Did I Do Something Wrong In Writing a Manga?

[Nuts With Chocolate]

I feel like I did something wrong here.

I drew a rough copy of my first chapter. Then I started to pen it over, but then I thought... "Don't I need to find an editor first? And even so, what do I do if I find someone that will accept?" Can someone please explain the process?

[midnight_moon99]

Read the manga Bakuman, it's all about writing manga. (It does get a little boring after a little while, but then it gets good again. emotion_yatta )
http://www.mangareader.net/219/bakuman.html

[Kaiser-chan]

Is this your first comic? If so, I'd suggest holding off on publishing. Just draw it and write it, and then let other people read it. Not editors, mind you. There's a comic creators forum here you could use to get critique, and there's other comic forums that can help.

When you've got a professional product to market, then look into how to publish it. Until then, you're going to need to make more mistakes until you'll be ready.

[Shanna66]

if you are doing it just for fun, or if its only your first version of the comic then just do it. worry about editors later, right now get your story fleshed out as much as you can

[Yullen11]

The first thing to do is get your story right. You can even write a script. Then make a rough plan about your chapters/pages and after all this start drawing. The finding of an editor comes much later when you've got a ready product to show him. And yeah, like Kaiser-chan said - build a fanbase, a.k.a. publish your comic/manga online first, let it gain popularity, then eventually send it to an editor.

[Hidariude]

I'm trying to make a manga, but since I can't draw, I just did a novel first, then self-published it on Amazon, with the hope that some day I'll be successful enough to get it adapted as a manga and then an anime. My point to you is, if publishers don't want it, you can always self publish. I tried hitting up a number of agents and publishers before settling on self-publishing, but even for that, you need a product first. Finish your rough draft to let them know your basic level of talent. If it's not good enough fix it, try again. When you can't fix it anymore, self-publish, build a fan base and wait for some money grubbing professional to get you a real deal. If you don't believe in yourself enough to finish a rough draft, you'll never get anyone else to believe in you either, so just go ahead with what you've got now, your editor will need something to edit.

[celestrialdarkmoon]

You really should plot it, outline it, script, and revise, revise, revise it even before you begin to draw.

Plotting- What is the basic plot summed up in two sentences or less:

rough example: character is hungry and makes a sandwich.

In this stage give your self a designated page limit to try to hit around. If it your first story I'd highly suggest no more than a 10 pages one-shot.

Outline- Based off of your basic idea you can outline out how the story goes from point A to point B. What conflicts or obstacles get in your character's way and how are the resolved?

Script it out page for page, fleshing out everything in your outline.

Revise it.

Revise it again.

Have a friend or two or three look at it and revise it yet again. Be sure that they have little to 0 knowledge of the story before hand; that way you know what really makes sense or not to an in-general audience.

Then revise it again.

Thumbnail small, and revise it yet again until your story runs smoothly.

(edit)

Also remember to make your characters to fit the plot. DO NOT make the plot fit to the characters. It really will not end well.

Make the plot first; then make the characters. Also if a character winds up just taking up room in the story and only hindering it, just take them out. That is your way of knowing that they don't belong in it.

[Vegapunkprime]

celestrialdarkmoon

You really should plot it, outline it, script, and revise, revise, revise it even before you begin to draw.

Plotting- What is the basic plot summed up in two sentences or less:

rough example: character is hungry and makes a sandwich.

In this stage give your self a designated page limit to try to hit around. If it your first story I'd highly suggest no more than a 10 pages one-shot.

Outline- Based off of your basic idea you can outline out how the story goes from point A to point B. What conflicts or obstacles get in your character's way and how are the resolved?

Script it out page for page, fleshing out everything in your outline.

Revise it.

Revise it again.

Have a friend or two or three look at it and revise it yet again. Be sure that they have little to 0 knowledge of the story before hand; that way you know what really makes sense or not to an in-general audience.

Then revise it again.

Thumbnail small, and revise it yet again until your story runs smoothly.

(edit)

Also remember to make your characters to fit the plot. DO NOT make the plot fit to the characters. It really will not end well.

Make the plot first; then make the characters. Also if a character winds up just taking up room in the story and only hindering it, just take them out. That is your way of knowing that they don't belong in it.

^THIS 1000 times over!

Once you start putting pages up online, readers who dig your stuff will give small pointers or corrections. So in a way, you get an army of editors that way.

Example, somehow I didn't move a dialogue box far enough over and it was cut off by a gutter, one of my readers pointed it out almost immediately after the page was posted. I was able to fix the problem in less than five minutes and repost the new page.