FROM AN ARTIST'S PERSPECTIVE: SCRIPT WRITING ADVICE FOR ASPIRING COMIC BOOK WRITERS
Constructing a compelling story is one thing. But if you are not breaking it down in a neat script, your story will just be lost in translation…
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Hi, it’s Deniz.
As you already know, I’ve been freelancing as a comic book artist for a few years now. As a rookie myself, my collaborations were mostly with aspiring writers who were new to comic book medium, or new to be a writer altogether.
Part of my job is reading a lot of scripts to find a gig I would draw. Over time, I noticed certain patterns in those rookie scripts. Regardless of they contain a banger story or not (some were real bangers!), the same technical shortcomings of a script makes things unnecessarily difficult and frustrating when I’m drawing it and turn it into a comic book. As frustrating as they are, these shortcomings can be easily avoided when the writer is aware of certain aspects about taking a script up and turn it into a comic book by your art.
I will not be talking about storytelling aspects. Those, you should already know by the time you are sending scripts to potential collaborators. Things I’m pointing are mechanics of communicating that well construct story into a script text. The story in your head should be communicated to the artist such as way that you all should be on the same wavelength. Otherwise, it is always a let down.
Topic by topic, I’ll be explaining what you should watch out when writing down your script. First, the most important thing a writer should always know:
THE ARTIST IS NOT YOUR AUDIENCE
For aspiring writers, what they write is highly precious as the impostor syndrome is on the roof (spoiler alert: it does not go away), and for most of us, it is an incredibly vulnerable position to be when you share something you write with someone else. So the tension is real when a writer gets in touch with an artist for a potential partnership, sends them the script, and waits for a response. What I realize during many of these interactions, writers expects a total enchantment of the story. Anything short of that, they either think that their story is worthless, or for most of the part, they assume you are just a boon.
The fact that overlooked is, when I’m reading a script as an artist, it is not for entertainment. I’m evaluating a potential of a gig. Furthermore, a script is maybe the worst kind of a format to read a story anyway. Honestly, it sucks. Try reading the script of The Matrix and get the same level of excitement when you watched the movie. What you need to know is that you do not need a fan at this point. You need a professional who is able and willing to draw your script into a comic book. Once the book is there, then you need the fans.
Just believe in your story, find an artist that can create killer images page after page. Then, with your script, make sure give them as much information as possible about your story, which is the next topic I’ll write about:
THE ARTIST IS YOUR ONLY AUDIENCE
When you write for comic books, the only part you are actually writing directly for the audience is the dialogue. All the rest is only for the artist. This is a crucial fact that is overlooked even by the seasoned professionals sometimes.
Have a good understanding what a script is. It is not a literary piece. Not an end product. Not a single member of the audience will pay for reading the script. They will show up for the comic book which is created by following the instructions in your script. As the writer, you are not telling a story; you are crafting a technical paper which is explaining how to tell a certain story in the comic book medium. Be as fancy as you want with your dialogue, but when setting up scenes, describing characters, framing a mood, be crystal clear and packed with information.
That being said, what we are doing is not an engineering feat. Don’t put the artist asleep with your text if you can. Aside from being as informative as possible, a good script should inspire, provoke and motivate an artist to create some good art. You can check out some of Alan Moore’s script pages circulating the internet, for getting a taste of an inspiring text. As for being informative part, next topic is all about that.
DON’T GO H.P. LOVECRAFT IN YOUR SCRIPT
THE most annoying words in a script are as follows: someone, somewhere, somehow, something and so on. Describing a scene, character, object or a location solely using these words is not actually describing anything in particular. There is a reason of why it is extremely hard to adapt Lovercaft stories into visual mediums. No one knows what he imagined when thinking about those horrors, and everyone reading the stories has images of their own. But in the medium you choose to write for, there is room for only one image: that of what the artist has created. And that image should be created by your descriptions.
This kind of vagueness in the script usually caused by either of the following three reasons:
One, the writer in fact doesn’t sure about the thing he is describing. Which is not desirable, because it means you haven’t really finished the script; there are still parts to work on. To be honest though, when the story is particularly long, it is understandable that some small parts are still sketch because of all the load. When this is the case, just be honest with the artist and point out the part you couldn’t think much through, ask for some help. This is a collaboration after all. Don’t abuse this dynamic, don’t make the artist structure your story for you.
Second possible reason is the writer is a total piece of shit and even though having a particular image/vision/idea about the character, location or props he is putting in the scene, he withholds this information in the script and just use vague descriptions, because he wants to see if the artist would come up with a better idea. When you design something almost from the scratch and they don’t like it, these types discard your work with no hesitation and start spilling out their detailed description of the the thing you worked your ass off for days. Not cool. Go use some A.I. tool and fuck off.
Third reason, and the biggest pitfall rookie writers keep falling into, is writing a script as it a novel or a short story. It is not. Again, you are creating a technical paper for peers. So suspense and mystery is very, very annoying in a script because you are hiding information. Do not try to surprise me, do not try to create a climax with your text in the script. All those effects you want to create is for the audience. For them to experience those emotions, you need to create a clear picture of everything for the artist, then give your best attempt to show a direction of how to create suspense, mystery, shock, surprise, etc.
But why do you need to explain everything? And why not leaving some parts for artist to fill in? Isn’t this a collaboration after all? It is a collaboration, but it is YOUR story. You have to make the artist perfectly understand what is in your mind. For that, you need to explain everything, as no one can read what is in your mind. And by some tragedy, there is nothing in your mind other than just some ideas, it means there is no script, there is no gig. Don’t be an idea guy, because no one likes them. The ideas are only valuable to their beholders. For them to become important for rest of us, you need execution. Good execution means you are communicating your idea with us such a way that we understand it and it becomes our idea as well. Write a good script. Make the artist understand your story as good as you do. Cut out all other crap.
UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE CREATING A PHYSICAL PRODUCT (DIGITAL CANVAS IS PHYSICAL SPACE TOO, IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT)
One and only thing that upcoming writers always overlook is what will be the format of the book they are working on day and night. Which is, the actual physical dimensions of the book that will be printed. Tech bro in you can say it will be a web release, but even then it should be formatted for vertical scroll, which has a set amount of width as in the quantity of pixels. Plus, drawing for vertical scroll means a whole set of different rules for visual storytelling, so this almost entirely becomes a different kind of job for the artist (at least for the guy who will do the penciling part). I've never done a webcomic, so I won't go any further in that direction.
For print format comics, page size is an important factor. If you are printing on A4 (for people from the USA, it is approximately the magazine size. Think of Heavy Metal or MAD), you can pack more panels, hence more content in a single page. Standard American comic page is a bit smaller and much more narrow. You can add interesting vertical panels but horizontally you are more limited than A4. You can go smaller and cut some significant cost with A5 format or even smaller, the Japanese tankobon (B6), which they collect most of the manga, but now the amount of panels that can be drawn on a page is even more limited. And when thinking physical limitations, don't just think about the art. It also applies for the amount of words you are putting out via letters on the page (dialogue, captions, etc.).
Speaking of cost-cutting, you need to consider the type of paper you are going to print. You can go for a cheap paper stock with black & white art like manga do. The art would be faster and cheaper as you eliminate the coloring process, but it will never look as good as a book printed on premium-quality magazine-size paper with vibrant color work. You can have lots of dialogue and still have enough space for artwork to breath on an A4 paper, but the same amount of dialogue would probably mean all walls of text and not much artwork on a standard American comic book size.
Choices, choices.
Don't worry though; it is rather a much more straightforward process than a complicated one. You just need to go to a comic shop and check out what kind of formats are there on the shelf. Then learn the basic terminology, and then you know what you are doing. My suggestion is to just focus on the story and create an outline first. Depending on the kind of story you end up with, go with your gut feeling to choose a format for it. From then on, always keep that format back in your mind during your decision-making while constructing the script.
DIALOGUE BALLOONS ARE NOT AS STRAIGHTFORWARD AS THEY SEEM
Your most impactful contribution to the use of the physical space, as a writer, is the amount of dialogue (or captions) you write into the page. When you write too much of a dialogue, you end up with a wall of text on the page. If you don't know what the definition means, go check out Daredevil run written by Kevin Smith. With writing dialogue, you need to be sure you are leaving enough space for art as well.
There is another point that is usually overlooked: how is the dialogue delivered within a comic book? It is the balloons, of course. Each balloon takes up certain amount of space. So far pretty straightforward, right? But things can get very complicated when you have multiple characters in a scene. Too much of a back and forth dialogue means lots of balloons filling up the panels. And it will be a nightmare to arrange in most cases. If an exchange can be made by using three word balloons in total, but you set it up in a way that it now needs to be seven balloons, you are doing it wrong.
Avoid this:
And do this:
On top of all these, when writing the dialogue in the script, do it so as if it is a movie script. The character giving the line should be written at the beginning. And every line delivered should be separated by line breaks. Use all caps. Otherwise, it will be a mess to copy and paste when adding letters to the comic pages.
DON’T STEAL ALL OF THE LIME LIGHTS
As a writer your first instinct is probably to tell. You are a storyteller after all who uses words. So very easy to write your dialogue such a way that characters are explaining everything. All is obvious, everyone is talking about lot. Well, if you are not familiar with it already, let me introduce you to one of my favorite concepts: Show, don’t tell. Comic book medium provides you both words and pictures for telling a story. You provide the words, artist provides the pictures. From time to time, you should let the pictures tell the story instead. Sometimes a silent panel, a snapshot of an object, a full page of a spectacle, is stronger than thousand words. Learn to trust your collaborator on delivering those images. Let the visuals take the control.
FURTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN WRITING A SCRIPT
Drawing a page and designing a character are different jobs. If your main character(s) doesn't have a visual design yet, pay for concept art first. Don't expect to hire up an artist for a standard page rate and make them design your character on the run while drawing the page. This is not a fair play.
Format your script in a way that it can be easy to fish out information when crafting the pages. Characters, location, time of day, etc.
Adding a summary of the story in your script always gives you good karma.
Use a proper text editor. Every device has one. Notes app doesn't count.
TO SUM THINGS UP
First and foremost, get a good grasp of storytelling basics. Like it or not, there is only a few ways to tell a compelling story. It is because how our brains are wired and how we humans interpret this crazy little thing called life we all live.
Then, construct your story. Use whatever format, it’s up to you. Write it like an outline, like journal entries, like a novel, write it all in your brain because you are better than all of us mortals, whatever.
Now we can finally talk about a script. Write that script for an artist, not for an audience. The goal is not to fascinate by your story. Your goal is make the artist UNDERSTAND your story as it is in your head. Create the perfect blueprint.
Create your script such a way that your story feels like home in the comic book medium, not acting like a cool kid who should have been a movie instead but ended up with all the other weirdos.
SHOW, DON’T TELL.
That’s it for now. I hope this message finds as much writers possible and be a useful guide for them to create next big wave of comic book mania. (And prevent as much artist as possible from the mental illness mayhem.) Share this post with your writer friends and spread the word.
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See you around,
Deniz