Just Make It

Just Make It

By Mayke StudiosEducationHow To
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Just Make It episodes

  • 004: Story Is King (Part 1 of 6): The Importance of Putting Story First

    Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

    Inside Episode 004: In this first part of our 6-part series, we dive into the importance of putting story first in your comic project. We also talk about the dangers of world-building and briefly run down the basic story structure cycle so that you can get started writing immediately after this episode.


    Key Takeaways
    • Without a story, you don’t have a product. You just have a book of highly polished thoughts, ideas, and concepts.
    • Early world-building and character development are fine (it’s all part of the fun), but having a story in place will let you know long you need to keep those things in development. If the story doesn’t call for fleshing out the character’s history, then that development can be saved for later.
    • A story brings focus. You aren’t creating into the ether once you have it in place.
    • You need to know when to stop world-building. The story isn’t going to write itself.
    • Just starting writing. Don’t worry about story structure, story theory, etc. at the beginning. Get something written, then come back and refine what you’ve written through the lens of story structure, story theory, etc.
    • If you haven’t written it yet, you can’t perfect it. You have to actually put pencil to paper or open a Word document and have living text in a physical space to start getting towards the perfect story that lived in your head.
      • 50 min
    • 003: Finding the Soul Of a Character (Part 2 of 2): Superheroes, Villains, and Support Characters

      Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

      Inside Episode 003: We explain why you can’t just invest all of your time and resources in developing your superheroes. Your villains and support characters have a much bigger role in how your universe works more than you know.


      Key Takeaways
      • Your hero is only as great as his or her villain.
      • You won’t always be able to tell hero v. villain stories. It’s in those ordinary moments we learn about your character. Your supporting cast gives that character an ordinary world to live in. They help challenge that character and take us down avenues your character or their villain may not.
      • Your villains have the potential to be iconic if you give them the time and resources to be developed properly.
        • 1 hr 3 min
      • 002: Finding the Soul Of a Character (Part 1 of 2)

        Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

        Inside Episode 002: Your character’s soul is the makeup of their core beliefs, their values, what they stand for, and how all of that influences their decisions. Finding the soul is taking a stereotype or a trope and flipping it on its head to create a living, breathing, 3-dimensional character that can stand the test of time and provide your comic with stories for years to come.


        Key Takeaways
        • Finding your character’s soul gives you the storytelling potential to keep that character in circulation for years to come.
        • Never build a character on your own bias or assumptions. Doing your due diligence and research opens your mind to new information. Information changes situations, and that’ll help you build characters outside of your own culture from a place of authenticity.
        • Tropes and stereotypes are lazy, cheap, and tell unoriginal and uninspiring stories that are flat. Discovering your character’s soul builds in that third dimension so your character has the depth you need to tell a wider range of original and inspiring stories through that character.
          • 1 hr 16 min
        • 001: Your Why Drives Everything

          Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

          Inside Episode 001: Building a comic universe and brand, then delivering it all in the form of a comic is no easy task. But the most important step in the right direction is to start with Why.


          Key Takeaways
          • Your Why is the backbone of your project. Without it, when all of the cards are down when the entire team quits, what is the internal fire that’s telling you to stay and finish the job?
          • Your Why has to be bigger than you. You can’t do this for fame, for the glory or the money. This has to be an all-encompassing, spiritual and faith-driven reason that’ll get you through the obstacles and hardships you’ve yet to face.
          • You don’t need to put your Why together in a day, but you need to start getting an understanding of it and do some self-exploration to find it.
            • 1 hr 13 min

          About Just Make It

          From the publisher's feed

          A team of storytellers and creators strap up their boots and hike the journey of making their own comic studio, universe, and characters. Get storytelling, character development, and more insights…