A trope must be accompanied by some interesting twist, something different that sets it apart from all other examples. Consider the basic plot of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½, for instance. A boy is cursed to change into a girl whenever he encounters cold water and change back to a boy when he encounters warm water.
Gender confusion is an age-old comedic trope.
What makes Takahashi's take on the subject unique is the use of water as a source of transformation, which leads to lots of interesting plot possibilities.#6300•
The objects of a story can be anything: robots, teacups, giant squids, magic wands, serial killers, secret doorways, and so on. A comics story should have visually interesting, drawable things that look good as art. However, a comics story (or any story) is not about a thing, but the idea behind the thing.
Courage is an idea.
A story may have a vampire in it (interesting and fun to draw), but the story might really be about a character gaining the courage to confront the vampire.
The story isn't about vampires any more than the lottery story is about lottery tickets.
The vampire is part of the syllogism allowing a character to demonstrate what the story is really about.
Inexperienced writers sometimes get lost in "cool art," which is to say cool things. The characters that exist in that world and the uniqueness of their reactions to the things in that world should drive your narrative.#6313•
Change is the technical difference between a story and a gag. The word gag is used to describe either single-panel or strip comics that are essentially just a joke, stories that simply lead to a punchline. In a gag comic the characters do not learn, they do not experience change. Comic strip writing is an old and honorable part of sequential art.
Comic strips in the newspapers mostly take the form of gags intended to make the reader chuckle, but are not meant to provoke worry or wonder.#6320•
A synopsis is simply a summary of the story. The synopsis does two things: It solidifies how the story ideas in your mind work in black and white, and it helps you generate even more story ideas.#6316•
Most comic strips these days are gag strips in which the characters never seem to learn anything new and don't change.#6304•
Chapter 2
The writer tells the artist the story that the world will see: "Here's the story, and here's what you need to draw." A comics writer walks a thin line between getting the story across and conceptualizing it for the artist, who then renders the story. This is true regardless of whether the writer and the artist happen to be the same person.#6292•
In full scripting, the writer breaks the story down into pages, and breaks each page into a specific number of panels. The two essential parts of any panel of comics are the image and the text. The writer then details the action and the art specifies in each panel.
The writer expresses imagery in the form of scene descriptions for the panels. These should be fully objective—only giving the parts of the story that an artist can draw. Unlike a film script, where the scene is mostly left up to the director with minimal description from the writer, a full comics script specifies, as briefly and clearly as possible, the desired art for each panel.
The writer suggests what the artist should draw, but not how to draw it.
It is up to the artist to interpret the writer's suggestions.#6321•
More scene description goes here. Use shorthand (close up (CU), medium shot (MS), full shot (FS), over the shoulder (OTS), etc.) for camera directions. Try to write the scene in a way that makes the camera angles obvious. Avoid pointless, repetitious camera instructions.#6310•
Panel 3 – Eve calms down and looks cautiously at Reed*.#6312•
Keep working at your script until you can legitimately write the words "The End." Do not go back and rework your beginning until you have finished the entire story. By writing, you become fully immersed in the development of characters and concrete images for your plot. You get to know your characters by writing them.
If you start over, momentum is lost, and writing can stall.
You can edit later.
It's important to see what you've got before you go back and edit.
Editing is very often connected to fitting the story ideas into a specific script format.#6296•
As your idea gets played out in visuals, you may cringe. There's a big difference between prose writing, where a writer can express risky ideas in words, and a comic, where such ideas are shown in the unblinking concreteness of the art.
Obviously, it's one thing to say there's a dead body in a story, and quite another to see the body in the art. Some writers are stymied by a refusal to fully invest an idea with concrete images, dodging the dangerous parts by filling them with vagueness or clichés—safe images that we've all seen again and again.
Writing comics means connecting ideas and concepts to specific images in a way that prose writers aren't required to do.
All good comic stories offer a unique visual experience.
Unique almost always translates as risky, even if only in a small way.#6293•
Jabberwocky
By Lewis Carroll
Note to artist: The art should have a scary/whimsical feel to it, some combination of Edward Gorey and Arthur Rackham. The style should be very loose, but somehow innocent*.
Page 1 – A rustic house near the woods at dusk. The windows glow from the light inside.
Title: Jabberwocky
Caption: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Panel 2 – An old man's face, holding a cautionary finger up in front of it.
Old Man: Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
Panel 3 – A young boy's face, astonished and horrified.
Old Man (caption): The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Panel 4 – The old man standing outside beside the young boy. They stand in the light of the open doorway and the old man points into the darkness of the woods. The kid stands beside him gazing into the woods and seeming intensely interested.
Old Man (caption): Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!#6306•
Chapter 3
Exposition, in story, means specific plot information that is being conveyed to the reader. Exposition, which often takes a great deal of room in a synopsis, will be condensed into as small a space as possible in the actual script. A well-told comics story should reflect a rhythm of exposition and action.
As the story progresses, getting closer to the climax, usually there is less exposition and more action#6318•
Acts vs. Scenes
It is important to understand that acts (major turning points in the story) are built from scenes (minor turning points in the story). A scene is often associated with a change in location, and is built around a conflict that has an outcome. However, it is not a major turning point in the story that sends a character in a whole new direction.
Most acts are comprised of a sequence of scenes that, in a comic, usually last no more than one to four pages.
In comics, it is unusual for a scene to go longer than that.
If you notice that a scene is taking an inordinate number of pages, it is a good idea to examine the scene carefully and decide whether or not everything in it is necessary.
While a scene can sometimes end in the middle of a page, scenes should end at the bottom of the page where possible, sending the reader to the next page of the book.#6309•
No panel should exist simply because it looks pretty or is a "cool visual." All panels have to be part of some kind of logic—though the type of logic may vary. This is called coherence.#6308•
Choose showing over telling, as a rule. However, there are times when it is more practical, and perhaps more straightforward, to tell. For instance, it is much quicker and clearer to say, "They searched for the answer everywhere," than to attempt to show as much. Remember, if the story spends a great deal of time (page space) on something, the reader may get confused as to what the story is about.
Words tend to draw less attention to themselves on the page than art.
Sometimes four or five words can clarify a concept that would become confused with a page of art#6305•
Chapter 0
A good way to remain in the active voice is to avoid be verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being).#6301•