How Big Is Your Story?

[Ideal Comics]

Hey, guys, I've been wondering, what kind of stories you guys are writing. Do you have huge, over-arching, epic plans for your comics, or do you just plan things as they go?

We blend the two with big, overall plans but the individual stories we plot a storyline as a time, tying them into the masterplan.

[Keffria]

My newest project is arc-based, though there's a chronological order to them. --Which is what you're describing, I think. It's a good way to go: you can tell potentially meaningful stories without getting too bogged-down in a massive and overly-complicated Grand Master Plot of some sort.

[Cope]

Although I had the ending more or less worked out before I even sat down to draw the first comic, ultimately, I'm still making things up as I go.

[Kris X]

It a nice little ditty to last a year at least.

[Blackaby]

We're short stories - between 8 and 20 pages long.

We do have a larger over arching Armaggedon storyline, and there's one character from the cast who for some reason gets her own storylines completely separate from the rest.

I haven't plotted out the Armaggedon storyline, but I figure it'll work itself out.

[Joel Fagin]

Oh, over arching, epic plans, definitly but I should point out that the comic is based on a novel I wrote that I made up as I went. To a point, anyway. Once there's a nacent plot in there, I have to sit down and figure out the basics.

- Joel Fagin

[Keffria]

Oh, over arching, epic plans, definitly but I should point out that the comic is based on a novel I wrote that I made up as I went. To a point, anyway. Once there's a nacent plot in there, I have to sit down and figure out the basics.

Does that mean you'll start updating again? Because you had me intrigued. :3

[BrownEyedCat]

Epic, AND I make it up as i go along.

I have the ending pseudo-planned.

[Wishmaster]

Huge. Cosmic. For Doc Hyperion anyway. Wish In One Hand is much more freeform. There's a plan, but there's also more freedom in how it comes about. I'm able to just riff on whatever and see where it takes me. Ultimately, Doc is as inevitable and predistined as the doom of King Arthur.

Girl from BOLT rest somewhere comfortably in the middle. More episodic, less continuity between one story and another than Doc. More structured and more focused than Wish. Half planned, half led by the hand by the character herself.

[Doukasou]

I intend for my comic to be one really lengthy arc. But one problem with that is that I wont really have to be creative for a really long time, as most of the story is right there.

[Joel Fagin]

Does that mean you'll start updating again? Because you had me intrigued. :3

I had a fan in here?

Yeah, I'm trying to get back to it. One comic done. Need another before I'll start updating again, though.

- Joel Fagin

[Dutch!]

I don't think the word 'epic' really fits for me. Epic is what happens in great big stories...what I'm focusing on is the more mundane day to day stuff of kids. Going back into the cemetery to help your mate find his hat again isn't really the stuff of epics, eh?

I've got future points in the strip to build up to. Should really let the readers learn how the spirits became...well...dead. There's a few little plots for the kids to explore. I should probably give a few hints, if not explain away, the difference between ghosts and spirits and why the spirits in the strip get a little snotty when they're called ghosts, etc. That's about as epic as I think it will get.

Until that happens though...like kids in real life, the little day to day adventures will just pop up as they happen. 275 odd strips drawn if not online yet, and I've only finally introduced all of the characters I intended to include from the beginning...

Buggered if I know where or when it's gonna finish up.

[Dburkhead]

I have some general ideas where I want the comic to go, and a pretty good idea where and how I'm going to resolve most of the current issues.

In the meantime, I'm mostly working out the path along the way as I go along. One consequence of this is that that final resolution I have in mind is subject to change.

The author always reserves the right to have a better idea.

[Mvmarcz]

I'll be done before the end of the year


I think

[Black Sparrow]

Mine is big and overarching, with no little arcs. As I said in a thread about a month ago, my story is going to take a good four years or more to complete.

[Escushion]

Both here. I have frames and points, but it's also making it up as I go based on prior stuff. So, there's stuff to work towards, but it may change based on how the story progresses and the characters develop.

[Tim]

I lean more toward the short-story side of the spectrum, though how long each story is is variable. (that is, I'm making it up as I go, but I have an idea of what I want accomplished). But, I have plans for certain introduced characters or storylines or whatnot, so I've been keeping an idea of which stories I want to do in which order...so it's a little in the "overall epic" sense, but not really.

[Warofwinds]

I actually describe my story as the lovechild of the X-files and The Odessey. Long, very long story. At the current rate, it will take another 10 years to draw, and another year or so to write. But I started the written story 3 or so years ago, and I've got over 350 pages single-spaced done. With 138 comics, I'm on page 70 or so in the written, and the 2 year anniverary is next month. Long. Epic. Never-ending. My favorite kind

[Garneta]

huge, over-arching, epic plans

That would describe Distant Eras.

I'm not sure what Jim has planned for RotD, though. Maybe he should write some so I could find out...

Yeah, that's right...I do my nagging via the internet!

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Mine is episodic, but with continuity. Everything that has been mentioned so far has been mentioned for a reason. It's all going to lead to a real ending at some point.