I’m starting to get serious about my story’s development, but can’t figure out the order to do things in. Some things are obvious (learn to draw first) but others aren’t so much. Here’s everything I need to do:
Art:
-Take some drawing classes on Udemy to improve my drawing skills
-Get a “how to draw animals” book and figure out what I’ll be able to draw on a regular basis (book recommendations would be awesome)
-Learn to use Medibang Paint (The software I’m using to create my series)
-Create the character design and background references
-Learn about page layouts
-Learn how to draw in a consistent style
-Learn to Draw in grayscale in a digital software
Writing/Research:
-Figure out New Eden’s legal system
-Come up with case ideas (still not sure what I’m doing for the first Case)
-Figure out New Eden’s culture and history
-Watch/Read mystery series (recommendations awesome)
-Come up with character personalities/backstories
-Figure out what publisher I’m going to go through
-Write more scenes to figure out more about the characters
-Learn how to storyboard for a graphic novel
-Find/start a critique group for young Christian authors/cartoonists
Please let me know if there’s anything else I need to be doing and what order I should do these in. Thanks!
Replies
I am only a writer, so I can only speak to the writing side.
-Figure out New Eden’s legal system
You can plan some of this, but you might only want to do a bit so you can expand on it later as your story grows.
-Come up with case ideas (still not sure what I’m doing for the first Case)
You should definitely have the first case well planned since this will be the start of your story
-Figure out New Eden’s culture and history
This can come later. You only need a little bit to get started and you shouldn't spend all of your time fleshing this out in case you want to change it later.
-Watch/Read mystery series (recommendations awesome)
Great idea! This will get your creative ideas flowing. I like watching the old "Murder, She Wrote" TV series
-Come up with character personalities/backstories
Same as some other things above. You should come up with some of their personalities and backstories, but not tons of details. You want to keep the ability for your characters to grow over time.
-Figure out what publisher I’m going to go through
Don't bother with this at all. You will have far more success if you focus your efforts on creating a good story and publishing it yourself. It is way easier and more satisfying than trying to pitch to a publisher.
-Write more scenes to figure out more about the characters
This is the most crucial thing you can do. Great stories are built around great characters. The more you can imagine about what your character would do, the better and more real they will be. Writing scenes of what they would do is much more creative than writing long backstories. When you are writing a scene, you will be living in your characters' minds and you will get to know them better.
-Learn how to storyboard for a graphic novel
If you are doing the art, this is very important. If you are only doing the writing, you shouldn't do this. Leave it up to your artist.
-Find/start a critique group for young Christian authors/cartoonists
This is also a great idea. Are you looking for something beyond what this website has?