Post★Boy

Comics 101 - Scripting

In case you missed it, on March 22, I spat #makecomics knowledge on Twitter that was “so hot, you got tan.” Check it out:

@kwanzer

Been a while, but here we go. There is definitely a format for writing a comic script and it is called READABILITY.
Part of making a script readable is COMPOSITION. Clear and consistant structure makes it easy for the artist & editor to read.
To improve readability of a comic script, distinguish dialogue from panel descriptions by center adjusting it.
Aside from center-adjusting dialogue in your comic script, write character names above their lines in ALL CAPS.
BREVITY is essential to a well composed comic script. Panel descriptions should be no longer than a tweet.
Avoid long panel descriptions in a comic script. Unless there is an element that is key to the story, be brief.
Good Illustrators are visual storytellers and should not need the writer to detail the minutiae of what is happening in a panel.
Images and dialogue are all the readers will see of a comic, illustrators should focus on the former and writers on the latter.
If you want to write a lot of prose in the panels descriptions of a comic script, writing novels may be more suitable work.
Readers will never see or benefit from flowery panels descriptions, pencilers will be inhibited & busy editors will be bored.
Being brief in the panel descriptions of a comic script will save you and your teammates a lot of time.
All of my comic script writing tips, can be achieved in plain text, without advanced or incompatible writing software formats.
If you use writing software, make sure that it can be read in plain text. Your creative team may not have compatible software.
I use Pages, but the best workaround for sharing a compatible comic script is Google Docs. It is free & anyone can use it.
Each page of a comic script should represent one page of the finished comic. If you exceed that, you are writing too much.
Another good reason to use Google Docs, if you don’t own advanced writing software, is to see editors’ notes.
ALWAYS sign a comic script with your name & contact info. At the very top or in the headers and footers if you can.
That last tweet is VERY important because editors pass comic scripts around to each other & need to know who wrote them.
Centered dialogue in a comic script makes it easy to see you are writing too much. Over two lines per character is pushing it.
I hate ‘em, but captions are suited to inner monologues. Never use them to describe what’s going on, that’s what the art is for.
Captions are also suited to time stamps or location settings. Example: “Milan, Italy 10:55AM”
Hope everyone enjoyed the #makecomics tweets. I’ll try to do this once a month. The tweets were queued not live, so I’ll reply later.