This article is a behind-the-scene for my latest story Kayfabe starring raconteur222's Lulu.
I talked multiple times about explaining my workflow and how I do stuff. In this article I hope to do so.
Obsidian
My workflow is centered around a note-taking software called Obsidian. Some people call it their second brain, in my case I think it's the primary.
(meet my pets, Акакий Башмачкин the ghost and Leonidas the Rabbit)
I love this tool, it has everything I need:
not opinionated on organisation, you create the hierarchy you want in your notes (or don't create any) and you can change it super easy. If you are not in the mood for organisation you can just create a page, write your stuff and figure it out later (or never 🤭)
each notes is a markdown file that sits in a folder on your computer, nothing locked into a proprietary database format, this has lots of advantages
no vendor lock-in: if obsidian enshittify my notes can be ported to another software easily
they are text files in folders, I can run scripts on them if I want to do cool stuff
reorganising is literally just moving folders on your computer
the markdown limitations prevent me from making the undecipherable nightmare landscape I draw every time I use tools like onenote
you can make a git repo of your notes if you are fancy like that!
it has many plugins
there are many themes to make it look pretty
offline first, with multiple sync options
has a mobile version
reasonably ok performance-wise (it's still a chromium based app)
Ideas
I rarely struggle with the idea part and I always leave myself open for changing it, even mid writing. (for example, the episode Thread&Treachery was originally a zombi story, I changed the part after the shoe scene because it didn't really worked).
For the Kayfabe story my inspirations were
I wanted to do a wrestling story, like in real pro wrestling, the story isn’t about wrestling. After reading many wrestler life stories, I knew I wanted to talk about acceptance, self acceptance and the struggle to find your way in life. I felt it was a nice, soft way to talk about the subject in a neutral setting for most people. I love when stories talk about a difficult subject by recontextualising it, because it removes part of the bias, opinions and prejudices. In my view it elevate the message and also allows people concerned by the issue to not feel singled out (unless you are a wrestler, in that case I love you, watch out for head bumps).
The title is the last thing I do, for most stories it straightforward once everything is on paper. Kayfabe was super easy, this word designate the mascarade that wrestlers maintain for the stories, the semblance of a competitive sport and their persona. It was not only thematically fitting with wrestling but also very appropriate for the subject of the story.
I also have no issue dropping a story for later, everything is in my obsidian, I won't lose it. It's ok. I do what I'm in the mood for.
Production
I'm blessed to have the disposable income to afford a good GPU so I can generate local. I gen everything on my machine, I do not use any advanced techniques, the only thing that local gen really gives me an edge compared to civitai gen is what I explained in that article. If you have a good GPU and don't know where to start local genning, look at Fooocus, super easy to start. It also work with AMD GPUs, I'm on a RX9700XTX. (if there's any interest for fooocus tricks, tell me in the comment, I have a few)
To create my comic I use exclusively paint.net. It's a raster image manipulation software, it's simple but limited. You won't get all the features of a GIMP or Krita but it does the job well enough without having to look for a tutorial to find a button.
Here two videos of me doing stuff:
Putting a speech bubble (< 1 minute if you don't faff around like me)
Fixing a finger with the clone stamp tool (< 2 minutes) (Once done, I put that image into the AI to do highres img2img and it would smooth out everything)
videos recorded with with screen2gif (you can save as webm, not only gif)
I recommend to get the boltbaits plugin pack to be able to do object outlines, it's very useful:
https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/InstallPlugins.html
Comic layout
To organise the layout of your comic, I strongly recommend following korean webtoons practices.
vertical paneling, it works better on screens and phones
use spacing and negative space to let each scene breath a little or to prevent the viewer from peeking at the next image while reading if you want to preserve suspense or a joke (for example on kayfabe, I intentionally spaced the last joke away from the end of the story)
Storytelling
I avoid long stories
To keep myself engaged, I need to often change tone, theme and style. I feel people like that too.
I watched a ton of classic TV shows, it's a great inspiration for the stuff I make. If I can recommend something it would be: X-files (especially the first seasons, even if you think you don't like horror, you like horror you just don't know it yet), Babylon 5 (it's a very underrated show), Star Trek (CLASSIC Star Trek everything made before JJ Abrams destroyed it in 2009, but that's a lot to watch, I recommend Deep Space 9, for a modern audience it's probably to easiest to get into, also I💜Garak)
it's a good idea to set up in advance important concepts. If you read my first story, I set up the censorship plot point at the very start to then reuse it at the end. It's jarring when an important element just stubble into the story at the end (but it can be used for dramatic effect! it's perilous)
HONESTY! Don't hesitate to put your heart in it. I cried writing Lulu's monologues for Twopence Wood and Kayfabe. AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! DO NOT CHEAPEN IT WITH JOKES! Don't do the Marvel snark! It's OK to have emotions, it's not weakness it's strength, listen to Macho Man Randy Savage talk about it.
MACHO MADNESS
Please check my stories if you liked this article. Click here!