I created a script and storyboard as a test for adapting my self-published fantasy novel into a manga, and even calculated the serialization period
Adapting a novel into a script and creating a storyboard
Turning my own story into a manga. Since I've mostly finished working on the characters, I thought I'd create a storyboard for the first chapter and identify the necessary backgrounds, props, and background characters.
To create a storyboard, I need to break the novel down scene by scene. I'm taking the scenes and character monologues that were all expressed in text and distilling them into symbolic visual expressions or dialogue.
I say this as if I know what I'm doing, but it's all borrowed from Robert McKee. I'm replacing everything McKee mentioned about film and scriptwriting with "manga." The importance of McKee's trilogy cannot be overstated. If you want to create stories and also watch a lot of movies, I highly recommend it.
I just checked the Film Art website, and as of July 18, 2024, it looks like you can get 20% off if you buy the trilogy set...!
Whether you're writing a script or a storyboard, it's best not to get too bogged down in things you're doing for the first time. I roughly put it together with about three hours for the script and three hours for the storyboard.
For the first chapter, I took one-fourth of the nearly 20,000 characters I wrote for Chapter 1 of the novel. By the way, the story has 32 chapters in total. A simple calculation means it would be over 100 chapters.
I feel like estimating the time until the serialization is complete.
1 chapter... 40 pages (estimated from the first chapter's storyboard)
1 chapter x 4 episodes = 4 x 40 pages = Pages needed for 1 chapter: 160p
32 chapters x 160p = Total pages needed for all episodes: 5120p
[Delusion] Manuscript fee if I were a rookie manga artist: 5,000 yen per page
[Delusion] Target monthly salary I want to earn as a manga artist: 400,000 yen
[Delusion] Number of pages I need to finish in a month: 400,000 yen ÷ 5,000 yen = 80 pages
[Delusion] Serialization period: 5120p ÷ 80p = 64 months (5 years and 4 months)
...Oh. That's a realistic number that sounds like a proper serialized manga artist.
Drawing 80 pages a month means I need to finish about 3 pages a day... and I have to keep thinking about the script and storyboard for the next episode... Being a manga artist is tough.
If you get stuck while moving forward, go back
After drawing the storyboard and getting to the point of creating a more detailed one, I started to feel like it was hard to draw. Ah... this is the kind of thing where I can't move forward unless I grasp the entire map of the castle where the events of the first chapter take place.
When I wrote the novel, I only had to think about the directions and elevation differences necessary for the description, so a sketch was enough. Now, even if I don't go as far as including everything I left out, I need to create drawings with a certain level of persuasiveness. At the very least, I want to have enough material to draw without hesitation.
Umberto Eco of "The Name of the Rose" apparently went to great lengths to write his novel, including detailing the floor plan of the monastery based on the sense of distance he felt when actually walking through it, and even building a model of a ship, so I suppose you can never be too particular about background settings.
Completing the map
I started thinking, should I make a more detailed map of the castle? But I still feel a bit uneasy. Come to think of it, I made a world map before I started writing the novel, but as I wrote, the settings changed in detail, and I didn't reflect that in the terrain... If anything, should I fix the world map first...?
In creating the story, I untied the bundle of papers that had become two file boxes worth again. The maps I made at the very beginning came out.
It's been exactly a year since I made the maps. I'm going to be remaking the maps again in the same season. Next time, I'll finish them to a level of precision that can be shown to others as supplementary material for the story.
The appeal of RPG maps
Creating a fantasy... that means a map, right? That is the first thought process that comes to mind. The mental hurdle for creating a world map is low because I have already done it before. Back when I was in elementary school, even. I loved RPG worlds so much and wanted to live in them that I wasn't satisfied with just looking at the maps in the strategy guides, so I imagined all sorts of terrain myself.Making a cape shaped like a dragon... creating a mysterious island...
Games from over 20 years ago didn't have high-definition graphics like they do now, and there wasn't even a word like "immersion," but that actually made my imagination run wilder. Without a doubt, I was actively seeking to immerse myself.
The starting point of a worldview changes depending on the theme
When it came to creating a story, there was something I “absolutely wanted to do.” It is something directly linked to the original reason why I create stories. If this isn't established, there is no point in creating it at all... I started by filling in the outer defenses. That is what makes my creative attitude unique, and at the same time, it is also "withered." I think it is a part that shouldn't waver and shouldn't be influenced by others.
Therefore, settings or premises that might have allowed more people to read it were mostly discarded at this point. Conversely, I had to use settings that I absolutely had to adopt, no matter how cliché they might be.
The worldview that I absolutely had to adopt is as follows.
A world where humanity flourished to its peak and then was completely destroyed
A world where seven suns appeared at the same time as humanity's revival
Autocratic monarchy
The conditions above are the foundation and standard for creating my story. What kind of world satisfies these conditions? What kind of people live there, and what does it mean to live there?
It feels less like I want to write it because I already know it, and more like I am creating it because I want to know. In terms of the conditions above, having seven suns is the most impossible element in terms of both climate and human life, but thanks to this, I was given many ideas that could jump out of being just an apocalyptic story.
Creating with external conditions and thoughts welling up from within
Thinking about it now, the attempt to turn the story into a manga instead of leaving it as a novel was a good choice. It allows me to look back on the production again, polish it, and share the process.
While creating the drama of people living under impossible conditions, what I was thinking about relatively constantly was, “Does human nature change completely depending on the world environment?” To give the answer in a modern way, perhaps it is "possible, but unlikely"?
For example, when writing men, I used expressions that affirmed effeminacy, and when depicting women, I emphasized independence. That is the result of me trying my best to imagine the appearance of humans a little bit into the future as I interpret it. I have also reflected the interpretation that even if minorities are minorities, it does not necessarily mean that the ratio of men to women will change dramatically in the future.
When you write about the parts that will definitely change, you can also see the parts that will not change.
If you change your perspective here, where does the consideration for human nature come from? It has to be based on my own experience, without a doubt.
Creation continues while being rubbed by the double block of the worldview that is firmly on the outside and the thought that "I want it to be this way" that wells up from the inside.
<Announcement>
The release of the manga Escatologia will begin on Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 8:00 AM.
▼ I have posted the synopsis and main character settings.
▼ I have released a magazine.
I am compiling all my efforts to keep creating works into this magazine. If you find it even a little interesting, I would be happy if you could give it a like and follow.
▼ Introductory article