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ContestWriting a Story
Hello guys!
Kita-Angel here again with even more stuff! Today I will be taking the time to make an article about story writing, really the key points, what they are, how you can improve on them and what a story really is, like what brings it all together.
There is going to be a LOT of key stuff here, and it is going to sound like English class in high school all over again. Hooray! But this is valuable stuff, so pay attention. It is definitely worth it!
This guide was written with the intention to help those who lack any experience at all with story writing to know what is required to make a story. After this we can maybe start looking into how to improve what you have worked on!What Makes a Story
So, what is it that makes a story? Where do people get these amazing ideas for amazing stories? How do we take the idea and make all the components needed?
Generally, in a story you have an Introduction, the Plot and the End. But wait, is that really it? Not really. There are other important factors too! If you break it down properly, it should look more like this: The Introduction, The Initiator, The Build Up, The Climax, The Solution, and the End.
That is generally how a story works and they key elements to really what it is, the building blocks if you will. But that is not all, there are many other elements in the story that make it unique, and what it really is.
Other key elements may include the following: Dialogue, Descriptions, Characters (Main and Secondary), Events, the whole IDEA, Setting, Time, Conflict and Solution. These are the glue that holds it together, the paint that makes it the unique color it is, and the sparkles and spotlight that make it stand out.
Now that we know what the main elements are, how are we supposed to use them and make a story?
Brainstorming
Time to get out a ton of paper, a pencil and just branstorm! This is where ideas are born. They are not refined yet, they are just ideas, and there, and once you have the ideas you need, you can take them and polish them into brilliant gemstones called a story!
Usually, when I make a story I ask myself, "What is it about?" This is the main idea, without this, you have no story.
What? A story about guardians/magical girls/people in junior high and how they deal with it.Well, that's pretty cool. What else can I get in the idea?
A story of how these magical people discover their past lives while dealing with being magical in junior high. Cool, those two ideas are a great start! Now I can take them and work around it to make a story.
Now that I have an idea, let's ask questions to get more ideas, and thoughts, to help make rough idea of the story.
Who is the story about? The story is about Kita Fairweather. So there, now we already have a better idea. This story is about Kita, who is a magical guadian/girl in junior high, dealing with this concept and finding out about her past. That is cool, all good to know.
Where and when does this take place? Okay, so it's a fictional story in a fictional world, so it takes place in Western Windia City, in the year 2003 of the New Light Era. Her past takes place in year 100 of the Peace Era in the Capitol Windia. Now we know where it happens and when! This is very helpful. It prevents the readers from asking "Where are they? Is this even modern?" You don't need to point it out but just making it visually obvious is a good start. Like maybe the sign featuring school name, or like Kita will say she's moving to another district/suburb of Western Windia City.
Okay, so these are good general ideas, now we can start refining them a little bit, to help dig out more ideas. Start with some fun things like describing the time, place, setting, city, world, universe... whatever fits best. If there is nothign to say about it, simply move on.
Descibe your characters, how they think and feel about certain things. Really take that Original Character Bio we went over, and work it through and through.
Now, your ideas are there, and it is time to take the ideas and build the frame for the story, the real basic idea of it all, start to end. Don't worry, this is easier than you may think!
Taking Ideas and Making the Frame
So, let's get a story out there. As mentionned, stories have a beginning, middle and end. Let's start with the beginning, a reasonable start to everything.
The Beginning, or Introduction, is really setting the story, before the real story happens. What leads up to right before the main event? My story is about Kita dealing with Junior High, Just moving in with her grandparents, her magical powers and her long lost past. But wait, that's a lot, how did we get there?
To set the stage, I showed that she has dreams, or issues that are starting to haunt her. Are they really dreams? Or memories? That's what will be explained in the main part of the story. We see that due to an accident, Kita moved to her grandparents since her parents died. We see that she is deciding to be a normal girl, in a normal new school, with normal friends. SO this shows us where she is now, where she is comfortable and wants to be. This brings us to the next thing: The Initiator.
In the story, she will have to deal with finding out about her past, but right now she doesn't even know that she has a past life. This is where the initiator comes in. This is the huge event that breaks the ice, that introduces new and shocking information to the character, and what marks the official start to the whole thing. Usually this is one event. If you have two events here, then you will have two main plots, and two climaxes and two endings, so it's best to start one at a time so as not to leave plot holes or loose ends.
Kita is attacked by a crazy black cat lady that harasses her and unintentionally forces her to recall that she is a guardian/magical girl and has a possible past life, what exactly, is not declared yet. But with this, Kita knows she's not normal, and that life is about to take a twist to somewhere unexpected.
Now, the build up. Kita just discovered something big, she is just learning how to deal with it, and other information. Things change, she adjusts to the change, this is what really builds up to the huge climax of the storyline. Since going on with my own story as an example may lead to spoilers, let's talk real life.
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. What initiated it was his declaration of love to her. The Climax of the story: He asks her to marry him. What leads up to this huge climax though? Maybe they start dating, buy a house, she gossips with girls and he talks with dudes, she starts thinking it's serious, he buys a ring, they have a dinner and POP goes the question. THIS is what a build up is all about, all the things that least to the big event, the top of it all.
Next, between the Climax and the End, is how the characters deal with this situation, and what brings everything to a close as they reach the end. Usually this part is shorter than the buildup, it really winds down and ties things together. however making it longer is not a bad thing either, it really depends on how you plan to tell the story.
Boy and Girl are getting married. They plan the wedding, send out invites, everyone is at the church, old friends come home, family comes together, even with all their hardships, Boy and Girl are ready.
It is VERY important that you tie up all loose ends in this part, really make sure that nothing is left unfinished in side stories, details and other things, that the only thing left are the main plotlines, the huge ones. If you leave little things unfinished, then you'll have to make a follow up or readers will get confused, and like this the story might never truely end.
Finally, how the story ends, usually the conclusion can be done in various ways. One way is tying up loose ends and bringing the story to a swift ending. Another is to just gradually show how things went from the start of it all to tying things up to now, the end. Sometimes you can really quickly tie things up and bring it to a sudden halt, and then REALLY conclude things in a final epilogue. It can vary.
Again, our Boy and Girl, things are winding down, it's the wedding day, they go over the final checklist. Girl gets ready for her big day, worried but really finds closure with everything that has happened over the past years while doing girl talk. Boy, being a man, won't admit he's scared and worried, but after being pulled aside by his best friend and hving a man to man talk, finds closure as well. The two stand on the altar, get hitched and kiss, the kiss bringing this huge love story to an end. A perfect ending. A way to bring in an epilogue would maybe be an afterwards chapter where the two go on their honeymoon, and either talk about their pasts to kind of tie up other loose ends that may have been forgotton.
As said though, very important to tie things up between the climax and the end. Seeing how the characters react to "THE BIG THING" in the story is amazing part of it all, it's where we start to see their true colors and true potential.
From here, if you jot down ideas for each of these things, you can start building up details, and really write every thought down. You can then, from there, see if you can make mini-plotlines for side stories. These are the same idea, but really MUCH shorter and to the point, they are the to distract us or take us away from the main story for a bit. Kind of like episodes in an anime series. While the kids are all just going to school every day, maybe this episode or chapter is about... Valentine's Day.
Refining the Story
Okay, so now you have your key points to the story! It's a good start to write out a script or story itself! Really, for writing, expect to run through 1-5 drafts. What is a draft? It's your story, but again, unpolished, unfinished, missing details or with too many. It's the imperfect design that you will be working on. For a comic/manga, you don't need to go into
too much written detail, but enough so that you can picture it for when it is time to draw the scene!
Start by writing out the first chapter, just taking your ideas and writing whatever comes to mind. From there, you basically read it over and over again. Ask yourself key questions like these:
-Did you introduce the characters to the readers?
-Was it done directly or indirectly?
-Did you describe the setting?
-What are they doing?
-Are the actions clear?
-Is there dialogue?
-Is the dialogue clear and understandable?
-Will the reader be able to tell who is talking?
-Are they just sitting talking or is something going on?
-Is there narration?
-Who is the narrator?
-What goes on in this chapter?
-Will the reader get what goes on?
By answering all of these questions, you'll be sure that you didn't forget anything. After reading it through once, correct EVERYTHING that you may have missed, want to add, cut out, change, based on these questions. And then do it again and again until you are satisfied.
If you really want to make sure it's clear enough to understand, take the latest draft, a clean version without notes on it, and give it to someone to read. If they ask questions, you can tell right away: either they don't understand because it's not clear enough to the readers or they want to read more!
Conclusion
And so, this concludes the guide to writing stories for your manga and comics. From here, all that's left is deciding on the artwork required for the comic in question! I hope this was of help to you guys, and that you can get things sorted out from here!
I know this is a lot of information, but don't EVER give up. My big comic/manga project, Broken Dreams, was started in 2003. Ever since then, I have been refining the characters, their personalities, stories, designs, and I have re-written the story at least 7 times, each time changing it to my liking. I like the story now, I really do, and so do others.
Until next time!
Kita-Angel
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