What are some steps I could take to improve as a comics writer? How can I improve descriptions of scenes or characters? How can I make dialogue more fluid and natural? How can I strengthen the structure of a story to make it stronger?
I'd appreciate help and advice. I feel that I'm not doing enough to improve as a writer.
Writer a lot, look at stories and scripts of stories you think are good?
What do you think you're doing wrong?
>>81566825
As a writer all you can hope to do is describe the scene so the artist gets what you want. It's not prose, you don't have to paint a picture, just mechanically let the artist know what you want to be in the shot. Don't be too caught up on details though, as the artist will have a better idea for how to visually fill a space than you will.
As for dialogue, watch good movies.
>>81566908
I don't feel motivated enough, I don't feel I'm pushing myself hard enough. I don't know how to contract the page and make the dialogue flow together with a natural tone to it. I DO NOT want it to be flat, expositiony, dull, or 'too much'.
>>81567164
That all comes with practice. You're certainly not going to get better if you're not motivated enough to even work at it.
>>81566825
I kinda want to break into comics writing but I've never really wrote before. Where do I start?
>>81566825
Do the PIXAR exercice:
1. Take the movie/book/comic/series/cartoon you hate the most
2. How would you do to change it into something you like?
>>81567412
Practice, practice, practice. Do short stories; if you get an idea for a character or scenario, write a scene or a short story about it. It doesn't have to be good, it doesn't even have to be complete; it's practice for your sake, not a product for the world to see. Feel free to revisit old scenes/stories and revamp them with a new angle or twist.
Putting it down on paper makes you think about the scene, the pacing, etc in depth and gives you a solid handle on the concepts and characters.
Doing this with short things for practice will develop your style, and it's a great way to experiment with ideas so you see what works and what doesn't. (We all get some ideas that seem great but, in the end, aren't that fruitful.)
>>81566825
The #1 technique advice I can offer is "Bang it out now, tart it up later." Almost every great author writes an ugly, awful first draft and then revises it over and over until it shines.
Writing the first draft allows the scenes to percolate in the back of your head, so it's way, way easier to reshape them into something better later.
Not Op, but is writing comics more difficult than prose and screenwriting?
>>81572391
>Not Op, but is writing comics more difficult than prose and screenwriting?
Webcomic writer here. Prose, comics, and screenwriting are very different monsters, and when people mix them up it's awful.
Like, sometimes you'll see an amateur prose writer try to describe camera angles and narrator voiceovers and stuff as though they're explaining a movie scene. This is horrible! The effect doesn't translate at all, and it ruins immersion.
Prose writers who go into comics sometimes overuse narration boxes and forget they can show stuff with pictures. This is also pretty bad.
Screenwriters tend to think more about timing than a comic author does. This is where you get those comics with lots of repeated panels to show pauses and stuff. I admit I do this myself, and I attribute it to my background being in animation more than comics.
>>81566825
OP, let's see some of your bubbling!
>>81572391
It's very similar to screenwriting, except a bit more decompressed and you can wander more.
Prose writing is a completely different animal, since the reader's mind does the job of the artist as well.
>>81566825
Comics writer here. I write a webcomic. I've posted it before but I'll refrain from doing so because that's not relevant.
I've been writing and creating comics since 2002 for sure, probably earlier but 2002 is the first time I did so digitally. I can't draw so a lot of my early stuff was MS Paint abominations and sprite comics. But I kept writing, off and on, for many years. Then, in 2014, I wrote an absolute massive amount of comic stuff, nearly 500 total comic pages worth of stuff, as well as extensive worldbuilding with critique from others along the way. That really shaped me into the writer I am today, that and analyzing what works in comics I read and what doesn't. You have to look at comics writing in a different way than you're used to in order to analyze it but that analysis can be extremely useful. Practice and study are how you get good, unless you're part of the 0.0000000001% of the world who is exceptionally naturally talented, which you aren't, because you made this thread.
Practice and study. There's no secret. Just hard work.
>>81572391
It's easier than prose and probably about as difficult as screenwriting. The main difference between comic scripting and screenwriting is how you format it.
>>81572591
Bubbling?
You should draw the comic not just write it
>>81573178
Speech bubbles! Throw them on some little stick figure panels you made, or panels made by someone else, or whatever.
>>81573224
As someone who is doing both of those on a new project, its really a fucking lot of work
>>81569566
This. Even if you have a story behind your eyeballs, if you don't put it on paper, that's where it will stay
What is the beat way to contract dialogue that sticks? Dialogue that's strong and resonates rather than sounding too edgy or too flimsy?
>>81575131
"edgy" is often just a way to describe a tonal disparity and poor characterization coming from that
also see shit that has been done similar to what you are doing, and try to learn how that was handled
>>81566825
Take up text-based role-play.
>>81572591
It's a different animal. When you're writing prose you're writing for the reader, and your goal should be conveying to them what is happening.
Screenwriting is for the director, actors, producers, etc. It's a guide for them to make the film, once a screenplay is finished the writer is usually not involved in production thereafter.
Comic writing is a dialogue between you the writer and the artist. When I write a script I try to work with my partner in mind and write to their strengths; give them detail where it's important but also be loose and vague when you trust the artist to make a leap. Some artists like to have a really prescriptive type of script where you describe the details of every panel others prefer to have minimal instruction on the art and just need stage directions and dialogue. It really depends on them and your relationship with them.
The most important thing you can do to improve as comic writer, especially one trying to attract collaborators is to respect the artists. I don't care how long you spent working on your script, artists will easy spend double to triple that on the art, so don't be an entitled brat. In my experience the best collaboration comes from a place of mutual respect and friendship.
>>81575131
>>81575627
I find that the best way to figure out of your dialogue works is to read it out loud with someone else who doesn't know your story and ask them what they think. Bad dialogue becomes really apparent out loud.
>>81575627
I didn't mean edgy as in "grimdark". I meant it as in "a stamen is made that's quick but bland"
>>81576286
There really is no formula.
I would recommend, try reading Joseph's Cambell "The Power of Myth" and "Story" by Robert McKee
Also read works considered to be "masterpieces" of the genres you are trying to write
Read foreign classics (russian, french and hispanic) to see how characters interact without the use of english modernisms and idioms
>>81576629
Why joseph cambell??
>>81577235
Joseph Cambell is one of the most essential texts you can read as a writer on any medium. It goes through how mankind has been telling the same stories for as long as mankind has told stories. Its essential for understanding some of the most basic genre conventions found in all stories. Even if you want to do something that's a great departure from the ordinary and the conventional, it's important to know rules and understand them if you plan to break them.
>>81577938
Wow. That sounds like a good idea. I like that, reading the history and laws of stories.
>>81566825
>Steal someone else's idea
>call it your idea
>repeat
winning formula hasn't failed yet
>>81567164
You don't want to push yourself TOO hard though.
Do you draw, or just write? If you don't draw, I'd recommend writing something short, exactly how you'd normally write and then trying to put pictures to it. Even crude stick figures will work. Just to get a better feel of how the words and pictures will interact. Or, find a script online (I'm sure there's tons around.)and try to put pictures to that. That way you're looking at it from the artists perspective and can use that information towards verbally communicating what your scenes should look like.
Another idea (which may be a little creepy) is to go into a public place, coffee shop, restaurant, park, and try to describe the people in it and their actions. Write down what they're doing, how they're doing it, things they say, what they look like, etc. Take notes on their movement.
I can't give any advice on motivation. I'm literally the most unmotivated person I know.
>>81578712
the opposite keeps happening to me
>come with certain idea for a story, too lazy to develop it
>get cucked by some other writer couple years later, now if i do develop it, i will be seen as "derivative"
>>81566825
The best thing to do is study. Look at an area of your writing that you think needs work, and then look at a comic you like and think critically about why that comic works and yours doesn't. Really dig into it, get analytical. This goes for any type of writing, not just comics.
>>81578755
at this point absolutely everything everywhere is basically derivative. I sincerely doubt someone can make anything that is 100% original ant not something someone else wrote about at some point. Just ask Harlan Ellison.
>>81578877
This. Seriously I used to fret when I thought of something great and found out somebody else had already done it, but now I just don't even care. Thinking of something original is honestly the least important part of writing.
>>81578939
>>81578877
I had an unfinished short story that was about information hygiene, basically how much modern society spends on protecting its computing devices and from "bad" bits of information but how little care is put to protect our brain from the same type of things, because language processing is essentially unfiltered.
Then i read Multiversity like a week ago and one of the lines on my short story is almost identical to stuff on the the last issue.
>>81566825
>How can I improve descriptions of scenes or characters?
Convey as much as you can without dialogue. Because comics are a visual medium, you should take advantage of that.
>How can I make dialogue more fluid and natural?
Observe how people talk in real life. Talk out your lines to yourself, and see if you could imagine a real person saying them without it sounding weird.
>How can I strengthen the structure of a story to make it stronger?
What is your central theme? How strong is the presence of that theme in the story?
Does your story have an introduction, followed by rising tension until it reaches a climax and then a resolution that (this is important) actually says something about who your characters are as people? Does the resolution for your theme?
Can you describe your characters without mentioning superficial traits or their role within the story?
>>81578690
It's a fairly common anecdote that George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars with Joseph Cambell open on his lap. When you start studying the history of storytelling you'll realize how universal our stories are.
This thread is very helpful. Thank you all.
