Writing 101: Characterization and Script Writing

by Gary Walters

When writing your comic book script, it is important to have the right tools. I prefer to write my scripts in MicroSoft Word, which is a part of the MicroSoft Office suite of products.

To write a comic book script in Microsoft Word, you need to first open the MicroSoft Word program. If you do not have an icon for it on your desktop, click on the "Start" button on the lower left corner of your taskbar (the gray bar on the bottom of your computer screen). Then put your cursor over "Programs" and a menu will come up where you can click on Microsoft Word. Once the program opens, you should probably first save your soon to be script as a Word document. To save a Word file go to the upper left where it says "File" and then click. Then click on "Save As." Give the file a name, probably the name of the comic book you're writing and the issue number, then click the "Save" button. Also, make sure you pay attention to where the file is being saved on your computer. It can take hours to find a file sometimes if you forgot where it was saved when you come back to it later! LOL!

The next most important thing is to know how to format your comic book script so that it is properly formatted to the accepted comic book formatting requirements. Generally you need to identify what page you are on, what panel and then describe the action in that panel. Provide tha captions that further explain what the artist is attempting to draw and give the speech bubbles that the characters say. Most speech bubbles (or word balloons) emphasize a specific word in the sentence by bolding it. That takes an exciting bit of dialogue and makes it even more exciting. Take the following sentence from Issue Number Two of my comic, "Even Steven": "YOU WILL BOW BEFORE ME AND I SHALL SEE THAT YOU SUFFER!" Now, you might think to bold the word "ME" or "YOU". But often the bolded word doesn't often fall where the reader expects. Instead try the following: "YOU WILL BOW BEFORE ME AND I SHALL SEE THAT YOU SUFFER!" Again, it's all about surprising your readers with the unexpected to keep them entertained.

Dialogue is hard, but worth it to get right. Particularly when writing a teenage character, it's important to make sure you have a good handle on teenage dialogue so that you know how they talk like. Good dialogue equals good characterization. I've read elsewhere the idea that you should reveal your character through their actions. "Don't say it, show it", my writing teacher once said. After working as a comic professional for a time, I can tell you though that that isn't always true. Comics are a mix of words and pictures and you, as a writer, don't have complete control over the pictures, so it's important that the dialogue and captions give a full explanation of what is also happening in the image. Great art is fine, but it's the words that matter most and are most necessary top convey meaning in a comic book.

Imagine the following: a comic panel with a drawing of Superman, flying majestically through, the air. Now imagine the same panel with the following panel captions: "SUPERMAN: MY POWERS OF SUPER SPEED AND SUPER FLIGHT WILL GET ME TO LUTHOR IN TIME TO STOP HIS BOMB." "CAPTION: SUPERMAN STREAKS THROUGH THE AIR, IN AN EFFORT TO STOP LUTOR'S NEFARIOUS BOMB!"

See what I mean?

Lastly, its very important that the reader be able to identify with your characters and see themselves in the action. Dialogue can help with that, but there are other ways to create and engaging character. When creating my superly powered character Even Steven, I felt it necessary to ground him somehow. Make him more relatable to the comic book audience of kids and teens. After all, how could they possibly relate to a character with amazing supernatural powers? They gave Superman his kryptonite for those very reasons. Kids couldn't identify with Superman, a man of steel who was impervious to all injuries, until after he had his kryptonite weakness. After the introduction of kryptonite, kids knew that Superman was more like them than they had previously beleived. Kids could finally identify with this alien from another planet who could fly, sure, but who also could now be injured by an alien mineral from another planet. So, in order to make Even Steven more accessible, I decided to dress him in jeans, which is a popular choice of clothing among teens. I also have him wear his school's letter jacket over his bandaged wrapped body, because who didn't want the kind of recognition that wearing a school jacket brought growing up? I also gave him the weakness that he could no longer go out in the daylight, because many teens hate waking up in the morning.

Finally, you should always remember, that when you are writing, you are not just writing for yourself or your audience, your also writing for Hollywood executives who will see an exciting, marketable character and option the character for television and movie projects. This can be very lucrative and for the best, most exciting characters can pay thousands of dollars. Think of your comic as an ad for a movie to be, or a storyboard for an exciting animated film like last summer's blockbuster The Incredibles or this summer's Batman Begins.

Good luck!

Read Volume 1, Issue 3 of The Tricks of Turning Pro.



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