How to Write Comic Books

Scripting a Comic Book.

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This is how comic books work.

The human brain seeks order. It looks for patterns in chaos and ambiguity. If I say, “Once upon a time, there lived a….”, you will probably finish the sentence with words like “...a princess in a high tower” or something similar. The brain must make sense of incomplete patterns. You have to finish the story in your mind. ?Comic books present limited information in visual form for the reader to put together in their mind and thus the story is revealed.

Comic books are considered 12th Grade reading. Because comic books are classified as Active Viewing, rather than Passive Viewing.? Passive Viewing is defined by moving pictures with dialog and music. A director decides what and when specific material is viewed as well as the pace the material is presented. The viewer does not have much participation. Just sit back and enjoy.

Active viewing requires the reader to “fill in the gaps” that the writer and artist have purposefully left out. It also allows the reader to “create” the sounds and voices and action that is NOT provided. Just like when reading a prose novel.

To write for a comic book, you have to understand the rules. Western societies read from left to right, top to bottom. This is also true for comic books. Instead of prose, paragraphs, sentences, etc., comics employ Panels.

Each panel is a still picture of a part of the story being told. Multiple panels combine in a specific sequence to draw the reader’s eyes in a specific order to tell a story. Some pages use several panels, some use very few, or even none. A whole page can be a single panel, or even two pages combined can be a single panel.

The writer and artist are carefully choosing what each panel and page reveal for the reader. This means the reader is the one “telling” the story to themselves. This is what makes comic books a unique story telling medium.

So, when writing for a comic book, the writer has to understand this. By only revealing information the reader has to know, and leaving out information that isn’t necessary. When done right, the reader fills in the blanks. In essence, the reader is telling themselves the story. Unlike movies and television which is passive viewing, comic books are active viewing. Passive viewing programs set the pace, use music to establish tone, and editing to move the story. Active viewing is all done in the mind of the reader. The writer and artist provide the information, but the reader sets the pace and creates the sounds and tone in their mind.

It’s a magic trick.

You also have to understand how pacing works, the eye scans the panels across and down each page. Some read quickly, while others read slowly. Each reader sets their own pace. ?Pacing is also important in how page turning can reveal specific moments in a story. A surprise, for instance, or a twist in the story. Turning the page means revealing something the reader has not yet seen.

There are only so many pages in a single book, so, again, pace is important. And the writer has to plan on how much of the story is to be revealed in a single issue, then how many issues to complete the story.

NEXT TIME: Scripting a Comic Book, how to ‘instruct’ the artist.