So, I’ve been working on the next page of The Last Ones and on Spectra’s outline.
The Last Ones
The comic page is almost done, and I find I have to complete one bit before I move onto the next bit, rather than drawing an entire sketch and slowly polishing it. I make a polished chunk here, and then make another, and move on down the page and use a lot of layers to keep things from getting messed up. I seem to prefer digital painting over relying on line art, as well. At least not the really refined, obvious line art that is common in comics.
Spectra
I’ve been getting more work done on Spectra, as well. I wrote a seven page outline with bullet points for the whole series, and I’ve added a few here and there. Some points are a bit hazy and I’ll need to specify them later, or add more points, but this is still the most thorough I’ve plotted Spectra, so I’m excited about that. And certain plot elements that felt way too hazy or had holes also got sorted out. The biggest problem is simply sorting out how the latter third will go, and also the pacing between different Points of View. There’s a large section with Sheyla in the second “book” but Desmond also has a lot going on, and his timeline is not so clear to me. Something to fix, but I think it is manageable.
Currently I have 298 points on my outline.
I really need to take a hazy point and add the details so it’s 300…
Oh, I’m at 301 now.
But some of those points are kinda…vague:
- Stuff
- Stuff
- More stuff
- Battles
- Rebels
- Things
Those are actually later in the timeline. The real first points in the outline are this:
- Sheyla and lightning
- School and emp concerns
- Sheyla’s dad and shuttles
- TV debate
- Birthday party with background politics
- Intense politics/news
This is how the comic would start. Except I get an existential crisis thinking about drawing all of it, and trying to finish Spectra. Eek!
The points are also uncertainly certain of something occurring:
245. Chaos?
It’s interesting, pretty much after Point 200 things do get murkier, so two-thirds of the story I know pretty well, but afterward, not so much. And there’s still more points to add. I just haven’t done it because the timing/pacing is still a bit uncertain. I predict my outline will become at least 500 points later on.
After outlining I wrote some parts of scenes where I had clear dialogue. Because I can daydream different scenes for hours, get a feel for how the I want the story to go, and once I sit down to write, THE DIALOGUE IS ALL GONE! All the cool, expertly said stuff in my head is gone, and the only thing remaining are dribbly gists of the scene. So I’m trying to write whatever snippets I come across once they happen now.
Except certain scenes I know will morph a million times and I pretty much figure I’ll know how they go once I write them after writing the stuff that chronologically came before them. Mostly that’s Desmond’s problem.
My problem is I’m writing this like a novel, but I plan on making a webcomic, except I’ll probably do both, but both is even more work, but novels are more efficient than webcomics, but dang it this story is super visual and colors are especially important, but I also don’t want to draw everything that happens? And what if it’s TOO REDUNDANT??!!!
STORYTELLER DOOM!
Do you prefer novels or webcomics?
Rosedale Arts 