Sorry sir but your story is to big for its own good, I recommend to cut on some secondary characters and reduce its exposition. Try to substitute it with background characters and clever no dialogue storytelling and no sidequests for at least the first 3 or 4 chapters and see you next session. Do you have publisher's insurance or will it be fanfiction charge?
Normal person:watcha thinking? Daydreamers: Oh nothing Just that maybe there is a ninja after us who is trying to take picture of our noses because there might be some chips trying to take control of our brains so that they can make us sing an hypnotizing song that will make them world leaders
My story ideas frequently outpace my drawing abilities. It’s easy to write an epic battle that would dwarf what we saw in the Lord of the Rings... until you realize that you actually have to draw it.
On the other hand, if you do try to draw it, you'll get better by leaps and bounds even though it'll look terrible, since you'll be trying something new!
I, uh... I read that really wrong at first. Here I am wondering how tities can attack someone ever, let alone every week. And they don't even have a good reason. Or any reason for that matter.
Now that I’ve watched the video I’ve definitely started thinking about volume 0. I was thinking about an established couple’s first meeting maybe just to learn more about the comic creating process. I’ve got two Big™ ideas but have never really done more than headshots/static poses. I’ve done a lot of figure drawing the last year or so and no backgrounds. I keep putting things off because I don’t think I’m good enough that’s for sure. I kind of keep forgetting that I don’t have to show people the practice comics while I’m learning.
@@LysanDharker just stop brainstorming and put your head dawn and draw if that is what you want to do while your self conches mind developes the story or find someone else to draw.
Gray Jedi oh for sure, I already do that. But I also enjoy the planning process, so I tend to get sucked into it. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been drawing characters for about 10 years but transitioning from mugshots to full comic work is taking a while. I don’t mind though. Planning is fun.
„Oh goodie, Brookes has uploaded a new video. I wonder what it’s about.“ *clicks away from the 50+ pages for a TV show idea* „Your Story Idea is too big“ *nervous sweating*
Leman dönmez no? I don’t play Warhammer, I never got the rules I mean like an actual story that I’m writing It has nothing to do with games or shows it’s not a fanfiction 😂 y people so confusion?
Leman dönmez it’s about a bunch of space terrorist people wanting to suck up this alien element from a planet called Cuipra’s crust ultimately killing all life on the planet and main bois trying to stop it from happening That’s the main goal at it’s simplest form
@@Ace_2 wow, it would be such an action rush. but still the space terrorists and the neverending war kinda reminded me of warhammer. i also don't know much about it. my friend is a gamemaster, all i know ends there. but cool story
Scope is the #1 killer of projects tbh. I remember when I first started animating over 7 years ago, me and my friends were gonna make a *_two hour movie._* The script was by one (former) friend who refused to compromise on the script or the length. Even with how overly ambitious I was I knew it was probably still gonna fail, I just figured we'd move to doing smaller projects when it finally did. Kinda a 'let's see how far we can get.' (And in a roundabout way that's what happened, hah. Though the fallout that came before it wasn't related to the project.) I still occasionally get an email asking me to head some 30-minute or so project as the sole animator. The thing to remember: a bunch of small stories or animations can always make up a big one in the long run.
Small segmented stories that tie together seem to be quite successful, given that it demands fans to be in the journey for a long time. I've seen good applications of this in shows like Gravity Falls, Gwain Saga (created by GeoExe on UA-cam), and- oddly enough- Helluva Boss. Thanks for sharing those juicy details Zedrin!
This is exactly my problem, over the years I've had idea after idea of ideas jumping around in my head; written down and drawn on my notebook that haven't been used. I'm still still trying to keep my stories simple.
Don't stop. Don't force yourself to write. Just don't brainstorming. Your self conches mind is developing the story naturaly. Over time the gaps will be filled. Most people have a idea then stretch it into a story by putting thousands of brainstormed ideas in and the uniek idea gets lost.
I agree with everything Brookes said, and will be revisiting this video many times to remind myself. Over-ambition kills more projects than lack of skill. That being said, if you decide to ignore this advice, and take on that multi-year dream project, and it DOESN'T break you, then that is a great accomplishment!
Lol, while this Video I EXACTLY thought of you when he said Issue 0. Not because of your episode 0, because of your very first episode with Gildedguy. The fight with that cook. Ok, great... now I have to rewatch your whole series again🤣
The best advice I've ever seen is, even if you have a big project you're unwilling to compromise on... do something entirely unrelated. Show yourself that you don't only have one story to tell. That way, when you do get around to your one story, not only will you have more experience, but you won't feel as much of a need for it to come out perfect because it's the only story you'll ever tell.
I have always been aware that my ideas were too big (to the point that I had planned several full length spin-offs for the main story) and my current skills weren't good enough. But because of that, I never actually started anything. I would spend all my time polishing the world and the characters while putting out nothing that would improve the skills I lacked. The advice about the issue zero really opened my eyes. I never thought I could work on the story, test the waters and get the feel of how it would go while not fearing that I might destroy my beloved story with my low skills. This was really what I needed.
This is really helpful to me. I'm a beginner and am just trying to learn as much as I can so that I can do this kind of stuff too. Thank you for such amazing videos. I love all the insight that you give, it makes a huge difference.
Hi, yes, hello, I would like to report an invasion of my privacy by straight up reading my mind and a lot of people’s Jokes aside thank you for the advice, I actually really needed it right now
You should read Berserk! A big core of one of the most famous manga is all about just that! You just gotta figure out how to make plots out of character development. Meaningful changes and how characters affect the world. It's a "bit" dark, but if your okay with that, it's genuinely amazing. One of, if not the best. You need to be mature to read. Seriously, I don't want you to get messed up. Another idea which has personally helped me is D and D. I playtest my stories with D and D games. Its a really good way to see how human characters react and adapt to situations. Might help you figure out how to use that character development in cool ways with plot. Eventually they just feed into eachother, snowballing and whatnot. Having a theme in mind also really helps keep you on track. You can make amazing stories with character development, as long as its meaningful change for meaningful reasons. Think of how this could happen to someone, and go crazy. An exercise I do is come up with a person, think of someone totally different, and then come up with how they got there. Using that, you could even make a little story right there. Good luck! Hope i didn't write too much
@@maxtheawesome4255 Berserk is NOT a "bit" dark. I will not recommend this series to anyone under 17 because it deals with serious and traumatic topics. If you're under 17, stay away from Berserk.
@@wi1395 maybe you were abit more mature than your contemporaries at the time. But I wouldn't recommend Berserk to anyone below age 16 for the same reason i wouldn't suggest a documentarty about head hunting or satanic rituals. I could see it being potentially unhealthy to the budding worldview of someone that age.
OH MY GOSH-- i had the perfect idea-- a short slice of life that focuses in my MC's small robotic companion... (His name is Beta and he's the size of a doll) that can give the reader a peek into the MC's life a little but it won't be as daunting as writing out her whole journey! I already have an unfinished intro comic for Beta that I need to redo so it's perfect! Thanks!! (I'm honestly just waiting until I'm more skilled to make the journy story... This is a great way to get more skilled) Sorry I'm just rambling cos I'm excited--
I don't need your rightness today, Brookes! xD Think you can just get into my head, know what I was thinking, make a video on it and just expect me to change my headache-driven story??? Well, ya did.
OH THIS CAN BE AN IDEA! I could do an issue number 0 with the family life of the main antagonist as he was a teen! That would be pretty fun! Thanks Brookes!
Thanks, man. I really needed this. There's no way I'm abandoning my story/world that I've been creating for years, but I should start off by writing other, smaller stories.
1 minute in, and I already appreciate how you DON'T sound like you're talking down to me. Some writers feel like being condescending is part of the learning process for some reason lol.
Ever since I was three or four years old, I've been adding onto a story that now spans multiple planets and dimensions, and thousands of years. It's pretty much exactly what you described here, the scope just kept getting bigger and bigger, until I eventually stopped working on anything material in order to make sure I had everything planned out right. Just recently I posted the first four pages of my comic, which leads into a trilogy of books, and then jumps to a short film, which expands into a six-part animated miniseries, and then two (originally four, but I've talked myself out of it) three-season animated shows after that. Each one focusing on a different time, place, and cast of characters that are all connected in some way. But despite how absurd that all sounds, posting those comic pages has given me hope that this all might really come to fruition. The disjointed way that it's structured sort of makes it a series of smaller projects, and now I'm feeling confident that they'll get made. Even if it takes me until I'm 60 years old, I know I'm gonna tell this damn story.
I currently feel very inspired to start a comic and this video kind of scared me cause I thought you were going to just shut me down but the things you said to help improve with that "issue 0" was basically my plan because I already know this is going to be a huge project. Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not going down the wrong path.
Sooooo... I’ve been working on my major project ever since I was 12, continuously updating it and doing my best to properly parse out its plot. I’d also decided to change it from a novel series to a graphic novel series and have been trying to build up my skills and work out a proper style for it so that I know that I won’t regret my commitment when I finally get it done. I’m 30 now. :| Halp.
Good tips. The first thing I thought of was The Dark Crystal. The story is so massive that the first film suffered because there was too much story to portray cohesively, it needs a movie, at least 9 books, and a 10 hour series to tell the full story. Which is not bad for Dark Crystal, but for one person making a story, go small.
;) ...And here I was preparing the next big Cinematic Universe of all things. Have to admit, your advice has already proven to be a big help, as instead of telling a multitude of stories all in one, which made the whole experience feel extremely bloated and unfocused, now I’m only focusing on one. And I have to say, it’s only made my story that much more engaging and fun to write. Even if my universe is somewhat small at first, knowing that it doesn’t need to meet the standards of Star Wars on my first attempt has finally brought some peace to my mind. Thanks a ton👍
Can the scope of the story expand in different ways? I mean, instead of the grand task of making an enormous amount of content work, rather than adding more and more to the story, you stick with the original foundation and further refine it as you think of new things. Like it goes up qualitatively instead of quantitatively. It might increase the complexity, but if you keep the overall content small enough to balance it out, would it work? It just seems to make more sense to make sure the foundation is good instead of making a tower that’s easily knocked down. Even if it’s a small tower, it can still be fragile. I find that when I procrastinate, instead of adding more to the story, I just think of what I already have and how it all fits together. I’ve found so many plot holes it’s not even funny
"Your story of too big." *Nervously looks at the binary star system, 13 planets, 300+ moons, all of which are inhabited by literally hundreds of races of intelligence species, with enough regular animals to fill in the gaps.* No it's not.
Lol same *me has four different endings to one story full of complicated lore and symbolism even though it may not be see. Made my own religions, huge time line stretching over 7000 years, own races, creatures, God's, and even aus for my endings. Even a simple flower or a moth has so much symbolism in my world you may not even notice it unless I make a whole pharagrapth explaining it And I've made the story, world, and hystory in about 3 years and I remember all of it from memory*
Great video! Now for my two cents from my realm of art. When I first started writing music, I wanted to write some kind of amazing prog rock epic but, in the least surprising plot twist ever, that was a bad idea. I had to start by writing simpler and, for lack of a better word, "boring" music before I could get to the point I'm at now where I'm semi-happy with what I write.
This... I felt as if an arrow was shot into me the moment I saw this title. I've been suffering from this (and procrastination) since about '13, I've been writing note after note after note for this huge story I had in my head. But then I realized... this might be too big for me, and I literally told myself that this was too ambitious. I literally scared myself from a certain sense of paranoia of not being able to start, and not knowing what to do. But what you basically said @4:48, "simply make a much smaller story before the big one, and it doesn't have to be directly related" just made me feel a bit better about it all... and a bit more motivated, which I *definitely* needed. Thank you so much for helping me see that, and with a small issue I had with character creation in another video. Subbed. ^^
i think i might need to hear this Edit: Dang idk i'm in a bit of a tough spot. I've done a good handful of dedicated fan stories that were well recieved, and now I have a full novel duology idea I greatly enjoy and is also being met with intrigue, but the books are probably probably gonna turn out kinda massive lol, and I have no idea what other smaller projects I would wish to do. Do I chop up the books into smaller novelas? Should I formulate some other short story in the same universe to see if it's worthwhile?
I'm planning on doing something small with each of the main cast before I start the story proper. Before I can do any of that I have to git gud at a whole bunch of artsy stuff, so it might be a while.
Chop them up as small as you can! The smaller and more condensed a single story is the stronger it will be. You don't have to write such a small story if you don't want to, but by shrinking things down you'll automatically cut out things you don't need (yet) and give strength to your main characters. Later you can take two or three of these very small stories and turn some into main plots and sub plots if you really want to write something bigger. At least, that's what I have tried to do. I hope that helps. Feel free to ignore me, though. ^_^
My current project is already longer than Fellowship/Two Towers, and I've got enough content to finish to make it a full trilogy. But it's not written that way. If you're going to chop it up, make sure to restructure it. Avoid forced climaxes. I first tried inserting one near the end of "the first volume", and it just didn't work.
Don't insult my story child! She eats all the garbage pizza she can get her grubby hands on! I'll have her *sit* on you! All jokes aside, I actually am working on a book Zero! I do have a huge story world that I am planing on bringing to life, but it hasn't gone very smoothly in the past. I tried to make a comic about a year ago and it sat on me. Quite unpleasant. Now I'm going with writing rather that drawing and while that speeds everything up for me I realized pretty quick I was trying to eat the whole garbage pizza at once. So, like you said, I'm working on cutting everything down to a book zero. A mini, personal, diet pizza for my fat story child if you will. I plan to hammer it our for Nanowrimo. If it does well, and I really hope it might, then people will be interested in what else I have crafted in that world and I can start working on more mini pizzas. Hot, gooey, story pizza. Fun fact, the main character's favorite food is Pizza, so you really snagged my full attention here. Thank you for the advice, it really confirms my fears and tenuous plan for my story world!
I had recently convinced myself that it was ok for me to work on my big baby without any prior little projects. Because I've been working on it in my head and sketching for years that I don't want anymore time to pass me by. I too had realized that I had begun to procrastinate on starting. But I'm glad you convinced me otherwise because I totally don't have a clue on how much the process making is gonna be a hurdle on it's own. So mini orgin story for a side character here we go! Thanks so much Brooke's!
I needed this reality check. I’ve been too stuck in my head about a grand big story in which I don’t have enough skill in writing to actually pull of. This reset video my mindset and put me back into reality. Great vid 👍🏾 💯
If you stop brainstorming and setting deadlines and let your self conches mind develop the story over years you will be a pro. Writing has gone to SHIT because people have listed to people who don't know how to write and listen to people who are still learning from people who don't know how to write.
In addition to what you said, we have an issue with _not writing down_ our ideas and making a script. Not being organized and managing out projects also causes people to shoot out garbage. Keeping tabs on progress and understanding where you should be at for when you need to release something is crucial for producing big projects correctly ( shorts are still very big projects themselves). There's just sooooooo many layers to this that it's amazing people still have the audacity to keep making stuff after realizing the work involved.
Here's a funky story Last year I began thinking about a comicbook I wanted to make, but the idea was so big that I just decided to work on something smaller first. That's fine and cool and all, but then I actually began thinking too much on the smaller project and now this new one that was supposed to be quick and tiny is fucking huge too
It's surprising how much this actually works for video games too. I've dropped tons of game projects because they've all been too big, even games that I thought were just simple games to make have taken much longer, and been much bigger than I thought it would be. I'm hoping to finally actually finish one of my games, and I'm making sure it's not too big to, I keep getting ideas, (I wanna add this enemy or that kind of platform) but I have to make sure I don't add them, because I know it's going to take much longer, and also that this project is one that I just need to get out of the door.
Giant Epic Sagas should be reserved for when you have more experience as a storyteller, also life experiences in general. Some of the best stories are small personal stories and sagas at their core are about characters.
Yeah, I had an idea when I was 11, which I tried writing at 13, but it was so big. My current idea is still a trilogy, but hey I'm 16 and I'm doing a second draft of the first book.
I needed this. No, seriously. I been in a writer's block for years now, and I just couldn't understand why I can't just pick the pen again and just... write. And it's exactly because my ideas are too ambitious to my own good. And even more because in the past I could write long stories, there is that weight of not being capable anymore. But now I get it. I have to start like I had never written anything before. And for that, I have to start small. Really, really, really, reeeeeeaally small.
Ikr, I have 5 stories with different main characters in each, and I think my stories are just too big to put it in my head, and I have to absorb every single thing that is important to a story that I making right now, wait, nvd, I have 6 stories I have in mind.
Dang it man. This is too real. I remember trying to create comics and games involving lots of big stories and realizing I had no idea what I was doing. The game I'm currently working on is fairly short, it's my first time making a game and it's taking me over 2 weeks just to finish the storyline. I'm creating it from scratch and by myself. There's a lot that still needs to get done before I even get to computing. It's a long process for a short game but the turn out will be worth it. Stories are important, but as a beginner you want to start small and gain experience as you work your way up to bigger projects.
Former Manga Jury assistant here, Brookes is correct. We often gave good artists lower mark simply because its unfinished. In workplace, this is called scope or constraint. Simple work sells, but it needs to be completed. You have better chance selling a simple stamp-sticker or a drawn postcard than an unfinished panorama of a cityscape, despite how good it came to be. Same goes for story, those manga artists made multiple Oneshots before they were asked to make hundreds of chapters megastory.
Absolutely correct! Breaking up the larger story into "phases," working first on the would-be "prequel" establishing the source of one or two important conflicts, redaction which you can revise later on as you've improved on the road, is what I arrived at naturally, and seems to be working.
Thank you for uploading this video, this was a wake up call I definitely needed. While I've grown really attached to my current Big Story Idea, I've noticed lately that I'm frequently getting sidetracked with small elements, and I really don't seem to be getting anywhere. That's a definite sign that I need to temporarily move on to something more manageable. As always, your videos are incredibly helpful, so thank you again!
I have multiple stories floating through my head, mostly boiling down to three projects: a one shot with no plans going forward, a one shot ballooning out into a planned expanded universe, and one planned to be an expanded setting from the get-go with a big prologue of the protagonists as children. Big shock, I'm feeling much more accomplished and secure about the smaller projects than the grand narratives.
Just realized that I've already been doing this with my current story, though it's not my first. Good advice, and not knowing this is probably where I allowed things to go sideways on the first go-around.
I remember when I made my first character, his name was Tinker, I rapidly started adjusting and adding ideas for his story without any real cohesiveness. Fast forward to today and I have made a full on game (Alpha) and I'm still making little tweaks to the story, it takes a long time to flesh out of a story!
Funny how I came to this conclusion a long time ago. After witing fanfic story that is 10,000's of words, I realized that I wouldn't be done until it was past 100,000, which was way too much, so I abandoned the project altogether and decided to start on smaller stories. However, I continued leaning towards bigger stories until I realized that I needed to start really small. I wrote a line of Anthological flashfictions, starting on a fanfic less than 400 words and the stories naturally naturally grew bigger and more complex. Thanks to the experience of writing the stories and editing---and that feedback I got from someone--I made so much progress from where I started. I'm now focusing on a string of short stories form a plot, the last of which I'm working on right now is like 4000 words. It's a lot of effort, and I'm still a beginner noob, but at least now I'm not a novice scrub
Me: Huh, that’s true Also me: *Keeps on expanding that world* also like, the one world im currently building is my third, and there’s no where to go but up after making a world with people that have 5 hair on their head, no neck, no nose and no ears and another world where the characters are just stickmen.
I can't stress enough how accurate this video was for me as I wasn't expecting to get so much help out of this. It has been really difficult for me to create a story I wanna tell but my skill level with drawing, storytelling and writting are not the best ones for the moment, but thanks to this video I realized my initial idea is just too big for what I'm trying to make and I'm really thankful that this has brought to me some ways in which I can create stuff without having to wait until "I get good" so I can "do it the right way I imagined something". Thank you very much!
My story is HUGE but I've told it to lots of kids at camp every year. For the entire month, every night,I put the 11 year olds to bed and every night, I story tell for about an hour. The plot IS SUPER complicated, but because it's like an episode a night, it a completely digestible, and they all feel cool at the end that they know everything about it and unless you were there for the whole thing, you wont know what's going on. But, other than telling the story in person, I dont know how I would publish this story because its WAY complicated.
This feels a little bit like a call out as the way I write is I conceive these huge ideas, entire multiverses of ideas, and attempt to make sense of them. But you did help me become comfortable with a little episode I wrote as a sort of introduction, but ended up not serving the story and having to be cut. But, since the majority of what the episode does is introduce the main character, it would make a great episode 0 and I'm going to go with it!
...You know, this is probably a huge chunk of why I never finish anything, and yet it's not something I've given even half the thought it deserves. I swear Brookes, you have some sort of magic for uploading the exact video I need at the exact time I need it.
Makes me wonder if my story idea is still too big, even though I’d be willing to bet that It’s one of the smallest stories from anyone watching this video. Had a person in a comic discord talk about how they’ve been world building their story for about 5 years now, showing off maps of continents, countries, talking about their Magic system, characters etc; And it makes me wonder how in the hell they’re going to be able to get anything done. More power to them for trying to create such a massive world filled to the brim of lore, but I often wonder if anything will come from these stories where a bunch of amateur artists, or writers spend 90% of their time just taking notes on things that they plan to EVENTUALLY show in their story. For the love a god, just write something, and *build upon* it while you go along. I think people seem to confuse the term “World Building” with “Spill your guts about everything right now, and in the foreseeable future.” As far as I’m aware, you ONLY need to talk about the things that you bring up in a story, at that moment.
Been conceptualizing a fanfic novel of a 600k-word fanfic novel for a couple years now, and a while before that my first project was also to be some kinda novel. I've known I should focus on smaller things, told myself I should focus on my shortfic series idea and other stuff, but I still keep just thinking about and adding notes for the novel. Heh. Which is to say, I'm so glad this appeared in my suggestions: I really needed it said straight out again! I have plenty of short story ideas, anyways. Woo!
Wow dude, you kind of pointed the finger at me. I have character sheets, I know their favorite foods and grandparents names, I have weaknesses and strengths, I have story outlines but I don't have page one animated. It really is tough to create the first scene and get started, thank you for this!
Honestly, not enough emphasis is placed on issues like this. One way I work through this is by starting with a smaller story within the universe of the story, then move on from there once you feel more grounded within said universe.
After years I had started writing my story. I was so happy, but I noticed then that it was deeply flawed. I'm honestly destroyed, this book has been my life, it was what kept me togheter, and now I have to break it and start all over again one more time. I feel like I can't do it, it hurts too much, and I don't know how to do a shorter story to prepare to write it yet again. I feel so bad, I've been crying for hours
I really enjoyed your video! I have one question though, I want to create something more character focused and less story focused, so based more on the characters in certain scenarios, more like a series and less of one story. Is having too many of those scenarios planned out bad as well?
Excellent advice. I see dropping my big saga idea as the first step to actually writing for real. That was 4 years ago, and this year I finally have my first things published out there.
You know what I am in this exact situation I have a story to big for my skill level. Now I will go and jot down the main points and set it on the back burner. Edit: about one week after I originally posted this comment I have decided to go full force with this idea and will be making great strides in development and i may make a video on it soon after some the designs are done
hey, that's so ironic. because I was just about to start writing a base for the story that I were planning to animate, and the time was like, five years least. And as much i knew it was big, didn't know what to do with it. this helped a lot, even since started to follow comics (gOD ITS SO AWESOME THAT YOU SAID THE SAME WHAT) thank you. hope you keep helping people out on big or small things that they are going for.
My first writing project was a massive science-fantasy novel series. I started it in the sixth grade and am still working on it. I'm in college right now. Working on this ambitious project motivated me to learn how to become a better storyteller if I wanted to being my epic to life. While I don't recommend starting off with big, ambitious projects as your first story, if you're determined enough, you'll push through the struggles to make it a reality
Thanks for taking the time to make these videos, I always learn something new each video... ...like the difference between an exceptional tiny pizza and all you can eat pretty good pizzas xD
Especially i am a highschooler! It's still a long journey for me to turn the tale inside my head into the paper. I'm still preparing the idea and value for my story. And this video clear out my ambition to practicing from the little things rather than going straight into my huge tale with no storytelling experience.Thank you for your advice, and sorry for my bad english.
Storytelling is like Building a house. If the Foundation is bad, you could maybe get away with it if the house is small. But something like a skyscraper will sooner or later break down. You need a really solid foundation to even get the bulding to stand. And don't get me started on the Framework...
Wow. Thank you. Am currently making a dark fantasy series...one hand am writing a novel version of it and being an artist am translating the written story into manga. In my first attempt I was all over the place with so many characters to consume in one book. Plus I was making the story as I went along without world building my fictional universe. I had to scrap everything and start afresh. Currently am still world building on the various races after finishing on the power/ability system. With the storyline I decided to zero in on 4 characters instead of the original 9. Once again thanks for the concept.
I think this issue explains the rut I've been in for a while. I have OCs for a few different fandoms, each with a story that runs parallel to the canon story. My main story has grown larger, with no specific plot defined, just story points I plan to hit along the way. I used to do so much with character bios (I rarely make art of them), but now even that has slowed down. And as my other stories have slowly grown, the same has been happening with them. But there's one or two new characters for new stories/fandoms where I only have a character design or other small trait defined. I'm thinking if I deviate from my normal style and start with just a drawing (which has a definitive end), instead of a bio that could grow over time, it may clear my head and help refresh me to continue my other stories.
This advice has been helpful in one sense- I had the idea of doing an interview with a character that is a celebrity in my Goliath story idea but as a small project to introduce them. Initially, I wrote it off but now it could be meaningful content.
This video really helped me. I want to be a Concept Artist (I just really love videogames and pencils xd) and most importantly: a Writer. Something that I noticed when practicing for my so desired career was that I didn't like (still don't) to draw ideas that aren't mine, so I decided to put my massive quantity of ideas at least in words. But I never finished them, and I only started one, but after I writed 2 chapters and saw that the way I was telling the story was very strange and boring (I did on purpouse time-skips, but those had an important apportion to the story, so yeah) I started to not feel joy when writing and just threw it. Now, after 3 years, I don't really have time to take a break. I'm still at highschool, but is very time-demanding (for example: in Thursday I'm in the building for 12 hours with a 40 minutes break) and I study a technicature at the same time. I decided to start and finish a manga based on an entry of one of my favorite videogame franchises during summer vacation (for reference, I live in Argentina), but 3 days ago I had the impulse to write and tell one of my stories in a visual novel format. I don't know why or how, it just happened. When I was going to write the first word my mind just went white. I didn't know how to put my words. I got really frustrated and decided to start with the characters and scenery design first. I found your video while I was taking a break with that. I understood that this is a big project for my actual me and decided to start with something small, but, why not, relationed with that story. Thanks.
leave my little universe alone, he just has big bones
Your story idea is THICC
Fat it is, fluff
Sorry sir but your story is to big for its own good, I recommend to cut on some secondary characters and reduce its exposition. Try to substitute it with background characters and clever no dialogue storytelling and no sidequests for at least the first 3 or 4 chapters and see you next session. Do you have publisher's insurance or will it be fanfiction charge?
He'll grow into it
ruyman90 underrated comment
This is a call out to all daydreamers,
Including me.
Include me in the circle of daydreaming too
He is on to us!
-cries in small attention span-
Normal person:watcha thinking?
Daydreamers: Oh nothing Just that maybe there is a ninja after us who is trying to take picture of our noses because there might be some chips trying to take control of our brains so that they can make us sing an hypnotizing song that will make them world leaders
same dud
Does this story make my head look big?
Yes
That means I am, in fact, a big brain
@@ZelphTheWebmancer I dont consider my self a big brain,but i have a big head
Ego > Jupiter
Now venom will want to eat your head
"endlessly worldbuilding in your head*
I... feel called out.
Me too, the entire time.
Me as well
Same
What else am I supposed to do in class? Pay attention? Pfft!
Same, honestly.
My story ideas frequently outpace my drawing abilities. It’s easy to write an epic battle that would dwarf what we saw in the Lord of the Rings... until you realize that you actually have to draw it.
On the other hand, if you do try to draw it, you'll get better by leaps and bounds even though it'll look terrible, since you'll be trying something new!
Yohannai true and as long as you learn something at the end of it all, then it’s not a failure.
"Two fleets approach each other" - the most expensive five-word phrase to write into a movie script
Then you should write your first story and have someone with more talent draw it.
God Of Spaghett That’s insulting to everyone who’s trying to improve themselves so they can make a good story.
Every week your titles just attack me.... for no reason 😭
That just means that they hit in the right important spot for your creative self to improve.
I bet "Designing a Firefly-Farmer Crow Character in Procreate!" was one of the weirdest attacks I've ever made on you personally XD
I, uh...
I read that really wrong at first.
Here I am wondering how tities can attack someone ever, let alone every week. And they don't even have a good reason. Or any reason for that matter.
@@wasteoftime5848 Oh I've seen it happen. Many times. There were never any survivors. *vietnam flashbacks* I can still hear their muffled screams...
These replies are golden.
There hasn't been an attack this personal since Caesar was stabbed.
jojo?
maybe something else because caesar salad getting stabbed...nah
Bruh😂
To soon.
Et tu, Brute?
Or Nero getting cornered
Fun fact. This came out exactly the time I needed the advice XD
Same here
Lmao same
Yeah, same here hahahah
same here
Same
I am very guilty of this.
Im pretty sure we all are!!
Now that I’ve watched the video I’ve definitely started thinking about volume 0. I was thinking about an established couple’s first meeting maybe just to learn more about the comic creating process. I’ve got two Big™ ideas but have never really done more than headshots/static poses. I’ve done a lot of figure drawing the last year or so and no backgrounds. I keep putting things off because I don’t think I’m good enough that’s for sure. I kind of keep forgetting that I don’t have to show people the practice comics while I’m learning.
@@LysanDharker just stop brainstorming and put your head dawn and draw if that is what you want to do while your self conches mind developes the story or find someone else to draw.
Gray Jedi oh for sure, I already do that. But I also enjoy the planning process, so I tend to get sucked into it. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been drawing characters for about 10 years but transitioning from mugshots to full comic work is taking a while. I don’t mind though. Planning is fun.
Same dude
Are you surveilling my mind dude? I'm scared now.
„Oh goodie, Brookes has uploaded a new video. I wonder what it’s about.“
*clicks away from the 50+ pages for a TV show idea*
„Your Story Idea is too big“
*nervous sweating*
Stop fat shaming my beautiful story about around thirty different armies and aliens and space terrorists and trapping people in bunkers and-
Oh.
Warhammer?
Leman dönmez god no! I’m a Minecraft veteran 😂
Leman dönmez no? I don’t play Warhammer, I never got the rules
I mean like an actual story that I’m writing
It has nothing to do with games or shows it’s not a fanfiction 😂 y people so confusion?
Leman dönmez it’s about a bunch of space terrorist people wanting to suck up this alien element from a planet called Cuipra’s crust ultimately killing all life on the planet and main bois trying to stop it from happening
That’s the main goal at it’s simplest form
@@Ace_2 wow, it would be such an action rush. but still the space terrorists and the neverending war kinda reminded me of warhammer. i also don't know much about it. my friend is a gamemaster, all i know ends there. but cool story
Scope is the #1 killer of projects tbh.
I remember when I first started animating over 7 years ago, me and my friends were gonna make a *_two hour movie._* The script was by one (former) friend who refused to compromise on the script or the length.
Even with how overly ambitious I was I knew it was probably still gonna fail, I just figured we'd move to doing smaller projects when it finally did. Kinda a 'let's see how far we can get.' (And in a roundabout way that's what happened, hah. Though the fallout that came before it wasn't related to the project.)
I still occasionally get an email asking me to head some 30-minute or so project as the sole animator. The thing to remember: a bunch of small stories or animations can always make up a big one in the long run.
Small segmented stories that tie together seem to be quite successful, given that it demands fans to be in the journey for a long time. I've seen good applications of this in shows like Gravity Falls, Gwain Saga (created by GeoExe on UA-cam), and- oddly enough- Helluva Boss. Thanks for sharing those juicy details Zedrin!
This is exactly my problem, over the years I've had idea after idea of ideas jumping around in my head; written down and drawn on my notebook that haven't been used. I'm still still trying to keep my stories simple.
Don't stop. Don't force yourself to write. Just don't brainstorming. Your self conches mind is developing the story naturaly. Over time the gaps will be filled.
Most people have a idea then stretch it into a story by putting thousands of brainstormed ideas in and the uniek idea gets lost.
@@futurestories2380 Thanks, this helps a lot!
I agree with everything Brookes said, and will be revisiting this video many times to remind myself. Over-ambition kills more projects than lack of skill.
That being said, if you decide to ignore this advice,
and take on that multi-year dream project,
and it DOESN'T break you,
then that is a great accomplishment!
Lol, while this Video I EXACTLY thought of you when he said Issue 0. Not because of your episode 0, because of your very first episode with Gildedguy. The fight with that cook.
Ok, great... now I have to rewatch your whole series again🤣
As someone who's been frustrated by not finding the "perfect" story for my characters for years... I needed this video. Thank you.
The best advice I've ever seen is, even if you have a big project you're unwilling to compromise on... do something entirely unrelated. Show yourself that you don't only have one story to tell. That way, when you do get around to your one story, not only will you have more experience, but you won't feel as much of a need for it to come out perfect because it's the only story you'll ever tell.
Good stories need the big brain.
Train your brain.
"Amateurs!"
"what did you say?"
"I said amateurs! Procrastinating with one big idea? I have a bunch of em!"
I have always been aware that my ideas were too big (to the point that I had planned several full length spin-offs for the main story) and my current skills weren't good enough. But because of that, I never actually started anything. I would spend all my time polishing the world and the characters while putting out nothing that would improve the skills I lacked. The advice about the issue zero really opened my eyes. I never thought I could work on the story, test the waters and get the feel of how it would go while not fearing that I might destroy my beloved story with my low skills. This was really what I needed.
That analogy... That rejection...
That made my day. :3
Damn, this actually helped me a hella lot, Welp, time to find a way to make an appealing pilot episode XDDDD
This is really helpful to me. I'm a beginner and am just trying to learn as much as I can so that I can do this kind of stuff too. Thank you for such amazing videos. I love all the insight that you give, it makes a huge difference.
Me: *Has writers block on a story I'm writing*
This video: *Shows up in my recommended*
Ay me too!
@@risingkhero1714 Hard times
Hi, yes, hello, I would like to report an invasion of my privacy by straight up reading my mind and a lot of people’s
Jokes aside thank you for the advice, I actually really needed it right now
I focus too much on character development and design so i never really get into stories that much...
You should read Berserk! A big core of one of the most famous manga is all about just that! You just gotta figure out how to make plots out of character development. Meaningful changes and how characters affect the world. It's a "bit" dark, but if your okay with that, it's genuinely amazing. One of, if not the best. You need to be mature to read. Seriously, I don't want you to get messed up.
Another idea which has personally helped me is D and D. I playtest my stories with D and D games. Its a really good way to see how human characters react and adapt to situations. Might help you figure out how to use that character development in cool ways with plot. Eventually they just feed into eachother, snowballing and whatnot. Having a theme in mind also really helps keep you on track.
You can make amazing stories with character development, as long as its meaningful change for meaningful reasons. Think of how this could happen to someone, and go crazy. An exercise I do is come up with a person, think of someone totally different, and then come up with how they got there. Using that, you could even make a little story right there.
Good luck! Hope i didn't write too much
@@maxtheawesome4255 Berserk is NOT a "bit" dark.
I will not recommend this series to anyone under 17 because it deals with serious and traumatic topics.
If you're under 17, stay away from Berserk.
@@JovanaSanchez000 Absolutely.
@@JovanaSanchez000 I read berserk at 14 and I had no issues
@@wi1395 maybe you were abit more mature than your contemporaries at the time. But I wouldn't recommend Berserk to anyone below age 16 for the same reason i wouldn't suggest a documentarty about head hunting or satanic rituals. I could see it being potentially unhealthy to the budding worldview of someone that age.
Me with a 80 season worth idea for a story:
Man i cant relate
Same
me too haha
OH MY GOSH-- i had the perfect idea-- a short slice of life that focuses in my MC's small robotic companion... (His name is Beta and he's the size of a doll) that can give the reader a peek into the MC's life a little but it won't be as daunting as writing out her whole journey! I already have an unfinished intro comic for Beta that I need to redo so it's perfect! Thanks!! (I'm honestly just waiting until I'm more skilled to make the journy story... This is a great way to get more skilled)
Sorry I'm just rambling cos I'm excited--
I don't need your rightness today, Brookes! xD Think you can just get into my head, know what I was thinking, make a video on it and just expect me to change my headache-driven story???
Well, ya did.
Sorry there's this really convenient subspace tunnel through your head I use all the time!
That made my day! Hahaha!!!
@@CharacterDesignForge you just made my day with that scott pilgrim reference
OH THIS CAN BE AN IDEA!
I could do an issue number 0 with the family life of the main antagonist as he was a teen! That would be pretty fun! Thanks Brookes!
Kinda like Cities: Skylines where you build too much too quickly and just go bankrupt. If you just slow down a little, the city goes a lot better.
Just found this after having to restart my outlining process for the hundredth time, which has now entered a new decade 🥺😫
Thanks, man. I really needed this. There's no way I'm abandoning my story/world that I've been creating for years, but I should start off by writing other, smaller stories.
1 minute in, and I already appreciate how you DON'T sound like you're talking down to me. Some writers feel like being condescending is part of the learning process for some reason lol.
Ever since I was three or four years old, I've been adding onto a story that now spans multiple planets and dimensions, and thousands of years. It's pretty much exactly what you described here, the scope just kept getting bigger and bigger, until I eventually stopped working on anything material in order to make sure I had everything planned out right.
Just recently I posted the first four pages of my comic, which leads into a trilogy of books, and then jumps to a short film, which expands into a six-part animated miniseries, and then two (originally four, but I've talked myself out of it) three-season animated shows after that. Each one focusing on a different time, place, and cast of characters that are all connected in some way.
But despite how absurd that all sounds, posting those comic pages has given me hope that this all might really come to fruition. The disjointed way that it's structured sort of makes it a series of smaller projects, and now I'm feeling confident that they'll get made. Even if it takes me until I'm 60 years old, I know I'm gonna tell this damn story.
I currently feel very inspired to start a comic and this video kind of scared me cause I thought you were going to just shut me down but the things you said to help improve with that "issue 0" was basically my plan because I already know this is going to be a huge project. Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not going down the wrong path.
Sooooo... I’ve been working on my major project ever since I was 12, continuously updating it and doing my best to properly parse out its plot. I’d also decided to change it from a novel series to a graphic novel series and have been trying to build up my skills and work out a proper style for it so that I know that I won’t regret my commitment when I finally get it done.
I’m 30 now. :|
Halp.
I'm sure it would be great when you manage to do it, good luck
Good tips. The first thing I thought of was The Dark Crystal. The story is so massive that the first film suffered because there was too much story to portray cohesively, it needs a movie, at least 9 books, and a 10 hour series to tell the full story. Which is not bad for Dark Crystal, but for one person making a story, go small.
;) ...And here I was preparing the next big Cinematic Universe of all things.
Have to admit, your advice has already proven to be a big help, as instead of telling a multitude of stories all in one, which made the whole experience feel extremely bloated and unfocused, now I’m only focusing on one.
And I have to say, it’s only made my story that much more engaging and fun to write. Even if my universe is somewhat small at first, knowing that it doesn’t need to meet the standards of Star Wars on my first attempt has finally brought some peace to my mind.
Thanks a ton👍
Can the scope of the story expand in different ways? I mean, instead of the grand task of making an enormous amount of content work, rather than adding more and more to the story, you stick with the original foundation and further refine it as you think of new things.
Like it goes up qualitatively instead of quantitatively.
It might increase the complexity, but if you keep the overall content small enough to balance it out, would it work?
It just seems to make more sense to make sure the foundation is good instead of making a tower that’s easily knocked down. Even if it’s a small tower, it can still be fragile.
I find that when I procrastinate, instead of adding more to the story, I just think of what I already have and how it all fits together. I’ve found so many plot holes it’s not even funny
Definitely!
"Your story of too big."
*Nervously looks at the binary star system, 13 planets, 300+ moons, all of which are inhabited by literally hundreds of races of intelligence species, with enough regular animals to fill in the gaps.*
No it's not.
Lol same
*me has four different endings to one story full of complicated lore and symbolism even though it may not be see. Made my own religions, huge time line stretching over 7000 years, own races, creatures, God's, and even aus for my endings. Even a simple flower or a moth has so much symbolism in my world you may not even notice it unless I make a whole pharagrapth explaining it And I've made the story, world, and hystory in about 3 years and I remember all of it from memory*
Great video! Now for my two cents from my realm of art.
When I first started writing music, I wanted to write some kind of amazing prog rock epic but, in the least surprising plot twist ever, that was a bad idea. I had to start by writing simpler and, for lack of a better word, "boring" music before I could get to the point I'm at now where I'm semi-happy with what I write.
This felt like you were talking directly to me. I needed to hear this.
This...
I felt as if an arrow was shot into me the moment I saw this title.
I've been suffering from this (and procrastination) since about '13, I've been writing note after note after note for this huge story I had in my head. But then I realized... this might be too big for me, and I literally told myself that this was too ambitious. I literally scared myself from a certain sense of paranoia of not being able to start, and not knowing what to do. But what you basically said @4:48, "simply make a much smaller story before the big one, and it doesn't have to be directly related" just made me feel a bit better about it all... and a bit more motivated, which I *definitely* needed.
Thank you so much for helping me see that, and with a small issue I had with character creation in another video. Subbed. ^^
i think i might need to hear this
Edit: Dang idk i'm in a bit of a tough spot.
I've done a good handful of dedicated fan stories that were well recieved, and now I have a full novel duology idea I greatly enjoy and is also being met with intrigue, but the books are probably probably gonna turn out kinda massive lol, and I have no idea what other smaller projects I would wish to do. Do I chop up the books into smaller novelas? Should I formulate some other short story in the same universe to see if it's worthwhile?
I'm planning on doing something small with each of the main cast before I start the story proper. Before I can do any of that I have to git gud at a whole bunch of artsy stuff, so it might be a while.
Chop them up as small as you can! The smaller and more condensed a single story is the stronger it will be. You don't have to write such a small story if you don't want to, but by shrinking things down you'll automatically cut out things you don't need (yet) and give strength to your main characters.
Later you can take two or three of these very small stories and turn some into main plots and sub plots if you really want to write something bigger.
At least, that's what I have tried to do.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ignore me, though. ^_^
In order to figure that out You need to stop brainstorming and end all deadlines. Once your story is done it will become more clear on what to do.
My current project is already longer than Fellowship/Two Towers, and I've got enough content to finish to make it a full trilogy. But it's not written that way. If you're going to chop it up, make sure to restructure it. Avoid forced climaxes. I first tried inserting one near the end of "the first volume", and it just didn't work.
Im kinda in the same spot but with minor differences. In my opinion i would make smaller novels set in the same universe.
Don't insult my story child! She eats all the garbage pizza she can get her grubby hands on! I'll have her *sit* on you!
All jokes aside, I actually am working on a book Zero! I do have a huge story world that I am planing on bringing to life, but it hasn't gone very smoothly in the past. I tried to make a comic about a year ago and it sat on me.
Quite unpleasant.
Now I'm going with writing rather that drawing and while that speeds everything up for me I realized pretty quick I was trying to eat the whole garbage pizza at once.
So, like you said, I'm working on cutting everything down to a book zero. A mini, personal, diet pizza for my fat story child if you will. I plan to hammer it our for Nanowrimo. If it does well, and I really hope it might, then people will be interested in what else I have crafted in that world and I can start working on more mini pizzas.
Hot, gooey, story pizza.
Fun fact, the main character's favorite food is Pizza, so you really snagged my full attention here.
Thank you for the advice, it really confirms my fears and tenuous plan for my story world!
i've acknowledged the word "garbage pizza" too many times in a minute
Literal perfect timing for me. Thank you for this video!
I had recently convinced myself that it was ok for me to work on my big baby without any prior little projects. Because I've been working on it in my head and sketching for years that I don't want anymore time to pass me by. I too had realized that I had begun to procrastinate on starting. But I'm glad you convinced me otherwise because I totally don't have a clue on how much the process making is gonna be a hurdle on it's own. So mini orgin story for a side character here we go! Thanks so much Brooke's!
I needed this reality check. I’ve been too stuck in my head about a grand big story in which I don’t have enough skill in writing to actually pull of. This reset video my mindset and put me back into reality. Great vid 👍🏾 💯
If you stop brainstorming and setting deadlines and let your self conches mind develop the story over years you will be a pro.
Writing has gone to SHIT because people have listed to people who don't know how to write and listen to people who are still learning from people who don't know how to write.
In addition to what you said, we have an issue with _not writing down_ our ideas and making a script.
Not being organized and managing out projects also causes people to shoot out garbage. Keeping tabs on progress and understanding where you should be at for when you need to release something is crucial for producing big projects correctly ( shorts are still very big projects themselves). There's just sooooooo many layers to this that it's amazing people still have the audacity to keep making stuff after realizing the work involved.
Here's a funky story
Last year I began thinking about a comicbook I wanted to make, but the idea was so big that I just decided to work on something smaller first. That's fine and cool and all, but then I actually began thinking too much on the smaller project and now this new one that was supposed to be quick and tiny is fucking huge too
It's surprising how much this actually works for video games too. I've dropped tons of game projects because they've all been too big, even games that I thought were just simple games to make have taken much longer, and been much bigger than I thought it would be. I'm hoping to finally actually finish one of my games, and I'm making sure it's not too big to, I keep getting ideas, (I wanna add this enemy or that kind of platform) but I have to make sure I don't add them, because I know it's going to take much longer, and also that this project is one that I just need to get out of the door.
Giant Epic Sagas should be reserved for when you have more experience as a storyteller, also life experiences in general.
Some of the best stories are small personal stories and sagas at their core are about characters.
Yeah, I had an idea when I was 11, which I tried writing at 13, but it was so big. My current idea is still a trilogy, but hey I'm 16 and I'm doing a second draft of the first book.
I needed this.
No, seriously.
I been in a writer's block for years now, and I just couldn't understand why I can't just pick the pen again and just... write.
And it's exactly because my ideas are too ambitious to my own good. And even more because in the past I could write long stories, there is that weight of not being capable anymore.
But now I get it.
I have to start like I had never written anything before. And for that, I have to start small. Really, really, really, reeeeeeaally small.
Ikr, I have 5 stories with different main characters in each, and I think my stories are just too big to put it in my head, and I have to absorb every single thing that is important to a story that I making right now, wait, nvd, I have 6 stories I have in mind.
Dang it man. This is too real. I remember trying to create comics and games involving lots of big stories and realizing I had no idea what I was doing. The game I'm currently working on is fairly short, it's my first time making a game and it's taking me over 2 weeks just to finish the storyline. I'm creating it from scratch and by myself. There's a lot that still needs to get done before I even get to computing. It's a long process for a short game but the turn out will be worth it.
Stories are important, but as a beginner you want to start small and gain experience as you work your way up to bigger projects.
Man! You nailed it - my story is far far too ambitious.
Former Manga Jury assistant here, Brookes is correct. We often gave good artists lower mark simply because its unfinished.
In workplace, this is called scope or constraint. Simple work sells, but it needs to be completed. You have better chance selling a simple stamp-sticker or a drawn postcard than an unfinished panorama of a cityscape, despite how good it came to be.
Same goes for story, those manga artists made multiple Oneshots before they were asked to make hundreds of chapters megastory.
This is my life. Whether it is writing, drawing, doing pixel art... I always feel like Im biting more than I can chew.
Dude wtf you just described my exact situation as well.
Absolutely correct!
Breaking up the larger story into "phases," working first on the would-be "prequel" establishing the source of one or two important conflicts, redaction which you can revise later on as you've improved on the road, is what I arrived at naturally, and seems to be working.
Oh boy I needed to be told this
Thank you for uploading this video, this was a wake up call I definitely needed. While I've grown really attached to my current Big Story Idea, I've noticed lately that I'm frequently getting sidetracked with small elements, and I really don't seem to be getting anywhere. That's a definite sign that I need to temporarily move on to something more manageable. As always, your videos are incredibly helpful, so thank you again!
ok i apreciate you using your powers of mind reading to help me out but could you please not.
creeps me out.
I only read this thing and the thing about the 12 years-overdue dvd from blockbuster
I have multiple stories floating through my head, mostly boiling down to three projects: a one shot with no plans going forward, a one shot ballooning out into a planned expanded universe, and one planned to be an expanded setting from the get-go with a big prologue of the protagonists as children. Big shock, I'm feeling much more accomplished and secure about the smaller projects than the grand narratives.
Just realized that I've already been doing this with my current story, though it's not my first. Good advice, and not knowing this is probably where I allowed things to go sideways on the first go-around.
I remember when I made my first character, his name was Tinker, I rapidly started adjusting and adding ideas for his story without any real cohesiveness. Fast forward to today and I have made a full on game (Alpha) and I'm still making little tweaks to the story, it takes a long time to flesh out of a story!
I know I needed this, but this still just socked me in the back of the head-
Funny how I came to this conclusion a long time ago. After witing fanfic story that is 10,000's of words, I realized that I wouldn't be done until it was past 100,000, which was way too much, so I abandoned the project altogether and decided to start on smaller stories. However, I continued leaning towards bigger stories until I realized that I needed to start really small. I wrote a line of Anthological flashfictions, starting on a fanfic less than 400 words and the stories naturally naturally grew bigger and more complex. Thanks to the experience of writing the stories and editing---and that feedback I got from someone--I made so much progress from where I started. I'm now focusing on a string of short stories form a plot, the last of which I'm working on right now is like 4000 words. It's a lot of effort, and I'm still a beginner noob, but at least now I'm not a novice scrub
Me: Huh, that’s true
Also me: *Keeps on expanding that world*
also like, the one world im currently building is my third, and there’s no where to go but up after making a world with people that have 5 hair on their head, no neck, no nose and no ears and another world where the characters are just stickmen.
I can't stress enough how accurate this video was for me as I wasn't expecting to get so much help out of this. It has been really difficult for me to create a story I wanna tell but my skill level with drawing, storytelling and writting are not the best ones for the moment, but thanks to this video I realized my initial idea is just too big for what I'm trying to make and I'm really thankful that this has brought to me some ways in which I can create stuff without having to wait until "I get good" so I can "do it the right way I imagined something". Thank you very much!
me and my entire over-built daydream universe are crying
My story is HUGE but I've told it to lots of kids at camp every year. For the entire month, every night,I put the 11 year olds to bed and every night, I story tell for about an hour. The plot IS SUPER complicated, but because it's like an episode a night, it a completely digestible, and they all feel cool at the end that they know everything about it and unless you were there for the whole thing, you wont know what's going on. But, other than telling the story in person, I dont know how I would publish this story because its WAY complicated.
working on an issue 0 because of your advice!
This feels a little bit like a call out as the way I write is I conceive these huge ideas, entire multiverses of ideas, and attempt to make sense of them.
But you did help me become comfortable with a little episode I wrote as a sort of introduction, but ended up not serving the story and having to be cut. But, since the majority of what the episode does is introduce the main character, it would make a great episode 0 and I'm going to go with it!
I didn’t even realize I was doing this until I watched this video
You have no idea how great it feels to find a video tackling about a common creative obstacle you are afraid to have and than realise you are clean.
I already know I did this so, it's good to see a video like this finally, haha.
...You know, this is probably a huge chunk of why I never finish anything, and yet it's not something I've given even half the thought it deserves. I swear Brookes, you have some sort of magic for uploading the exact video I need at the exact time I need it.
Makes me wonder if my story idea is still too big, even though I’d be willing to bet that It’s one of the smallest stories from anyone watching this video.
Had a person in a comic discord talk about how they’ve been world building their story for about 5 years now, showing off maps of continents, countries, talking about their Magic system, characters etc;
And it makes me wonder how in the hell they’re going to be able to get anything done. More power to them for trying to create such a massive world filled to the brim of lore, but I often wonder if anything will come from these stories where a bunch of amateur artists, or writers spend 90% of their time just taking notes on things that they plan to EVENTUALLY show in their story.
For the love a god, just write something, and *build upon* it while you go along. I think people seem to confuse the term “World Building” with “Spill your guts about everything right now, and in the foreseeable future.”
As far as I’m aware, you ONLY need to talk about the things that you bring up in a story, at that moment.
Been conceptualizing a fanfic novel of a 600k-word fanfic novel for a couple years now, and a while before that my first project was also to be some kinda novel.
I've known I should focus on smaller things, told myself I should focus on my shortfic series idea and other stuff, but I still keep just thinking about and adding notes for the novel. Heh. Which is to say, I'm so glad this appeared in my suggestions: I really needed it said straight out again!
I have plenty of short story ideas, anyways. Woo!
What if you try to make smaller stories/games but they’re all secretly interconnected and lead to a grand overarching story/game? Would that work?
Wow dude, you kind of pointed the finger at me. I have character sheets, I know their favorite foods and grandparents names, I have weaknesses and strengths, I have story outlines but I don't have page one animated. It really is tough to create the first scene and get started, thank you for this!
Honestly, not enough emphasis is placed on issues like this. One way I work through this is by starting with a smaller story within the universe of the story, then move on from there once you feel more grounded within said universe.
After years I had started writing my story. I was so happy, but I noticed then that it was deeply flawed. I'm honestly destroyed, this book has been my life, it was what kept me togheter, and now I have to break it and start all over again one more time. I feel like I can't do it, it hurts too much, and I don't know how to do a shorter story to prepare to write it yet again. I feel so bad, I've been crying for hours
I really enjoyed your video! I have one question though, I want to create something more character focused and less story focused, so based more on the characters in certain scenarios, more like a series and less of one story. Is having too many of those scenarios planned out bad as well?
Excellent advice. I see dropping my big saga idea as the first step to actually writing for real.
That was 4 years ago, and this year I finally have my first things published out there.
You know what I am in this exact situation I have a story to big for my skill level.
Now I will go and jot down the main points and set it on the back burner.
Edit: about one week after I originally posted this comment I have decided to go full force with this idea and will be making great strides in development and i may make a video on it soon after some the designs are done
hey, that's so ironic. because I was just about to start writing a base for the story that I were planning to animate, and the time was like, five years least. And as much i knew it was big, didn't know what to do with it.
this helped a lot, even since started to follow comics (gOD ITS SO AWESOME THAT YOU SAID THE SAME WHAT)
thank you. hope you keep helping people out on big or small things that they are going for.
The one dislike was an artist who doesn't take criticism well.
Curious how that person's story pans out. I wonder if they'll make it work anyway.
My first writing project was a massive science-fantasy novel series. I started it in the sixth grade and am still working on it. I'm in college right now. Working on this ambitious project motivated me to learn how to become a better storyteller if I wanted to being my epic to life. While I don't recommend starting off with big, ambitious projects as your first story, if you're determined enough, you'll push through the struggles to make it a reality
Thanks for taking the time to make these videos, I always learn something new each video...
...like the difference between an exceptional tiny pizza and all you can eat pretty good pizzas xD
Especially i am a highschooler! It's still a long journey for me to turn the tale inside my head into the paper. I'm still preparing the idea and value for my story. And this video clear out my ambition to practicing from the little things rather than going straight into my huge tale with no storytelling experience.Thank you for your advice, and sorry for my bad english.
Storytelling is like Building a house. If the Foundation is bad, you could maybe get away with it if the house is small. But something like a skyscraper will sooner or later break down. You need a really solid foundation to even get the bulding to stand.
And don't get me started on the Framework...
Wow. Thank you. Am currently making a dark fantasy series...one hand am writing a novel version of it and being an artist am translating the written story into manga. In my first attempt I was all over the place with so many characters to consume in one book. Plus I was making the story as I went along without world building my fictional universe. I had to scrap everything and start afresh. Currently am still world building on the various races after finishing on the power/ability system. With the storyline I decided to zero in on 4 characters instead of the original 9. Once again thanks for the concept.
Everytime I come up with a story I really want to make, it's always in need of a three or four seasons worth of story that needs to be told 😫
That's my issue too. DX
I think this issue explains the rut I've been in for a while. I have OCs for a few different fandoms, each with a story that runs parallel to the canon story. My main story has grown larger, with no specific plot defined, just story points I plan to hit along the way. I used to do so much with character bios (I rarely make art of them), but now even that has slowed down. And as my other stories have slowly grown, the same has been happening with them.
But there's one or two new characters for new stories/fandoms where I only have a character design or other small trait defined. I'm thinking if I deviate from my normal style and start with just a drawing (which has a definitive end), instead of a bio that could grow over time, it may clear my head and help refresh me to continue my other stories.
And here I was wondering why I could never seem to start any of my giant projects, thanks for letting me know haha
This advice has been helpful in one sense- I had the idea of doing an interview with a character that is a celebrity in my Goliath story idea but as a small project to introduce them. Initially, I wrote it off but now it could be meaningful content.
Shame there isn't an app that can transcribe our daydreams.
This video really helped me.
I want to be a Concept Artist (I just really love videogames and pencils xd) and most importantly: a Writer. Something that I noticed when practicing for my so desired career was that I didn't like (still don't) to draw ideas that aren't mine, so I decided to put my massive quantity of ideas at least in words. But I never finished them, and I only started one, but after I writed 2 chapters and saw that the way I was telling the story was very strange and boring (I did on purpouse time-skips, but those had an important apportion to the story, so yeah) I started to not feel joy when writing and just threw it.
Now, after 3 years, I don't really have time to take a break. I'm still at highschool, but is very time-demanding (for example: in Thursday I'm in the building for 12 hours with a 40 minutes break) and I study a technicature at the same time. I decided to start and finish a manga based on an entry of one of my favorite videogame franchises during summer vacation (for reference, I live in Argentina), but 3 days ago I had the impulse to write and tell one of my stories in a visual novel format. I don't know why or how, it just happened. When I was going to write the first word my mind just went white. I didn't know how to put my words. I got really frustrated and decided to start with the characters and scenery design first. I found your video while I was taking a break with that. I understood that this is a big project for my actual me and decided to start with something small, but, why not, relationed with that story. Thanks.