1: Outline the story. I do a lot of note taking and sometimes a few sketches. I write everything down in good old fashioned spiral bound notebooks. Sure it's a bit old fashioned but I create better with pencil lead staining my fingers. Now, this is the point where you want to detail things about your characters as well as what you want to have happen in the story itself. I still write individual issues, so this is also the point when I figure out about how many issues the story is going to be. This is going to be trial and error for newer writers. I know how much I can pack into individual issues. Don't get frustrated if you find you need an extra issue or if your getting through the story faster than planned. Pacing takes practice.
2: Outline the issue. Most comic books have 20 to 25 pages of actual comic content in them. The rest is advertisements. My "magic number" is 22. I never write a script longer than 22 pages. This way if Chris wants to stretch out a scene he can do so. If I come up a page or two short of my magic number I don't add in just for the sake of hitting the number. Story is going to flow as it will. I again go back to my spiral bound notebook and number a page 1 to 22 and make notes as to what I want to have happen on every page. The notes are usually just one sentence, but if there are certain details that I know I need to reveal at a certain time or certain things need to happen I make note of them here.
3: First draft. I sit hunkered over the same notebook and write it all out. I refer back to my outline repeatedly to see where I'm at and where I'm going. This is when you're writing down all your actions and dialogue. I split up the page into panels and work from there. Being an artist myself helps a lot because I have an image in my head of what I'd do on the page. I write it down, but then that's completely open to Chris's interpretation.
4: Next draft. This is when my stone age ass sits down at one of them new fangled computers and types the bloody thing. I do much of my editing on the fly, changing little bits here and there. Often having to tweak the dialogue a bit here and there. After typing it all up, I wait a day or two before going back and doing the final edit.
Here's a sample:
Page 7
Panel 1
Joe continues to talk.
1. Joe: Finally I had had enough and fought back.
2. Joe: They got sent to Rooksgate.
Panel 2
Vernon asks a very important question.
3. Vernon: What made you finally fight back?
Panel 3
Joe goes silent for a moment. Doug perks up. He hasn’t heard this before.
Panel 4
Joe looks at Vernon.
4. Joe: You remember your first kiss?
5. Vernon: Yeah.
6. Joe: I don’t.
Panel 5
Doug stops sorting things and looks at Joe. Vernon is paying close attention.
7. Doug: What do you mean you ‘don’t’?
8. Doug: You never told me this.
9. Vernon: How can you not remember?
10. Joe: It was Richards. His telepathy.
11. Doug: Who was the girl?
Panel 6
Joe looks at the floor. Doug is utterly shocked.
12. Joe: Lily Florentine.
The finished page can be viewed here. As you can see there's not a ton of action on the page, so Chris doesn't need a ton of direction.
Here's some quick pointers for scripting.
Keep in mind each panel is an individual frame. You can't have a character do "A" and then do "B". That's two separate frames.
I try not to put more than 6 panels on a page. I script loose and like to leave my artist room to breath. If you find yourself hitting double digits on your panel count for a page, you really need to move on to a new page.
If your word count in one word balloon or caption box exceeds 20, you're pushing it.
If the number of word balloons or caption boxes on a page exceeds 20, you're pushing it. I do maybe 15 or 16 at the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment