Character Design is Trivial – TIP
CHARACTER DESIGN CAN NOT CARRY A BOOK. It’s like a paint job. You can give a Prius the most expensive paint job in the world, but it will NEVER be […]
Process
Damn the Prologue, Full Speed Ahead – TIP
I recommend a potential client not pursue a prologue in his comic. His response. “but how would I get all the prologue material in the story?” WRITE A PROPER, ENGAGING […]
Every Story is Two Stories – TIP
When you write there are always two stories. The story in your head and the story you put on paper. Learn to recognize both objectively. Readers experience the latter, not […]
Wrong or Right in Comic Writing – TIP
There is no wrong or right path to creative writing… but some paths ARE definitely longer than others. If you want to avoid unnecessary pitfalls and mistakes, listen to experience. […]
First and Last
Let’s do an exercise; Pick a movie or comic you enjoy. Doesn’t have to be your favorite—something you’ve memorized since you were fifteen—just something you’re familiar with… ok, got it? […]
Throughlines: Threads of the Story Tapestry
Ok, so you’ve got a futuristic, dystopic, anime-inspired, story idea for a script, with male and female MC leads… They start off cold towards each other and eventually fall in […]
Steps to Create – TIP
You can write a comic script any way you want. Concept discovery revise/fix concept Outline revise/fix outline write script revise/fix script is gonna save you the most time. ▪ About […]
Ideas are Cheaper than Dirt – TIP
Ideas 12 for 10 cents. Good ideas 4 for a dollar. Awesome ideas $1 ea. Executing any of them successfully—platinum cards accepted. Every writer has dozens of ideas… heck even […]
DON’T Kill Your Darlings
“Kill Your Darlings” (and its many iterations) has been attributed to Stephen King, William Faulkner, Arthur Quiller-Couch and more… While the quote means, to kill the superfluous bits that you […]
Comic Pacing Decompression and Compression
In the Working Writer’s Guide to Comics and Graphic Novels I have a section dedicated to pacing. I cover the basics there, discussing the relevancy of panel counts, word counts […]