with that in about 3 months. Also a good point about reading only to find flaws because I think that's what I'm doing.
Of course you can help it. You don't eat your favourite food until you explode, you don't drink alcohol until you die of poisoning. You presumably DO go to work and don't just walk out half way when the whim takes you. So if you really want to write, do it. If you are not writing, it is because, deep down, you have made the decision that you would rather be doing something else.
It's nice to edit whatever you wrote the day before, before going on to new stuff. Sort of like a warm up.
I am completely new to the writing scene. I have always aspired to write, and I figured that it was time to put action to thought. I don't know, however, where to start. From what little experience I have in learning curves, it seems that one should do what comes naturally with a little guidance rather than force regiment. However, I would love if you could share what helped you start writing and what books you may have read to mentor yourself. Thanks!
Oddly, there are those here who disagree, but my suggestion is to read, then read, then read some more. You can't possibly know what good writing looks like, then write it yourself, without a lot of reading. It really doesn't matter what kind of stuff you read, but you might start with books and stories in the genre in which you think you'd like to write. I've never read any sort of "how to write" book, other than style manuals.
Guidance is good but we each steer our own craft. I think it's easy for a novice writer to get caught up in the squals and become disoriented. The more I've written and sought and given critique, the better my perception of, not only how others view what I've written, but what works for me as a reader. In the last year I've started to appreciate where my strengths and failings lie. On deciding to convert my WIP from Third to First Person Past, a member here gave his opinion on my handling of it, and gave me two sound suggestions of books I could read to help me appreciate the benefits of writing in First Person more. And that's what works best for me. Interaction with other writers, and the bouncing back and forward of suggestions and ideas. I do have a couple of how-to books, and they are valuable in their way, but for me one of the joys of writing is the process of revelation that starts to occur just by putting pen to paper, and getting and giving feedback. When one applies oneself wholeheartedly growth is inevitable.
Have you actually gone and written something yet? If not, go and do that. It's pointless looking for how-to books at such an early stage, writing is about passion and having no choice but to tell stories, for better or for worse, because not telling them is agony. Write a short story, or series of them, a poem, anything that is the actual reason why you want to write. If you are an aspiring writer, you must have stories to tell. Otherwise, how can you fix something that hasn't happened yet?
I did a short course in writing about 10yrs ago. Nothing momentous but it did help in setting forth a way to tackle the project. Before that I was lost in the woods and just kept procrastinating. Whatever works really.
I don't put much faith in how-to books, other than grammar. A basic understanding of how to tell a story is all that's really needed, and if you've read enough books, it's not difficult to learn that. Very, very few people have ever sold their very first book, so you'll have plenty of writing to do and learn from as well. I will say that reading various how-to books can give you alternatives, things to try - but definitely don't look at them as Gospel.
I have only been writing for about 5 months. So I'm a newbie. I started out reading this huge book on how to write a novel. Wow did that ever burn me out. I then wrote a short story, flash fiction and that was the best advice ever and got me going. I'm a college dropout, did terrible in high school, especially English class and I'm dyslexic. Will I ever be a great author probably not, but if I can write ANYONE can write! So write, even if it's gobbledy gook, just write something and read a lot then read whatever book on writing you want to read, but just start writing, that is the best advice someone gave me.
I'll echo @stevesh's advice - read. Read a lot. Not just for pleasure, but with an eye to what the author does that makes the story come alive. I "mentored" myself reading as much as I could of writers I liked - Hemingway, Michener, Wouk, Uris, Dickens, Snow - then sprinkled in some different influences - Harper Lee, Mark Twain, Taylor Caldwell, James Thurber (to lighten things) and lots of others. I'm not afraid to read something twice. Or three times. Or more. Each time I'm drawn back to pick up some new nuance, some turn of phrase, something the author did extremely well. I made sure I read things that our literary history suggests are well worth reading, and I made sure I read things that just appealed to me. At some point, you need to learn the vocabulary of the writing craft, and the how-to books can help with that (even of they can't actually teach you how to write). But so can the work of literary critics. So, the NY Times Book Review should be on your weekly reading list, not only to learn what new works have been added to the literary world, but to get a look at what makes them tick. As an example of how useful insights can turn up in a book review, I offer this selection from Jim Windolf's review of Tom Rachman's new book. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, in the August 1 edition of the NYTBR: Best of luck.
