Last time I talked about how I record my ideas and how my process for ideas has grown since middle school. But a quick summary: nowadays when I record my ideas down, I make sure to give each idea a working title and a logline or two that encapsulate the basic plot, the high concepts included, and the conflict that hinders the protagonist(s).

I've always struggled with fixating on plot points that would make for great single or double splash pages, and are very cinematic in their presentation, but quickly become relevant as the story develops. I'll stubbornly try to keep them as part of the story, sometimes to the detriment of the story. This new approach gives me a wider foundation to build from, so I can circumvent my fixation by remembering to build the house from the ground up, rather than having a few nice windows afloat in the air that I have to build to and around.

For KYUSS, the process started with a monster in the D&D Monster Manual. I can't say which at this time, since it might give away more than this blog is intended to reveal. But the monster's name lent itself to the title of the story. Title: done.

The monster's name also inspired the genre, which led to an obvious choice of plots. Obvious to me at least. It's a revenge plot, which I often associate with this genre. Basic plot: done.

Now, this genre wouldn't usually be home to the monster in question. Honestly, the monster in question is a little underused in my experiences of RPGs. I think I've only ever fought one in a Pathfinder game years ago. The scope of this story created space for all kinds of cool ideas and settings, but I whittled them down to a digestible level. High concepts: done.

Though the protagonist's relation to the monster is personal, I didn't want to make the conflict a direct part of the relationship. Instead, I decided the protagonist's conflict would come from an indirect consequence of their relationship. Something that only the protagonist would have to deal with and confront. But this conflict threads its way through the whole story, affecting how the character interacts with others and how they respond to different events. All other goals become secondary to resolving the conflict. So conflict: done.

From there, the rest came naturally. Not easy, mind you. But any holes that appeared in the plot or the world could be addressed by looking at the story and the existing worldbuilding, and playing out what the missing puzzle piece looks like.

And for my next story, I'll do it again. Hopefully, I'll discover some deficiency in the process that I can correct to make the process better. And once I've written the next story. I'll look at the process again and correct it again. And so and so. It never gets perfect. Just better.

#comics #makingcomics #kyuss #comicinprogress