How To Write Short Comics

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Music by Epidemic Sound

[GabriellaBalagna]

I always had a hard time writing stories until I realized something obvious: figure out the ending of your story and everything else falls into place. Basically, if you know how the story ends, all you have to do is write about the struggles your character faces in order to get to that point.

[ricardo.mazeto]

26:48, You said you had to cut off so much because otherwise the video would be 1 hour long. I just want to say that I wouldn't mind to watch a 1 hour long video and I bet I'm not alone on that.

[leakyspaceboots]

Missile mouse is my childhood hero bro, it was by far the coolest thing in my small town's library lol

[dirkvoltaar]

Video Annotation



2:23: Copying and adapting

5:01: The Story Pyramid
* Conflict and Resolution
* Character and Setting
* Plot
* Design

8:16: Story Structure - 7 Beats:
1. Normal World
2. Inciting Incident
3. Break Into Act 2
4. *Midpoint*
5. Break Into Act 3
6. Climax
7. Resolution

11:44: The Soul of the Story (Four Aspects of Good Stories):
1. Show change in character’s nature
2. Show character changing society
3. Reveal something significant about character
4. Show something significant about the world
--
14:07: Eight Steps to Hashing Out a Story
*Step 1:* Idea Capture - what is your hook?
*Step 2:* Establishing scope - length, format, time to produce, a deadline
*Step 3:* Finding the conflict: What does my character want? What is stopping my character getting what they want? If my character has an opponent, what do _they_ want?

Five Main Things a Character Wants (18:08)
* To *Win* (something)
* To *Retrieve* something (ie. _Indiana Jones_)
* To *Deliver* something (ie. Lord of the Rings)
* To *Escape* Something
* To *Stop Something* From Happening (ie. Star Wars)

*Step 4.* 19:23 The First Draft
*Step 5.* 20:05 Work On The Rough Parts
*Step 6.* 20:56 Nail Down the Beats - See 8:16

*Step 7.* 21:58 Write the Script

*Step 8.*

[Musashi]

Another tip for beginners: While you plan out your first comic story just take your favorite comic and copy the pages using the same method you would for your own. By the time you finished 20 pages, you will have found many workflow improvements that will help you make your own comic a reality.

[animatrix]

One really weird but solid piece of advice I got from a book was this: if you want to make your story shorter, just make fewer characters. You'll always have to do the basic story stuff (where are we, what's going on, what happens in the story), so the only variable you can actually control is the number of characters. If you have only 2 characters, the story will be shorter than if you have 8 who all need to be introduced, established, resolved, etc. A singular boxing match between a main character and a rival or a bully is short. A series of boxing matches between the main character and a series of villains is much longer. Weird piece of advice, but it felt true to me, especially since my tendency is to create 80000 characters for everything.

[antonydrossos]

To be honest, I'm fighting through a creative block that stems from a severe bout of depression I've been dealing with for some time, now.
Your videos are slowly helping me to rebuild the courage to put pencil to paper again.

[tranglomango]

This video is like an oasis on a scorching wasteland
Gratitude is not enough for the info and hard worked you shared with us

Successful or not...I merely want to create something I can hold in my hands and share it with others, that's where the magic lies for me and you just boost one's motivation thousands fold
Thanks man

[MarsyTea]

Before watching the whole thing
I've been thinking about getting into short comics specifically
and this might be exactly what i am looking for

[terrafirma]

I have been using your videos in my middle school language arts class to teach the kids about writing comics and the story writing process. They are such incredible videos and so easy to follow

[tuvarawoods]

I agree. Start small with one story. As you create each comic you slowly build the world. Trying to do it all at once is hard. That's something I will never do again. Great content. 🙂

[FLY]

Jake Parker new video?
Me: gets ready to be called out and educated! Breathes deep and clicks

Thanks again Jake for saving me from that trap!

[antoniah]

I just found this video yesterday to help with my art block. I haven’t had an education in actual story writing besides for elementary when my teacher broke down story writing, so this helps out immensely. The quote towards the end is amazing and reminds me of a quote of Jack Kirby that I love so much I have it on my arm “kid, comics will break your heart” and when you said roughly that getting frustrated in your story process is a sign of heading in the right direction, it’s given me new hope! Thank you so much.

[activevertex]

Oh my god, I read Missile Mouse back in middle school, I can’t believe I’m now watching the guy who made it!

[emmettnyce]

Hey man just wanted to say reading missile mouse as a kid is what inspired me to start drawing comics in the first place

[erockbrox]

My method for writing a story is, come up with something interesting, but it also has to make sense. Like cool expositions and fights are neat, but there has to be a reason for everything to happen. As long as you can tell a logical story, that is important to me.

[brandanfisher]

Probably the most insightful help I’ve gotten in 5 years. I’m trying to create my first animation

[calvin]

it's pretty incredible that you're out here on Youtube making these videos Jake! So many people offer advice here, and most of them claim to be some kind of expert or established person. But you're the only guy here whose book I actually read! Missile Mouse was the shit when I was a kid!

[cecollins]

I think that you have single handedly turned things around for me, I've been struggling to draw a Manga for decades now too much style and character design but the story nevr goes anywhere. I keep getting caught up in this idea that I have to create this massive epic story when I should be focusing on making short story's, suddenly every thing started coming together multiple short story's that actually have conclusions!! within the same universe that all culminate and lead to an epic conclusion and confrontation.

Suddenly I see what I have to do ive written my entire story and I've been getting to work THANK YOU!!

[nuclear_robot]

This is great advice for stories longer than 24 pages as well as other types of narrative in general but there is actually a more concise technique to make eight page and 24 page comics, which is probably recommended for aspiring comic artists.