How To Overcome The 3 CHAPTER RULE In Your Comic, Manga, Or Webtoon Series
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- Опубліковано 3 сер 2024
- in today's video I am going to be going over the THREE CHAPTER RULE, a common action many avid anime, manga, TV, and comic fans use when absorbing episodic media. The 3 Episode Rule is a harsh judgment of an entire series after ONLY 3 episodes. In this episode, I explain everything that should go into each of your 3 chapters by examining and analyzing Shounen/Shonen Jump's Big 3 manga series, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece. By the end of this video you will know what MUST be in your initial three chapters.
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#Comics #Manga #Webtoons - Фільми й анімація
Great job!
omg your here too???:0
Hello whyte manga🤣I’m a year late but hello😅
Whyt hello
Chapter 1: the Protagonist does something relevant to their character. A one shot with full resolution at the end.
Chapter 2: begin an arc.
Chapter 3: create a climax or something of significance.
Essentially! You don't need to follow that "formula" perfectly, but it is important to remember that some readers are only giving you 3 chapters before deciding whether or not to drop the series. So your goal should be to hook them right away
@@MonitorComics thnx😊
I usually use this rule as well...but for one of the GOATs of shonen manga/anime, I was fortunate to push through the 10-12 episodes of HunterXHunter and my goodness, I am forever glad that I did.
Fair point! The 3 episode/chapter rule definitely isn't perfect. I've been the victim of dropping great shows prematurely and going back to it when someone tells me what I'm missing lol. HunterXHunter is definitely a great example!
I think this one shot idea inside a chapter is great for shonen manga , but in other genres that are more mature it isn’t necessary. You have very good points in your videos.
Thank you for watching and leaving feedback! I completely agree with your points! Most of my viewers came over from Saturday AM so I tried to focus on shounen manga specifically, but you're absolutely right about other genres! More mature stories and non-shounen genres have other ways of hooking a reader (whether it be through dialogue, suspense, horror, etc). I'll be sure to adjust my title to include shounen in the title! Thank you again!
Personally speaking, I’ve had a very rough time trying to figure out how to introduce my world. I’ve certainly got no shortage of ideas on characters, the world, settings, powers, villains, but I’ve had a very rough time figuring out how to *introduce* this story.
*Chapter 1)* We’re introduced to our main character, Katie Andrews, and we meet the Sanchez Clan: powerhouse assassin Lacey Alexis, her precocious eager baby sister Skylar, Lacey’s idiot boyfriend Charlie, and magical prodigy Marcy. Their leader/father Zander Sanchez announces that a new member will be coronated soon (implying that it’s Katie) and the chapter ends with Katie ending up in the Sanchez homeworld, the Dream Realm.
*Chapter 2)* Katie gets whisked away by Charlie, who Katie gets a crush on, and runs afoul of Lacey Alexis on more than a few occasions. After her coronation, and a fight with her new sister, Katie feels like she doesn’t belong here and admits to Zander she just wants to go home but Zander convinces her to stay. However, in private, Zander demonstrates his faith in Katie by betting Lacey she can decide what to do with her if she hasn’t proven herself by September.
*Chapter 3)* We’re introduced to Zander’s wife/Lacey’s mother Stacey, and as punishment for what happened last night, Lacey Alexis has to make things up to Katie. This one, as written, is a bit light on plot since we get to see what the Dream Realm actually looks like outside the Palace, Lacey buys Katie a new wardrobe, and we get of a bit of character development for the other kids like Marcy’s inability to make friends or Charlie’s serial flirting.
Chapter 4 is meant to build things out more by introducing Zander’s brother and Katie’s new cousins, but I haven’t figured out that much, let alone Chapter 5 (of 5) of this opening story. And this is probably like the 6th or 7th attempt at an introductory arc-and those are just the ones I wrote down too.
This is pretty cool! I'd definitely read, I'm no expert but I'm also looking to create a story, and a piece of advice that I'm usually given is that the opening chapter has to be banging, or I mean like really intriguing. So I'd condense some of what happens in the 2nd part into the first part. That's just me though, good job
It's always best to start small and then build as your story goes on. I see too many aspiring creators trying to cram as much into their first few chapters as possible, when people haven't even had a chance to get acquainted with their world. My advice? Slow down... and take baby steps. Let your story unfold over time. And (in my humble opinion) the best way to do that is to SIMPLIFY your story. I know it sounds primitive and unsophisticated, but hear me out on this one.
I read your synopsis, and what you have sounds nice, but I'd argue all of that can be broken up into an entire story arc. What I think you might be describing is an execution problem. I would STRONGLY suggest that you stop and figure out what your "Narrative Through Line" is. In other words, what's the point of your entire story? What is the point of everything that's happening in your story. I guarantee you that your favorite stories, no matter how complex they seem on the surface, are built around a single idea.
This is what I mean when I say simplify your story.... so you can find your narrative through line. I'll use Star Wars as an example. If you look beneath the surface, past the space stuff and the lightsabers, the point of Star Wars is "Inner Strength." It's about the idea that true power comes from inside you. By simplifying your story and figuring out what your Narrative Through Line is, you will then have a backbone from which to build your story.
Hope I helped! ^_^
You did a great job of breaking down each of the first 3 chapters. But at the end of the day the goal should be to hook your readers as quickly as possible because not everyone will be willing to give the series the time to read the first 3 chapters. That's why as you said you dropped some series because they took too long to grab you and get you interested.
Thank you for watching and leaving feedback! I completely agree with your points! People naturally have short attention spans, so if they aren't interested from the get-go then that's that. From publishers I've worked with, they wanted around 50 pages to evaluate (so give or take 3 chapters) before making the decision to pick up the work. But yeah I completely agree, your first page should be enough to get your reader's attention and the rest of the chapter should follow. Not every story is gonna hit the mark, so honestly, every page in the first chapter should serve as a hook.
I'll remember these tips to beyond three chapters. Thank you for informing me!
I can't wait to get started actually drawing my first 3 chapters; though I'm still writing out the script and page layouts for chapter 1😅
Well I don’t have chapters for it yet, but I have like some notes of how the 1st part of the series well go, here it is tho if your all interested or anything:
*Beginning and tournament but to introduce the audience to the characters and to the world
*the travel to take down kinp after learning that kinp was the host of the tournament from before and sent 3 hitman to kill the main cast
*kinps scientist wants revenge so he creates androids to fight the main cast (note, the scientist well survive and this part might be put later on in the 1st part of the series)
*kinda a introduction to the main casts sensei’s master and to a new world in a sense and introduces to a set of new and future villains (a.k.a prison escape arc)
*the main team stays on the island so they can train under there sensei’s master and fight with 2 other villains on the island as a two more arcs deal
*after they returned home from training with sensei’s master, they’ll encounter pablo’s brother (pablo’s the son of kinp and was introduce during the travel to take down kinp)
*and after they take down pablo’s brother this is were I’ll add a time skip to the main cast becoming adults
I have names for some of these characters, but i didn’t bother much on names since nobody’s going to care about this series am making
honestly sounds good, just the order of events is kinda fast paced but that could be because this is like a synopsis
Thanks a lot for the advice. It'll help me start off with my Manga.
Of course! I'm happy the video could help!
thank u+ very helpful
this actual helps :0 thank you so much
Awesome Video Bro
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to watch!
Thanks I really need this channel
👍🏿 Information is useful!
Glad i found this
Nice drawing , they reminded me of elric brothers
Thank you!
I wish i listen to this before i started endlocke. Most of it didn't follow this path at all 🤣🤣🤣 great vid!!
I really appreciate these videos.
I have only chapter planned out. I do have a general outline of the series. It is called “Survivor School” and the main plot is a rebellion of students standing up against their tyrannical dictator, Vega. The protagonist is a very lucky student with a talent for luck, named Kai Mishima. The series is like if you mixed My Hero Academia and Danganropa together.
Sounds awesome! Best of luck with the project! I am glad my videos are able to help!!
This was an awesome video. We're currently working on a manga called "The Unbeloved". we have 3 books out for this and I believe we almost hit everything you said. The first chapter definitely served as a one shot. The second set up the story arc. However the third book ended on a cliff hanger with the fourth one going to be the climax of this first bit.
That's awesome to hear!
I heard the best way to hook a reader into your manga is by introducing some of the character’s internal conflict, that way we can be attached to the character and relate to them.
That is definitely one way to go about it!
@@MonitorComics a sense of humor is another way to increase likability and relatability of characters
I am currently working on a manga introducing the main character as the focus of my first chapter and then leading into new characters in the next chapter and arc.
Thanks man, I finally figured out how to introduce my story
Super glad to hear that!
*me legit having to hold my manga realizing that I need to do much more studying after 6 months😂*
*also me* but you just finished your first chapter. Not fair. 😅
Had to do this with SEL anime lol. Intro kept me watching each episode tho tbh lmao
So, the first chapter is like a prologue with a beginning, a middle and a resolution. The second chapter looks like the real first chapter. Great job. This works for writing as well. I followed a similar method in writing and it showed results.
That's awesome to hear! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!
I’m working on my first comic rn
Awesome! Thank you for sharing! Best of luck!
@@MonitorComics thanks so much because of this format I've decided to make my first chapter all about my character Muscleman. The second will start the story
Ty! Now i know the wrong thing that i am doin esepcially in my one shot... And now this one 3 chapter rule i am happy to see that, what you pointed out in those is what i am literally doing without even knowing that i am doing it ! Sorry for the grammar though.
No worries I'm glad this video could help!
good advice for shonen, but a tad formulaic if we are considering genres like seinen.
Exellent breakdown and i love that you used the big 3 as an example, especially given how you have a very limited amount of pages available in the shonen format, where you have aproximately 20 pages to try and tell a narrative for the week, in a way that still needs to follow an internal structure, leaving you only about 3-4 pages to tell each story beat. This can also lead to an extremely fast first episode, or a first episode where nothing really happens as the rules are set up. Konosuba for instance, doesn't actually have that much of a narrative, the world is introduced, the rules are mostly explained, and then cut to them having their day jobs, without explaining how they got them.
So here is the question; In many western shows, the introduction is typically split up into parts, to tell a longer introductory narrative, before settling in to the more episodic format. What are your perceptions of this method in manga?
I have noticed that something like Re:zero actually goes for a full 46 minute episode for its introduction, before settling into the 20 minute format the rest of the show follows.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and leaving a thoughtful comment! I am glad to hear you enjoyed the video!
I'm a huge Konosuba fan so I enjoyed reading that bit of your explanation haha. As for your question, I believe if you do not have a deadline you need to hit, you can benefit from taking all of the time you need to write a impactful introduction
Personally, I don't mind manga where the first chapter is something like 45 pages and the rest is half of that. As you said with Re:Zero (and other anime(, they sometimes give more time for the introduction episode.
If done right, a longer introduction could set the tone and tell a complete story in one chapter. The only concern is keeping it interesting enough so it doesn't feel like it's dragging
With my own published manga, I took the approach of focusing on a long introduction split into parts. My magazine requires at least 12 pages per month. I think I made my first chapter 25 pages, my second chapter like 15 pages and my third chapter like 12 pages
My first 3 chapters all take place on the same day though and take place minutes apart from each other. In total I think my introduction is 50+ pages split across 3 chapters. I made sure each chapter had a climax and cliffhanger though to keep my reader engaged during this longer intro
Hopefully this helped! Feel free to share your thoughts and keep this conversation going!
thank you
Thank you for watching and commenting!
This is exactly what I did without knowing the 3 chapter pattern/principle. Now I'm a proud of myself, because it seerms, I really have some talent. lol.
I agree but instead of having a resolution at the end of chapter 1 I want to do a reveal that gives you more questions then answers
That could be interesting!
First part of JoJo (not just three episodes) is really hard to watch. It’s not even that long, but still feels like eternity. However it’s worth watching, if you want to watch the rest of JoJo, because it’s a great setup for later parts
TRUE I am currently on Part 3. I wasn't the BIGGEST fan of Parts 1 or 2 but I want to understand the hype lol
i just got inspired by reading the epic of caterpillar yesterday and the idea of the sun hero just stuck to my mind so i wanna make an isekai web novel where we see the mc from birth to death and he grows over the course of years into a strong powerhouse of a hero just imagine gawain fused with escanor in terms of power(but without the huge muscles). i didn't even plan out his life but i already am thinking on how to kill him in a war. your videos just got into my recommended when i was thinking about his name and it was actually the one about naming characters. so if you have and idea about a name for a character that would be a bit innocent and naive at start and grow confident and tad bit too arrogant throughout the story would be nice to know it. now looking at the comment my summary is extremly bad but i just cannot get the idea in my head to form into a summary but i swear the plot outline at least the first 10 chapters in my mind are not bad at all.
This is some great advice!
I’m currently working on a story and have had to redo the first couple chapters over and over cause nothing stuck for me.
I have to introduce a dirty and weery, yet calm, collected, and polite traveler, into a bustling city and then have some action. My original idea was to have a terrorist group arive and blow a bunch of stuff up and send in a bunch of goons to occupy an area and he comes through and saves the day, being badly injured and nursed to health by one of our main characters.
The problem with this though is the terrorists aren’t supposed to be conquerors, they’re supposed to a group that specializes in all kinds of things, one of which is staging horrific accidents in order to push a political agenda, so I can’t have them act like power ranger villains, they have to be an intelligent organization that somehow gets into an action scene with our protagonist.
They aren’t the main villains, but a very important part of the story and world. I needed to establish this character as being somewhat supernatural in nature, but not quite as that would be one of the plot hooks. I also don’t want him to be invincible, he has to be quick, clever, and clean with a side of toughness to him and he needs to be shown as exceptional in combat, but still human.
I never really knew how to integrate these elements together very well that didn’t look too much like crappy fan fiction writing, and draw people in because they want to know what lies beneath the service of an otherwise completely ordinary world. A conspiracy which somehow has history with a mysterious figure, that not even they know of.
This also helped me learn not introduce any other main characters too early on. I had an idea for the first main character we meet to be a struggling young man who finds a garbage dump loaded with C4 and runs to find help, and after finding the police tells them and flee’s the city, where he meets up with our traveller on a dirt road and then they yada yada, they become roommates.
I’ve decided to completely redo these elements, but keep there cores intact and go about it another way. This video has helped me a lot!
I wanted to combine action shonen type elements with very dark elements of secrecy, like underground organizations, drug dealing, false flag operations, and a mysterious agenda with seemingly no reason for existing. I haven’t seen an action shonen type show combined with spooky conspiracy type themes. It was a combination of two types of stories I love, action shonen, and x-files type mysteries which there needs to be more of! I thought these elements could work very well together if done properly, and this video improved my writing skills a lot! Thank you!
I'm glad to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to share! Best of luck with your project!
damn i honestly didnt realized i did all these 3 chapter rule without even knowing about it
That's awesome to hear! You must have subconsciously knew about it without even knowing! If you read a lot of manga, or watch a lot of anime, you might have picked up on the pattern!
I don’t watch or read a manga if the first chapter or episode isn’t touching me.
Absolutely agree, I've dropped so many works after the first episode failed to interest me. I think it was Mark Crilley who mentioned making your first-page eye-catching so a casual reader can flip open your work and immediately be interested. I'm always astounded when people tell me to watch a show "that gets really good in the second season" because obviously, the show didn't do its job if it couldn't hook me at the very beginning.
I'm just glad I forced myself to put up with the long introduction and boring beginning of mha and komi San ;_;
And that's why you miss out on very good shows
L a w d y l a w d, thank you
Thank YOU for taking the time to leave a comment!
Is it good leave the first chapter with a cliffhanger
Nice
Thank you!
I've watched the other two vids and now this one, question: if the first chapter is considered like a one-shot, then would it be better if it was a prologue? If not, what's the difference between a prologue and the first chapter?
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! Each is a bit different. A one shot being one story that begins and ends in one installment. As a result you want to keep it digestible since you don’t have a lot of time to your reader on the story. A prologue CAN be a first chapter, but usually refers to “backstory” or an “introduction” to the main story. I try to think of prologues like a chapter 0. Chapter 1’s are where you drop your reader into your world and kick off the main events. If you think beginning with a prologue would work best for your story then it isn’t wrong to make that your first chapter. Hope that distinction helped clear things up a bit. Best of luck!
@@MonitorComics Thank you very much for the response!
And thank you for making these videos; it's great content and I for one have learned much.
yes i am
Story title Sherloctopus Story :Sherlock Belletruse a boy that is sent to a city to become an apprentice detective,over coming different cases, finding out that the city is more than it seems with Androids and Crime on the highrise. He is given a case that has very few leads until an unexpected crime Syndicate is ambushed with the news that a maniacal Overlord is behind the attacks on Orphanages. Will the boy and the syndicate members be forced to be allies to stop these attacks from this insane mad man? Any tips on mystery/thriller manga
My manga starts with
Chapter one
Takahiro a lazy loner with no friends and his older brother who is a delinquent on his first day of school he sees a kid called kai getting bullied he gets upset and angry for 2 people ganging up on a defenceless guy he gets beat up then
Kai gives takahiro free food so then they talk about there hobbies and then the bullies come back and punch Kai takahiro snaps after the first person who actually respects him is hurt he uses his draconic pressure the bullies are flown to the wall they celebrate the end
Chapter 2 will focus on a group who sensed draconic pressure so they want to find them after the events of chapter 1 takahiro and kazuki his older brother will be sent a letter about the organisation called the shadow corps and he is sent a try outs invitation so takahiro sees it and says how strange then he just ignores it
While kazuki accepts it and goes to the try outs so kazuki so then kazuki has to do a challenge by fighting 5 d ranks we learn kazuki is actually a delinquent and has alot of pure strength so he takes them out and that's the end of chapter 2
The manga I'm working on is kind of slow paced. Would It work If I had the Mc's little brother kidnapped during ch 3?
For a run down go to 6:05
I’ve watched this video like 7 times. Is there a general rule to how many pages the first chapter should be? (Without scaring off the new readers)
Thank you for taking the time to check this video out so many times! Generally, there isn't a rule. Some publishers recommend different amounts, but for the most part, it is, however, many you feel like you need. In shonen manga, it's pretty common for chapter 1 to be around 45 pages, chapter 2 to be around 21 pages, and chapter 3 onwards to be around 19 pages.
For my own published manga though, each chapter is around 15-20. Hope that helps!
I'm a simple man I see yamada I click....
I'm making a fantasy styled world inspired by one piece I made where it all started called sunshine Lake and foxglove pond (foxglove is a poison flower so it's gonna be polluted and filled with evil monsters sunshine Lake is gonna be peaceful With lots of trees and friendly annimals there's another island called rose vine where the main chareter wants to explore to sunshine Lake and foxglove pond I'm excited to make this.
That sounds really fun and interesting! Thanks for taking the time to share! Best of luck!
I working on anime story ;) I also think the 3 chapters is most important. where can we post or stories?
Thank you for commenting! Sites like Webtoons and Tapastic are great for posting comics and manga! For written stories only, a site like Wattpad might be better. Social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Amino are also options! Good luck with your story!
@@MonitorComics thanks so much 👍
What would you say about a manga like Attack On Titan. Where instead of ending the first chapter with a resolution it ends with a cliffhanger. Would you say this type of cliffhanger can be an exception to the rule or a twist on it?
Yes! I believe this works well as a setup into the second chapter. It kind of feels like how My Hero Academia split the first chapter up into Episodes 1 and 2. With Attack On Titan it felt like you needed to read the first 2 chapters back to back to get the full experience!
I'm trying to make a comic book bit taking a long time making the storyboard, should I make thumbnail so I know what the storyboard would look like
That is definitely one way to go about it! Sometimes storyboards can be tedious because they're pretty big (usually an 8 in by 11 in paper divided in half)
When you mess up a panel it could take more time to redraw. Same thing if you mess up a page or want to restructure things
With thumbnail sketches you can draw REALLY loosely and see every page at once since they're so small. It can sometimes be easier to cut pages or panels and make revisions when working that small
Once you find the setup that you like, it should be straightforward to just draw them larger and more detailed in the storyboards.
Most of the thinking and edits will mostly be done already
I think my first 3 chapters do have all these tips checked but I'm a bit worried the story doesn't seem as crazy as these popular Japanese ones 😅 I guess I should ask some random people for a feedback.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, good stories don't always have to be crazy or action packed. There are MANY amazing series in the romance, sci-fi, and slice of life genres!
Damn... my first chapter is 90% backstory of 2 important deities of my world and at the end the mc is revealed
From the sound of it, that might work better as a prologue or a chapter 0
@@MonitorComics thanks for the suggestion!!
How long should manga chapters be? I've heard 20 to 24 pages is ideal, but I don't know if this is correct or not.
Traditionally, for shonen manga, the common page counts are 45 pages for chapter 1, 21 pages for chapter 2, and 19 pages for chapter 3 onward
You can give or take those numbers, but as long as its around there it is usually fine. Most series like their first two chapters to be a bit longer than normal installments to showcase more of the story and art
I've already got my introduction planned out but it doesn't follow this structure, is that fine?
Yes! There are always exceptions to every rule/tip!
Is it okay the first hapter being left on a cliff hanger?
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! I think it CAN be okay if it's done correctly. You need to be careful though because for the first chapter your reader doesn't know anything about your story or characters. They might see the cliffhanger and be turned off because they aren't invested in any of the characters yet. I think it's better for the first chapter to resolve an issue completely and wait until chapter 2 to introduce a cliffhanger. That's just my opinion though, I've seen first chapter cliffhangers work out before. Best of luck!
Well shit. I failed at first chapter.
No worries! Rules were meant to be broken! There are also exceptions to every rule! Whenever you hear advice from someone, remember it isn't the final say. Apply whatever resonates with you into your own work! There is no harm in messing up or making changes, it's all a part of the process! Best of luck!
@@MonitorComics thanks god! I thought i meet my end so early.
3:53
First comment
Senpai has noticed you
Err my MC is not going to appear on the first chapter😭😭😆 but some problem child MURDERING another girl lmao. Should I change that??? 😆
I think your MC should DEFINITELY appear in your first chapter. Unless of course it's a prologue/Chapter 0 sort of situation
Publishers especially look for CHARACTER DRIVEN stories. Your MC should be the selling point of your story. Everything revolves around them.
The first thing a editor would ask you is why your first chapter even exists if it doesn't serve your MC
put the video at .75 speed.
hiiiib whyt
Great vid but you talk a little slow i recommend talking faster
Thank you for the feedback!
Wait he was talking slow😳
Nice, but you talk a bit too fast
Thank you for the feedback!! I was definitely in a rush when recording the audio for this one, but definitely noted! I’ll slow it down a bit in the next vids! Thanks for stopping by!
Well holy crap someone made a comment right above yours saying he talks to slow😂
TEXTURE TIMELAPSE AND SPEED, both things u should tone down
Thank you for the feedback! This video is a bit older, hopefully you can check out some of my newer ones and let me know if the same problems are still occurring!
Why are you in a hurry... Speak slowly
Very informative video! just wanna ask if a prologue would ruin the 3 chapter catch?? 🫀
Thank you for taking the time to watch! The short answer is yes it can. Usually prologues try to "set up" for the main story. If you're prologue is interesting and functions like a one shot with a beginning, middle, climax, and end, then it COULD work
However I've seen a lot of series make their prologues "Chapter 0" so it serves as bonus content for people who want extra context. Hope that helps!
Im writing a draft about a young kid who is in a dystopian futuristic city after God killed all the human race for being sinners. In this world im making sure the main antagonist is God.