I wouldn't say "I don't script"

My draft is a lot like a script as well. I add notes and I add the dialogue. I just don't make a text only script.

I tried it once but I wasn't good at describing what was going on in the panel to myself. Especially for simple gestures, it's so wordy to write out a gesture when I can easily draft it out and I know exactly what I will want to draw from there.

Also with drafting I have simplified images that I can run through my head over and over again, rethinking the dialogue and such. So when it comes down to actually putting the page in comic form I know any points that I should have the characters saying.

The only time I forgot to add a piece of dialogue I had thought of later was page 1 of issue 2, I was gonna have the reporter ask the person if they were okay. But then again she's from the media and they don't care about stuff like that =P so it wasn't a big deal.

I'm more of a visual story teller than an actual wordy story teller I suppose XD

So far I've written all but one of my KTQ stories as a 3-page prose piece first, and as a rule I don't generally plan them out before I start writing. I just toss around an idea until some part of its hooks me, and then start typing. This is pretty much how I write everything.

But then when I start making pages I'm working from that original prose, so you could say that at that point I have it planned out.

I plan the beginning, certain key scenes along the way, and have a fairly clear idea of where I'm going and who is going to survive by the end, but what happens between those anchor points and how long it takes to reach them is up in the air. Usually I script only three or four issues ahead of where I am, and even then by the time I get to the individual issues I've had time to reflect and that usually gives rise to rewrites.

The working script for issue 5 of "Sune" is 5i, so I've gone through like 8 revisions, some rather extreme. This arc will end in about nine or ten issues, probably ending the series as well (I may continue with some of the characters, just not likely under the same title).

There is no forethought to Dimension. Dimension is whim. Prenna is much like Sune, and Endless Winter is set in stone.

It's kind of complicated, given that I'm not just telling one story, I'm telling multiple stories in multiple books that often share the same timelines, and all (save for Dimension) exist in the same universe, each functioning as building blocks within the larger scope of the story of the universe itself. Though in that instance, I also know how the universe began and how it ends.


I script it all out, and in addition to that I use thumbnails about half the time, the other half I do not, though I usually finish faster if I'm using thumbnails.

The finished pencils are not the first lines I put on the page; there's working through the equasion. Figuring out whether the perspective's totally off or what's in my head really looks okay on paper, whatever, and you just spend more time doing that on a full sheet than in thumbnails because you're covering a larger area doing it. So yes, it's an extra step, multiple extra steps, but ultimately I spend less time per page. Spend a day doing thumbnails, scanning them in and blowing them up, then I print them off as full-sized blue lines. I've done all the work on a smaller scale covering less turf, all my lines after that on the full size are pretty much just inking and details. So while I may have spent an entire day doing thumbnails and scanning and making blue lines, ultimately, I spend a third to half as much time on each finished page. Which is good, because given all my personal obligations, I don't have nearly enough time to spend on my projects as is.

Do you plan endings for your comic stories or are they made up as they go?

Yes.

Aside from a general chronology, I don't generally script, but there are some lines that are thought up way in advance and are archived until such time as I draw the actual page. For example, lines like, "Are you out of your mullet?!" and "Aspire for greater things" are thought up during the writing process, while other lines are left to a vague outline that I punch up as the page is being produced on the computer. There is no advanced dialogue set in stone.

The only exception to this is Dave. All of his lines are carefully written in advance.

Why is this "Dave" so special?

JustNoPoint
I know every major thing that will happen from beginning to end. All I have to do is fill in the events between every story point in my story.

And I have a general idea how each of those places should be filled already too =P

Same here.

I always have a relatively clear idea of what the ending is going to be. Some details might change along the way, of course, but for the most part all that's planned. Now, events that happen in the middle, on the other hand, I'm kinda thinking up as I go. Like a couple of people have said, I know the major events that will happen, but the other stuff I'm still working on.

Nice, another thread from before my times :)

For Din Krakatau I had no idea how it would end (nor did I even have the title or any idea where I'm going with it) but after the end of chapter 1 I knew what direction I want to go. When I was approaching the end of second chapter, I already had the entire story laid out rather loosely and after the completion of the chapter I sat down and wrote and laid out the remaining two chapters. There are also two scripts that were finbished by me before I started working on art. On the first one I just had a vague idea of a confrontation that's going to happen near the end and the story evolved as I went on, while the second one was pretty much defined during the early drafts, but it was somewhat modified later when a character reacted in a lot heavier way than it was originally planned.

There's a script in works (for a graphic novel that I'm unable to create yet as it'll require a lot more artistic knowledge than I have now) that has a clear ending, the final page is burned in my mind and I'm willing to mutilate and rebuild half of the story just to get to that ending.

While you might not think that this applies to a comic strip like George the Dragon, well it does.

I don't necessarily have a end to the comic, more of endings to various story arcs.

When I do a story arc I usually know two things very well: the beginning and the end. The middle is a little nebulous, I'll have certain things that I KNOW must happen along the way, but I worry about them when I get there.

It is the same way I write my novels/stories. Know the beginning really well. Know the ending really well. Find a way to get from point A to point B. Though to be fair, in my fantasy novel I have a huge backstory which informs the plot of the novel and creates the necessity of the exact end that I plotted out.

So far, I have a trilogy planned. MAG-ISA, PARA SAYO, MAHAL KO.

Though there might be future offshoots centered around certain characters... if ever I might feel to go deeper into them or due to popular demand.

I've posted this before maybe in this thread IDK... I've got so much planned I worry that I'll be dead before I finish.

No.

i've had a basic outline in my head, but i put all the dressings on it as i go along. and i DO plan on ending it.