The pacing of Manga and the audiences attention span

As I'm in the process of writing my own Manga, I wanted to get some feedback from you guys here as you spend plenty of time analyzing Berserk and are knowledgeable about Manga in general.

What I'm focused on right now is how to set the pace of the current part of the story, trying to weigh the time between all out action scenes and plot developing scenes where it's more dialog and tension building, as well as introducing new characters and allowing enough time for their presence to make sense and at least foreshadow a little bit about their motives. Do you find that frequent actions scenes (say every 3 or 4 chapters where a battle takes place either individually or on a larger scale) are necessary to maintain the interest of the average reader? Would you mind a break in the action for a decent span of time where character development occurs, the world in which the Manga is based is explained in more detail and the pieces on the chess board are moved around to set up some real excitement just down the road? I like to be thorough with setting up certain scenes, but always like to know from the reader's standpoint what constitutes being long winded. If it took 7 or 8 chapters before the action really ramped up, but the tension was being built all along the way, would you lose interest? I figure that since Berserk is Seinen, and I imagine most on here aren't the typical die hard Naruto fans, that in depth storytelling is more appealing, but you never can tell how long people will wait until the next action scene.

Personally, I find that near-constant battle scenes tend to demean the battles themselves. I prefer a pacing where each fight is a climax of some kind.

Hell, if a manga goes a few volumes without a battle scene and the plot is interesting, I won't even notice.

I agree with smoke - story development is more important, in my opinion, in comparison with actions. Actions, are of course inseparable from a good manga; but actions without proper introduction and explanation of the settings and story background, will get rather pointless after some points.

Maybe it's just me, but when a battle scene drags for over few weeks, (naruto and bleach are quite notorious for doing this ), the waiting gets tedious.

Just my two cents :)

Well that's certainly reassuring to hear. The biggest thing I tend to focus on is the logic between actions taken, why a scenario plays out a certain way. I can't recall how many times I've sat down and re-read a section and asked myself how the heck did this character come upon a decision to act this way? I really enjoy sitting down and trying to figure out political conflicts between people seeking to gain power or expand power, whether it be two nobles who control small areas of land scheming against one another, or entire nations playing political chess against one another. I find it easier to weave past history into these scenarios, rather than have big monologues that can completely kill the mood if drawn out for too long. I love great battle scenes, which I why I start to get nervous when I start writing for a good while and nobody has drawn a sword, lol.

I've always been personally interested in writing my own comic series at some point or another. Call it a dream of mine that I wish to one day fulfill.

It looks to me like you're worried that you're going to bore people with too much plot and not enough action. I've always taken the stand point that I'm not creating this story for anyone but myself, therefore I wouldn't worry about what my audience might think of it in the end. Of course we all have different motivations, so my advice to you would be to really analyze your writing. Most story-telling is composed of foreshadowing events that will transpire later in the story. What might seem like filler at first is really a setup for something that's going to happen a bit farther on. So just really look at your story and ask yourself, "Is this going to help the progression of my story?" If you answer no, then cut it out.

A good example would be the driving episode in DBZ where Goku was getting his license. I mean really, that was complete filler, and one of the reasons people look back and won't like the overall series as much.

Also, trying to explain something that you or your audience doesn't really care about is another big issue in comics from my perspective. For example, do we really need to know the inner mechanics of a machine that's only going to be in a couple chapters? Especially if said machine's inner workings have nothing at all to do with the story? Forget all the details, just tell the reader enough so they understand it's purpose and move on.

Trying to think of better examples, but I assume you've got my point. Stick to the story, and in the end if you're happy with the turnout, then that's all that matters.

Very good points. I make it a priority to use as much of a chapter as possible to connect the dots with certain events, while still keeping a flow with the interactions of characters. The one difference in my story is that the main character isn't necessarily the hero or the main protagonist at all points, even though he is involved with the majority of the events in some capacity. I don't have a character like Guts, Kenshin, etc., who could easily be pointed out as the main protagonist. I guess you could say I'm trying to balance things more among several characters, instead of it being one person's ambition or goal that generally drives the plot throughout. Though I don't have a concept of fate in my story that would ring similar to causality like in Berserk, there certainly are chains of events that draw certain people together, especially ones they could hardly have predicted would happen in their lifetime. This story is basically my interpretation of sword and sorcery. I also have plans for a detective Manga story which has certain elements dealing with dreams, psychic abilities, as well as some delving into the Lovecraft mythos.

Action scenes are fine with me, just as long as they aren't used excessively (I'm looking at YOU Inuyasha). If the story is really damn good, I can overlook too many action scenes every once in awhile.

I agree Madam President. I watch DBZ when I'm in need of some mindless battle scenes, but given how long the fights are drawn out I can't watch too many episodes without a nice break.

Anyone else please feel free to add your suggestions, it really does help me approach my writing.

I was going to write a really big reply but I've already deleted about 8 paragraphs so this is the cropped version.

The pacing of the manga should depend on your style. Some general advice is to have a slightly slower pace (or slightly faster, if it seems fitting) for key developments. I prefer manga's with paces that vary. The more important thing is predictability and patterns. Manga's that fall into a typical pattern and are highly predictable are usually forgotten quite quickly.

If your manga isn't predictable and your willing to do what it takes to make it surprising and exciting, then your pacing shouldn't matter too much. (by surprising I'm referring to things like main characters dieing, sometimes your characters will run into failure.) Pacing is usually a problem during monthly or even weekly releases. People are impatient and will complain that things are going too slowly. The manga should ALWAYS be looked at as a whole. If someone reads a manga, volumes at a time. The pacing will feel a lot different then if your waiting for a release every week/ month / year. Varying paces can be quite helpful but they also pose a risk, if your using a slow pace at a particular point then jump into a fast pace without reason, it can really hurt your story telling.

What you need to consider is ratios. If your characters are about to face some serious opposition. The type that will actually help develop your characters or will deeply affect the storyline, you don't want to rush through the build up. "You can't build a castle out of sh!t" Point being, you want a good foundation if you plan on introducing key antagonists or an important incident. However by foundation, I don't mean you should spill the beans and reveal everything. Sometimes mystery can be a VERY effective way of creating excitement and suspense. By foundation I mean you want the readers to realize that this conflict will not just be a walk in the park.

There are many ways of establishing a foundation and though I'm going slightly off topic, I will mention a particular example that just popped into my head. There's a trilogy of books based on the movie Willow that I've read a few years back. The author really dragged on with his descriptions of the setting but what I liked was his way of introducing the main antagonist. Who's identity remains unclear even after the ending of the first book. The foundation was established by deeds and actions and not by any form of back story on the antagonist or an explanation of the antagonists motives and goals. What was established is that the protagonist is no match for his adversary and that even escaping is next to impossible. Of course it took an entire novel to establish that but I know the story grabbed my attention span. I read the 500+ page novel in a little under two days. The descriptions were terribly slow paced while the action scenes were long but very fast paced. There was character development through out the novel and it was basically in between the other two paces, kind of a medium. The character development was never really dragged out too much.

I guess the pacing really depends on what you want to establish at a particular point in the manga. I can honestly say that I don't know anyone who likes anything dragged out. At the same time a fast pacing will require a lot of content to not feel rushed. The main danger being that if your content isn't all related during that fast pace, well you'll have a chaotic mess that will feel rushed. Just look at Claymore. In the last few episodes, Miria (or whatever her name is) went on a rant about some foreign land, dragon kin, yoma creation, "the truth" and a whole bunch of other stuff. For one episode? That's really rushed and though I would tolerate it, I wouldn't be giving bonus review points for pacing for that manga.

For battles.. I like fast paced action, I don't want people to be warning their opponents about their next attack, unless it fits their character (their arrogant and over confident and.. in for an ass whooping, lol.) The length of any battle should depend on the characters ability. If your group runs into two petty thieves with small knives and you have 7 main characters that all know how to handle themselves, I see no reason for a drawn out battle. The question you need to ask yourself at different points in the manga is "why?" explain to yourself why you think your group should struggle at a particular time.

And don't hesitate to share your work with the SK community, I for one would absolutely love to give you second opinions on your work.
I'm looking forward to a prototype.

All good points Ramen. I'm just about on the 200 page mark, single spaced. Once I hit that magic number I'll go back to the beginning and starting adding dialog and turning the material into more of a screenplay in format. This is handy when it comes to choosing what certain frames of the Manga will look like. I started initially describing each scene with certain terms like "wide shot" "over the shoulder shot" etc., but it became too annoying and killed any momentum. Right now it's kind of a sloppy Cliff's Notes version of the story. Once I get some pages more polished with some dialog I'd be thrilled to have others critique my work on a person to person basis.

I agree with everything Ramen said, to me character development is of utmost importance, if you properly develop your characters the reader will enjoy it even when there is no fighting. Plus, when the fighting begins the reader will enjoy it way more, and usually the fights will have more meaning because when center your story around character development, even the fights seemed to further advance your characters. To me, the epicness of a fight isn't judged by it's scale but rather it's affect on the characters. I could read Berserk and see Guts take on a hundred trolls, and watch him gorily lop of ten of their heads with one swing, but this would never compare to Guts facing Griffith, because that fight has more invested into it based on the amount of development each character has, as well as the boil over effect that their fight would have from all the anticipation that character development has wrought. Finally, one thing I can say from a personal standpoint that I find to be with some Mangas and Animes is that they occasionally waste time with filler enemies, you know the ones that are there for one episode or issue, a.k.a the monster of the week, there's nothing I hate more then to watch a main character fight some goon that I know won't make it to page 10.

I agree about the monster of the week. Of course there will always be run of the mill thugs that will get taught a lesson, but if there's an enemy that is above average it's worth investing a little time in them, even if it's just a couple chapters.