nuclear waste aerobics

Anonymous asked:

Hi there! I think I asked you this already a while ago but you might have forgotten. How did you come up with the story to phantomland? I want to make comics and I have a story in my head but it's not coming together! How to proceed?

Really? Sorry, I must’ve missed that one somehow. I answered a similar question a couple years ago though

I’m super flattered someone would ask me of all people for story advice, haha. I guess a good rule-of-thumb is to establish WHAT IS YOUR STORY ABOUT??? Focus on a theme and build the characters and plot around it. Have your characters WANT something. Figure out whether they’ll reach their goals and how.

With Phantomland I went for a story about a young awkward girl who’s got a lot to learn, because that’s easy to relate to. Chie’s stuck in a world of dangers and mean people, her #1 concern is to survive and look for a way out. So when writing each episode I basically ask myself, “what kind of horrible trauma will Chie suffer this time???” “in what clever way will these characters shit on Chie’s hopes and dreams???”

I don’t know, it’s complicated. I could ramble about the topic all night but I’m tired. I hope these points helped you even a little bit, if you have more specific questions I’m happy to answer! You could also google for that list of Pixar’s storytelling tips, it’s quite good as well