@ringofbees's post on Artfol
them/they 
Comic and story writers out there: how do you get good at cutting out unimportant information?
Trying to work on a long form story with a lot of details and I really love small character moments but I end up getting sucked in to writing 6 pages of a character wandering around not doing much.
Im struggling to find out how to pace things so they don't feel rushed but also in a way that doesn't take me forever to draw so I can get back to more important plot moments
Any tips on how to figure out what's necessary without taking away from smaller moments?Apr 24, 2021
Trying to work on a long form story with a lot of details and I really love small character moments but I end up getting sucked in to writing 6 pages of a character wandering around not doing much.
Im struggling to find out how to pace things so they don't feel rushed but also in a way that doesn't take me forever to draw so I can get back to more important plot moments
Any tips on how to figure out what's necessary without taking away from smaller moments?Apr 24, 2021
#storytelling
#comics
#writing
Comments
Hmmm I’m relatively new to writing comics and all (save for my 2nd grade art which we shall not talk about 
) but I think a tip would be to sort of identify the goal of your scene?
Like, if you have a certain goal for your particular scene, whether it be a chill moment meant to flesh out the characters OR a tense plot heavy moment, pick the parts in service of that!
The way I wrote one scene for a storyboard once, I wanted to write up a level of tension, so I decided to ease into it until it got more and more intense! Initially, the script had a lot of unncessary things so I cut those out in favor of what I felt would impact the scene MOST while also feeling like something my characters would say or do!
Hope this wasn’t too long to read and it helped! But if it didn’t, then I hope you soon get the help you need
) but I think a tip would be to sort of identify the goal of your scene?Like, if you have a certain goal for your particular scene, whether it be a chill moment meant to flesh out the characters OR a tense plot heavy moment, pick the parts in service of that!
The way I wrote one scene for a storyboard once, I wanted to write up a level of tension, so I decided to ease into it until it got more and more intense! Initially, the script had a lot of unncessary things so I cut those out in favor of what I felt would impact the scene MOST while also feeling like something my characters would say or do!
Hope this wasn’t too long to read and it helped! But if it didn’t, then I hope you soon get the help you need
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With dialogue specifically, I find that asking this question is pretty helpful: “if I was walking by these characters while this conversation was happening, would I want to eavesdrop on it?” If not, you can just summarize the conversation in a few sentences if it has relevance to the plot.
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•Like the other person said, a solid plan/outline of what you want to accomplish in the chapter for each character/event should help. Usually I think "does these dialogues/events relate to a character's arc/development in any way?" If not, then I cut it out. I also like small character moments, but if you include them, you might want to relate them to the character's development or story in some way so that they don't feel unnecessary. Hope this helps a bit ^_^
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Ask yourself "If I cut this scene out, will it change the outcome of the story? " If the answer is no, you should either throw the scene out, or think about how you can integrate it into a scene that enhances the story. If you have multiple of these scenes in a row, think about if you can combine them into one, and maybe put a storybeat into it. Especially smaller moments are often easy combined with more important stuff.
And last but not least, there is nothing wrong with having a short scene going nowhere for once or twice!
And last but not least, there is nothing wrong with having a short scene going nowhere for once or twice!
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Try to first plan the plot of a chapter out. If there's a moment for character development or tension between characters you can add it. And if you feel it's getting out of hand, you can shove another plot point and let the character moments partly happen while they're coping with the new issues.
I have this problem all the time and this helps me sometimes to keep the goal in mind
I have this problem all the time and this helps me sometimes to keep the goal in mind
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