how do you script

[Mvmarcz]

i was thinking about this today because i am crazy and wondered how other people go about their comic script writing. do you scribble short handish notes to yourself, do you sit down to a fresh text file, do you type i up in full blown act 1 scene 1 style, do you pen down panels and roughs, do you make it up as you go, or are you like me and you talk to yourself and act scenes out during the day complete with voices for each character and all out arm movements of the like of 'look at the crazy lady, mommy' fashion with a mad dash to write down your brilliance whenever you are finally near paper, do you tape record, c'mon people


i apologize for any poor grammar and punctuation, this keyboard only half works

[Black Sparrow]

My scripting comes in three stages.

Stage one: outline. I write the entire story out (on my computer, for my comic). It doesn't have to be entirely detailed, and can be edited as I go, but it's a good idea to know where I'm going to end up... at least in the general vicinity.

Stage two: storyboard. I skip right into sketching out my panels, but that's all they are. I go through and lay out the scenes page-by-page, figuring out what I want to happen, where I want thingt positioned, and the general gist of the dialogue. This is done months in advance, allowing me plenty of time to flesh out the page, drawing-wise. To get ideas for this step, I openly admit to acting out the scenes as you do, evoking many stares as I walk to class. I find that scripting during boring lectures is pretty effective, too.

Stage three: dialogue. Dialogue isn't put in until the last step before the picture is compressed and uploaded into FTP. I'll know the general gist of the conversation they're having, but I've had to rewrite quite a few lines before showtime, to save awkwardness or melodrama.

[Cope]

I make it up as I go.

Once in a blue moon, inspiration strikes for a comic that's weeks or months down the track and I'll record bits of dialogue in text files for future reference. Usually, I'll forget these records exist, or look at them some time later and think "God! How the hell did I ever think that was good?"

[Garneta]

Step One: I outline the story in a small yellow notebook, months in advance. I don't want to be stuck with writers block later on, so this part is important!

Step Two: I write it down thoroughly, strip by strip, in a large rainbow notebook, usually at least a month in advance.

Step Three: When I'm finished with coloring a strip, I add the text from the notebook, refining it as needed.

[Laemkral]

Cause I'm a gag writer, I don't need full on scripts. I also have a small cast of characters and that helps, too. I keep a text file on my hard drive that I can quickly open when an idea strikes. Anything I've come up with, be it in rough idea, fledgling script, or full on ready for shooting scripts goes into this. Not organized, I can quickly scan through it and pick whatever gag I want to do from the list and then erase it.

There's no real "process" to the whole thing, I just fix stuff up as it comes to me. Sadly, a lot of ideas are lost because they'll be picked as comic worthy and then forgotten about until I'm home once more and unable to recall just what we said/did.

For actually writing it out I stick to a panel-centric style and just remember who would say what using my own little shorthand. Often it comes out looking like this:
J: My this pudding is good () A: Indeed / J: You say that a lot / A: Say what? () J: Indeed, you say it a lot. / A: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Obviously, not an actual gag. () indicates separation of word bubbles and / separates panels.

[RobertBlake]

Many of the comics I draw generally come from a few scribbled lines of dialogue, or simply a punchline that I work up to. Storylines, whether they only last a couple of days or a couple of weeks, are usually simple TV Guide-esque description of the plot that I build on.

[Din]

I do everything in a loose manner. Usually, for a one shot gag I'll just draw it out as soon as I can. For story arcs I use a combination of scripting a lot of trash dialog then spend time cleaning it up and applying it to the action that needs to go with it.

I plan story arcs with either scripts, thumbnails, or go straight to drawing, depending on what is strong in the story to me. Action stories go through thumbnail first drafts; dialog stories go through script first drafts. I will do both many times.

I've yet to put the big story in any form other than in my head and I know where everybody is going and generally how they will get there. I don't commit to the sub-plots until I start working on them. I like to keep it fresh that way. The exact end will not change, but it seems to let me take a different journey there if I want to.

I have yet to act out scenes. The closest thing is have my wife pose sometimes when I'm having trouble even making a crappy drawing of an scene.

[Americangothic]

I'm gonna be the weird one here- I wrote a full blown novel. While I am waiting for it to be published, I'm having fun with it as a webcomic.

I decided to take the story and spread it out over two years. I have cut it into 24 months, then down into weeks. From there I know just about the amount of material I'm going to cover in a week. I do give myself a lot of room for changes...already there has been two major changes from the novel-- mostly to keep the number of characters down. I also changed some stuff so I could have a cameo week.

From there I draw up one week storyboard at a time and then it gets assembly lined from there.

I'm a Capricorn...organization is a must or else I go bonkers.

[Elegant Gremlin]

Step 1: Get basic joke.

Step 2: Set up art.

Step 3: Make joke work.

Yah... I'll lay out the comic without actually knowing how it will go and then make it work afterward.

[Warofwinds]

I sleep on it...then cement it during Ochem lecture. Nothing quite like studying aromatic rings to make one focus on fantasy. ><

[Mercury Hat]

Bam.

I wrote out the rough dialogue in a notebook prior to typing it up. I make up the panel layout and everything on the spot, though.

[Deaths Head II]

I have a sheet I carry with my everywhere I go. Ideas come to me at the most random times, and if I don't write it down quickly I forget it. Since my handwriting is so bad, the comic ideas that I can actually make out then get arranged in a loose pattern. I almost never, ever, follow the formula I think of in my head. Once I start writing it down, certain things seem more akward and I adjust them more to make them work. I've head entire punchlines completely change. My latest comic, for example, was going to have the guy just talk about how he loves shoes before I realized that it wasn't funny at all.

[Joel Fagin]

I just sort of construct it in my head.

Well... Plus I wrote it as a novel first. That helps.

- Joel Fagin

[Jim North]

I consult the ever-shifting aether until scripts come wafting down on magical wings.

[Komiyan]

Sometimes I outline chapters in the bck of the notebook, if I'm not so sure where I'm going. Dialouge I make up as I go- basically roughing in the panels on the actual page and adding the lines there. It really isn't the ideal method, but when I work from a script everything feels a lot more static.

[Pimpette]

Pimpette is sort of haphazardly slapped together. When it started I had no idea where it was going - it was a sort of jam, only just with myself. I made stuff up as it went along, which is why the first few chapters don't make any real sense.
Lately I've written up a rough concept of where I want things to go, and storyboard each comic with dialogue and layouts as I go along.

Shenanigan, on the other hand, is more organized, with full detailed scripts written out (for a reason: Lego writes them) for each issue before I can get into the art. I find this makes each page easier to lay out and plan for, really.

I suggest writing out scripts beforehand if you want things to move along more smoothly. I've started writing out scripts for the book versions of each Pimpette webcomic chapter, and it really does make everything easier.

*keynote*

I love you for bringing this to Dawg's (and thus my) attention.

[Mvmarcz]

I'm gonna be the weird one here- I wrote a full blown novel. While I am waiting for it to be published, I'm having fun with it as a webcomic.

You're not alone, I know for a fact at least NJ does this too

[Rkolter]

1) Accumulate a pool of questions, or take questions from my list of submissions to make a pool of questions.

2) research each to find one that will be interesting and actually script-able.

3) Select a question.

4) Research the hell out of the question.

5) Write MY answer to the question.

6) Break my answer down and script the comic based on explaining my answer.

[[geoduck]]

I have the overall background and plot for my strip written up in a (very) big textfile, but when it comes to day-to-day scripting, I generally just type it up when I sit down to draw at my computer. (I may be somewhat unique in that I do the dialogue first, than draw the pictures..) If I meticulously scripted it all out months in advance, I'd get bored drawing it real quick.

I do have a couple of specific scenes written out, even though it will be months or even years before they are seen in the strip. (For anyone who reads the MoE, one of them is the sequence where the reader finally learns the Woman of Mystery's name.)

[Turnsky]

i don't script in the purest sense, what i do is jot down a few things for the chapter, character relations, random notes, etc..

otherwise i script completely on the fly.