Before the presses: pacing

After looking at story structure you’ll want to take the sectioned out idea you created with Ki Sho Ten Ketsu and smooth it out so it flows visually. Let’s move to the rough draft of 
your manuscript!

Naturally there are a number of ways to approach this. For me it helps to stem the creative chaos and divide the KSTK sections into pages. I have drawn entire volumes by scratching a note on the top of each page and translating each visually as I come to them. I’m not sure I recommend this approach, but it has it’s merits, and if you have a strong visual sense to your story will allow for fluid and spontaneous storytelling. 
It may be easier to take your KSTK notes and decide how many pages you want to draw. Is this a one shot? A series of chapters? One chapter? Etc.
To be totally transparent, I kind of flippantly decided on 20 pages per chapter, based on Shonen jump. So my volumes end up being 10, 20pg chapters. Minimum 150 pages for a physical book is a good industry standard. It feels substantial and satisfying in the hand.
With that in mind I took my KSTK notes and divide them up between 8 chapters. I hear you say “wait, wasn’t it a 10 ch book?” 

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Yes, but the last two chapters are the start of the next story - it’s a sneaky kind of cliffhanger which makes you need to read the next book. You give the reader a satisfying conclusion and start them on a new thought…or part of a thought. It’s important to keep this in mind when you plan the next volume, deliver on your promise, don’t leave them hanging.
When deciding what goes where, sometimes it helps to figure out the peak or twist and work back from there. I also like to place page turns at this stage. 
Think of your manga in spreads, rather than individual pages. Then page turns.
This is a moment of pause, maybe surprise where the reader controls the speed of the reveal.
Junji Ito has managed to hone this into a super power!  A character will react at the bottom the page, we will see what they are reacting to when…or if…they turn that page. Unlike in a movie, the reader has this burden.
It’s a great way to create a delayed impact or surprise. Alternately they can be useful for scene changes! Be careful not to over use it , as that will reduce the impact. A soft reveal can work across a spread.
Once page turns are nailed down, I like to look at spreads - emotional space, breather, a slow sequence or something impactful. If you are working with a writer, often it’s hard for them to plan for a double spread pause. It helps to communicate with them and ask them to allow for this as they plan. 
I also like ¾ spreads, they are great for establishing shots and location detail but still have space for a panel sequence or reaction. Take advantage of the larger panel space, fill in background detail and use it instead of an exposition dump. 
Panel size is also a way to control the speed of the reader! Remember, you are the director, you are taking them on a journey and you control what the eye sees. Larger more detailed panels slow things down, smaller panels speed things up.  These are all things to consider as you plan and are especially important if you want to evoke an emotional response in your reader.

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Let your story unfurl as it needs too, machine gun delivery is not always the best option. You may find as you go along that certain moments need more space, others can be condensed down. It’s all part of the process of tuning the pace and deciding how your reader experiences your story. 
Speech bubbles, gutters and frames are other tools that control pacing. Speech bubbles tend to guide the eye around a page and should be placed with care. This is especially important if you are working in reverse bound with a western language like English. Guide your reader across the page and lead them around.
Gutters are an often neglected tool - I have increasingly seen tiny gutters or even none at all. Now, I get it. I’m an artist too, why have white space when you can have art! But, alas, it is equally important for the eye to rest (unless you specifically don’t want it to). Gutters let the eye rest and can add to a sense of timing. 1/8”-1/4” is not uncommon for horizontal gutters in manga. Without them the detailed and vibrant art can become overwhelming and difficult to perceive. Blank space allows a reader to focus on one space at a time and take in each panel. If you want to connect two panels in a moment, maybe reduct the gutter a little compared to the rest of the page.
Frames, partial frame, and even no frames also add to the flow or break up fo time. Taking a panel of sky and breaking it into 3 will give the illusion of time tiocking by, one large panel may feel more like a long moment; sky without frame, perhaps even longer. Personally I enjoy playing with frames, having characters pop out of them, partial frames, no frame, narrow long frames etc they can 

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really effect how an image feels, which is what this is all about. A wide, narrow panel of a face that cuts off the eyes and above, somehow has a tense and internal feeling. A large panel containing a tiny figure  will feel different from the same character escaping out of the frame. Think of panels as almost part of the character and story is so much more fun than dividing the page into nine and calling it a day. 
One of the concepts behind eastern storytelling is “being’ rather than “going” and I think frames and paneling can really give shape to this concept. The way a frame and the image relate to each other can say a lot, evoke an emotion or adjust the speed of the moment. Take advantage of this tool and bend it too your will, make it serve the story rather than constrain it.
With those things in mind, we cannot forget reading direction and reading speed. As mentioned before, if you are writing in English but reverse direction,. It is even more important to be conscious of it through the art, paneling and bubble placement. You can use them together to guide your reader and have them meander around a spread or drive them hard an fast through a sequence. 

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Direction can be confusing to readers but doesn’t *have* to be. If you lay your paged out correctly there should be no question where the eye goes. Once you are used to these techniques you can have a lot of fun throwing your reader around. Having bubbles and frames that are part of a fight sequence instead of slapped on top, or that help hint at visual clues to a mystery in the text. 
Remember, this is manga, comics, not a novel, use the visual plane to the fullest. Use the page turns, spreads, panel sizes, speech bubble placements and more to create the mood, speed , depth and intensity of the story. The text is the cherry on top, the art needs to do the heavy lifting and these tools can help. The fun part being that as contributing tools they ideally go unnoticed while they work hard for the story.
Next time you prep for a rough draft, take some time to ponder the flow, feel and experience of the story you want to tell.

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