A Simple Way To Go From "Pantsing" to Plotting

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Issue One, Page Twelve

This week’s post continues my From The Archives series, where I revisit one of my earlier pages and provide some insight on its creation. I’m going in chronological order, so that those of you who have just discovered the comic can get caught up!

Hi there!

Well, here it is - the big finish of the musical number!

Every time I look at this page, it reminds me of the moment that I decided to change the way I was writing the comic. As I’ve said before, when I started creating Steamroller Man pages, I had only a vague idea of where I wanted the story to go, and how it would end. I had not written a script or even an outline before I started drawing it, and what happened on each page was pure improvisation. I really was just making it up as I went along. I believe they call this type of writer a “pantser” (as in “flying by the seat of your pants”), as opposed to “plotter” types, who prefer to work out the plot first, to serve as a framework for the creation of the work.

As I published each page online, I had people asking if I was going to eventually print the comic. I did intend to do that, and started to research online how much it would cost. It was only then that I realized that to get an accurate printing quote, I had to enter a page count… And because I was a “pantser”, I had absolutely no idea how many pages my story was going to be!

I had originally envisioned making the story a 22-page single issue, but I had just spent eight pages on a musical number that had absolutely no bearing on the story! I was twelve pages in, and there was no way I could tell the rest of the story in only ten pages!

The First Hint of An Actual Writing Process (Such As It Was)

So, it was at this point that I realized I needed to work out exactly what was going to happen on each page, for the rest of the story. I was intimidated by, and quite resistant to, the thought of this. I was actually quite enjoying the loose spontaneity of being a “pantser”, but I needed to have some rough estimate of how many more pages it would take to finish this story. At the very least, I knew I had to plot out each story beat or scene, to give me an idea of the story’s total length. I wrote out all the story beats and plot points that I had in mind, to get me to the end of the story.

It turned out to be a LONG list!

Knowing that I wanted each issue to end on something of a cliffhanger, I found that the first story beat that fit the bill was about one-fourth of the way down the list. Based on this, I had the idea to try using a basic three-act structure. On a sheet of paper, I wrote:

1. Issue One = Act One

2. Issue Two = Act Two, first half

3. Issue Three = Act Two, second half

4. Issue Four = Act Three

Then I broke the list of story beats into four groups, corresponding to what should happen in each issue.

In one fell swoop I had gone from making a 22-page comic to making… maybe… FOUR 22-page comics?

I still did not have a specific estimate but it was a sobering moment. My workload had just quadrupled!

Since I was a teenager, I had always wanted to make my own comic. I had made a few false starts over the years, but would always give up after drawing the first page, because I became discouraged at how long it would take me to finish the whole story.

Somehow, I never entertained the idea of giving up on Steamroller Man. As I ponder it now, I think the choice to publish it online as I completed each page was what made the difference. Gaining an audience early on, even though it was small, motivated me to press on. I wanted to finish the story for those readers. Quitting when the story was already in progress would be kind of like stopping the projector and turning the lights back in a movie theater, before the movie was even halfway through. It was the right decision and I’ve never regretted it.

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Fast forward to today, seven years later - I have three issues completed, but the story is up to 96 pages already, and has veered off from that original outline a number of times. As you can guess, I am still not working from a full script! The improvising continues!

For the fourth issue, I’m hoping to wrap up the Sugar Daddy storyline, and so I’m actually attempting to tightly plot every page out before I start drawing anything. I need to know how many pages it will take to fit everything in, and I really want the ending to feel satisfying. I’m definitely outside my comfort zone and am finding it quite challenging! Writing is haaarrrrd!!

There’s nothing for it but to keep rolling, though. No giving up now - The only way out is through!

Until Next Week, Keep Rolling!

Matt

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