# Comic Script Writing



## Shouden (Jul 11, 2010)

This will be something I shall be attempting to tackle eventually. Marvel's site had some good resources for how comic scripts are written. Essentially there's three types:

1. Frame by frame method. Just as it sounds: Take a frame, describe the scene, who's in it, what they're doing, what they're saying, etc.

2. Page by Page. Less work than the first one. Essentially you describe what's happening on each page and let the comic artist do the rest.

3. The Lazy Method. This one is how a lot of comics are written, actually. You'd be surprised at how many are written like this. Basically the "writer" jots down a short, page-length description of what the comic's about, who's in it and what happens in it. Then, the artist does the actual work.

I'll probably do one of the first two methods. However, as I have never done one before, anyone have any tips on writing Comic scripts?


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## Browder (Jul 11, 2010)

Use CeltX.

And I write frame by frame. However if you don't want your artist to hate you, allow yourself some leeway.


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## Shouden (Jul 11, 2010)

of course. Writing frame-by-frame is a great way to give the artist an idea of what you want, but, if the artist thinks that the idea or scene could be better portrayed a different way, then they should have the option of changing it or at least making a suggestion.


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## quoting_mungo (Jul 12, 2010)

I personally script line-by-line, with expression/action/whatever indicators where they're vital. What ends up in the same frame/different frames tends to be determined as I actually go to draw pages. But then I only script for myself so I have a rough idea of what I'm doing anyway.

I also don't script ahead all of the time. The majority of the plot of my current webcomic is currently in a point-by-point sort of outline, listing major events. When I come up with lengthier exchanges I script that dialogue. The rest just develops as I work. (Which explains why my plot tends to be very sprawly and go off in every which direction.


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## Fenrari (Jul 12, 2010)

Question: Is the Author and Artist for the piece the same person, live nearby or communicating ideas purely off the internet?


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## Tanzenlicht (Jul 12, 2010)

When you are making a comic script for a collaborative effort you must do a detailed version of method one.  Then you must not complain if the artist you find treats it as though you had used method three.  If you find an artist first you can, of course write a script suited to their particular preference.

But here's the thing.  Your job is to write the comic.  The only thing the artist is getting out of a collaboration with a comic writer is a detailed mapping out of what the comic is supposed to look like and good solid writing for anything that appears on the page itself.  A general idea of the story, or even of each page, is something that anyone with enough imagination and perseverance to learn to draw can manage.  And you had better have writing skills beyond those bestowed by twelve years of English classes.  Artists had to sit through those too, they can knock out dialogue at that level if they need to.

Established comic writers working through established comic publishers can get away with methods two and three because what the artist is getting out of the relationship is money.  Additionally they are usually working with established characters with whom they are familiar.  An vague idea for a spiderman comic is something you can probably work with if you are an artist who draws spiderman comics for a living.


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## Shouden (Jul 12, 2010)

Fenrari said:


> Question: Is the Author and Artist for the piece the same person, live nearby or communicating ideas purely off the internet?


 

I'm not communicating with anyone at the moment. It'll bit a bit before I am looking for an artist. Although, I have worked with Tanzen in the past, it was apparent that my skills at writing comics needed improvement and I am glad she decided to post something here.


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## Mangasama (Jul 12, 2010)

I definitely agree with this. I storyboard each page and provide full breakouts including perspective, elevation and scope of each shot, and any details the scene may need. However, I always make it very clear to the artist I'm woriking for that there's room to experiment and change things. 

Nothing can lock an artist up more than an overly picky scripter. This is true on either a full-issue script or a 5-7 page anthology submission.


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## sunandshadow (Jul 12, 2010)

I do frame by frame (and number each frame and each page in the script).  I also provide a description of how the frames are arranged on the page.  But I find that additional information is also needed - usually I'll precede the actual script with a list of characters, brief description of each, slightly longer description of the setting (mainly necessary for science fiction, fantasy, and historical genres).  And I usually want character design sketches back from the artist before any panels are drawn which have those characters in them.    The artist is free to suggest changes to everything, including the story, but I usually work with inexperienced comic artists and they tend to be happy to be given a clear plan for what they should do; an experienced comic artist would probably prefer fewer instructions and a freer hand.

Here's an example page of my script:


> *Page 1 (righthand)*
> 
> 
> *Panel 1.1:*  Merru in Shifter form (animalistic: dog ears, clawed hands, clawed paw-like feet, tail, spiky crest, red/brown/tan color) show from the side or front quarter, standing guard or leaning against a wall and watching towards the right. (no Graven in this panel)  â€œI don't know why I am this way.â€  This panel is in the upper left hand corner, 1/3 of the page wide and maybe 2/3 the page tall.  All Merru's thoughts are black letters on white boxes with hazy edges.
> ...


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## Shouden (Jul 12, 2010)

Lots of good suggestions. Thanks everyone. I'm probably going to do up a smaller script for shorter comics first and work my way to the longer, bigger ones.  But you're tips are very much appreciated.  Keep 'em comin'.


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## Shouden (Jul 18, 2010)

Sorry for the double post, but Dark Horse Comics has a great resourse for script writing:

http://images.darkhorse.com/darkhorse08/company/submissions/scriptguide.pdf


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## osfer (Jul 19, 2010)

CeltX all the way! 

I've used numerous tools and workflows in the production of Heathen City, including making mockups of the layouts with markers for the character positions and pre-filled word balloons. This is how the first volume began production as it gave the artist a good skeleton to define his compositions with. Eventually we moved to a panel-by-panel script format that gave him more control over the page composition.

Make sure that the script includes summaries at different levels. Include a synopsis of the entire story, at most a page long, in the e-mail which accompanies the script. For every page, write a few paragraphs that highlight the key plot points, emotional beats and necessary backstory. The individual panels can then look a lot like Sunandshadow's sample, which is a pretty good example to use.


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## Shouden (Jul 19, 2010)

Here's my first attempt at comic script writing. I still need to go through and add a few more details, but you get the idea.


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## Mangasama (Jul 19, 2010)

Never mind. I don't know where I AM today.


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## Taralack (Jul 20, 2010)

Shouden said:


> Here's my first attempt at comic script writing. I still need to go through and add a few more details, but you get the idea.


 
Did you forget to post a link?

Personally, I write it page by page, panel by panel. I do it like I would a play script, where it's Person: speech (action). Since I am both the writer and the artist, sometimes I leave out details I should already know, but most of the time I try to include everything that I see in my head in case I forget by the time I get around to drawing the actual page.


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## Shouden (Jul 20, 2010)

Toraneko said:


> Did you forget to post a link?



Wow, I feel stupid now. Yea I did forget the link.


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## quoting_mungo (Aug 20, 2010)

An example from the comic I draw, for which I have a co-writer, so I actually am forced to do some semi-formal scripting:


> Page 2
> 
> [Toni calling out to Mittens (not in frames) in ambiguous way, along the lines of "don't scare the new roommates when they get here, baby" etc as she gets her things together for going off to work] "You be good, hon. Don't freak out the new roommates _too_ much..." "...and don't leave me any surprises. I know it's a new place and all, but you know full well where your litter box is." [Mittens: "Mew?"]
> 
> ...


That's the script for this page (fair warning: the page in question is worksafe, as is the rest of the comic _right now_, but the entire site will not always remain SFW). The bit in blue (color added for clarity in forum posting; it's all the same in the original document) is my original summary for the page which we built off of. The bits in square brackets are enough direction for me to work off of, though that may in part be because our scripting is done in Google Docs while we're both on Skype, so we get things straightened out if there's any confusion.

I guess we're somewhere between method 1 and 2 according to the first post. The latest page we finished scripting (which isn't up yet, so I can't show the script) gets further towards being frame-by-frame. It's also going to be a really challenging layout for me to pull off, as there's lots of (visual) information to fit into each frame.


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## Verin Asper (Aug 25, 2010)

I'm a co-writer for Synxirazu-niam on FA
We work in an odd strange way as sometimes as we juggle between Page by page or Scene by scene.
He has his own way of simply drawing out the whole scene, explaining the situation, to which I then fill in dialogue that would fit for the scene.


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## cpam (Aug 31, 2010)

Shouden said:


> 3. The Lazy Method. This one is how a lot of comics are written, actually. You'd be surprised at how many are written like this. Basically the "writer" jots down a short, page-length description of what the comic's about, who's in it and what happens in it. Then, the artist does the actual work.


 
This is more commonly known as the 'Marvel method', as made famous by Stan Lee during the 60's, though it was actually in common use long before that.  Despite your tag as it being the 'lazy method', it's the one that works best for collaborative efforts, as it allows for input from both the writer and the artist.  One failing that many writers have is that of 'overwriting', concentrating more on the literary side of the story, forgetting that this is a visual medium and neglecting the visual impact the story should have as well.

Lee's method, as I saw it demonstrated, was that of writing out a plot synopsis describing the action on a page.  Sometimes this would be detailed, especially if there were important plot points that had to be established, and sometimes it would be vague, allowing the artist to take the lead in designing action sequences.  The artist would then draw the story, adding necessary tweaks  whenever needed, and it would be returned to the writer who would then add the dialogue.

One great example of how a writer can get carried away with the writing at the expense of the art involved a Marvel comic back in the 70's, in which one of the top writers at the company during that period was writing one of their vampire titles.  On the page he described a very moody setting: the lead character, dressed in black, glided through a dark night, shrouded in the shadows of a looming castle just as a cloud passed before the moon; below him, several ninjas dressed in black garb were skulking in the shadows, waiting for him to land.  The description went on in more detail, always emphasizing the darkness, the shadows, the lack of light, the totally black garb, etc, etc.

The artist read the above description and puzzled over it for several minutes and phoned the writer.  "Steve," he asked, bemused, "are you sure you want this scene drawn this way?"

"Sure.  Why?"

"Because you just described a completely black page."


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## cpam (Aug 31, 2010)

I generally write and draw my own work, for which I'll write up a short 'Marvel' style synopsis and then do panel breakdowns through thumbnails, adjusting as I go along.  But I've also worked in other methods with other collaborators as well, as either writer or artist.  I've drawn from full script, which was challenging, if a bit static.  I've written full script for others, giving them leave to make visual adjustments as they felt necessary, and I've even broken the story down visually for them by means of thumbnails.

In any case, it's always important to work to the other collaborator's strengths whenever possible -- if he's more comfortable with a full script, give him that; if he prefers just a loose plot to work from, do that.  Team efforts pay off handsomely if there's sufficient give and take.


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