WEBTOON Basics Chronological Synopsis Writing
GCC Academy
Learning Goals To explain story-writing writing as planting a tree To explain the difference between scneario and synopsis and be able to write a synopsis
Learning Contents Steps to Storywriting How-to: Synopsis
HAGA Webtoon artist Debut 2014 Webtoon For the Sake of Sita Career Mentor at Seoul Webtoon Academy (SWA) Works King's Maker Nessun Dorma: None Shall Sleep
Hello, I'm Lee Sang Mi, or HAGA
The author of King's Maker
Currently available at Kakao Page
Some people claim that it's better to
Focus on strengthening events instead of characters
When writing a story
With that, today we'll talk about
Writing synopsis chronologically as events unfold
We will take a metaphor of planting a tree to learn the steps
And know about the difference between a scenario and a synopsis
As well as how to write one
Overall, we will be learning about simulating
An event-centered story chronologically
Steps to Storywriting
So I will talk about storymaking
As a metaphor of
Planting a tree
So imagine
You're at your home
And you suddenly want a plant
If you have nothing ready
And you want a tree
What is the first thing to consider?
It's to decide where to plant one
Meaning, you need some location
The backyard, or a pot at the balcony
Or making a mini garden at the rooftop
And this location, or soil, is the subject matter
All the things that you like
Or the subject matter of the fictions you're reading now
Such as genres
That becomes the basis
Such as whether you're living in an apartment or a villa
If you like action genre, it's action
Or romance if you like one
Or the subject of cooking if you want that
These become your subjet matters, or the soil
And it's not just about something you like and desire
You need to make Webtoon out of what you know
However much you love the genre SF
If you have not much scientific knowledge
If you don't know what's happening in what universe
Or any difference between space suits such as for intra- or extravehicular activities
This means that you do not have enough space for the plant
Then it'll be hard to make an SF Webtoon now
This is a chance to distinguish what materials you have now
Even if you don't know much about the space
If you're interested in SF and have a library nearby
Which allows you to do some research on the topic
Then you cna prepare a big pot in the balcony, not in the backyard
And you will be able to prepare for a spot for your tree
Thus, the environment of making story out of your resources
If the subject matter, or the soil
So when the soil is ready, you need the seeds
Seeds are like desires
Of all these subject matters
The particular desire of the author to draw this particular thing is the seed
The seed could be one of the subject matters
It could be a scene, a line or a character
If you came up with a killer line
And if you want that line to be used at the climax
Then the story begins with that line
Or if you want to draw a Webtoon with a blonde puppy-like character
With a black-haired cat-like character
That's another kind of desire
So anything you want to talk about or to draw about is your desire
My debut work is called For the Sake of Sita
And this is based on the legend of Kumari in Nepal
And romance is another material
At that time, I went on a volunteer work in Nepal
And saw a Kumari there
For those of you who don't know, Kumari is
A living person, particularly of young girls
Only those who pass certain conditions
And because they have passed such
It is considered that a goddess has been reincarnated in her body
And this girl becomes a living god
Even in the contemporary society, some countries
Such as some European countries or Japan, where monarchy exists aside from presidents
And in Nepal, Kumari is the goddess in system
The problem is that this Kumary system requires a very young girl
Around ages of 5 to 8 as a goddess
And if this goddess bleeds, tears up
Or becomes emotionally turmoiled
It is considered that she has become a human again
Because a goddess does not act that way
And another Kumari is brought in instead
The problem with this is, girls menstruate at some point
So around her teenage years, her role as a goddess ends
But the girl who has gone through the period of being a Kumari
Cannot go to school or meet her family
Or even stand on her own land
Because she's supposed to be the untouchable goddess
Someone must be there to hold and carry her
She can have no friends or meet family
For ten years, and suddenly she's a human now
And she is told to leave; imagine what will happen
She will struggle to socialize
And she has no other means of survival
So many Kumari's flow into red lantern districts
Thankfully nowadays Kumari's can live with their family
And go to school like normal childern
But anyhow, when I was in Nepal for volunteer work
I got very curious with this system of Kumari
Because, aside from the vile aspects of this system
Because Kumari is the living goddess, she is dressed beautifully
And this legend regarding goddess that does not exist in Korea
All this is symbolically embodied in this meaningful culture
There, I actually saw a Kumari open a window
And look around to see all the visitors and then leave
Because a look by Kumari brings blessings
I also got a look by a Kumari
And the moment of her opening the window and peeking out
That still remains a very strong memory for me
So my volunteer work
And all the memories in Nepal
And the beautiful temples I saw there
They lingered with me for a long time
And after I came back to Korea
Despite the beauty of this Kumari culture
Which is a very valuable tradition
That is unique to the region
It also violates a child's life
With this vile act that definitely needs
Some improvements
My first desire was to make a story where
A girl who could end up being miserable ends up being happy
And second, I had no idea about this Kumari culture
Before I got to visit Nepal myself
Because for many Korean people
This culture of Kumari isn't too well known
So the second desire is to be able to raise awareness
About this culture of Kumari through my Webtoon
And that Kumari I saw who opened the window
And peeked out, she was beautiful
So I wanted to draw that
These desires became the seeds
Of my various subject matters
And after seeding the seeds
The seed will have its roots branching out
And the roots are the coherence
All the materials do not just stay stretched out
It needs some connective force to stay in coherence
And that's the role of the roots
This is the role of coherence
It creates connection between subject matters
For example, my favorite season is spring
And I am going to make a romance Webtoon
And the main conflict between the two characters
Is the misunderstanding of each other's thoughts
Then I have the subject matters of spring, my favorite season
And another material of romance
And another of the theme of misunderstanding
All these are connected with the roots
So there is Valentine's Day in spring
So while the characters prepare for each other's present
They learn about the understanding and this resolves the issue
This becomes coherent
So I have my desires
And we have coherence of the things I want
And what grows next is the stem, or the story
Or this is also called a main stream
You need to decide in advance how to proceed
And end the story
A tree with a thin stem will bend
And the story will proceed to somewhere weird
A story that has been bent too much
Will even have its roots snapped
Meaning, the stories collide with the settings in the beginning
In order to prevent this
You need to plan in advance, even with the ending
You even need to plan for all the lines
You will use in the ending scene
One of the most common mistakes of new Webtoonist
Who are just beginning to debut
Is to nail the interesting settings
The subject matters and desire in the beginning
Meaning, after nailing with the soil and the seed
That interesting beginning does not last
And they end up with a completely different ending
Or all the settings introduced fade away
Or these character properties collide with the narrative
And the characters are forced to act differently
Which is the destruction of the character
And such things happen a lot
With the beginning artists
Therefore, the pillar of the story
Must be strengthened, in so much detail that
You even plan for who to say what in the ending scene
You do not need to plan for all the episodes in the middle
Before they hit the ending
But with clear beginning and end
You just need to focus on not drifting away
Too much in the middle
Meaning, this will prevent any big character destruction
Or that of the story
Which could happen otherwise
Now, with the clear main stream
Now we need little branches
Meaning little episodes
If you only have one big linear main stream
It cannot be as interesting
If you just read a one-line summary
Of our usual movies, TV series
Webtons or web novels
This isn't interesting enough
You need all visual stimulants or audible lines
And we need to be able to enjoy it through Webtoon
By waiting for it each week
And you need to be able to experience it yourself
With the sequence of events
And that's how people can enjoy these episodes
So, with a good pillar, it's important to branch it out
Into some episodes
And by making such episodes
You can plan in advance how many episodes
A few, a dozen or something longer than 50 episodes
When you are at this stage
For example, when the first episode is on
Maybe you need around 10 weeks
Second episode is longer, so 20 weeks
And the third can be shorter
So around five weeks
And the ending episode, around 10 weeks
And then you will reach the ending
That will give us around 40 to 50 weeks
Worth of stories to finish the Webtoon
And while making these episodes
For example, for the first episode
Week one is enough for the introduction
And for development, maybe three weeks
And for this episode, two weeks
And then the final episode
This is planning for around between 5 to 8, so around 6 or 7
Weeks are enough for the whole story
And this is branching the big stem out
And planning for how many events you'll need
Now, what are the leaves of the tree?
It's the drawing
In fact, even without the leaves
A tree can be a tree
It's the same reason that we only need text
In order to enjoy a full story without illustrations in a novel
However, Webtoon needs drawing
Because it is a different genre
Likewise, by drawing, or by adding the leaves
The tree can have another form of life
And have value as Webtoon or Manhwa (comics)
And when it only has its pillar, or text
The good side is that people can be immersed into the story
But in contrast, you can't overlook at the whole text
And skim through right away
However for drawings, even for a split second
Because drawings are visible and that is an effective stimulant
When the tree has enough leaves, it becomes a valuable Webtoon or Manhwa
And it becomes easily digestible by the readers
Who can enjoy it easily
It is the same reason that the difficult Chinese writings
Or the survival knowledge
Are all effectively delivered to children
Through the medium of Manhwa (comics)
For them to absorb some difficult knowledge
When we were children, we had Greek and Roman mythology
Not in text forms
But as drawing or Manhwa
And that's why Koreans have some advanced knowledge
About the Greek and Roman mythology in general
That's the role of the leaves
And adding life as drawing
is adding value as comics
So that concludes the process of growing a tree
What more can we add here?
We can add flowers and fruits
I think this could be the climax
When you look at a tree
You say apple tree, acacia tree, pear tree
The name comes from its fruit or the flower name
Like this, when you introduce a Webtoon to someone
Oh, that was has a great plot twist
Or that Webtoon has great drawings
That has your favorite kinds of characters
These are some possible things you describe to others
Rather than overall storyline
Or describing the tree's trunk area
You talk about the fruit and the flower, their color and taste
People usually talk about these things
Because the flower and the fruit are like the climax
Let me summarize once more
With the subject matters that you can talk about
You can get your location and your soil
And the story you want to talk about, your desire
That is your seed
And as a seed roots in the soil with coherence
The coherence of the story is like the roots
And this works as the stem, or the main stream for the tree to grow
And rearranging this main stream based on little branches
Or the chronological events is what makes an episode
And when making an episode, you need to plan ahead
How long each event or episode should last
Next, when you have the order of events
You complete your Webtoon with your drawings
And finally, adding fruits and flowers
And planning ahead what kind these will be
You will be able to plan ahead where to focus on and what is the strength in your Webtoon
So that your work can have the right focus
We've been talking about how to make a story
Based on storytelling, with a metaphor of planting a tree
And that completes this part
How-to: Synopsis
Next we will talk about the difference between a scenario and a synopsis
As well as how to write one
Now that we know about the order of storymaking
Now, of all the steps of planning for a story
In order to make the most important body or the main stream
We need to tkae a look at the synopsis step
A synopsis is like a summary with the beginning and the end
So it is a summary
But one thing to notice is
That all the introductions on movie posters or the streaming platforms
Purposedly omit the ending part in their descriptions
Because if you learn about the ending from the introduction
You will lose interest
So they distort and edit purposedly, such as omitting parts
Or inducing misunderstanding and questions
This work is called Lady Vengeance
The catchphrase here says She Has Started Moving
And what we can guess from this is
That this lady, Keumja, is the protagonist
And with the word moving
It signifies a change in a peaceful daily life
Maybe a big event is coming in
And that may be from the action of this lady who look not too special
And that brings in some anticipation
For this movie, Lady Vengeance
Actress Lee Young-ae acts this chracter who continues her vengeance
Usually, the characters that go into jail
Look very evil with their hitsory
But Keumja here has been so kind when in jail
And by treating people with such warmth
We wonder that she may not have been involved in any crime
So what brought her here?
And if she is acting that nicely
Maybe she hasn't committed crime
Or has forgiven the one who did
But on this poster
The catchphrase sounds very solemn
And even on the poster
By using rough colors and the back of her body
We anticipate something anxious and scary to happen
That's the ambience we see here
As I told you, Keumja acts
Very nicely to people
In order to bring in all the needed elements for her vengeance
And the movie is about the actual action of vengeance
So what about this poster?
This is the poster for the movie Honest Candidate
Joke's On You is the catchphrase here
I work for the people
I have no shame at all
Give birth to your second, trust me
Vote for me and I'll do anything
And here, a liar until yesterday
An honest candidate from today
What can we see from here?
First with the title Honest Candidate
We can see how the character may be a politician
But here we see, I work for the people
Vote for me and I'll do anything
These are what many politicians use
In order to gain their votes
And with this huge line saying Joke's On You
We can guess to an extent that
Many politicians, in their fields
Speak of something bigger than what they can actually achieve
In order to appeal for a trustworthy image
So there is a tone of distrust
That even with voting for this person
They won't be able to achieve all these said things
And this may be speaking of that
And the one saying Joke's On You may be this character
That's the assumption we can make
So the title is Honest Candidate
And it says, a liar until yesterday, an honest candidate from today
And for this work
The main character suddenly becomes someone
Who cannot lie at all
So she has no other choice but to
Bluntly open her secrets and other politicians' secrets
All to outwardly
Which incur some big events
And with her speaking of
All her big secrets that are disadvantageous for her
All too honestly
That aspect somehow appeals to the voters
And this movie is about that comical process of her getting the votes
So even for this work
What would happen in the ending?
Can this character escape this shocking status
Of not being able to lie at all?
And beyong whether she gets the votes
Even after the votes, can she achieve all things said?
We can't see anything about that ending
This is purposedly only about those excluding the spoiler
From what we can see here
Snowpiercer
For this work
It says, I want to open the closed door
The world of Snowpiercer
Is the heated earth due to global warming
Where no animals can live on
And humans have this idea
Of cooling down the earth a bit
So they shoot up a satelite to do so
In order to reverse the global warming
But that satelite which was sent out to cool down the earth
Ends up freezing the entire planet
So all animals on the earth freeze to death
And the only thing left is this Snowpiercer
That crosses the planet
And that's the only place where humans can live in
This train is straight in shape
And the closer you are to its head can you live a happier life
Because they are rich, they can have all the foods they need
They can induce photosynthesis for some salads
And raise some pigs for meat
And their life couldn't be happier
But the tail side of the train isn't filled with people who paid for the ride
They are freeriders
Who hopped on in order to survive
Despite them being poor and freeriders
These people are not criminals
So the rest of the train do not kill these at the tail
However, they do not want to share their food with them
So they mix all the insects in the train
And provide that to these people as food
So these people living in a below-human condition
Desire to move up front for a better life
And that message is in this one line
Saying, I want to open the closed door
And that begins Snowpiercer
But, though it's not the plot twist in the end
One of the lines in the movie says
We do not open the doors in order to proceed forward
We also open the door in order to get in the train in the first place
That also means that one can get off the train
This Snowpiercer does not go around the planet forever
In order to proceed the narrative and present
A sort of a happy or positive message
The frozen earth should start to melt
And the frozen earth starting to slowly melt
And the view out the window showing
Some animals hiding among icy lands
These all point that opening the closed door
Isn't just about moving forward from tail to head
It's about the desire of leaving the closed world
Because that door had been closed for too long
They've come to think of it as a wall; but it's a door
That can be open
And this line pushes the narrative to its climax
Even in that sense, this line wanting to open the closed door
Provides a double meaning
And in this Snowpiercer
Did the main character succeed to move to the front?
Who is in the front?
Can the leave the train? All these aspects
Are also missing from thie poster
Same with this poster for The Priests
It says, Ready to go to the most dangerous place
The Priests is an occult movie about exorcism
So these two main characters are priests
Priests usually strive for the good
And put loving others before following their own desires
And they move towards their god
That's the character we can assume from this
And these priests saying that they are going to a dangerous place
It means that even these people who have the most holy life
Are threatened in battling this very evil enemy
Like so, we get to read a lot of these introductions
Of a work that try to induce our curiosity and interest
However, a synposis is for me, the author
In order to guide myself in making my work
Also, this is something to be delivered to those
Who join me for planning, like PD's or other staffs
So a synopsis must have all the endings included
All the scenarios or introductions we've seen
Omit any spoilers
And do not talk about elements of surprise
When we write our synopsis, it's for us to not get lost
And we need to have everyting set up, even the ending
So you do not omit the ending part
In fact, you need to put more focus in writing about the ending
This is the biggest difference
It's important to write until the end of the story
It doesn't just include the developments of the story
It needs the theme of the story
And how the ending provides any impression to the characters
And all these desciprtions must be as easily understandable as possible
That's the difference between the two
We're more used to the introduction-like formats
But not so much with synopsis
That's why we need extra work
To train ourselves how to write synopsis
When we create a work, the order usually goes
First, summarize the storyline
And second, make a full version of the story
Third, make a teaser where only limited part of information is provided on purpose
In contrast, for the readers or the viewers
They begin with this teaser or introduction
And then they enjoy the content
And next, when they talk about this work to others
They deliver this synopsis-type summary
So the order is reversed here
So let's take a popular example
Of a fairytale, Cinderella
If this had an introduction, it would be this
Cinderella lost her parents as a kid and is living with unloving stepmother and stepsisters
She would love to participate a royal ball
But her family bullies her to be locked in the house
But then Fairy Godmother appears to disheartened Cinderella
And prepares a magical dress for her
But Cinderella must be back by the midnight
Because the dress is magical, it would probably be fake
And notice how this ends leaving an impression that past midnight something would happen
So we can assume for some sort of danger coming in
But we don't know how Cinderella will overcome that
And what ending await after that
We can only know that after reading it ourselves
And if we are to summarize it even more in a killing-line
Come back before midnight, poor Cinderella
And the most important thing here is inducing curiosity
It also doesn't have the ending
In contrast, a synopsis is written like this
Cinderella lost her parents as a kid and is living with unloving stepmother and stepsisters
Even with her bullying family, with the help of Fairy Godmother
She gets to go to a royal ball
After the midnight, the magic disappears and Cinderella returns, only leaving her glass shoes
Here we see something new
About how the story unfolds
The prince who fell in love with Cinderella finds her with her shoes she left behind
And Cinderella receives reward for her kind heart
And it ends with a tone of poetic justice, a happy ending
So what message does this story provide to the readers?
It is a story about poetic justice
Like so, in this version, we get to see what event Cinderella goes through
And how she overcomes it
And what the ending and the lesson of the story are
So the PD who sees this outline
And other staffs to work on this story can understand, advise
And decide on what day of the week this story should be on
Usually Webtoons are uploaded once in a week
And the day of the week matters
Usually Friday is when most people read Webtoon
And for Friday
Because people want some rewards for their past week
They want something spicy and fun
So those uploaded on Friday
Are more for those who work in the weekdays
Compared to the works uploaded on Wednesday of Thursday
So on Friday, it's hadr to really focus on complex things
People read it on their commutes, in the subway
Or for some minutes before their bedtime
So if the stories are too deep
It's not easily digested
And for the weekend Webtoons
People are usually out and moving
Which loses some of the focus
That's why if the work is a detective one
Or something that requires a lot of thinking, or with a lot of characters
They may be distributed to a different day of the week than thoes that are very eaisly digested
And easy to understand
And if your work starts as a romance
But ends up being a progression story
You need to have all the endings included in your synopsis
So that the PD's can decide that because it's a progression story
It needs to be positioned in a day where there's not many in the same genre
So that this work could survive better
So that the works in one day of the week do not overlap too much in terms of genre
For the PD's to plan for all these
You need to write about the ending
And I also told you that a synopsis is like a compass
That helps the author not lose path
That's also why we really need the ending here
Also, if the compass is too hard to decode
When the author works on actually making the story
It's hard to make a quick decision about what's really important where
And it'll be also hard for the author to remember
What the focus should be
So make sure that your synopsis isn't too long
And that it has all the necessary parts
Do not start with the details of all the episodes
Start with a five to ten line summary
The shroter, the better
Even for the synopsis for Cinderella
Although this is in big fonts
If I am to print it out in a regular size
This is around three to four lines that include everything about the story
The reason we make our synopsis short is
Because it is for the author to
Understand the most important parts of the story
So that even if they make some branching episodes
They do not lose the core focus
And they can continue following these points
That's why this needs to be short
And if, even with effort
It is hard to write short
And if your synopsis is too wordy
That means that you haven't yet decided what's the most important in your story
So having a few keywords of the story will effectively shorten your synopsis
Say that I'm the author of Cinderella
When Fairy Godmother uses magic, a pumpkin becomes a carriage
Small mice into horses
If I continue describing this scene which I feel is important
This will lengthen the synopsis by a lot
But in the end, the most important thing about this magic
Is the pair of glass shoes
Because that's what the prince uses to find Cinderella
And that's the item that distinguishes this character
So make sure to keep things short
And don't stop with the four line version
Come back before midnight, poor Cinderella
Try making it into a one-line summary
Which can not only induce interest
But with this phrase, poor Cinderella
You can even summarize the character properties
Of Cinderella
And by saying, Come back before midnight
This part induces enough interest
Like so, when you know enough about your own story
You will be able to summarize it however long or short possible
And writing a synopsis works as a test of a sort in this way
When you cannot shorten your own synopsis
And you proceed in production righti away
Your story will be too verbose and not interesting
As you try to capture all the stories, lessons and the ending
In those five to ten lines
You will be removing some details
And when you work on your synopsis later on
All these episodes that got rid of
Must stay lightweight and short, just as passing comical side-notes
In contrast, when it's about something that the synopsis includes
The message should be delivered powerfully so that it remains memorable
And it's okay for you to spend a lot of episodes for this
If you know enough what events do and don't matter
For your own story
You can keep the synopsis even shorter, in two to three lines
For example, condensing Cinderella in three lines
Cinderella has lost all her family
And is living a miserable life under bullying new family
However, her kind heart remains
And the help of Fairy Godmother brings her to the prince and to happiness
This even omits the glass shoes part
Because what matters is the general flow of the story
Not that particualr item
So when we are to shorten the synopsis, this part is removed
Or, in contrast, we can lengthen the story to 100 pages
An episode of Cinderella showing love to animals
A lovely scene with the magic
When the prince looks for Cinderella with the shoes
We can add however many scenes we want
It's much easier to make the story
Like so, if we can shorten or lengthen the story
That means that we understand exactly what is needed and not needed
And by how much in the story
That will prevent the work from going into a random direction
Or from dragging too much
Like so, making our content from brainstorming
Into a storytelling Webtoon
The backbone of the story itself
And the parts of that backbone
Allows one to proceed to the ending
And I hope that your stories
Are able to deliver the message you'd like to use
Effectively until the ending
Thank you
Summary Order of Storymaking Metaphor of planting a tree Preparing for soil with my subject matters To appeal to or explain about the work to the readers or the production company
Seeding the desire of the author The narrative as a main stream Completing Webtoon with drawing Planning for the climax, or the flowers and the fruits
How-to: Synopsis What is Synopsis? A summary with the beginning and the ending of the story A compass of the storymaking One should be able to understand everything with the synopsis
How-to: Synopsis Clearly write the development, ending and the message The development, theme, character development and ending should be easy to understand
Should be short and focusing on important parts Wordy synopsis means the author does not understand their own focus Sort by keywords to train