Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11518342-20140308201629/@comment-10734109-20140708031232

I realize that my opinion will seem a bit close minded, but I'm not really one for the whole setup of Homestuck. Sure, I am not all too familiar with the comic, but I have reviewed some of the pages from different spots in the story just to see if there was any change.

It's not that I dislike the setup of the panels and dialogue, because I think that it's actually very interesting and unique to the story. However, if we were to do something similar to it everyone would KNOW that we were copying, and that could rub the wrong way. It's not unlikely that we would simply be seen as unoriginal fans.

Also, that particular layout may not be the best for the story we decide on. From what I have seen, Homestuck was meant to be viewed like a video game, and video games will often read more like scripts than comics, and have the limitation of being unable to clearly express a character's emotion. Comics read more like movies, and you can clearly see what a character is thinking and feeling at any given moment. If we want to save ourselves the trouble of drawing all of the panels needed in a comic, we should just write a regular novel or something of the sort, but supplement it with illustrations. However, in this case we would not have as many available spots for people to work. Plus, we could not see through the eyes of too many characters without it being confusing. And no, we are NOT writing this story in first person from multiple POV's. Why? It just gets confusing and the transition seems poor. If we wanted to write in first person, we would need to stick to one single character.

For something like this, I think that a regular web comic would work the best. If we want to get it as close to the original plan, I think that this would be our best option.

But before we choose the medium in which we want this to be done, we need to get through some of the core work first. If you want this project to actually get off the ground, I suggest you read these.

What genre do we want the story to be in? Do we want it to be a comedy, romance, action-adventure, slice of life, mystery, or something else? This will set the groundwork for the plot as well as the way that the script (or story) is written in, along with what art style we decide to use.

What is the main plot, conflict, etc.? How will it be resolved?

How long do we want to carry this out for (page and time wise)? Once we figure this out, how long should an average chapter be?

Will we have one main character or multiple? How many characters?

Once the plot is figured out, what kind of characters will we need? We can't have multiple characters with the same personality (as it was originally turning out to be like), because that would just be repetitive and boring. Take my characters Leon and Rafael for example. They are both 14 year old boys and are also two of the four main characters in the story that I plan on writing (eventually). Leon is introverted, hardworking, socially awkward, and often has a difficult time making friends (as he is seen as being dorky). Rafael, on the other hand is much more talkative, lazy, and rarely takes anything seriously. Because of this variation, it adds interest to the story and privides opportunities for comic relief and conflict as well. The more personalities that are added, the more realistic it is to real life. Though all of us like art, we are probably very different in some aspects. You may be very sensitive and feel that art is an outlet to express your emotions, while I'm much more insensitive and feel that art is a good way to express my sense of humour.

Another thing on the characters is that they do not necessarily have to be based on us (if I were added to the story I probably would not be portrayed accurately), and the story itself does not have to be based on Disney Create. I think that we should keep our character level to a minimum, since we're probably not experienced enough to deal with memorizing how to draw 20 different characters. The only basis we should be going by for characters is how compatible they are with each other, and how realistic their personalities are as well. We want the combination to be as interesting and original as possible, so that the readers will continue reading. By this, I mean that the story can still be kept alive even if the characters are sitting on a park bench talking.