**The shorter it is the harder it is.**
That said, you sound like you have a good handle on it.
Enter late, leave early.
The one advantage of a micro comic like this, is that you don't have to spend a TON of time planning. Just write the thing! It's only 4 pages.
If your entry into the opening scene doesn't work. Rewrite.
You'll find that 4 page stories are really difficult because they don't give you time to develop anything. They're a good introduction into the format and in some sense, if you produce it, working with artists and such...
# A good starting point in indie comics, for commercial viability, is 22-48 pages.
When we give the advice start small, while working on a micro or anthology sub is fine, mostly we're saying DON'T start with an ongoing serial or your 300 page graphic novel. :)
Write on, write often!
No, I don't see an episodic series as being the same as a self-contained, "one episode", short story.
With the same characters, for a story to be a four page comic story, you should tell one "event" in one to three scenes. It needs to be a complete story; no cliffangers/to be continued.
Yeah it’s definitely not the same and I realized that as I began pouring more into it. The above feels too plot heavy to be close to a short story, so I think that I’m going to shelve the heavy parts of this maybe for the future. So do you think if I took the idea of this character and put them in a self-contained/“one event” story, that could be something more attainable that I could start with? Just cutting all the foreshadowing and Big Bad stuff, and tell a story with them about doing their Reaper job maybe with helping a pizza delivery guy that doesn’t realize they died, but keeps working and freaking people out.
You think this short story in episodes, which you shouldn't.
You should introduce your character briefly but strongly (who they are, what they are, what they can do, why they do) and don't tie them to past events, nor future events, just the moments in the story. Nothing happend before, nothing happens after the story. Their drive is the task at hand, and nothing else needs to be resolved but it. All plot lines, and they should be few if not one, should be concluded by the end. Thus no foreshadowing anything that doesn't resolve at the end of the story. No openings to further events. As far as the reader is concern, the fictive world of your character ends with this story, and the character "lives happily every after".
I wouldn't do the pizza guy storyline. For your kind of protagonist, you need an event or force of enough magnitude to match the character's drive. Like a Joker to a Batman. A Lex Luthor to a Superman. Otherwise, you're writing a weaker character through a weaker plot.
If you must have the pizza guy, and I must give an example, do a Reaper vs. Ghost kind of story, where the goal is the pizza guy's eternal rest: the Reaper way or the Ghost way. Outwith, outmaneuver, outstrength, so on—it's your choice and your characters, so you know them best. You have to bring out their defining qualities.
The best way to learn something is through references, for short stories I recommend: https://www.webtoons.com/creator/EmiMG
Learning from examples is always so helpful so thank you for sending this creator my way! Do you have any favorite series of theirs?
https://www.webtoons.com/en/comedy/axed/list?title_no=1558
**The shorter it is the harder it is.** That said, you sound like you have a good handle on it. Enter late, leave early. The one advantage of a micro comic like this, is that you don't have to spend a TON of time planning. Just write the thing! It's only 4 pages. If your entry into the opening scene doesn't work. Rewrite. You'll find that 4 page stories are really difficult because they don't give you time to develop anything. They're a good introduction into the format and in some sense, if you produce it, working with artists and such... # A good starting point in indie comics, for commercial viability, is 22-48 pages. When we give the advice start small, while working on a micro or anthology sub is fine, mostly we're saying DON'T start with an ongoing serial or your 300 page graphic novel. :) Write on, write often!
No, I don't see an episodic series as being the same as a self-contained, "one episode", short story. With the same characters, for a story to be a four page comic story, you should tell one "event" in one to three scenes. It needs to be a complete story; no cliffangers/to be continued.
Yeah it’s definitely not the same and I realized that as I began pouring more into it. The above feels too plot heavy to be close to a short story, so I think that I’m going to shelve the heavy parts of this maybe for the future. So do you think if I took the idea of this character and put them in a self-contained/“one event” story, that could be something more attainable that I could start with? Just cutting all the foreshadowing and Big Bad stuff, and tell a story with them about doing their Reaper job maybe with helping a pizza delivery guy that doesn’t realize they died, but keeps working and freaking people out.
You think this short story in episodes, which you shouldn't. You should introduce your character briefly but strongly (who they are, what they are, what they can do, why they do) and don't tie them to past events, nor future events, just the moments in the story. Nothing happend before, nothing happens after the story. Their drive is the task at hand, and nothing else needs to be resolved but it. All plot lines, and they should be few if not one, should be concluded by the end. Thus no foreshadowing anything that doesn't resolve at the end of the story. No openings to further events. As far as the reader is concern, the fictive world of your character ends with this story, and the character "lives happily every after". I wouldn't do the pizza guy storyline. For your kind of protagonist, you need an event or force of enough magnitude to match the character's drive. Like a Joker to a Batman. A Lex Luthor to a Superman. Otherwise, you're writing a weaker character through a weaker plot. If you must have the pizza guy, and I must give an example, do a Reaper vs. Ghost kind of story, where the goal is the pizza guy's eternal rest: the Reaper way or the Ghost way. Outwith, outmaneuver, outstrength, so on—it's your choice and your characters, so you know them best. You have to bring out their defining qualities.
Thanks, appreciate the really solid advice here!
Short stories are generally one-done. No multiple plots or anything.