Writing a Comic Strip for Newbies

Writing your first comic strip? Script writing is fun but time consuming. It takes a lot of gumption to sit down and to try to make your stories real. You'll find that the act of actually writing out your script helps to distill your thoughts. My creative process tends to be more chaotic. During the day, scenes will come to my head. I'll imagine what I want the heroes to do, what emotional notes I want to hit, and what cool lines do I want to deliver. The problem is that in my head it's all just a swirl and to any other human being it would be a jumbled mess of ideas.

Scripting is not just vital for planning out what you're going to draw. It helps you to process the story you want to tell and to nail it down concretely. You must have a guidepost to where you want your characters to end up physically and emotionally. Today I'm going to talk about how I write the scripts for "Journey to the Middle Kingdom" and compare what I wrote to the final product.

In my case, there is an added layer of complexity because the artist I work with, Dimas Yuli, must interpret my writing. It's easy for me as a writer to just assume the artist can read my mind and understand the mental state of a character, or what I'm going for. Believe me, sometimes Dimas and I are totally in sync, but sometimes not so much.

The way I order my scripts is to spell out panel by panel what is going on. Then, I write 2-3 sentences about what is physically present in the panel, and any notes about how the characters think or feel. If there is dialogue, I write the character's name with all caps and what they say. Here's an example:

 

PAGE 15 ---- 5 Panels

Panel 1: Mid-body shot of Michelle as she realizes she's in a dream, but it's all too real. Michelle is standing in a grassy meadow inside the dream, which the viewer can tell by the pagoda in the background to connect the previous panel with this one. The wind is blowing slightly. Michelle looks slightly afraid. She's been here before.

CAPTION: I keep coming back here, so cold...

Panel 2: We see Michelle walking along the shoreline. The black waves just crash against the edge of the beach. The sky is very dark with dots of starlight. Michelle looks like she is looking for someone.

CAPTION: That sad melody...again...

Panel 3: Michelle has stopped. A stronger gust of wind blows, carrying dark colored cherry blossom petals with it. She is locking eyes with someone far off.

Panel 4: We see the White Snake Maiden standing on the balcony waist up shot. She has a fan covering the lower part of her face. She appears to be looking straight at Michelle. The inside of the pagoda is fairly ornate, with wall scrolls.

Panel 5: The panel is split. We have a closeup on Michelle's eyes with a caption on the right and on the left, we see the White Snake Maiden's lips just above the white fan.

CAPTION: Is she saying...

CAPTION: "Run?"

I like to think about how many panels there are too a page so I can keep myself from being too visually ambitious. Too many panels and there is too much going on that the reader could gloss over. Too little and not enough happens on the page or the reader thinks you're emphasizing something you may not want to be emphasizing. Page space is valuable real estate.

When writing a page you need to have a set of goals that relate to moving the larger story forward. If you can't spell out clearly why a page exists, you might think about cutting it. Thinking about the "Why" of your page also helps you figure out how many panels you think it will take to get the job done. For this page I thought 5 panels would be just enough to establish: 

1. Michelle is in a dream world. 
2. She has been there before.
3. It is not the most hospitable place. 
4. The "other world" is a place of possible danger.
   

It heightens the mystery of who the White Snake Maiden is and is the first part of the comic where I introduce what the "stakes" of the story are. The heroes are in danger from a supernatural force of which they know little about.

The interesting part here is how the artist took what I wrote and ran with it. This was the result:

In the script I don't spell out how to orient the panels. I don't like doing that because I'm not an artist and don't think like an artist. I don't want to dictate to him how whether a panel should be horizontal or vertical. You'll notice the five panels I wrote, and in addition, Dimas added a sixth panel, sort of like a large background panel where the White Snake Maiden is standing on her balcony. 

It's deceptive because it blends into the background, but it also stands out because it's towards the center of gravity of the page. It is very effective as a focus reset for the reader. The first 3 panels are communicating Michelle's physical state to the reader and also giving a shot of the surrounding landscape. This is good, but we need something to break up the slow pace and having the White Snake Maiden pop out in the middle of the page serves that purpose.

Also, props to our letterer, Novella, for the 'Woosh!' effect.  The dark gray color communicates how bitter cold and bleak the background must be. It adds a slight sense of foreboding which is the mood I wanted to craft on this page.

I think my format for writing scripts is nice and simple. Give it a try when writing your script and take the following questions into consideration:

What is the goal for the page? Character development? Plot development? 

What is the mood you are trying to create and the emotions you want to inspire in the reader? 

What is the minimum amount of panels to effectively convey all this info?