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How to create a good manga

Find out how to come up with a good manga and write some tips to help people. Also, tell them some things they SHOULD and SHOULDN'T do. Plus add some websites where they can publish their manga.

  • "come up with" is a very clunky phrase. I would just go with "write" or "create" possibly "develop." – Francesca Turauskis 9 years ago
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  • I would advise you to talk about comic language in general and highlight how anime differs from the western notion. Robert E. Horn has a fantastic book defining the rules of comics, and I bet there are plenty of other books and papers covering this. With "good" or "bad" as far as literature goes, there are definite ways of defining them. With a film, we have mise en scene, lighting, directing, acting, etc., and for comics, I bet there are plenty of genre-specific conventions as well. – Mitchapman14 9 years ago
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  • Suggestions: This is for the storytelling part: 1. When creating manga, start with a general list of what you want in your manga. The list should have general themes that you want to include in the manga. Should it be a sport, slice of life, fantasy, magical girl or a mixture manga? You decide. 2. Next is deciding details down. Once you have a good idea of your themes, you can start the details. This step will take a while because a strong manga is not without details. A way to narrow things down would be: -An outline of the plot (a summary of important events- you can use or create a chart of the events- it helps to clarify things in your mind) -An outline of characters (ex. a fantasy manga would usually have a being who have powers- like a wizard) Once you have a good general idea of the details, it's time to narrow things down even more! You can decide how specifically you want the plot to go- remember I said to have the important events down for the plot outline? Now it's time to decide what happens in between because important events cannot stand by itself without a good in between events. For an example, the manga "Bleach" started with a boy who can see the spirits which led to the important event of him becoming a shinigami- which shows that the little events can strengthen the bigger events. A good to see how to write little events is: -Ask yourself: how did the important events happen? - What causes the important events? -Is this little event necessary (this is SO important- don't put in a little event that leaves a plot hole or seems random fo the story!- it may either please the readers or bore them...) The characters are one of the most vital parts of a manga. We wouldn't have known the infamous trio of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura if they weren't strong characters and didn't pop out to the readers. How to recognize that your characters are ready for the story: -Be sure to flesh them out (it means that you know your characters so well that you can see what they will decide- which makes the story easy to write.) -Traits are important- it makes who they are and what they are. -Are they Mary Sues? (Mary Sue means basically perfect character-no flaws, no changes- it is not a bad character, but do your readers connect to them or feel isolated from them?) Don't be afraid to edit them and change them as you develop the characters- that is how you achieve a great character! "Naruto"'s creator spent a lot of time creating Naruto to finally achieve the Naruto we love today. Here's another section....I know I have rambled too long, but I will keep this short because I feel this is highly important as well. Art: Illustrating the plot and the characters are another vital part of creating a manga. Art is what appeals people to read them, and unique one can stand out among many manga titles. After having to develop the general outlines for the plot and characters, you can decide what art style you want. It depends on how well you can draw ( I do know that art is subjective, but having good illustrations and strong appearances of the characters attracts the readers). and how you unite it with the plot. How to do this is: -Environment (ex. a medieval themed manga commonly have castles and lots of lands) -Time period (ex. Futuristic time period tends to have advanced technology) -Character design (Do they fit in with the environment and time period?) -Consistency is the key (Consistent will get you recognization and a job- If "Dragonball" was not consistent in illustration, it would not have become the most famous manga it is today) -Uniqueness: This one is important. If you are aiming to create a popular manga or even a fantastic manga, uniqueness will separate you from the mass of mangakas. It will make you immediately recognizable to the readers- "One Piece" is immediately recognizable because of the art style and unique (though, neverending) plot. Avoid cliches or try to put a twist on cliches because it will tire the readers out- imagine you read a story with a great theme and plot so you read another book with that same theme and plot...and you find exactly the same ideas in that story! After some repetition, it's just an annoyance for the readers (unless you are a fan of this cliche and want to see it again and again). I could go and go on about how to create a manga, but I don't want to extend this writing too much to bore readers...so I'll stop for now. I hope this helps! – Japantakemyheart100 9 years ago
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  • dang that would be interesting to read. Unfortunatly, I, nor many others, are qualified to write this. I fell that this should be written by someone who has actually published a manga or similar piece of literature. They could speak from experience and probably write this better than many other people. – Jutor 8 years ago
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