: What type of writing is suited to an aspiring professional storyteller? What I want to do professionally is tell stories. I consider myself a storyteller, but I don't know if I should be a

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The pre-production stages of many films use what's called a storyboard in the evolution from treatment, which is a short story-like rendering of the film's story, to shooting script. A storyboard is a comic book-like rendering of the movie, with each shot in the film corresponding to one square in the storyboard.

You can use the evolution of a film from treatment to shooting script to render your work as short fiction, manga, or even movie script.

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Writing professionally (particularly fiction) is very difficult --it's not a particularly "practical" career choice, so I wouldn't necessarily advise making it into a "practical" decision. In other words, if you want to write manga, don't write a book just because you think it will be easier --it won't be. If you're going to take a chance on a writing career, it might as well be the type of writing you love best. You're also unlikely to be good at creating a type of artwork you don't enjoy consuming.

In terms of what the differences in writing are: A novel is a self-contained work, it is complete when you finish writing it. A screenplay, on the other hand, isn't a movie until someone makes it into a movie, which takes time, money, actors, and a wide variety of other resources. As far as a manga (or graphic novel), it's a collaboration where you'd have to locate and work closely with a visual artist. For scripting, whether for a movie or a manga, you'll want to be strong on plot and dialog. For a novel, add the ability to write richly detailed prose.

My personal advice for you, given your self-description as a "storyteller," is to start by writing short stories and to see if you can get those published. At that point you'll have some writing credits (to give you credibility), some experience (so you'll know what you like and don't like), and a place to start from (if you want to adapt one of your stories for a screenplay, novel, or manga).

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