Wild lightning effect?

[Emiya24]

I was having trouble trying to create a lightning effect for a CG
i tried countless of things i could do but it looked awkward

its especially hard to do it with just a mouse (i dont own a pen tablet)

if anyone has tried to make one before id like some advice
something like this

[truefaiterman]

If you have Photoshop, some layer effects may help you, look for them in the bottom part of the Layers window, it's an "fx" symbol.

About the shape itself, I'd simply use the lasso tool, first to form general arcs which surround the character and give some direction, and then I'd add some irregularities here and there, and some little sparks. With the adding (shift) and substraction (alt) modes of the lasso it should be fairly simple (you use them by keeping pressed the mentioned keys while using the tool).