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.