Breaking It Up into Point Form

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This post will explain how I break my Setup/Resolution into CHAPTERS, then break the CHAPTERS into EVENTS, which are then broken into PAGES. This uses the Matryoshka Approach, so I will start off with a CHAPTER summary.

Let's take a look at the CHAPTER Summary for Chapter 6 of "Fabled Kindgom". This assumes you've read all Chapters 1-5 of "Fabled Kingdom".




CHAPTER 6 Summary





A CHAPTER summary should only be a few sentences, because it makes it easier to change. I can add to or shorten this summary whenever I want, according to how much I want to put into this CHAPTER. You will also find that when you actually draw/write/execute your story, you will (a) often need more PAGES (ie. space) than you originally thought, (b) find that you need to change/add/delete various plot points. All these require a story summary to be quickly and easily changed.

So, now that I have my summary, time to move onto the next step: breaking it into EVENTS.




Breaking the CHAPTER Summary down into EVENTS


As I've said before in my Matryoshka post, I have an internal clock for my story-telling. Thanks to my use of this style of planning, my "numbers" are roughly 7 EVENTS for each CHAPTER, each EVENT consisting of 4 PAGES. This is just my clock. It's probably not anyone elses - everyone needs to discover their own story-telling rhythm.

So, let's break this CHAPTER summary into 7 EVENTS. I do this by looking at the things I described in the summary, and then trying to turn it into 7 distinct story moments. This isn't hard to do - it's basically figuring out that A happens, and then B happens, and then C happens. If you did your CHAPTER summary right, this should be easy to do.



I broke each EVENT down knowing that I have about 4 PAGES to depict each EVENT. This takes some estimation skills - if you're just starting out, chances are you'll be very bad at estimating how many PAGES you need to depict something. There's no way to make your estimation skills better except by drawing/writing/executing stories. The more pages you actually create, the better grasp you have of the pacing of your work.

Anyway, if you look at these EVENTS, each is again only 1 or 2 sentences long, which makes them easy to change. Most of them are also of things or conversations happening that need a certain number of PAGES to depict, except for one: the very first one.

Honestly, do I need 4 PAGES to depict "Celsia, Pylus and Quillon wake up in the morning"?

Of course I don't. The reason why that EVENT exists is that you only need 6 EVENTS to depict all the THINGS happening in CHAPTER 6. This extra event is purely for character development, which is a good thing to have in every chapter. In this case, I wanted to use these first 4 PAGES in this story to establish some character dynamics in their little group.




Breaking each EVENT down into PAGES



Again, using the same method as before, I break down each EVENT into PAGES.



I mentioned before that I wanted the first EVENT as character development (and for any minor plot points to drop in), so I have four PAGES to depict this scene in whatever way I want. How to approach it? There are an infinite number of ways to approach this. Here are some questions that you may want to ask yourself when you think about writing such a scene.

1) What is the goal of this scene?
2) What aspects of the characters' personalities do I want to express? Are their personalities under duress from the story events/character conflict/environment? If so, how?
3) Who are the active participants in this scene, and how do they relate to each other?
4) What plot-related information can I fit into this scene?

My answers are thus:

1) The goal of this scene is to show group dynamics between Celsia, Pylus and Quillon. I wouldn't mind showing some romantic tension between Pylus and Celsia. I also need to drop a plot point about vanishing jewels.
2) Pylus is cheeky and slightly lewd as usual, so maybe he'll flirt a bit with Celsia. Quillon's a straight arrow who's nice and polite but a bit oblivious. Celsia is feisty but tired from all the mountain climbing, so she's cranky. Pylus and Quillon, meanwhile, are athletic guys, so they're cheerful and not worn out from all the physical activity. This separates these 3 people into 2 groups - one that is split by gender, but also by how tired they are.
3) All of them are active participants. In this scene, the characters relate to each other this way: Celsia is cranky because she's tired, but the boys aren't, so they don't understand her crankiness.  
4) I need to talk about the disappearing jewels. So I'll slip that in there somewhere.

In the end, I chose to begin the scene by showing Pylus and Quillon playing a game that leaves Celsia out, making her feel a bit annoyed. This leads into the theme of Celsia feeling tired, contrasted with how energetic the boys are, etc.




So you now know the basic framework! What about addressing the whole process page-by-page? Coming up next: [[BREAKING EACH SENTENCE DOWN INTO COMIC PANELS!]]

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Rumibelle's avatar
I just want to say thank you again for these tutorials; they are so helpful!