Project note:

Class submitted on 08-15-2022 (CET)

Class outline and first video are down below the Project Description.

CLASS DESCRIPTION:

If your dream is to make your own comics/webcomics it can be hard not to get overwhelmed at first. A comic project is often a lengthy process and many artists work on them for years. How do you even know where to start? What comic is best to start out with? And how do you know you will be able to keep working on such a large project for so long? How does it fit into your life? And how do I do this, in a practical sense?

These questions might have been swimming in your head for a while. I know they did for me when I started working on my dream of creating my own webcomic.

In this class, we will take these vague questions and turn them into practical goals and actions. By the end of the class you will have a full action plan for your large comic project. And you can start creating your comic immediately.

This class will teach you:

How to set big creative goals
How to choose a specific comic project that serves that goal
How to work towards milestones in your comic journey
How to know what to work on next and how to work on your comic regularly.
How not to work based on how motivated you feel in the moment
How to get rid of distraction and procrastination
How to keep a long project fun
How to celebrate your progress

Who is this class for:

This class is for every comic artist. You can use this class to come up with a comic project that fits your goals. But this class is also ideal for artists who already have an idea for a comic project, or even more than one project. It will help you get laser-focused on your goals for this comic and figure out what you want this comic to be like. And it will teach you what you need to have in place to work on this comic on a regular basis. Lastly, if you're working on a comic but you can use some help on the productivity side of things, this class is also for you.

What do you need:

You'll need your favorite writing tool. This can be pen and paper or you can create your plan on a computer or in your favorite writing app.

Who am I?

Hi, my name is Henrike. I always made little fun comics as a kid. But when I wanted to get "serious" and start a webcomic of my own I knew I needed more info. So I studied everything I could about art and comics, writing and productivity, and here we are, today. I make my own webcomic called Recollection City. And I teach about how to make your own comics on Youtube, social media and my website.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Write your own Comic Action Plan by following along with the lessons of this class.

Write in something that works well for you: a notebook, a list, a writing app or something like Notion or Evernote.

Post a photo or screenshot of the most eye-opening part of your plan. If you want to go big you can also create an overview of your plan on one page and post that.

INTRODUCTION VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/zucYxrEFdRE

OUTLINE FOR THE COURSE LESSONS:

Format for all the class lessons: Talking head and B-roll

Introduction

Visuals: Head shot

Length: 2 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:
- Welcome to the class
- What is this class about?
- Who am I?
Class project

Visuals: Show notebook and app screenshots

Length: 1 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Use what works well for you: a notebook, a list, a writing app or something like Notion and create your next comic's action plan following the lessons in this class. Post a photo or screenshot of a part of your plan. If you want to go big you can also create an overview of your plan on one page and post that. (add example project for a fictional comic)

Setting a big goal for your comic career

Visuals: Show notebook and app screenshots

Length: 7 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Work your way backwards from this huge goal, what needs to happen for this goal to work out? Outline your journey towards this goal for as far as it's in your power to work on. (For example: you can't control audience growth or if a publisher accepts your pitch or if you will get monetized on Webtoons)

- This big goal informs what projects to choose to work on
- ...What skills to improve (art and tech/social)
- ...What social media platforms to be on etc.
- NOTE: goals are allowed to change!
- Now with this large goal in mind, and having worked your way backwards, what kind of comic do you want to make right now?

What are the goals for your next comic?

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 7 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

This informs where you will post your comic online or what you'll do with it
It informs:
- How long your comic will be
- What the art style is
- How long you will work on it
- This informs other actions you need to take, like starting to build the audience by documenting your progress online
- Make the goal as large as you want. You can decide to make a whole portfolio of short comics, or a large comic you will work on for years to come. When you make your action plan for this comic you need to know the end goal, how big this project will be. What you DON'T want to do is focus on this comic's goal (a large comic project, which is just too big) when you work on your comic. You need to work towards milestones, which is what the next lesson will be about.

Milestones for your comic

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 5 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:
Next, we'll be setting milestones. This means you chop your entire comic's process into chunks so you have a closer goal to work towards. These can be chapters, certain story arcs or, for shorter comics, finishing a step of the process, like finishing the story, the thumbnails, the drawings or inking of a comic. Look at how large your comic is and where natural milestones occur. If these feel really big you can also chop them down even further. For example: I might make a milestone of a chapter a bit smaller still and add an additional milestone for 50 pages.
Batching your work and tracking your progress

Visuals: Talking head and show how to batch on paper

Length: 10 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- Still, working on a Milestone is a lot. But working on one page at a time from start to finish also has downsides. You need to get into the flow of every new step and that can take up time. Then you have to find the motivation of starting on a blank page all over again. What a lot of comic artists do is work in batches. And then finish one step of those pages at a time. How large a batch of pages is for you to. For me, I like to work on scenes. But when the scene is very large, I work on a max of 7 pages at once. I found that is my sweet spot as to not overwhelm me.
- It's incredibly motivating to see your progress in one fell swoop. It's also helpful to track your progress so you can estimate how long certain steps will take you. I track my comic based on milestones. Like finishing an amount of pages and then the sub-steps for that. -Show example of my batching method- How you track is up to you. Some people love to check a checkbox in Notion, others want to do it on paper, like me. There's all kinds of tracking apps, even some that gamify the whole process, like Habitica. What's important is to find something that you feel motivated by and that works for you and is simple enough to do. Nothing feels better than to cross off another step

Setting next actions

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 10 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

When you have your big creative goal, smaller goal (like a comic), milestones for the comic and then picked a batch of pages to work on at once, it's now time to get specific. WHAT will your next step be. And this can be small.

   - Talk about breaking down until it's not overwhelming.
   - Set a max of 3 next actions, pick one and focus on that one ONLY.
   - Now we need to plan it in. This is what the next lesson will be about.
Create a good work schedule

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 5 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- Calendar: look at the times where you can work on your comic. You have to schedule it or it won't get done!
- Don't schedule your entire time full. You need time to think through obstacles, plot holes, find reference and set up perspective grids. You also need a life and probably have obligations.
- Setting a maximum time can be helpful. When the time's up you can either stop or continue.
- Small, regular actions is better than waiting for big blocks of time.
- This brings us to the next lesson.
Motivation vs discipline

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 7 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- Motivation often comes when you already started the work.
- Sometimes you're too tired to work for hours but you can probably find 30 minutes somewhere.
- Get into a habit of working on your comic. Esp when you're in more "nebulous" processes like writing (example of me writing every day despite having to solve a lot of tiny story issues)

Dealing with distraction and procrastination

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 5 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- We often procrastinate and distract ourselves when we run into difficulty or when things are not quite clear to us.
- If we're not sure of what we should be doing next, for example, our brain will start resisting to work on it.
- Brain dump en making new actions

Keeping it fun! / Your plan for when it gets hard

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen + B-roll

Length: 7 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- What to do when you run into obstacles? You will have tough pages, story problems that need to be solved and on some days, you just don't feel like working.
- Put as many fun things in your comic as possible. Fill it with things you love to draw, your favourite colour schemes, write a story you really love
- Music and playlists.
- Podcasts when you're doing more menial tasks
- Also plan for when it gets hard. Think in advance about what your usual pitfalls are, when you want to start procrastinating. (and take note of procrastination when it occurs) Then make a plan for when you do procrastine. (If...then form)
- Example: if I have a hard time drawing something then I will go back to basics: reference and basic shapes. Deconstruct until I feel more confident because I'm probably overcomplicating things.
- Example 2: If I don't feel like drawing then I will give myself permission to only work on my comic for 15 minutes. This feels doable and I still did something, which will make me feel good.
Celebrating your wins

Visuals: Talking head and notes on the screen

Length: 5 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- Very important: celebrate! Milestones, finished pages, nice comments from readers. It's all wonderful.
- When you filled up your tracking sheet, take a pic and proudly show it on social media (people love that stuff!).
- When you get a nice comment, screenshot it and keep it in a folder of "wins and awesome comments"
- Bonus: you can reward yourself. I took a friend out for tea and cake when I finished the first 50 pages of my webcomic, for example.

Final thoughts

Visuals: Talking head video

Length: 3 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

- This class was all about setting up your comic's action plan. Not only do you have more clarity on where you want to go, long term, but you also have a small list of concrete actions to take, today. And you know, because you worked your way backwards from your long goal, that those small actions you take today will lead you towards your bigger end goal.
- Keep doing those actions every day, plan then into your week and when you run into roadblocks: use your emergency plans!
- Make your comic as fun as possible and celebrate your wins!
- I hope this was helpful to you! If it was, please consider checking out PencilsandStories.com and get on my email list to keep up to date on comic news, new free videos and new classes! Thanks so much for watching and participating and I can't wait to see your insights from this class in your Class Project!
- Now go and make some comics!

Henrike Dijkstra

I make and teach comics

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