Write Your First Comic
MAY 8 - JUNE 16, 2023
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
By the end of this workshop, you'll have written, illustrated, produced, and published your own 24-page digital comic!
Register now to begin your journey as a comics creator
Kayla Cline, StoCo Creative Producer and Comics Creator
“If you’ve ever thought about creating comics, whether it be your first time or you want to know more, Write Your First Comic is the course for you.
Kayla’s love and talent for comics is unmatched — she will guide you in refining your ideas, writing them, illustrating, publishing your comics, and MORE! This course brings out Kayla’s passion and creates a warm and welcoming environment that allows you to dive deep and explore your own passion for the medium.
So, what are you waiting for? Create something incredible with Kayla and your fellow creatives today!”
— INSHA FITZPATRICK
Upon completing the program, you'll receive a digital certificate to add to your writing portfolio.
The lessons are released over the course of six weeks and unlock on the dates specified below. Here is the schedule. The dates are when that lesson goes live; the deadlines for each activity are included in the lesson content.
The first week of lessons will help you solidify your idea, create your compelling characters, and set up your story arc for writing! We will also go over how you can best distill your established story into a single issue for the purpose of this workshop, and how to set yourself up for success with a Narrative Reference Guide.
✅ By the end of this section, you'll have your story selected, outlined, established characters, and compiled into a Narrative Reference Guide for production of your issue.
LESSON | UNLOCK DATE |
Lesson 1: Welcome and Getting Started | May 8, 2023 |
VIDEO: Welcome to WYFC! | May 8, 2023 |
Lesson 2: Setting a Project Scope | May 9, 2023 |
Lesson 3: Brainstorming Your Idea | May 10, 2023 |
Lesson 4: Creating Characters | May 11, 2023 |
Lesson 5: Crafting Your Story Arc | May 12, 2023 |
VIDEO: How do we distill our story into a reasonable issue? | May 12, 2023 |
Lesson 6: Crafting Your Narrative Reference Guide | May 13, 2023 |
This is when you'll begin creating your comic issue! We will go over writing a script for yourself, turning that script into a series of thumbnails, and discuss some best practices for converting your story into panels.
✅ By the end of this section, you'll have your script completed and the issue thumbnailed in preparation of production.
LESSON | UNLOCK DATE |
Time to Write: Getting Ready for Part 2 | May 15, 2023 |
COMICS MILESTONE: Narrative Reference Complete! | May 15, 2023 |
Lesson 7: Drafting a Basic Script | May 16, 2023 |
VIDEO: How to Turn a Script into a Scene | May 16, 2023 |
Lesson 8: Thumbnailing | May 17, 2023 |
A NOTE: Skill Level for Illustrators | May 17, 2023 |
Now it's time to produce your comic! You've set up all your materials from the last two Units, so we will spend Unit 3 sketching, inking, and coloring our issues together.
✅ By the end of this section, you'll have your issue fully colored and ready for lettering and borders!
LESSON |
UNLOCK DATE |
Time to Art: Getting Ready for Part 3 |
May 22, 2023 |
Lesson 9: Setting up your files | May 22, 2023 |
Lesson 10: Sketching and Refinement | May 23, 2023 |
VIDEO: Project Check-In | May 24, 2023 |
Lesson 11: Artistic Scope | May 25, 2023 |
Lesson 12: Inking and Refinement | May 26, 2023 |
Lesson 13: Coloring and Refinement | May 27, 2023 |
This unit is all about finishing touches. This will go over lettering, borders and gutters, understanding when something is "good enuf," and crafting a compelling cover!
✅ By the end of this section, you'll have a finished issue and will have completed the workshop! 😁
LESSON | UNLOCK DATE |
Time to Wrap Up Your Project: Getting Ready for Unit 4 | June 2, 2023 |
Lesson 14: Lettering | June 2, 2023 |
Lesson 15: Borders and Gutters Part 1 | June 3, 2023 |
Lesson 16: Borders and Gutters Part 2 | June 4, 2023 |
Lesson 17: Understanding Completion | June 5, 2023 |
Lesson 18: Crafting a Compelling Cover | June 6, 2023 |
This last part contains some high-level tips about print, setting up a book, and color modes! This does not serve as a walkthrough for print setup (since this workshop is digital focused!) but helps you understand what these requirements are and why.
LESSON | UNLOCK DATE |
VIDEO: Why are we talking print? | June 10, 2023 |
Lesson 19: Reader's Spreads and More on Bleed | June 10, 2023 |
Lesson 20: An Overview of RGB vs CMYK | June 11, 2023 |
VIDEO: Conclusion 🎉 | June 16, 2023 |
Try it out for free!
100% of donations go directly to providing scholarships to our storytellers. Donating two or more scholarships (at $75 each) makes you an official Friend of the Storytelling Collective!
The lessons in this workshop unlock over the course of 6 weeks starting on May 8. (Check out the full schedule above.) This means that you can log in when you're able to log in and complete the lessons on your own schedule, any time during the workshop!
The workshop takes place from May 8-June 16, 2023. You do not have to be online at any specific time; we have a global community and scheduled classes are unfeasible. The lessons unlock on UTC time, but you're encouraged to complete them on your own schedule. We provide suggested deadlines to keep you on track.
In this course, most of the lessons are written (like blog posts/articles) and there are a few supplemental videos that delve into a little more detail on select topics. Each lesson in the workshop's 5 units includes activities to guide your learning.
Right here on this website. On May 8th, just simply pop over here to StorytellingCollective.com and log in. The course will be available in your account!
The Storytelling Collective team and instructors are all prolific, passionate creative storytellers and educators. This is the 10th time we've hosted this course; more than 12,000 writers have taken our workshops since we started in 2018.