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Question From a Patron: Short Story Development (Patreon)

Published:
2019-04-02 17:28:50
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Q: I wanted to do a small 8 to 10 page story and illustrate it myself. When writing a short story like that, do you still have like an inciting incident and full arc? Or how do you go about structuring it?

A: Short stories can work quite differently than longer form stories, or they can be compact versions of typical stories depending on how you want to treat them. With 8-10 pages you definitely need to focus in order to make it a satisfying reader experience. Look through my script archives here and you’ll find some short stories to see and how I approached them-

The Vertigo SFX story ‘Little Medals’ is a good example. It’s one concept built and executed in 8 pages. No subplots and pretty much no fat on the story at all. Every panel reinforces something about the core theme/message:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/little-medals-5207982

The Spider-Man stories I did for Spider-Man Magazine were 11 pages, but the first page was almost always a cover-style big moment, so the real story was done in 10 pages. It’s a superhero story compressed without any subplots. The villain or threat is introduced very quickly, a challenge is put in front of Spidey and he figures out how to solve it, in hopefully a way that’s not obvious but is also satisfying, all in 10 pages:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-8562435

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-8731334

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-13600030

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-14450007

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-15441523

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-15441567

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-16256550

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-16256891

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-16257072

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ultimate-spider-17731795

The 1-page story I did for Love Is Love is the broadest beats of a story, just emotional high points in montage and a small pay off:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/here-for-love-is-7656763

Short stories can also be used in a more poetic fashion, building up a mood or impression rather than chunking through a typical plot. Readers aren’t expecting to delve as deep with that limited page count and you don’t have to worry about keeping their attention past that initial read, so you can also choose to get a bit more experimental. 

Comments

Mike Kranz

Thanks for all the insight into how you make comics and for making such fun and great stories, Jim! Can you clear something up for me? I see the term "inciting incident" thrown around here and there -- just what is it and how important is it in writing a longer comic book script and how do you use it in an effective manner? Thanks again!

Jim Zub
>>21499276

An "inciting incident" is just the part of the plot or the action that hooks our main character into the story in a way that is hopefully entertaining and engaging to the audience. It's when we move from back story (what has happened before or the events that define who a character is at the start of our story) to the current conflict that has to be addressed _now_. Some stories open with their inciting incident (the droids escape to Tatooine in Star Wars after Darth Vader attacks the rebel ship) and others build up to them (Die Hard opens slower with John McClane showing up to meet with his estranged wife, but once Hans Gruber arrives and the bad guys lock down the building, the immediate problem has to be dealt with). It's usually about coming up with a clear and powerful moment that moves the protagonist into conflict, something they can't just walk away from.

Craig Russell

Thanks so much for posting this, Jim. It's really helpful to learn what to focus on when making short stories. Anything I try and create tends to balloon into something epic. :)