Monthly Archive: October 2010

Day 4. Hopefully by now, you’ve gotten an idea that you might want to turn into a story. However, you may not know how to put it down on paper. What is the format for a graphic novel script?

The short answer is: it varies. There are different variations, based on how different people work and how they expect to collaborate. Remember that a graphic novel usually has other people working with you, and you have to communicate with them before you communicate with the rest of the world. This is why some comics scripts seem conversational in tone, because they’re sending notes to a single artist, maybe remembering that they’re also including the editor, and sometimes the inker, colorist, and letterer in the conversation as well.

There is no one “proper” way to write a script. There are some common formats, however.

Full Script: Pretty much what it sounds like. The script is a modified version of a screenplay, with what should happen in each panel spelled out, including who says exactly what.

Advantages: the writer gets more of what he wants in terms of story pacing, details, killer lines, etc. The editor can look at the script as a complete blueprint and make his comments there, which can be crucial if there are layers of approvals to go through.

Disadvantages: the artist can sometimes be constrained in what he’s doing, and sometimes the writer has not thought the visuals through, so a large chunk of dialogue can overwhelm a panel, and other problems of pacing can appear. And occasionally, the writer will get a bit detailed in his scripting– see any Alan Moore script, for example.

Plot First: This is occasionally referred to as “Marvel Style” because Stan Lee in the early days of Marvel did a lot of his stories this way: the writer would pitch a plot to the artist, hitting the major beats of the story and varying levels of detail, and then the artist would pencil the story. Once the penciled pages were back, the writer would then write dialogue based on what was in the art.

Advantages: It was often faster for one person to crank out a lot of plots and let the artist put in the details. It also freed up the artist to tell the story as he felt best, which often led to more dynamic action sequences and a more fluid style. It also meant the dialogue was fresher, because it was written a month or two closer to publication than full script.

Disadvantages: if the art is incomprehensible, a lot of covering dialogue and captions will have to be jammed in to make it clear. Also, for the purposes of NaGraNoWriMo, it relies on having an artist to draw it so you can come back and dialogue it, so it’s not good for the deadline. But this may work well for you.

Thumbnails: This is a rarer version, but some people swear by it. The writer not only writes the story, but also draws out thumbnails of the entire thing, to show how the people move, how the action happens, and how the shots and pages are composed. The artist then can follow both the script and the thumbnails. Depending on the circumstance, sometimes one person will do a plot and thumbnails, an artist will draw the story, then someone else will come in and dialogue based on the art and faces. (Often used by Keith Giffen, Kevin Maguire and J. Marc Dematties, for example.)

Advantages: The writer is very clear in what he wants. He also can see how his story plays out, whether the dialogue dominates the page, and sometimes resolve other problems.

Disadvantages: Time. Now you have to draw out the story. And you’re also assuming the writer has visual storytelling skills. (Giffen is incredibly fast, he thumbnailed all of 52— a comic a week for a year– and cranked out full pencils for the last 40 pages of Invasion! #2 in something like two weeks, on top of the schedule he already had at the time.) In some cases, it can also reduce the contribution of the artist (although in 52, this was intentional to keep storytelling continuity between the different artists).

Hat tip to Allyn Gibson for pushing this post to the front of the queue. And remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

We’ll start with a tweet I saw yesterday, from cr8dv8 a.k.a. Terry:

Gah, I wish someone had mentioned this in advance. I don’t think I can do do #NaGraNoWriMo this month. Maybe but I doubt it.

I sent a brief note trying to get Terry to go for it anyway, which got this reply:

It’s not that; I am in financial dire straits and not sure I can make the time. If it happens, it happens.

This is a common complaint, but still– it’s 31 days. As of this moment, there are people finishing up the first half of the assignment in 24 hours, not just writing but drawing too. (I was about to type “as well” but it might be as well as it could be.)

The drawback is that if you’re going to make this a career, you are going to lose a lot of work if you can’t make time. Because you never know when work is going to become available, and often sudden projects are going to have to be rush jobs.

It’s a cliche, but it’s very true: I’ve seen careers turn on a phone call. “Can you do this job by this time?” And this is for work that there’s no advance for, you won’t get paid until a month after you deliver the script– but it needed to get done.

Sadly, dire financial straits are also common to working in comics. So are other jobs. There are lots of comics pros who have day jobs and write comics in their extra moments for some spare cash or for the creative outlet– not as many now, because comics companies can offer health insurance to freelancers who sign exclusive contracts.

I don’t pretend to know the impositions on Terry’s time. But just make sure you aren’t mistaking “I don’t have the resources” for procrastination, for deferring that story yet another week, or month, or year, or a lifetime.

Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!