I've seen it countless times on theO more than anywhere else.

If you want to make something people will enjoy and something you love, especially when making original stories, especially if you plan to turn them into comics, you must avoid being genereic.

Even though you think ' oh maybe people will like my take on it better!' You're thinking wrong. If you do things solely for yourself and as a hobby, ignore this entire comic. My advice is only for those who choose to take a serious career in making an honest to god decent series.

MAKE THINGS THAT ARE MEMORABLE:

Make a list of things you enjoy, if you can't enjoy what you're making then whats the point?

But, a question you must always have in mind, should be 'has it been done before?' because it's a very crucial question. You want to make something really interesting that catches everyone's attention, not something they'll forget immediately after they see it.

Though it's nice to have a couple of tropes here and there, you can;t just have every single trope that people would expect, otherwise people will know what you do before you do.

Your goal is to make something you can be proud of, and make history with it.

DO NOT IMMEDIATELY GIVE AWAY YOUR ENDING IN AN OBVIOUS WAY

I Know you may think, 'oh I can definitely hint a few things without them knowing where I'm heading' don't. It may seem very easy to do, but it isn't, it's not even close to easy in the least.

I've seen so many comics with good potential go into the crapper and forgotten so quickly because the author chose to hint about the ending.

example:

Let's say author A author B decide to make a romance, and they are both determined to make it seriously interesting and enjoyable to readers, also that they are big manga and anime fans(I use these as an example because a majority of members are here because of this). Let's also say B is a very good artist but A is lacking in a few places, but fairly decent.

Already you can expect a few obvious things:

• Someone is going to love Someone else
• It can either go smoothly or rough
• There will be conflict
• Almost always two people will get together

So with that author A knows that we expect it but author B doesn't. So B makes a few pages and starts before A.

B's comic:

B decides he wants to go to japan, because they are a big fan of manga. They pick a girl that goes by the name of Suki Honda. No reason why they chose that name, just that it had to sound Japanese to fit. They also pick it to be in Tokyo, Japan.

They start with her waking up in the morning, they're in a hurry to get to school, they got to be fresh, they have to go downstairs. But oops! if they don't hurry they'll be late, so she grabs a slice of bread and stuffs it in her mouth.

Already sound familiar?

Anyway, they have a whole monologue about who she is and where she's from, she is an orphan and she has a sad past, but B doesn't gives us much more than that. They take a ride on public transportation like everyone else and get to school.

Then, while she's talking to her friends she spots the man of her dreams. She talks about him using a lot of honorifics. She also speaks about how madly in love she is with him. He looks up from where ever he was and smiles at her, then in the next page he ask her to hang out with him.

Let's say it's only page 6 or 7.

BOOM. you know how it will end.

Why? Because he's showing obvious interest in her you can tell that he's the one she wants because she mentions no other possible interest. Because of this, people will stop checking in when it updates. Despite what B may have in store.

A's comic:

A decides to wait a couple of days to think of ideas, they don't want some cookie cutter comic, but they don't want to seem jerk about it about it. They want to be as original as possible without coming off as a snot.

The main character is a boy. He's originally from Japan but ends up going to school in america.

It starts off with him waking up early and getting ready very quickly and at his own pace, what's he in a hurry for? It's the weekend.

2 pages in, and no monologue, no words any where besides the background noises. One of his parents wakes up and calls him by his name, something like 'Tarou' and then there is another page and a half of them conversing, you know, small talk.

But just from small talk you can tell that his relations with his parents is very good, nothing bad or serious. Also that he's a single child.

He heads off to school and meets up with his friends. One is a girl and the other is a boy. They go on about how good friends they are and then suddenly now comes a monologue. For two pages he talks about his friends for a page.

From the girls page, you's think 'pfft, he'll end up with her', until, another girl comes up and it's actually another one of his friends, page for her too. So that eliminates the first possible hook-up.

So at this point maybe they're making it so that you can't tell right? So you want to read more to know who the heck he ends up with.

CONCLUSION:

How many actual tropes did you find? Not many? Then you see that even though what A might lack in art skill, they make up for it in story. That doesn't mean B's is completely hopeless either, people may come back for the art instead of the story.

In all of this, you have to decide, do you want to be remembered for your art, or story?

You don't have to settle for one over the other.

There are two way you could go with this.

Write while someone else draws, or, improve in what you're lacking!

simple as that.

What's not simple is the other stuff that comes after this, because there is still WAY MORE TO GO.

Otherwise I wouldn't have called it Step 1.

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Any questions can be directed here:
http://www.theotaku.com/fancomics/view/9859/ask_mell