16 Tips and guidelines for writing comic book scripts

These tips and guidelines are mainly aimed at new comic book writers and anyone interested in writing comics. Like film scripts, comic scripts are different to short stories and novels. Their goals, audiences and formats are different.

 
1. The goal of a script

The main goal of a script is to let the artist know what to draw and the letterer what to letter.

The script’s audience:
– Artist(s)
– Letterer
– Editor

The comic’s audience:
– Readers

It’s important to be aware of the different audiences. The readers will never see the script. They only see the final comic. In fact, only a handful of people will see the script.

 
2. The parts of a script

A script consists of:
– Pages
– Panels

A panel consists of:
– A panel description
– Captions, dialogue and sound effects

Captions, dialogue and sound effects should be separate from the panel description. Usually they are placed beneath the description of the panel they appear in. A panel has at least a description, but does not always have captions, dialogue or sound effects.

Pages and panels may also include notes.
Examples:
– Note to tell the artist all the panels on the page are the same size.
– Note to the letterer that a scream continues over multiple panels.
– Note to the letterer to use a specific font for a character.

 
3. Script format

A script’s format should be clear and consistent. Make sure the pages and panels are clearly marked, and add a page break at the end of each page.

A typical script’s format may look like this:

 
4. Focus on visuals in the panel descriptions

Panel descriptions must let the artist know what to draw. The description should only contain info of what must be seen in the panel.

Compare the following two panel descriptions.

Panel 1: It has been a bad day. It started with Tessa and her husband Frank arguing. He stormed off to spend the day with his buddies, leaving her alone and hurt. She spent the morning drinking wine. She is sitting on the sofa in the living room, staring at the empty wine bottle. The bottle rests on a small table. She is feeling lost and unhappy. She is wearing casual clothes, and she is in her mid-twenties.

Panel 1: Late morning. In a living room. Tessa, mid-twenties, sits on a sofa. She looks at an empty bottle of wine on the small table. She looks unhappy. She wears casual clothes.

The first version contains info which the artist doesn’t need. The second version is shorter and to the point. It only has info that directly translates to visuals.

Version one is how you might write a short story or novel, where your audience is the readers. Whereas version two is how to write a comic script, to let the artist know what to draw.

Looking at version one:
– How do you draw “a bad day”?
– The artist doesn’t need to know Tessa and her husband argued earlier in the day. Instead of mentioning something that happened in the past, rather describe the visual results, which the artist needs to draw.
– The same with: “She spent the morning drinking wine.” The artist doesn’t need to know that. The empty wine bottle is enough info. If you want the artist to draw her as drunk then explicitly state it.

Why only include visual info in the panel descriptions?
To keep them short, to the point, and easier to read. The goal is to make the artist’s job easier. The artist shouldn’t have to try to decipher what to draw from unnecessarily long panel descriptions.

 
5. Keep panel descriptions short but informative

Keep panel descriptions as short as possible. But make sure not to leave out anything important. If something’s not in the description then don’t expect the artist to include it in the art.

 
6. Number of panels per page

Try not to have more than 9 panels per page. Use 3-4 panels per page for action sequences. When you have too many panels then the comic becomes more difficult to draw and cluttered, and you may end up with insufficient space for text.

I use an average of 6 panels per page, and I usually don’t have more than 8 panels per page. (Having an average makes the page breakdown easier, and it helps when counting panels to get a page estimate.)

 
7. Number of words per speech balloon/caption

Try not to exceed 25 words per balloon/caption, and about 50 words per panel. Have no more than 3 balloons/captions per panel.

It’s a rewarding challenge to reduce dialogue to fit within these limitations. It’s tempting to write too much dialogue, especially when trying to explain things to the reader. It’s OK to write lots of dialogue when you start a script, but then reduce it when you edit the script.

 
8. Use consistent and obvious keywords

Use traditional comic keywords for dialogue, captions and sound effects. Or you can use your own keywords, as long as they are immediately obvious and consistent.

Examples of traditional keywords:
CAP
SFX
SFX (car engine)
CHARACTER
CHARACTER (OP)
CHARACTER (whisper)
CHARACTER (thought)

CHARACTER will be replaced by the character’s name, or short description if they have no name (e.g. MASKED WOMAN). Usually it’s the character’s first name or surname. Whatever you decide to use, it must be obvious which character is speaking.

 
9. Include time of day and location

Include time of day and location in the very first panel description. And in the first panel of each scene, if time or location changes.

The artist may draw a day scene when you had a night scene in mind, if you didn’t mention it’s night. Or cars driving in the wrong lane when you don’t specify in which country the story takes place.

Time of day can be as simple as: “Morning”, “Afternoon” or “Evening”

 
10. Avoid separate actions per panel

Avoid separate actions in a panel that cannot happen at the same time.

Example:
“She opens the front door of the house, walks to the car and climbs in.”
That should be at least two separate panels, because she cannot open the front door of the house and climb into the car at the same time.

 
11. Put reveals and surprises on even pages

So the reader sees it as they turn the page.

 
12. Use simple present more often than present progressive

Use simple present tense more often than present progressive tense in your panel descriptions.

Simple present example:
She sits on the sofa.

Present progressive example:
She is sitting on the sofa.

Simple present is usually shorter, and an immediate action which makes it easier to visualise.

Example:
“She kicks the kitten” evokes a better visual than “She is kicking the kitten.” There is impact between her foot and the cat. Her foot is not busy flying towards the cat.

There are cases where present progressive provides more clarity or is easier to read. So if you struggle to make a sentence simple present then it should probably be present progressive.

 
13. The writing process

Start with raw ideas and no formatting

When you start a new script, first focus on raw ideas and dialogue before putting it into a script format. This will make it easier and faster to edit in the beginning.

You can start with a simple text editor and save the files as simple text files without any formatting. A simple text editor reduces the temptation to format early on. (A simple text file has no bold, underline, italics or centre/right alignment. And it uses only one font and one font size.)

 
Write dialogue

First write the dialogue in isolation, without panel descriptions or pages in mind. It helps you focus on the dialogue.

It makes it easier to:
– Edit it.
– See the flow.
– Get a sense of how natural it feels (e.g. “I’m” instead of “I am”, unconvoluted).

This process is particularly useful for scripts or scenes that contain a large amount of dialogue. But can also be used for small amounts of dialogue.

 
Flesh out the panels

Break the story up into panels. Add panel descriptions, dialogue, captions and sound effects. The dialogue is taken from the previous step and put into panels. You can also edit the dialogue, most likely adding or removing lines (e.g. now that you have a better idea of the pacing provided by the panels).

The panels don’t have to be final at this point, you can still tweak it during the page breakdown process.

 
Do page breakdown

This is the process of deciding which panels go on which pages.

You should make it easy to identify pages and panels when you do the breakdown.
I use “PAGE $$$” to indicate a page, and “Panel @@@” to indicate a panel.

It makes it easier to:
– See at a glance the pages and panels.
– Count pages and panels per page.
– Add/delete/move panels without renumbering them.
– Add/delete/move page markers without renumbering them.

For short comics the process can be done for the whole comic.
For longer comics:
– First decide approximately how many pages you want for each scene.
– Do the breakdowns per scene.
– Combine the scene breakdowns.

 
Put it into a script format

When you’re happy with the dialogue and breakdown then put it into a script format, and edit it in a more sophisticated editor (e.g. Word or Open Office).

 
Example of the writing process

Below is an example of the writing process, using a sample script to illustrate the steps.

The steps are not always this clear cut. Sometimes they can be mixed, and you can jump back and forth. Each step has multiple editing passes, but the example below shows only one pass per step (for the sake of clarity). For example, you edit dialogue many times in step 2 before you move to step 3.

 
Step 1: Start with raw ideas and no formatting

 
Step 2: Write dialogue

 
Step 3: Flesh out the panels

 
Step 4: Do page breakdown

 
Step 5: Put it into a script format

 
14. Read and edit your script multiple times

Reading and editing your script will improve it. This is one of the most important things you need to know and do.

You’ll find a mistake, or something to improve, almost every time you read through the script. Usually when I think a script is 100% complete I put it away for a day. Then I read it one last time. (And sometimes find a simple mistake.)

 
15. Use a checklist for the final editing process

It will help you find common mistakes. Add things to your list which you often do wrong or forget to do.

I use this checklist when editing a script, especially when I think it’s near complete:
– Do a spell check.
– Double-check page and panel numbers.
– Double-check the number of panels at the top of each page, e.g. “PAGE ONE (five panels)”
– Search for and check “its” and “it’s”. It’s too easy to use the wrong one.
– Read the script in reverse sentence order. Start with the last sentence and end with the first one. It makes my brain more alert and helps pick up simple mistakes, e.g. I used “it” where there should’ve been an “in”, or mixed “his” and “her”.

 
16. A writer’s responsibility

It’s your responsibility as a writer to make the artist and letterer’s work easier.

You do this by:
– Writing a clear script.
– Using a consistent format.
– Providing all the necessary info needed for art and lettering.
– Script should be final when you hand it over to the artist and letterer. (Unless you make changes based on their feedback.)

 
A footnote about collaboration

Most comics are made by more than one person. Collaboration and criticism gently nudge you out of your comfort zone. It gives you an opportunity to grow, especially in ways you wouldn’t if you were to work in isolation. It can be more valuable than always doing things your way. If you’re a solo creator who wishes to grow then I recommend working with others once in a while.

 
Further reading

Dark Horse: Script Format Guide

2000 AD: Submission Guidelines

Blambot: Comic Book Grammar & Tradition

Blambot: Comic Script Basics

Comics Experience: Script Archive

Screenwriter-to-Screenwriter: Q&A: Simple Present vs. Present Progressive (“-ing”) Verb Tense

Slushpile Avalanche: Managing Story Length

 
Header image by Michael Smith from the short comic Widow Maker.