How does your script/planning for your comic pages look?

Here's an example of mine, it's from a new script I'm writing for a comic called Quest For Zanvadas:

78. 1st panel shows Ri. ‘I don’t know Durrik! I know nothing about his kind!’ 2nd panel shows Durrik again. ‘We should have asked him more about his kind before!’ 3rd panel shows Ri again. ‘What, because we should have somehow known this would happen? Don’t be stupid, Durrik, we had no reason to ask!’ 4th panel shows Durrik looking angry. ‘Being worried is not being stupid, Ri!’ 5th panel shows him sink back against the wall. ‘I...I can’t think straight when I’m worried, you know that.’ 6th panel shows him sat with his head in his hands.

Page X

1. Hyena Hell sits at computer.
HH: "What does my script look like, eh?"

2. Gets up from computer; rising- hand on chair.
HH: "Well, I'll show you."

3-5 = second row

3. HH exits panel. We see her walking out of view (we only see half of her).

4. Empty chair/ computer.

5. HH return, again walking into view (we only see half of her).

6. HH hold up stack of printed pages; we see cover page, it reads "Liver and Let Die"
HH: "Well, here's the script for the third chapter of the Hub".

7.
HH: "Uh... and there ya have it."

I very rarely just do script. Often I'll draw a quick version of the comic, so I do speech, layout, expressions etc in one blow. With doing a humour comic I don't have to worry that much, and just do it quickly. Sometimes the characters are little more than stickmen, and sometimes, if they're not in any unusual position or anything, they'll just be a box with their name on, but I always copy out the text in full. So the 'script' version of one of my comics is usually around 4-6 cm wide.

I change my approach between projects.

For the first half of Din Krakatau I used notes that looked like this:



for my "vampire" project I wrote a 300kb .rtf script file (450+ pages of story). It was more of a free-flow writing that was automatically cut into pages (I fell into the specific writing rhythm so there wasn't that much problems with page turns).

(semi-caption is my own term for pasting text straight on the art rather than using caption boxes, I use that for character thoughts or when htey're telling a story).
Example:

page 7.

1. Closeup on Bela.
semi-caption: "What the hell is going on? There hasn't been a ghoul plague
in centuries. Is it a rogue vampire? Some age old overlooked ghoul that dug itself
out after five or six centuries?"
2. Showing a staked ghoul. His body is twisted.
semi-caption: "No, this is something else. Something more sinister. None of
the ghouls I saw in my life were so twisted and vile. It's as if there was some new
plague."
3. Showing Bela, behind him a servant appears. The servant clearly doesn't
belong to him and is dressed in a totally different, plainer fashion.
servant: Count Bela?
4. Bela turns around, looking over his shoulder.
Bela: VOIVODE Bela. Yes?
5. The servant is scared.
servant: I uh... please excuse me, sir. A messenger from... from vatican...

(there should be a tab/set of spaces at the beginning of each line in the above bit)

which was later drawn as a tiny layout (perhaps 3 inches tall for each page) with the dialogue and some random notes next to it. The dialogue so that I could see visually how much space I need to leave for the word balloons when doing lettering and then drawn, resulting in this page:



For my "djinn" project (which I'm REALLY hoping to draw sometime next year) I chose a fairly loose script method (thus scripting all 300 pages in 2 weeks) which will be refined as I approach the art.

It looks something like this (slightly edited to hide stuff):

book 2

(page 1-3)book two could start on an airboat with one of the djinn crying (she could be the ruler of XXXXX). Let's say it's XXX.
she's crying for the lost knowledge.
XXX: so much lost... never to be recovered, ever again.
djinn friend trying to help her, perhaps hugging her: XXX... we managed to save some.
XXX: save? save what? THREE airships? that's it? Barely a drop in the sea of knowledge we once had. Even a hundred airships couldn't carry a tenth of all the books and manuscripts.

XXX gets up, goes to the railing on the airship, looks at the other two ships flying nearby. Then she looks at the clouds of smoke rising from the city as they leave them behind.

"all our knowledge. lost forever."
"we believed we were ready"
"we believed XXXXX's walls were able to stop the barbarian hordes."

and finally, for the six page story I'm writing it like this, which will be edited as I get to lettering:

page ONE:
panel 1, a man shown walking through the place., strange statues around, bizarre columns.

"he's been walking through this strange landscape for so long that the word time lost its meaning and became one of many terms he left behind."

"he needed no food nor drink anymore and never tired, just kept on moving on and on."

panel 2, closeup on his head, behind that a mosaic of various images of destruction.
"faint images of something terrible were filling his mind..."

and the art looks like this:


---
So as you can see the approaches vary. Din Krakatau was more about figuring things out straight on the page, "vampire" project is more like a long novel with more rigid panel grid (most of pages operate from a modified 6-panel grid), "djinn" will be more about showing stunning visuals and the 6-pager is about blending heavier "short story" narration with more European inspired art.

It's more of a carelessly jotted down note of something I find funny than a script.

For Used Books, I usually write pages of just lines and short action descriptions with dividing lines between planned pages. I denote characters with just one letter unless their are two with that letter in the scene. Something like this (note, not a real scene XD):

S (gazing sadly at photo): Why did he do that?
K (fiddling with the cash register): Can the naive crap. You know why he did it. He's a manipulative, self-centered bastard.
S: That's really not fair. You don't know if he --
Y (bursting through front door in interruption): You guys have to come out and see this!
K: What?
Y: You just have to see! Hurry!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Large top panel. Scene of UFO crashed into bank. Aliens flee from bank wearing ski masks and carrying large black money bags.)
(Aliens trip over S foot while escaping.)
(Alien draws weapon. Holds S hostage.)
(Y& K look at each other)
S: Why does this kind of thing keep happening?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~END CHAPTER~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHAPTER 79: The Spider and the Fly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(First panel shows...


You get the idea. I'll have pages of that, always hand-written in the sloppiest handwriting ever, barely decipherable. After I get a story arc written out, I take each sectioned page and I draw a quick layout plan like the *actual* page below (censored to remove spoilers, as I couldn't find the draft for a page I've already uploaded.)



I don't do scripts for Gelotology. It's such a simple strip that when I have an idea, I just draw it. I then scan this drawing and edit it directly to make the final strip.

Usually, a storyline for Negligence starts as nothing more than a phrase I jot down in a notebook (this is a whole page of story ideas):


After I decide to work on one of the ideas, I start sketching out each strip for the story (this is a sketch of one of my favorite strips):


I then create a blue pencil sketch, which I ink, scan, merge together, live-trace in Illustrator, and then add text. This is the final product:

I tend to keep a lot of stuff in my head, but when I started to think of a lot of plot twists for my story and some ideas I thought were pretty cool, I began to write out chapters in a journal. I have up until chapter 5 fully written, but I know how my story is going to end, and roughly how long it's gonna take me to get there; I just haven't written everything out.

As for dailogue, I never plan that; I think if I did, I would go insane. I have no clue what everyone is going to say until I start drawing the page XD. I only write down short sentences/words about what should happen on each page. For example, for the 7th page of the current chapter, all I wrote in my journal was this:

#7 - going though evidence; James leading investigation; more info on cases.

Writing helps me plan out how long each chapter is going to be, and I check off pages as they're drawn.

I don't really write scripts so much as I make little notes, jotting down the important events of each chapter and about how long to drag them out :) Like so!:

Chapter 3:
-Bob has interview for cashier position at Walmart, gets hired (4-5 pages)
-Bob starts his first day, starts training (2 pages)
-Angry customer confronts Bob (2 pages)
-Bob feels insulted, quits (2 pages)

I don't really like planning out all the dialogue and whatnot in advance; I personally don't see much point to it, as I'll constantly be revising it and rewording it to get it to sound natural, and not like a script :) So such simple bullet forms works more than perfectly for me.

* above is not an actual webcomic chapter

For me, I use a script as a general guideline, but I end up change the dialogue 9/10 anyways. It's mostly there as a reference as to what is happening in each panel.

Most of it just flies out of my head and is transfered onto the computer basically.

For my current comic it's actually mostly unscripted, stream of consciousness style. The only real guidelines I have are where the page begins, ends, and sometimes what I want to have happen in the meantime. I usually end up changing my plan around a bit as I'm drawing, and on most pages I end up changing speaking lines a little as well.
I'm still in the planning stages of my next comic, actually planning. Rather than write up a script I drew up thumbnailed pages, about four on a sheet. They actually look like this:

usedbooks

Sorry, I know it's lazy but I'd rather not dig around through my notes to find something almost exactly the same as this.

It really depends on who's writing.

For instance, I'm the artist for Splash Damage, and my writer will just give me a word document with scripts for the next set of comics. By "scripts", I mean just what the characters will say, nothing else. He really leaves it completely up to me to bring his words to life in the art. That's completely unproffesional, but that's how it works for us.

In the actual industry, you'd be writing more like what everyone else has said.

Okay, now that I'm home I can do a better example. ;) So here's the original script for the current page of "The Hub"...

NINE

One:

Vic: “Fuck. So this is really happening, huh? Well, if I'm trapped here-”
Cutter: “...And ya are.”
Vic: “-then I guess I won't be needing these anymore...” (holding up keys)

Two:
(view: water in foreground, Vic sitting on rock. He tosses the keys into the water- we see them in mid-air.)
Vic: “Fuck it.”


Three:
(digging through wallet)
Vic: “Uh... driver's liscense? Nope. Bank card? Ha. Nope. And- whose fuckin' number is this? Whatever. Li- wait, why the hell do I have a library card?” (holding up card, examining it.)

Four:
Vic: “Aw, fuck it all.” (tossing wallet into lake; cards fly from it; lake/wallet in foreground- splashing into water; Vic as sillouette, looking up.)

(Five & Six on top of each other, in left half of bottom row)

Five:
Vic: (holding up lighter, cigarette in mouth) “Heh. At least I can still use this...” (flick)

Six:
Vic: (lighter won't start)“Oh, no. No. No, this is not even fuckin' funny.” (flickflickflcikflick)

Seven:
Cutter: “Ha. How you feelin' about slittin' them wrists now?”
Vic: (flickflickflick) “Uh... well- I guess that depends on whether one of you guys has some matches...”


And here's how the page turned out:



It always gets edited down to like, the last second, especially with stuff like panel layouts.

If you're the artist and writer of the comic, I really don't think scripting every page is necessary.

I basically have the whole outline for the story in my head just so I don't diverge to far off the beaten path.

And for each page I do a quick thumbnail of the page with just a rough idea of what the characters are going to say.

Ok, who am I kidding, I pull this stuff out of my arse.

Zaymac you know that using the word 'arse' in conversation is actually 25% of whats needed to become a British citizen? (the other factors are - supporting us at football, calling it football and not soccer, and being drunk.)

When it comes to scripting, I don't really have a script, though I have rough notes and ideas plotted for years of comic in advance.
I usually plan out details more exactly as a new page comes nearer and then finalise things when I come to draw it.

There really isn't any scripting beyond writing in the words in pencil as I draw it.

zaymac
If you're the artist and writer of the comic, I really don't think scripting every page is necessary.

If that's true for you, bravo! But I need about 5 drafts of anything before I make a final version.

Plus

I basically have the whole outline for the story in my head just so I don't diverge to far off the beaten path.

You have a lot of confidence in your memory! If I don't write down the scenes that come into my head or the inspired dialogue the first time I think of it, I'm almost guaranteed to lose it forever. Sometimes I think of scenes that won't show up in my story for hundreds of pages. There's no way I'll remember them at the same level they were at that inspired moment.

In short, I might not have the luxury of an artist to work with but I still have to script for my "artist" because that person is "future Vickie" who, like any other separate artist, lacks the insight and detailed knowledge possessed by the writer "present Vickie." The benefit is that the script doesn't have to be especially detailed or legible. Future Vickie *usually* can interpret small cues and reminders.

Normally I draw pages out beforehand and write the script out on the sketched page, or I have them in my head. I tried writing an actual script in word, but I kept moving so far away from the story I originally wrote down. So now I normally jot things down in notebooks and such.

For example, here's my plan for the first page of chapter 4 that I planned out a couple of months ago:



(Ignore the messiness, its been tucked into a notebook for at least 4 months now!)

I usually stay with this format most of the time. I might change the paneling or the dialog a little to make it less cluttered and quicker to draw, but I usually stay pretty close to my original design.

Well, I write the scripts in Serbian, and only the dialogue in English, but here is what I aim my scripts to look like. This is an excerpt from Grant Morrison's "Invisibles" [en.wikipedia.org] . You will notice it is a lot like a movie script (I wrote those, too, but not professionally).

Someone
1. EXT. COUNTRYSIDE. HARMONY HOUSE. NIGHT

Begin on a photograph of a 15 year old boy - DANE McGOWAN. The sort of
thing mums keep on dressing tables. A man and a woman briefly study the
picture. They look like social workers, dressed in black. The faces are
bland, barely registering. They look almost like clones, ciphers. The
Midwich Cuckoos grown to maturity. The woman slips the photograph into a
black zip up folder and they walk out of shot, so that we’re looking
through the chain link gates at a neo-brutalist reform school/correctional
facility. Neat identifying sign on the gates tells us that this is
HARMONY HOUSE. Faint screaming and sobbing from within.


CREDITS SEQUENCE


2. EXTERIOR. COUNCIL ESTATE. NIGHT

Petrol bomb is lit. Here’s DANE McGOWAN, 15 year old hooligan. Face of an
angel, soul of Beelzebub. He pulls back his arm. Petrol bomb poised to
throw. An image of revolution. Mad joy on his face.

DANE : YAAAAAAAA

He hurls the petrol bomb.


3. INTERIOR. SCHOOL LIBRARY. NIGHT.

Petrol bomb smashes through window, exploding merrily. Liquid flame spills
across the floor. The curtains ignite.

4. EXTERIOR. COUNCIL ESTATE. NIGHT.

Flamelight on the excited faces of Dane and his partners in crime GAZ and
BILLY. Gaz is crop-headed, dumb and always ready for trouble. Billy sports
baseball cap, spots, greasy hair. He’s less sure of himself, more afraid
of being caught. Sound of crackling glass and flames.

GAZ : YES! Nice one, Dane!

Dane, face rapt as a saint’s, pauses for just a moment to admire his work,
then, reluctantly, makes a decision.

DANE (shouts) : RUN FOR IT!

He starts running. Billy’s right behind him. Gaz waits for just a
moment, mesmerised by the flames, then follows. Mad, headlong rush
through the neglected streets. Among the graffiti on the wall, we glimpse
the words ‘KING MOB’. The boys are full of life and vigour. Yelling and
laughing.


DANE (singing) : WE ARE THE BOYS! WE ARE THE BOYS! WE ARE THE
MILTON...

He leaps into the air, triumphantly.

ALL : PO-SSE!

Laughter as they disappear down the street, kicking refuse sacks open.


5. EXTERIOR. COUNCIL ESTATE. NIGHT.

Fire engines and police cars racing down street. Bells ringing, caterwaul
of sirens.

DANE (V.O.) : Check it out.

I literally do my pages panel by panel. I mean, in one of my pages in Out There, I drew the first four panels, and then the dude found something. I had no idea what he was gonna find, maybe some dead people, maybe something out of the ordinary, maybe some girl. I had no idea. When I finally chose what it should be, it was (well will be, not yet it is) story changing! I know basically what's gonna happen in my story, this will, and then some sort of ending. But anything in greater detail is beyond me until I draw the page. It's pretty poor of me I know, but it's working out so far!

My next comic is gonna be different though. I have planned out much more than I have in Out There.

It really depends. I always do panel-by-panel scripts because the scripting stage is where I think about how to break the story into pages and panels. But the panel descriptions can be anything from an entire paragraph like for panel 1 on the current page to absolutely nothing except the dialogue and who's saying it, and the descriptions I write probably often wouldn't make sense to anyone but me because I'm really only kind of communicating with me. And then of course I deviate from both panel structure and dialogue when I get to the page layout and realize it doesn't work.

I keep my scripts in folders within folder on my desktop. I create individual files within folders for each chapter and the settings and dialogue for each page goes like this.
I tend to work out the panel layout during the storyboarding stage unless specified otherwise.

PAGE NUMBER

Panel Number.
Character 1: Do you hear something? --
Character 1: -- I hear something.
Character 1: I (italics)definitely(/italics) hear something.
Character 2: What?

Panel Number.
Caption (Character 1): I knew I'd heard something.
SFX (Bold letters): BOOM!!!

http://drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=590346

---
17
Lucia: Also known as the "soul". Unfortunately, our current degenerate society either denies its existence or leaves it at the mercy of a so-called dictatorial "God" who will either put you in heaven or hell at the end of your life.
That is why... it is important that this new world come into reality. The Order is the only force in this world that is truly dedicated to advancing the common good of society and the people of the world!
(*Lucia reaches out her hand to Eman*)

Eman. This is the future. All of humanity will be having the BEAM. Which will enable them the right to EQUALLY experience a higher meaning to this life.
They will be free from the mental prisons of religion and "social norms".
They will be free from the limitations of the physical body that manifests itself in "disease".
Their eyes will open. To a world without borders. Without hate. A world without fear. A New World. Of infinite possibilities...

In this chip. Is freedom. Do you want freedom, Eman?

http://drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=592816

---
18
Eman: What do you mean by asking me if I want freedom?!? Of course I want freedom!!! I wanna see the light! I wanna experience a higher meaning to this life! Please, Lucia... Please give it to me!
I'm sick and tired of my life and I wanna change it!
Please give me the chip! I'll do anything you say!!!

Please give it to me...... so I can better carry out the missions assigned to me by The Order!!!

So that I can help bring forth a New World Order of Love... and Peace to this planet!!!

Pleace Lucia. GIVE ME THE CHIP! I BEG YOU MA'AM!!!

Lucia: Very well, Eman. If you want it that much, so be it. Ask and you shall receive. And please... no need to get down on your knees and worship me like I'm a goddess or something. Its embarrassing.

Eman: Thank you, Lucia! Thank you very much! Thank you for giving me the best day of my life!!!

I've been practicing some different styles of scripting...well...only two, I recently read about the Marvel style of scripting that is used by writers who are too busy to put together a script.

The Standard

Someone
Page 1 (1 panel)

Panel A: Namiko, Kodin, and Marie stand on a hill, as they face a group of twenty demons coming

towards them.

Marie: Do you really have to kill them all, Namiko?

Namiko: Yes, Marie, it's either we kill them or they kill us.

The Marvel style

Someone
Page 1
Namiko, Kodin, and Marie stand as they face a group of demons. “Do you really have to kill them all, Namiko?” Marie asks, concerned. “Yes, Marie, it’s either they kill us or we kill them.” Namiko replies, somewhat annoyed.

In a way, the Marvel style is probably only a type of scripting because of Stan Lee.

For 20 years, I did not script my superhero comics. Then in 2003, I started Due East with my wife and a script became essential. It's a slice-of-life comic and there's not as much room for improv. Each scene has to flow, make sense and work with the other scenes. There's also a lot more dialogue.

So here's how my scripts generally work (not an actual Due East page):

PAGE TWENTY

Frame One:
(Description: Doug Hu lays awake in bed, looking a combination of exhausted but happy.)

Doug: (thinking) Tomorrow, Crystal and I are getting married again! How many times have I hoped for -- dreamed about -- this! And now it's really happening!

Frame Two:
(Description: Close up on Doug's face)

Doug: (thinking) So, of course, I can't sleep! (*sighs*)

---- End of Script ---

Now I find that scripts work for any kind of comic. Sometimes I still improvise a bit, especially in action sequences, but otherwise I script pretty exclusively. B)

Script?

Eirikr
Script?

Agreed!!!

Although I do jot down moments in my life so that I can remember them later. e.g. "hamster drowning" will remind me of what to draw, the 4 panels are already in my head from thinking about it while I'm walking to work etc. No script necessary!

I'll post an example of how my scripts are put together. Only the first two pages though, since that's all I have up. Don't want to spoil the rest for any readers following it XD

Amya
Chapter #1 Unexpected Meetings

The story begins in a dream; that seems both abstract and familiar to our heroine, Faye. She cannot tell for how long she has been walking, or where she came from. She stands in the middle of a vast desert wasteland. In all directions but ahead, nothing but sand can be seen: for ahead she sees strange sight. It looks to be a town, or at least the remains of one. A pedestal remains in the center of town, most likely used for celebration and ceremony...though nothing of the sort is going to take place now. What is this...?

PAGE ONE

SPLASH PAGE - To be done in colour

A scorching desert lays before the reader, the sand dunes swirl across the setting as seen in idealized movies and photos. The silhouette of a city can be made out on the highest dune - it should appear mirage like. Faye stands to the left of the image; she seems unsure of the setting. It should seem abstract in a way - dreamlike.

CAPTION: THIS IS THE END.

PAGE TWO

PANEL ONE;
This panel is wide, takes up the entire page. Panels One, Three and Four all share this same dimension.
A bright, scorching desert horizon is seen. Almost similar to the splash page; but perhaps a bit closer. On top of the biggest dune, the silhouette of a city can just barely be made out, as if it's a mirage to the reader. A sandstorm is swirling around.

FX: Fwoooosh

PANEL TWO;

Same width as Panel One, but twice as long. The panel has no borders.
Faye is shown here, and looks as if she's just swallowed a fistful of sand by accident; she's shielding her eyes from the wild sand and wind, but the reader can still see her squinting ahead.

NO TEXT

PANEL THREE;

The village's silhouette is bigger now, much closer. An ant-sized human shadow approaches it.

NO TEXT

PANEL FOUR;

Faye can be seen from behind now, her dress is whipping with the wind violent. She still defends her face from the sandstorm

CAPTION: It ends with WIND. A storm that will carry the spirits of the fallen away from this universe.
CAPTION: A wind that signals a change in the natural order.
FX: Fwoooosh

It depends on who I'm writing it for. If I'm working with an artist it's pretty in depth and plots out panels, and angles and layouts and such. If I'm drawing it myself, I usually write my scripts like a short story, or just leave breaks for dialogue

Typically, it looks like a piece of printer paper folded in half with a scribbled panel layout, supplemented by a typed up list of short sentences describing the action in each page. If there's a specific line of dialogue I want to include, I'll type it in, but usually it's just a generic description of what the character will say.