By Eric Rogers

Itching to bring your very own X-Men to life? Or maybe there’s simply a Richie Rich story burning a hole in your skull. Well then, it’s COMIC BOOKIN' TIME! Writing comics book scripts is very similar to writing TV and movie scripts. In many ways, it's a fun mash-up of the two styles. By following these simple rules, you’ll be well on your way to working for Stan Lee, true believers!

Here are the basics to get you started:

1. SOME SIMPLE GUIDELINES TO ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND…

Now that you have the basics laid out, time to prep for the writing of your script!

2. READ, READ, THEN READ SOME MORE.

First and foremost, you will never have “read enough” to prepare for your comic-book writing career. There are as many genres of comic books as there are of music, TV shows, and films. Before you attempt to create the next Spidey, read everything you can get your hands on. Whether you know it or not, all of it will inform your story-telling ability and open your mind to new story-telling techniques. Even after you begin the writing process, keep reading. Remember that you’re the rookie—let the pros continue to show you how they do it.

Also, study how many panels there are per page, how much dialogue is in each panel, and how much the art tells the story as opposed to the words. Which conveniently brings us to our next tip…

3. RESPECT THE ARTIST

So you think you’ve got the next Iron Man ready to roll off your fingertips and onto the keyboard—great! But just because you saw the movie version doesn’t mean that style of story-telling is anywhere NEAR the comic book script format. Check out some Iron Man comics and study how the art dominates more than the words. THIS IS TRUE FOR EVERY COMIC YOU WILL EVER READ. Comic-book writing is an artist’s format above all else, so respect the fact that once you’ve finished building a skeleton, they’ve got to cover it with organs and skin to bring your baby to LIFE. Think about when you open a comic book—what’s the first thing you see? THE ART. So when writing, always remember that your story is the canvas the artist needs to paint on. If you fill up your script with too much dialogue and description, the artist won’t get a proper chance to do what they do best. Plus, they won’t want to work with you again because you are literally cramping their style!

4. OUTLINE YOUR STORY

I can’t stress enough how important this is. Because this is such an artist’s medium, you MUST know what is going to happen page-by-page, panel-by-panel before you start to write in earnest. I can guarantee that if you don’t, you will cram too many panels into one page or you will fall short of—or balloon past—your page-count goal. Because you are writing inside of specific space constraints, you must have a specific idea for how each page will propel your story, and how each panel will aid in that process.

Now the fun part…THE SCRIPT!

5. WHAT A COMIC BOOK PAGE LOOKS AS A SCRIPT PAGE

Start by signifying which page of the comic you are on. The page number should be written out, underlined, and in ALL CAPS like so.

PAGE ONE

Then use numbers to signify what panel you are writing action for, with character and dialogue beneath the action like so:

You continue writing this way until you have written out all the panels that will make up the page (remember, four to six panels per each non-splash page is a good rule of thumb). As a general rule, no more than two characters should exchange dialogue in a panel—those dialogue balloons over their heads take up more space in the panel than you’d think!

6. SOUND EFFECTS!

When the story calls for a necessary sound effect, you must WRITE OUT the sound effect, which the artist will then draw for effect in the panel. Below is an example of what a sound effect might look like in your script:

2. BORIS hits the first note on his bright pink guitar in front of the screaming crowd (SFX: GRRRRUMMM!).

I like to bold my sound effects to make it easy for the artist to find them on the page. And here’s a fun rule about writing out what the effect actually sounds like: WRITE IT AS IT SOUNDS! Whether it's change hitting a tile floor, a slamming car door, or a fist smacking a gut, write whatever it sounds like in your head and chances are the reader (and artist) will know exactly the sound you are trying to get across.

Check out www.writtensound.com to get an idea of ways to write out sound effects.

7. TRANSITIONS

If you have passage of time in your story, you’ll want to tell the reader about it. This is easily achieved with a transition box, which you can write after your panel number. Below is an example:

5. Transition: "THE NEXT NIGHT . . ." We see an establishing panel of a crowd of thousands of fans in a rock arena.

The artist will draw "THE NEXT NIGHT . . ." as a small rectangle in the corner of your panel. Speaking of those dandy little shapes with words inside them…

8. VOICE-OVER OR INTERIOR MONOLOGUE

You can also use a transition box is you have a character who is narrating over the panel art, a passage from a diary or book, or a voice inside someone’s head. You can use a transition box to achieve this affect by simply writing the dialogue inside of it, too.

Those are the nuts and bolts of Comic Script Writing 101. Now here’s the most important thing to remember as you begin your journey:

9. LET YOUR IMAGINATION GO WILD!

The absolute beauty of writing comic books is that if you can imagine it, you should write it! Unlike live-action writing for TV, film, or the stage, where the constraints of budget, human performance, and special effects vastly limit your landscape, comic books allow you to take your story and characters to ANY plane, ANY time, in ANY way you want! So don’t be afraid to push the limits and dream big. You may just end up being the next Alan Moore or Bob Kane…but only YOU can stand in the way of striving for such success! If you’re good, lucky, and work hard, you’ll be attending Comic Cons, signing autographs, and avoiding stalker FanBoys in no time!