The 5 Basic Elements of Comic Book Writing
Start Writing That Comic Book Today!
Before delving into the deepest gears of storytelling for comic books, you first need to understand the basics. These are the key concepts, terms, and elements that you should know in order to start crafting quality stories for the panels.
1. Visual Storytelling
Unlike films, comic books are a purely visual medium. Thus, the narrative must be planned accordingly since before any word is put down on paper. But before we talk about the central element, action, we need to explore the rest of equally important visual features that make up this art form.
- Design: As comic book writers, we should consider ourselves lucky. We get what many other kinds of writers can only dream of: Our characters, worlds, and creatures are visually designed from scratch. While other media, like film, are heavily conditioned by budget, we can work along with artists to craft our story even in the craziest and most stylized ways possible with a lot more freedom. The limit is our imagination (and the objectives of the team we work with). For this reason, you also need to consider your story in terms of color, character design, art style, world-building, etc. All the different comic book artists who work on a project inevitably have to agree on the aesthetic direction it will take, and that’s why you need to possess a resolute but flexible artistic outlook. Sometimes the team will get together and plan the whole project from scratch and sometimes you will write the entire script independently before passing it on to the penciler and the letterer.
IN SHORT: Write with graphic design in mind, maintain a strong relationship with the other artists working on the project and lay the narrative groundwork so ANY artist can understand your idea and flesh it out to its full potential.
- Sequencing: Equivalent to film editing. Sequencing is how you dissect time into panels. You can break down a single second into a hundred different panels or you can jump ahead several millennia in a single page. The result may feel exciting or confusing, depending on how appropriate it is for the particular story you’re writing. It also indicates the spatial flow and layout of the panels on the page. Take, for example, how we read left to right and top to bottom in the West, though comic books don’t necessarily have to follow that to a tee. This doesn’t mean you’re in charge of the final look of the comic book, though. Your job is to redact the script in a way that evokes a clear mental image in the mind of your fellow artists and incites them to design the pages in the most fitting manner. Since the moment you write the story, the pacing of the whole comic book begins to set itself, so choose your words and your style very carefully.
IN SHORT: Pay attention to the rhythm and pacing of the story. It will dictate the visual style and the overall experience of the reader.
- Off-Panel Action: What the reader imagines outside the panel can be multiple times more impactful than what you explicitly show to them. When you’re writing the story, keep in mind what information you’re leaving out. Your goal is to create suspense and expectation. But be careful. Not everything you leave out of the page is guaranteed to produce the same effect. Leave the wrong information out and you may trigger the sensation that it isn’t important, because the reader may not have spent enough time with it or may not have yet created the connection needed to believe there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
IN SHORT: Be strategic about what information you convey implicitly. Look for the proper balance between what the readers see and what they imagine. To become more familiar with this, I recommend you read suspense/horror novels and screenplays.
2. Plot Structure
Comic books are engaging in the way they’re consumed. Like TV, each issue tells a self-contained “episode” of a larger story, which in turn tells a certain chapter of a character’s or group of characters’ life.
On the other hand, comic books have the advantage of being able to break numerous boundaries of style and format. The amount of budget, star power, and a variety of production requirements don’t apply to comic books the same way they apply to other media.
You can play around with more narrative freedom without such constraints as not being able to set a scene in space or introduce as many new characters as you can handle. The constraint, however, lies in the plot structure. You can have the most captivating characters and the most exciting setting ever, but if you don’t pay attention to the arrangement of the story, then you’ll find yourself in deep trouble.
The central factor in the dramatic structure of comic books is long-form storytelling, which doesn’t necessarily entail a decades-long series or a big event with the scope of Secret Wars or Crisis on Infinite Earths. Long-form storytelling permeates every title in each of its dramatic nuances.
From layered bits of dialogue to stealthy setups, every issue needs to pave the way to something bigger. The road to a climax of climaxes is an essential part of the sense of direction that every comic book demands. The entire project requires a sense of unity so that your readers pick up any issue and get instantly hooked on the overall story.
Of course, you must aim to craft a complex narrative without disregard for any detail of the plot of each issue. For a sturdy micro and macro structure, I recommend you always outline every moment of the larger story from beginning to end.
Plan out the distribution of beats, plots, subplots, setups, and payoffs across the journey and don’t be afraid to shake things up. Sometimes you need to let go of your favorite ideas to make everything clearer and sometimes you need to reinvent the core of the tale before advancing to the next stage.
I can’t tell you a one-fits-all structure for your particular idea, but I can suggest you get familiar with the most popular types of structures in film, novels, TV shows, myths and, by all means, comic books.
Read lots of ’em; the most and least popular. Study how stories work as a unit in one issue and stretch as a whole since the inception until the end of a title. You’d be surprised at how intricate, confusing or smooth a comic book can become, depending solely on the narrative.
3. Characters
The thorough construction of characters is essential in all kinds of media. Each character in a story is a vessel for a different point of view for the reader. Comic books, however, take it a step further. You should start thinking of characters as brands. That’s part of how the big names continue to flood the entire entertainment industry today.
You hear the name Spider-Man and instantly conjure up Spidey’s multiple different storylines, villains and even eyepiece sizes. Popular characters are instantly recognizable but narratively and thematically complex. They wouldn’t be able to last in the limelight for so long if not for their intricate idiosyncrasy and backstory.
An important piece of advice for aspiring comic book writers is to familiarize themselves with the previous point: the medium’s distinctive long-form storytelling.
For example, you can outline all the possible story arcs that may follow the plot of the first few issues. Even if you don’t plan to include them anytime soon, devise several antagonists and supporting characters who live their lives outside the main story.
Imagine which other heroes are fighting their own battles in the same universe and which potential love interests are yearning for a soulmate just like your protagonist.
When you least expect it, you’ll realize that all of this untold information has helped you write a richer and more layered story. And who knows? You may also have planted the seeds for one or two spinoffs in the process.
In short, think ahead.
Avoid handing over the entire identity of your characters to the visual artists and marketers. Everyone indeed makes part of the final product, but writers have the special perk and duty to give birth to the characters. We’re the first ones to shape what they will become.
Ask yourself what it is about your characters that shows the potential to resonate in the audience and what can you do from a storytelling standpoint to highlight their identity.
4. Dialogue
Dialogue is another pivotal feature that stands out in comic books. It is the worldview of the characters put into words. You can identify good dialogue when you type it in a blank page and it still thrills you, draws you into the story and tells you clear information about the plot, without the need for any kind of visual aid.
Every single word has to serve a purpose, be it emotional stimulation, a payoff to a former setup, or exposition. Dialogue is all about evolution. Your worst enemy is stagnation! At any moment of doubt, remind yourself of what awaits the characters and head in that direction. Don’t stop building relationships and advancing the plot.
Dialogue doesn’t remain isolated from the rest of the graphic elements. It permanently interacts with the captions, the sound effects, the borders, and obviously, the speech balloons. Always consider how much space each line will probably take.
Naturally, it’s not the best decision to write lengthy paragraphs of dialogue that won’t fit anywhere inside the page. Don’t take this as a hurdle, since a clever use of dialogue can be coupled with a wide variety of graphic resources to produce dynamic results that capture the attention of the reader and reinforce the project’s style.
On the other hand, dialogue needs to communicate the story as convincingly as possible, no matter how balls-to-the-wall it really is. Realistic isn’t interchangeable with truthful. We’re all ready to accept that a disco singer can shoot light beams out of her hands if the words out of her mouth coincide with the plot and the atmosphere of the situation… and no, silliness doesn’t matter too much either.
You achieve the correct level of realism when you convince the reader that what you’re telling them matters.
Lastly and most importantly, dialogue must be dramatically meaningful. What you can’t convey through images, you convey through dialogue. The character’s spoken word is an opportunity to exhibit their most intimate thoughts and beliefs.
Some resources you can employ to amp up the speech are irony, comedy, lies, callbacks, and suspense, among many others. Of course, whatever path you take to create enjoyable dialogue should be further directed to make it consequential.
Never EVER write filler. Every word is important. If you can’t think of any good line of dialogue, then consider narrating solely through actions, changing the scene or cutting it altogether. Aim to write the moments of tension as nerve-wracking, the big reveals as incisive punches to the gut and the moments of humor as bits of comedy that Mel Brooks can be proud of.
In summary, dialogue should ideally be:
- Concise enough to drive the point across.
- Realistic enough to maintain the suspension of disbelief.
- As dramatically powerful as the moment demands.
5. Action. Action. ACTION!
Comic books are the epitome of action, even in the most introspective of genres. The images that readers see In every panel are the most thrilling instants in the course of each character’s deeds and each of the story’s events, no matter the situation they represent.
A literal walk in the park can give the reader goosebumps if done right because action doesn’t only mean punches and kicks. It’s movement. It’s energy. It’s the sight of a subject inflicting force onto a (hopefully resistant) other. And this action must stand on its own visually. Like in filmmaking, you’ll show, not tell.
The essence of action lies in the weight and intensity of each activity.
- Weight: The relevance of a character’s actions in the context of the moment, their behavior and their relationship with other characters. I.e.: Finally seeing a character who swore to never drink alcohol drinking their first sip of beer (what brought them to do it? pain? joy? who’s with them? is this the climactic moment in their entire story arc or is it the first step towards a big change?). It’s the content of the action.
- Intensity: The form in which an incident or a character’s activity manifests. The intensity of an action, script-wise, depends mainly on its level of detail and the choice of words you use to narrate it. The same example of the character who’s drinking their first beer can be either heightened or passed over. Picture this: “Tracy cracks open a gleamy BEER BOTTLE, turns around, and nods to the man at the door…” and compare it with this: “A SWEATDROP slides down Tracy’s temple. The BOTTLE also drips. Tracy’s lips crack. A couple of DESPERATE EYES are reflected in the AMBER LIQUID inside the bottle. POP! The cap flies across the bar…” It’s the shape of the action.
Remember the first point! Narrate with images.
Every single piece of action has to be conveyed gracefully since the moment the story is being written. Not only do you always have to be aware of it, but you also have to power it up. You gotta make those actions POP OUT of the page.
This has been but a short introduction to comic book writing. The most important task you have to give yourself now is to conscientiously study all kinds of comic books to deepen your knowledge of storytelling. Invest all your focus into the creation of a rich narrative that captures anyone who reads it. Now, whip out your notebook and start scribbling!
