The Pros & Cons of Each Entertainment Medium

Blankmarks
3 min readOct 10, 2022
Photo by Nong V on Unsplash

Stories exist in many mediums. Each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses.

It’s important to know what those unique strengths are before deciding which one to use. I believe every story has it’s matching medium.

When you have a great pair, your story will shine all the better.

To help you decide which medium to use, here’s a rough rundown of each medium’s pros and cons.

Books

Pros:

  • Unmatched potential for detail
  • Nearly complete creative control
  • Best for internal dialogue
  • Stimulates the audience’s imagination
  • Can be free and easy to create
  • No limit to what you can create
  • Pace set by the reader

Cons:

  • Only words, rarely pictures
  • Lives and dies by the quality of the writing and its style
  • Not very popular anymore

Examples:

  • The Giver
  • 1984
  • Lord of The Rings

Comics/Manga

Pros:

  • Access to visual storytelling techniques
  • Highest potential for quality art
  • Access to image panels and the techniques associated
  • Access to the strong black and white contrast [Only Manga]
  • Best for the phone [Only Manhua/Manhwa/Webtoons]
  • Access to music [Only Webtoons]
  • Easy to read
  • Pace set by the reader

Cons:

  • Not the best for internal dialogue
  • Each and every image must be drawn

Examples:

  • Spawn
  • Dragon Ball
  • God of Highschool

Visual Novels

Pros:

  • Optional interactivity
  • Unmatched potential for detail
  • Best for internal dialogue
Blankmarks

I’m Blankmarks and I love magic in fiction. I’ll write about the various magic types and concepts not only for fun but to help writers create new magical worlds