I’m so torn between WRITING more of my script/outline for Mechanima and drawing more of the characters and quick scene sketches. I wanna get it solidified but I’m so visual, my personal work gets developed in such a chaotic way. I lost some of my major notes on Rafe. Pages of them. Specs and statistics and important stuff, no idea where they are. I have other stories I’m working on too but I want to push them out of my mind for a good while until I can get Mechanima going, but on the other hand I don’t, because while those projects are fun little things, Mechanima’s my baby and I don’t know that I’m even ready to start doing pages because I’m not a good enough artist. It’s a very personal story, and I don’t want to wreck it. AAAAUGH WHAT DO
From my own experience, I think pinning down your story is the most important part of what you need to do for Mechanima and any lifelong-dream story you want to make (and you need to focus on it, man!)!
Doing your Outline First:
My opinion is that, as artists, the visual stuff is fun and awesome for us but I think none of it matters if you don’t know what you’re going off of. From my experience, until you have a clear direction on paper, it’s a bunch of images floating around in your head with huge plot holes between that you don’t focus on (or even see), because such-and-such scene or such-and-such character is so cool!
It’s tough and it sucks, but I suggest you do the writing first, at least an outline of some sort and a log line before you jump into anything visual. That way you know the set “who, what, where and when” in your story to draw, and are able to throw out the stuff that is cool in your head but doesn’t always make sense in your story.
Also, I think maybe you should take a breather on your character notes anyway. It’s good to know a lot about your character, ala iceberg theory, but not always imperative if it doesn’t come up in your plot. Focusing on your character can sometimes be a “only seeing the trees, and not the forest” type deal. As in, sometimes people can get too detailed (ie: a character’s favorite color) before they have the general figured out (ie: why the character is even in the story).
I hate to use my own project as such an example because I don’t mean to come off pretentious or like I know everything (I’m not even a writer, myself) and I’m not saying you don’t know all of this already, but, Yesenia and I wrote a few articles during our story revision period that might be of some use as a springboard:
Research, Research, Research
Taking a Stance on Your Story
Character Creation
…and if you want any help/critique , you can drop me a message on any of my social media sites! Again, not saying I know everything but I’d love to lend a helping hand.
Focusing:
Okay. This one…well, I’m there and I’ve been there.
You’re never going to feel good enough for your own story.
The only way to truly get good enough for your masterpiece is to work on your masterpiece. Plus, most webcomics start out very rough and unrefined and grow into their own as time goes on. Everyone expects it and appreciates the artists’ personal growth. Why beat around the bush by not working on the project, hoping that you’ll get better at your project, ya know? :)
Though I don’t think you have to worry because you are already awesome.
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