Writing Comics = Really Really Hard

I remember reading a comment from Mike Stackpole that writing the Star Wars: X-Wing comics was the first time he ever considered writing a "job". Eventually he even needed to get outside help from a writer at Dark Horse because he was having so many issues. And he's right.

I am the writer on a comic book project. Now I have written all kinds of things in my career so far: magazine articles, press releases, web content, screenplays, prose, this blog.. none of those are like a comic book script. I remember first thinking that writing a comic was going to be a perfect blend of screenwriting and prose writing. Yeah, in theory. By the time I was halfway done with the script for the first issue, I was numb. Because by then I realised that unlike screenplays, you have to imagine X number of scenes per page. And it can't be a random X number because you have to have enough panels to explain the story, while at the same time you only have between twenty and twenty-four pages (depending on the publisher) so you can't have too few panels either or the story won't progress.

I have a difficult time writing prose because often I have a kick-ass story in my head and I want to get it down usually faster than my pencil can write (or my fingers can type). Mastering prose is not at all necessary for a comic book script, but you still have to know how to be descriptive (yuck!) and write straight on a line--meaning you can't go off on tangents like you can in prose. If you don't have enough description then there is a good chance that the penciler is going to return something that you will not be happy with. And if you don't pace and progress the story, then you will have a comic that is either rushed or laggy, and both of those are bad.

There is not much room for failure when writing a comic book script. If this is a path you intend to walk, be VERY prepared. And read a ton of comic books before you start.

And oh yeah: writing comic books rocks!