Storytelling For Cartoon Strips

Do You Wish You Could Write Good Stories?

Have you ever looked at a cartoon strip and thought “I wish I could come up with stories like that?”

It would be really cool to come up with your own stories, to create funnier and more inventive tales for your characters to get up to.

We all know instinctively what a good story feels like.

But writing one is a different matter.

We don’t always know what the separate elements are.

We don’t understand how they work the way they do.

So how can we find out about that

We also know when a story doesn’t work. We’ve sat though a lousy movie, abandoned a dud book, and also looked at one of our own stories and thought “Meh!”

But what exactly is it that should go into those three or four blank panels?

Staring at a blank page or screen won’t help a story to materialise out of thin air...

…and will only lead to frustration and perhaps a desire to snack out...

What about inspiration?

Relying on inspiration is not a good idea.

You can die of old age before inspiration strikes.

It would be neat to have resource that can help show what a good story is…and how to come up with your own ideas..

As well as to show the basic building blocks of story structure.

Introducing the Storytelling for Cartoon Strips Course

The Storytelling for Cartoon Strips Course will give you the basic nuts and bolts of story structure to apply to your own cartoon strips. Whether you’ve already tried drawing a cartoon strip, or this is something you’re trying for the first time, the course will help you to create funnier and more interesting situations for your characters.

It’s not rocket surgery.

Once you get the hang of the basic structure, it’ll make it a lot easier for you to regularly create your own strips.

Here’s some of the stuff we’ll cover.

1. Creating tension

Among the areas we’ll look at it creating tension.

Bit boring really....

That’s a bit more exciting...

2. Coming up with ideas

And if you’re stuck for ideas..

... I’ll help you come up with some so that you can spend more time creating stories and drawing, and less time scratching your head.

3. Story structure

We’ll cover over the basics of story structure to help you make your cartoon strips enjoyable and logical for you and your reader.

4. Creating a world for your story

Whether it’s set in a home or somewhere more exotic, you need a world to build your story about.

5. Creating a Cast of Characters

You’ll need some characters to tell your story about, so we’ll look at how to create a cast of them.

How the course works

Supervised daily practice

You can read about stuff and think about stuff, but in the end, it’s doing stuff for yourself that builds skill. The course enables you to practice creating stories for cartoon strips  five days a week, and put what you are learning to good use. I’ll help to keep you on track.

Daily Feedback

I’ll give you feedback on the stories and cartoon strips you create, and you’re also free to ask me questions at any time.

Sharing your ideas in the forum

You’re not going through this course alone. As well as the support of the tutor, you’ll be able to see how the other students are doing as well. It’s a rare opportunity to share ideas and help each other out during the course. Who knows what idea they might come up with? That’s part of the fun of doing a course with a group of people.

1) When does it begin and what is the duration? 

The course starts 6 April 2020 and runs till 15 June 2020. Four solid weeks of teaching, with a week at the start to ramp up to speed, and a week at the end to clear up any lingering problems and (very important) map your way forward.

2) What materials will I need?

Whatever you normally draw with. It can be pencil and paper, pen and ink, watercolours, digital devices. As long as you can take a photo or save an image and upload it to the forum, you are golden.

3) How is the course conducted?

Assignments are a combination of notes, examples and exercises in the private Slack group and feedback is provided daily by tutor Rob Middleton. No need to be available at any particular time, simply show up in your own time zone and post your work for Rob’s feedback. Then take a look at your team mates’ work each day to amp up your own learning and inspiration.

4) How much time will I need each day?

15-30 minutes to think and draw, Monday to Friday. Plus time to visit 3 or more of your 10 team-mates, to absorb inspiration and learn subconsciously from their efforts. So ideally, 30 minutes. Interestingly, having a time limit actually makes you more creative, not less. Handy! You’ll be surprised.

5) Is there a money-back guarantee?

Rob works 1:1 with every participant daily and we limit the numbers to a maximum of 10. If you show up and do the work, we know you’ll make superb progress. So no, there’s no money-back guarantee on this one

6) How do I join? Where do I pay?

Details coming later!

This course will be available later. Add your details below and I’ll out you on the waiting list.

Here’s what some folks who’ve done some previous cartooning courses had to say:

“I loved how Rob broke everything down into simple blocks. I tend to spend all my time concentrating on getting technically good {at cartooning} so coming up with ideas was just another (hard) thing to do. Rob made it much easier.”

Vicky Fraser — Herefordshire, UK — Moxie Books - student on the ‘Get Gagging - cartoon ideas course’

“Rob creates an atmosphere that is both fun and relaxing

Before each section he explains the purpose of the exercise and the importance of the small details.

He takes time to listen and address each question.

Even though I’m not the most talented artist I could gain confidence in my drawings.”

Jack Barker — Tokyo, Japan - Jack’s English Room - participant in Cartoon Workshop

“I don’t know when he sleeps, he responded quickly to our work.”

Nick S. - student on Idea-Nators cartoon ideas course