11. Choosing the Right Script for You - COMIC BOOK SCRIPT

Scripts for Comic Books and Graphic Novels

You may or may not know this, but you don’t have to be a talented artist to write comic books and graphic novels. Many begin with a script that looks similar to those written for movies, plays, and TV shows; many of these scripts are not written by the artist who ends up drawing them. Even if you are an artist, the first step in creating a comic book is writing out the script.

The cool thing about writing a comic book or graphic novel, compared to other types of scripts, is that you have a lot control over the final product. Usually, you will either be drawing the comic yourself or working with one other person (the artist) to create the final look and feel of it. Not only do you get to decide on the characters, settings, story, and dialogue, you get to decide what goes in each and every panel. That’s like a screenwriter getting to decide what goes in each and every shot of a movie, which is hardly ever the case.

A great thing about comic books in particular is that they’re pretty easy to produce. They're typically really short, compared to graphic novels. That means that if you or someone you know is a good artist, you can draw the comic book after April and make copies for all your friends and family, or have it printed through a print-on-demand publisher. If you're feeling brave, you can take your new comic to your local independent book store to see if they will carry it. Many independent bookstores carry self-published comics and “zines” by local writers and authors!

But writing comic books and graphic novels isn’t as easy as it may seem. Many people are under the impression that comics are silly books written just for kids, but that is not true at all. Especially when it comes to graphic novels. Graphic novels are similar to comic books in that they tell a story through illustrated panels, but they tend to be lengthier and contain more complex story lines similar to those of novels. Like all writers, comic-book and graphic-novel writers have to think about character, plot, setting, and dialogue. You also have to think about all the elements of a story visually, frame-by-frame. You have to be the writer and the director, and you have to know both the story you want to tell and how it is going to look on the page. That means that you have to write a pretty descriptive scene for each panel in the book, which takes a lot of time and patience.

To read more about writing comics and graphic novels, check out Intro to Writing Comic Book Scripts (sections 1-4) in our Writer’s Resources section.