Comic Fury Webcomic Hosting - Planning Phase

I've been devoting my effort lately to a comic idea that I have, one with a continuous storyline and better art and everything. I've been coming up with ideas, characters, concept art, and etc. for a little more than a month, though it still feels like I have a lot to do. This is partly because I am a student and am generally working on some assignment or another, but it's still a lot of work. Either way, I feel like the more thought I put into this phase, the better off my new comic will be for it.

My question to you guys is, if/when you work on something like this, or even something like a gag-a-day strip, how much time do you put into planning out stories, characters, etc? Can you spend too much time in this phase?

I spent a year planning No Songs, and I'm currently planning my next project, which will see the light of day maybe a few years from now at best.

It all depends on the story and how you work. If you're good at coming up stuff on the fly, you can just plan a premise and a rough storyline and go with it. I for one like planning and being prepared cause if I don't like something about the story or if I have plotholes, I can fix those before I even start drawing the pages.

But at least some amount of planning is required if you wanna make a really good comic.

I think I spent over 7 months planning for Cans of Beans, which includes writing the complete script and pre-production work such as environment concepts, color scripts, character turnarounds, and so on. Thumbnails I save for later, until I'm actually working on art for that chapter, because my composition skills progressively get better (at least in theory).

Some people do well without any pre-planning at all. I'm the kind of person who needs to make sure everything will work right by the time I'm actually drawing the pages, while some people are willing to just jump right into it. I feel like pre-planning makes the stronger comic in the end, but I've been proven wrong before.

Like Fubar said, it really depends on what kind of story you're trying to make!

The comic I'm currently working on didn't take that long (took around two months making some plots, the characters,etc)
Since Interrobang's chapters each focus on a different subject (kind of like a tv show's episodes), I just have rough ideas of what the future chapters would be like and polish them as I go with the help of Maria. It doesn't take long at all.

I do have another story planned, but it's got a more serious tone and more complex storyline than that of Interrobang. I started planning it in January and I'm not even close to half done planning it right now!

Although I absolutely love planning projects, I have never done planning for Slightly Eccentric.
I only made the comic on a spur-of-the-moment decision, and didn't intend a story to develop at all. It did, but I'm still not going to plan it because that way I can always draw what I feel like. Sometimes I've planned a page or two ahead, and I have ideas in my head about where I want it to go or things I want to include, but no more than that. c:

I do have a more serious future comic that I'm planning to plan (lol) this summer, though. I think it'll take me at least half a year to do that, probably more. I intend to put a lot of time into the artwork, and build up a buffer, too...so it's probably going to be over a year before anyone sees this. @u@

Planning for too long? I'm not sure where I stand on this. If you're planning something you aim to make money out of, it's probably best not to take tooo long (literary authors I'm looking at you), but otherwise may aswell just enjoy the project planning and not put unnecessary pressure on yourself. As long as you do eventually take action. :')

I don't feel you can plan for too long. You can over-plan, but that is different all together because you've just mushed waaaay too much stuff in there so it no longer makes sense or flows right.

I've had the base for my comic for about ten years, but most of the actual story planning happened within a few months (because that was when I told Alex we should do a comic together). It sort of plans it self as we go now, but because we have the basic structure - important plot points - timelines - characters and locations fully set, we didn't need to know every detail of the story before we started and we can just go with the flow now and are open to new ideas if they come along.

Important part is deciding whether or not what you have planned is good or not, there are many, many characters (one who was the core character when I first came up with the idea) have been cut because they weren't good enough, there wasn't enough space, or their purpose had stopped being important.

With time, you can over-plan, but you can also see your mistakes and refine the plan better.

I find talking to someone about your plans/timelines/plots is really helpful too - because it means you hear what you are saying out loud and you can often then see for yourself what is wrong/they will point it out to you.

If you end up starting it and it goes no where/isn't working - go back to the planning stage. It's frustrating, but worth it in the end.

I have planned my comic for around 4 years and am still working out things while actually drawing the comics. I would say that if anything I have over planned because there is a lot of extra side stories I planned that I have cut because they are really not important to the main plot. But I have been willing to cut them and change things and that is the one thing that makes over planning ok.

I find knowing the story for so long really helpful because the story has almost become part of me and that helps me really understand what is important and needs to be told.

I might not plan enough, or maybe planning more would make me impatient about doing the story's key plot points and I would rush it. I feel like I'm better off having to patch minor continuity errors than hastying through character development parts to get to move the plot faster.
That doesn't mean that I don't think planning is good, but I make most of mine in daydreaming form, and pitifully scarce notes. I need to get rid of that feeling that MS Word is for SRS BZNS and feel ridiculous whenever I try to write things down.

A fortnight.

The current arc has a guide of sorts which is 49 pages long at 10 point. It's basically a series of dot points which outline all of the plot coupons which need to be picked up.

Each page though starts as a very rough wire diagram with dialogue also pencilled in. Things do change in the process between pencilling and final inking though.

I completely agree with this. Having a good artist/writer friend that you can bounce ideas off of is invaluable, and the more critical they are, the better. No one is 100% aware of their own mistakes/plot holes/etc.

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Depending how you define it, you could say I've been planning for anywhere from one month to about 2 or 3 months, as I've had a general idea in my head for a while that I kept refining until it was something do-able.

Those of you who have spent a really long time planning before starting the comic, how much did you actually have at the end (the end meaning when you started working on the first strip, I guess)? Was the whole story essentially planned out, with all the characters and events totally scripted, or did you just have more of a general idea of the plot along with a few characters and settings?

I have my whole story scripted, all 100 or so pages, it is pretty rough though (I rework it at the start of each chapter). I keep cutting and expanding things, but I know where my story is going and generally what is going to happen.

I worked on my story for approximately a year now. I write out all the scripts and "stage directions" (more like what the scene will look like so I don't lose the picture in my head when I'm thinking it. I have at least 65+ chapters (i expect 20~30 pages each) scripted out...and had friends read every single page and give me feedback. So I'm confident with the story I have now.

There are advantages to working the story(much of it) in advance:
1. You don't have to regret doing something in a story because you've already drawn it out and it's now stuck there forever. I changed my beginning chapters quite a bit even after 7~8 months after writing them because it didn't unify well with the rest of the chapters.
2. You can actually have lots of feedback and time to think about
3. No "writer's block" while you're on drawing the pages so there's minimized chance of skipped updates (Of course, the true devil is the "artist's block")
4. Story is more unifying. At first, you don't really know how exactly chapter 45 of your story will turn out to be like. But as you go on, you can edit things here and there to add foreshadowing of events, deeper meanings.


I bet ther're other stuff...But that's it for now i guess

A detailed-general idea. We have a timeline, all the characters and important plot points as well as settings all planed. And the timeline goes up to halfway and scripted almost all up to halfway and then will do more as we go. I don't like scripting it all the way, because then I feel it is harder to add in things you need. There have been a couple of scenes that I added as I did the script, because it felt like they were needed - and they didn't disrupt what was already planned so they fitted in well.

Timelines are super super helpful. Means you don't go off track, and also means you have a visual of how they plot works - makes it easier to add things in or shuffle things around if they don't look right.

Most authors of novels say that it is best to plan out all the important details, characters, settings, where you aim to go with the story - but then to just write and see how it evolves, and since art is an important element with comics - I feel that it doesn't work if it's all written before the art comes along - they should move together, OR have the script going a few pages/scenes ahead with the art coming soon after.

Not to offend or anything, I disagree with this. (NOT TO OFFEND. please don't start a duel)
That is, if you plan on making an ongoing story with a cohesive theme. Perhaps it would work if it was a general "let's go an on adventure and see what turn up" kind of comic, this would be fine. But some planning is always helpful if you plan on connecting the chapters into a theme that you are working toward to.

I did say I had 60-something pages. But you don't need that much :P Maybe plan a 100 pages in advance, and keep planning as you work on your comic. That may be good enough

Not offended :)

I guess it depends on how you work. I think we are planned... 5-10 scenes in advance (I can't remember) and that's... about... uhh... maybe 30-40 pages. Not sure, it isn't my job to work out how many pages it is.

Though... If you have good timelines planned out you shouldn't need to do the script too far in advance I think?

I realised after I posted that, that it didn't sound right. Cause, yeah you do need the script to be in advance enough so it all works and makes sense and forshaowing, but I also don't like the art and script to be too far apart because errors get made - though that might only apply for people who work together and not one person doing it alone.

that is true. Communication is just as important if it is a team project. Then it is the writer's job to plan out at least the specifics of the plot in advance (but details of actions, expressions, etc can be worked with later with the artist to ensure communication)

But I never worked with someone else, so don't rely on my answers if you plan on doing that.

I haven't ever finished a project alone so maybe my answers won't reflect people working alone o.O

I guess its very personal on what works for different people.

Both of you are helping, even though I plan to do this by myself. I really like the idea of doing a timeline, I think I'll have to start one of those soon.

The way I think of it, I want to have major plot points planned out, and also certain moments that I want to happen, though I am not sure I would script out everything in advance. I tend to change my mind often, so I could suddenly decide I want a smaller scene to go differently than it would have. I like having some wiggle room with that kind of thing

Well then I think you have a good idea of what you need to do and know how you work best :) You are sorted.

TIMELINES ARE MAGIC. Really, really, super helpful. :)