One "don't do" for newbie creators

[Jazzbie]

If you had to choose just one "don't do this!" advice for all new comickers/mangaka/webcomic creators/what have you;
What would it be?

And you can only choose one. ;]

My advice would be to avoid becoming a 'talking head' comic. Basically there's no full body shots, backgrounds, use of perspective, or anything that makes a comic interesting; It's just a bunch of floating heads and eye shots for 30+ pages. Take care not to be like this and vary up your scenes.

[fanartist]

STOP MAKING BACK STORIES AND JUST START YOUR COMIC D:<

.... I think that's my biggest beef here llD;

[-2o]

Fanartist, that's my one problem. goddammit.

My advice would be: Start small. As a beginner you are not going to have the ability to make a long winded epic. You will tire out and you will be disheartened. Start small

[Spiral Staircases]

Hmm... I guess one I can think of right now is to quit dreaming of your first comic "being successful" and start your project. I'm always seeing people dream of their comic being as popular as Bleach, Naruto, etc when they have barely even started.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Don't plan the anime version before you even have any pages drawn.

[Col Ironhand Straken]

Seijaku_Ishida

Don't plan the anime version before you even have any pages drawn.

Reminds me of this friend I used to have who drew this generic "manga" and had an anime and other products planned to go with it.

[Lissa Quon]

MissBunnyX3

Hmm... I guess one I can think of right now is to quit dreaming of your first comic "being successful" and start your project. I'm always seeing people dream of their comic being as popular as Bleach, Naruto, etc when they have barely even started.

THIS OMG THIS

There's an idiot at my old alma mater that has been working on this project of his for years, and he's always looking ahead to worry about marketing, or whats he going to do after it "takes off" when he hasn't even got a damn chapter/issue DONE.

Also related to this: Research the damned field.

Especially if you are convinced this is going to become your bread and butter you better understand what you are getting into and how the industry works.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Col Ironhand Straken

Seijaku_Ishida

Don't plan the anime version before you even have any pages drawn.

Reminds me of this friend I used to have who drew this generic "manga" and had an anime and other products planned to go with it.

Yeah, I know plenty of people like that.

I'm all for expanding a webcomic to be something more, but the comic should be the comic, not a means to an end. In addition, they need to spend less time dreaming and more time doing.

[Col Ironhand Straken]

Seijaku_Ishida

Col Ironhand Straken

Seijaku_Ishida

Don't plan the anime version before you even have any pages drawn.

Reminds me of this friend I used to have who drew this generic "manga" and had an anime and other products planned to go with it.

Yeah, I know plenty of people like that.

I'm all for expanding a webcomic to be something more, but the comic should be the comic, not a means to an end. In addition, they need to spend less time dreaming and more time doing.

That's why I hate the phrase "Follow your dreams!". Dreams aren't real. Goals are real.

[Smegma Princess]

Take your favorite story, the one you've had in your head since you were a teenager, that you've been wanting to do for years and years, and ignore it.

Draw something else. Draw a lot of something else. If your pet project is actually any good, then it deserves to be done with a level of skill you'll only have once you've done other projects. If it's not actually any good, you will hopefully realize this once you have some actual comicking experience, and you won't have wasted a lot of time on something you came up with when you were 13.

Also, get an editor.

[Jazzbie]

Smegma Princess

Also, get an editor.

How?

No really, serious question, I'm not even sure where to find one or if they charge or what. sweatdrop

[Smegma Princess]

Jazzbie

How?

No really, serious question, I'm not even sure where to find one or if they charge or what. sweatdrop

Not necessarily a professional one. (We charge, yes.) But you really should find somebody who 1) knows how to proofread, 2) knows enough about comics as a medium to give useful advice, and 3) is willing to tell you when you're full of s**t. Multiple people are even better.

You can do without this sort of help, but it's a lot harder, because you have to either catch all your mistakes yourself, or expose yourself to public criticism in order to find them. And you will make mistakes on your first projects, it's simply impossible not to.

[Annie Felis]

A big one is don't draw a single page before you've written most of them, if not all of them. I don't know how many people jump right in and start drawing before they even have a real script cobbled together.

[megrar]

don't wait.

don't wait until your art gets better. don't wait until your writing is flawless. start practicing pages now. there are a number of skills you won't learn by keeping the art and writing separate. and we're all doomed to a thousand shitty pages before we get good. study the flow and paneling of the books you love. mimic them until you understand why they do what they do, the way they do it.

storytelling is a skill separate from art and writing, and you can only master it one way: by drawing pages.