Story/ Structure

The story for my comic is starting to take form, I have a basic storyline that I want the reader to be able to follow throughout the comic. Throughout this storyline they will be given different instances where they will have to interact with different items or characters in order to further the story or decide upon what direction that it will take.

I have also produced some background material for the different factions and characters involved. I have taken advice from Alan Moore book Writing for Comics in that the writer needs to create a believable world and know everything about it before they set out to determine a story and this is what I have done, although more information could possibly be added. While the reader/user may not be privy to this information in whole or even at all through the entire process it is important that the writer knows it so that they can create a believable world where everyone has their own goals and agendas, how different social classes operate and view one another, the social hierarchy etc. therefore i made sure I had the different factions agendas and goals planned out before I had started on the main storyline that the character would progress through and this in  turn helped me develop and produce ideas for the main storyline. the user/reader will not be given the backstory straight away although they may be able to discern parts of it through different interactions that will produce them with more information.

I have decided upon a series of flashbacks acting as the introduction to the story, the first scene will introduce the reader to the main character that has got themselves into a certain predicament and is being asked questions by their captors. These questions will trigger a series of flashbacks that will enlighten the user as to how the story progressed thus far and how the character got captured in the first place as well as what they were doing there. I feel that such a method will be much more intriguing to the reader and they will want to know why, what and how the character got to this point, being interrogatted by their captors for answers that only the reader and the character be privy to.I want to capture the readers interest and believe that such a structure to begin with will help fullfill this with the intention that once the flashback scenes have passed the reader will be hooked and wish to find out what happens next.

During these flashbacks the user will be able to interact with characters/environments/items and learn more information from them. Sadly though as open as I would like to make the different branches of storyline from these sections they will always have to come back to the present with the character being a captive. This allows some difference in the information that can be discovered by the user but the storyline will have to stay close to the same throughout the flashbacks. However after these scenes I intend to give the user much more control over the character and how the story progresses depending on their actions.

below I have attached a diagram of the structure that will be involved for the flashback scenes. It is shown that although the reader will have some control over events they will have to eventually be reigned back into the main plot point in order that the flashbacks still make sense.