nelimyo

1.) Match the pacing of your scene to the intent of what you want your readers to feel. If you're trying to build tension, then slow the scene down. If you're trying to create thrills, speed up. Compare action comics to horror - the former is fast-paced so the reader can 'get to the action', whereas the latter often takes its time so that readers have no choice but to 'sit' with the horror.

If I can use one of my own episodes as an example, consider Episode 81 : SPLIT. It starts off building tension in both the story and the reader by showing Minthe's expressions changing slowly with each panel, many of which are repeated to really 'sit' with the scene. We see her eyes shift, her hands fidget, her eyebrows crease, while Hades flips open a chequebook.

And then when she finally explodes, the speed of the storytelling picks up to reflect that emotion. No more biding our time, this is the action-packed payoff to the slowburn occupying the first half of the episode ;3

2.) Treat every episode like its own story. Yes, your episodes are just separate parts of a wider story, but every episode can still have its own beginning, middle, and end. Though this will depend on how much you release per episode / chapter, you should pay attention to ways you can establish the 'theme' of a chapter within a few panels, and then deliver on that theme by the end in some way. It doesn't have to be the final word on that theme's meaning/intent, as there's still more story to tell, but it should still feel concluded to leave the reader feeling satisfied with what they got while also still yearning for more.

Ex. In Episode 78 - Lover's Quarrel, the episode starts from Kore's perspective, with a flashback of her relationship origin with Apollo. This transitions to her contemplating if she really loves Apollo. Her 'arc' converges with Minthe's in that very same episode, who's currently subconsciously competing for Hades' love with Kore. They have a spat, and afterwards, the perspective shifts to Minthe and her own relationship issues. While not much actual plot moved, we did move the individual parts of several different characters forward, including Kore, Minthe, and Apollo, all in the span of about ~45 panels. And of course, the end of that episode even gets a cliffhanger, setting up for the Fates in Episode 82 !

3.) If you have a background in animation, then try and view comics less like a novel and more like an animated film. With comics, you don't get to 'peek' into the mind of the narrator as easily as you can with novels. As you said, there isn't as much 'room' in the text for nuance (and that applies to animation as well). So instead of thinking it as novel > comic, think of it instead as novel > screenplay > comic. If you're unsure of how a paragraph would translate into a comic, think first about how it would translate into a movie. How would the characters - now your actors - convey the emotions that are written on the page to an audience watching them onscreen? Which scenes can be conveyed in a matter of seconds, and which need minutes?

4.) Remember that conveying information is often more ideal than realism. Yes, real people do tend to repeat information, say the same thing in different ways, etc. but that's not entertaining in fiction. Watch out for redundancy in your dialogue and visual information.

5.) Have a rough outline for your story. This does not have to be a fully detailed, completed manuscript, but it should be enough to give you a general idea of where your story is going. Start with the bigger beats and gradually hone in on the smaller beats in between. Having a general plan will keep you moving forward in the right direction; if you don't have a plan, you run the risk of spinning your wheels while you try to think of where to go next, which can result in poor pacing. I might even dare say that going in without a plan is often the primary culprit in most cases where a story has been murdered by bad pacing.

6.) Sprinkle, don't dump. Figure out ways to convey information that don't require outright dumping information on your reader to the point of slowing down the story's flow. Pinch your story details into the narrative like salt - gently as you go along, not all at once. You're telling a story, not delivering a lecture.

7.) Read comics that are written in the same genre as yours. Pay attention to how they pace their stories, how they use their characters, how they do their panelling, and learn from them.

8.) Find beta-readers. Not your friends or family. You need readers who have no personal attachment to you who will actually be objective in their analysis and reviews.

9.) Adjust your pacing to your release schedule. This is one that's harder to really give advice for, but I feel like it's something that's often overlooked by a lot of comic creators. If you have a comic that updates slowly or in small amounts, pick up your pacing. If you have a comic that updates regularly and/or in large amounts, then you can slow it down. From a reader's perspective, there's nothing more frustrating and disappointing than reading a comic that updates slowly / sporadically and never manages to get to the point because it's spending all its time on scenes that would only work in a comic that updates regularly and/or with more content per update.

Now obviously this isn't an entirely foolproof plan as, in hindsight, your comic will read differently compared to how it reads updating in real time, but it's something important to consider because I've seen it happen all too often that creators struggle to cut scenes that were entirely unnecessary or could have been shortened, simply because they came up with them years ago and got too emotionally attached to them. Sure, in the far-off future when that comic is done, no one's gonna notice that it took you 3 years to finish that one chapter, but you're making this comic now for your audience who exists today and they're the ones who are gonna remember when your comic loses its momentum from poor consideration for pacing and how it relates to update scheduling.

At the very least, consider the fact that comics take a LONG time to make, ESPECIALLY if you're doing it all on your own, so don't put yourself through the hell of drawing the same scene over the course of a year or more. Your readers will thank you, as will your drawing arm and sanity.