I’m Gecka Hiiro, a Wiz Comics’ PR officer/illustrator.
Sarah:
No corrections for today? Then what do we have?
I’m gonna give you guys story writing tips.
I would recommend some techniques
in accordance with genres.
That sounds exciting enough.
Say, for story writing, what kind of thing do you think
would be the most countable reference, Sarah?
Sarah:
Um, let me see... As it’s about cartoon related
issue,
amount of reading could matter.
And being inspired by your life-experiences could be
a key too, I guess.
Gecka:
Hm ...A typical answer. You’re wrong.
What?!
Gecka:
Reading many mangas and gaining life-experiences are both important indeed.
Reading many mangas and gaining life-experiences are both important indeed.
But experiencing inspiring events is out of your
control.
I don’t know how long it takes for you to read one
volume of manga,
but it’s time consuming anyway if you have to
continue until you encounter great ones.
Sarah:
Right.
Gecka:
See? Quite intangible, eh?
So I’m gonna tell you what you can refer to under
several heads
when you write stories so that you can make them
productive. 1) Reading Cartoons/Mangas
I believe many of you aim to become
cartoonists
just
because you love reading mangas.
Once again.
“How long does it take for you to finish one volume
of manga?”
Check out yourself and find out your average
duration.
Now, if you feel you’re expending quite a long time,
you’ll figure out it’s not very helpful for your story
making work.
To begin with, the storyline won’t always change
drastically during one volume,
and later you realize it’s about reading entire
series, not just one.
Next, how much do they cost? Around 400-700 yen,
right?
If you buy 10 books it’ll be around 4,000-7,000 yen.
If you consider reading amount important, you’d
better prepare for the expense.
Yet, don’t forget this.
Picking up useful expressions for manga drawing,
reading mangas is the best way.
2)Gaining life-experiences
If it’s guaranteed for you to experience something
different every day
you can count on it.
Observe any little changes in everyday life from
aspects of your state of mind,
your environment, and the people around you.
For instance, if you become a spy one day, you
become super popular next day,
and you’re hated by everyone next day...
If you experience
your life like this your experience-based creating method would be successful.
In other words,
you can switch patterns of thinking to many other
individuals
which helps you write interesting story lines.
Okay, let’s get back to reality. It’s impossible.
Ordinary life usually is mundane. No sudden stranger appears.
Here’s my heads-up.
Counting too much on your
own experiences is dangerous.
Please pay attention,
or every work you create you’ll be going around the same old routine forever.
Here’s my heads-up.
Gecka:
My mom used to tell me,
“If you want to be a cartoonist, you have to
experience many things first.”
And I thought, “Like how?”
Suppose you plot something and act, then?
Next thing you do is to wait what happens next.
In her defense, “Take time. Put more effort.”
that’s what she meant.
(Or in short, her genereal advice was not
realistic, not reliable, not worth listening.)
Sarah:
It
sounds convincing.
It’s
true after being advised like “gain more experiences”
I
can’t figure out what action to take. I don’t even have a clue.
Gecka:
To convey the advice it goes like...
“Everything you hear, you experience can help your
work.”
“Just put you go through as many emotional and
physical experiences as possible.”
“Now let yourselves troubled more.”
Think again.
If you want to be involved in comic or animation
industry,
I know you have a lot to learn or catch up.
You won’t hit you really when you hear the advices
about experiences.
Gecka:
Okidoc. Here is MY advice.
“Experience” is no more than a tool to understand
things.
They lead different sequences time after time.
So don’t stick too much to them.
But,
when problem happens, young men,
don’t run, struggle hard.
Sarah:
Is that your conclusion?
It’s not uplifting...
Listed below are some other items you should refer to.
3) Novels
To pick up skills of delicate expressions and story-writing
ability,
reading novels works the best.
Needless to say, it’ll take longer than comics to
finish reading.
However,
In terms of developing story writing skill, reading
novels is way more helpful than comics.
But there are no picture. You have to give up the
chance to learn graphic techniques.
Since it’s a writing material, it consists of only
words and sentences entirely.
It won’t be difficult to adopt novels directly into
cartoons.
You won’t be able to use all written lines and
narrations in your comic.
If your comic strip is full of bubbles to read
some readers get bummed out.
Novel is a creation of words.
It simply is different from comics.
4) Drama/Animations/Animes
Filming format, angles, popular slangs, fashion as well,
...they showcase industry’s trend.
The story completes in one season, or two.
It airs an hour, once a week.
In the aspect of time waste it’s not a bad deal.
The issues are...
It includes unexpected stories like spinoffs or
special edition or so on
that keep you from concentrating the story
structures.
If you only want to grasp story you’d be annoyed.
Also, since it’s a 20 to 24 hours work in total you
can’t keep up your concentration all the way.
Many important information are likely to slip away
from your mind.
5) Movies
If you want to learn about story structures efficiently,
movies are the best material.
Film productions give higher priority to
photographing and composition techniques.
Generally prop money is bigger and holding steady
image entirely.
Many Hollywood movies uses comic-ish transitions or
expressions.
Still they seem cool and stylish.
In order to complete the story within limited time
scenes are carefully selected to show events
effectively.
Consequently, so are dialogues and compositions.
You should pause the video and sketch the impressive
composition quickly.
Another advantage would be the speed.
The story is shown speedy to keep dragging audiences'
attention all through.
You can definitely apply this technique to your
comics.
Watching movies is not so costly today.
You can rent, subscribe cable channels, also you can
record or make copies to watch them repeatedly. Of course it's possible to
watch two three movies from different genres in a row on same day.
In terms of time expenditure, watching whole series
probably takes less time than TV series or comics.
6) Games
Playing video games is just the same as watching
films.
Especially on RPG or fantasy, you can feel as if you
were exploring yourself.
If you’re playing action/fighting ones, you’ll pick
up motions.
Though it’s more time consuming than watching
movies,
you can check thoroughly the background and props
etc. that are professionally done.
I
got it.
Gecka:
Gecka:
Now, the conclusion. What’s most important for it?
Have as many opportunities as possible to simulate
worlds others created.
It will empower your creativity.
It will empower your creativity.
Sarah:Great!
Gecka:
This time, I introduced less time and money consuming ways.
You might think I push movies, but it’s because I
found it easier for me.
If you don’t like movies and games, read comics,
or read novels. ...Take easier way!
You’re
a cartoonist and you hate reading comics?
That’s
awkward.
The truth is, I didn’t become cartoonist because I love reading comics.
In reality, I’m more a type of person who love
making movies or games.
But I hate team work. That’s why I became
cartoonist.
In my defense,
I realized I want to be a cartoonist when I was an
elementary kid.
Sarah:
Okay. I just didn't expect that though.
Sarah:
Okay. I just didn't expect that though.
Gecka:
Alright. There you have it.
Alright. There you have it.
If you have any request for the topic, post it here!
You
can reach us through Twitter too.
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