How to Write a Comic Book

Making a comic book involves two principle tasks: writing and drawing. Before a page can be drawn it has to be written and, often, the entire script is completed before the artist even sees a page of it. In this article, you'll learn the basics of how to write out a script for a comic book artist to follow.

Instructions

1. Brainstorm. Think about what you are writing and why are you writing it. Is there a story that needs to be told, or a character so compelling that your reader has to meet him? How did you come up with the idea and where is it taking you? Go wild! The purpose of this exercise is to get you thinking, so don't bother organizing or editing yet.

2. Think about your audience. What age are you writing for, and what kind of writing does that age group like to see? How are you going to pull them in to your comic?

3. Develop a stable of characters. Come up with descriptions of the appearance and personality traits of all of your characters. Write down why they are important and what role they play in the story.

4. Sketch out the main story points. You can do this in an outline or paragraph form. The important thing is to get down the main events in the story.

5. Write a synopsis. Your synopsis should be 1 to 3 pages and should describe your comic to potential publishers. It should start with a hook to get the reader's attention and include the basic plot points of the story. A synopsis will help you get a better handle on your story, and will also come in handy later on if you want to shop your comic book around to potential publishers.

6. Divide your comic into episodes. They can be formal chapters or informal parts where the action starts or stops. This will make things more manageable for you.

7. Understand comic book script conventions. There are a lot of different ways to write a comic script, but they all involve specific formatting to indicate page number, frame number, dialog, sound effects, and description.

8. Write the first chapter. Plan on having about 6 frames in every page and about 20 pages in an episode. Describe what the artist should draw in each frame, what the characters say, and what sound effects, if any, are indicated.

9. Keep writing, one chapter at a time, until you have finished your comic book.