Novel/Artist collaboration questions

[jasonboredd]

Novels are not scripts for comics. This is something I just recently learned. To all the artists, if a person wanted to turn their novel into a comic, what steps would that have to take to make it happen? To help the Artist. Is there a number of chapters that an artist may prefer to have completed or is it a rule of thumb to have the story already completed? Any advice and help is welcome.

[Questionable_Liquid]

Well, hmm... I do plan to make a comic, but I went on to make it a novel first because why the heck not? Also because I am not proficient in drawing traditionally and wanted time to create my characters as well as to practice. Digitally, I can manage, but I am not doing digital content because drawing digitally is slow. Traditional art is faster for me.

When the time comes where I have reached a good amount of content in my novel, I would then begin drawing. Of course, having a script is a comic creator #1 step, but my comic will derive mostly from what I have written/typed out so far, not focusing on my script. Why not from my script? Well, it is but a simple outline.

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Right, on to answer your questions!

For me, I would pick out the major events that occur. Pick some filler in your story that builds onto the main event and go on from there. To me, if the filler goes on for, let's say 3 tapas episodes, you got to move on. Filler episodes are fine but don't stall the reader for more than 3 episodes. At least for me, that is.

Of course, never miss out on character development. If the filler focuses on character development, then an extra episode or two that delay the storyline are acceptable.

For the number of chapters, I do not know. Everyone is different with their jar of patience. Also, I do not know how long a chapter is supposed to be. I usually go with a 5 part system for each chapter. Each part would have 20 episodes/pages; no less than 10.

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Sorry if my reply was not helpful or is useless to you.

[jasonboredd]

Your response was more helpful than you know. Thank you for your reply. I'm about 8 and a half chapters deep into my story. Not sure if I should post it or just turn it into a comic first

[TedGravesArt]

One of the main differences between novels and comics is the lack of prose. A novel has the privilege of explaining how characters feel in detail, they have the ability to show a character's thought process while working something out, or to explain actions in detail without considering camera angles, or pacing, or visual mood, or how many panels something should take. Comics are far more like movies than novels. There are certain rules in movies that apply to comics, for instance establishing shots, or action beats, or pacing in general, or getting across story elements or character moments with just a facial expression, or color choices, or composition. The subtleties of the story telling is a completely different ball game in comics than it is in novels. Each offer their own benefits and pitfalls. You really should tailor your writing style to the medium you're aiming at. If you're serious about making a comic, a comic script should be the first item on your todo list. The more you communicate with your artist about what's happening in the story, the better.
When I worked with a writer I was heavily involved in the writing process, and it was very beneficial for me. I had a birds eye view of the story as a whole, and was able to look ahead and make small adjustments or drop subtle foreshadowing into the art. All of an artist's decisions are filtered through their understanding of the story and the characters. Understand that artists are actors, and we act scenes out through our drawings. We can't act through the characters if we don't properly understand their motivation. I think the questions of what would your artist want would be best answered by the artist you're working with.

Incidentally, I wrote another post like this on a similar thread recently, you might be able to glean a bit more info from those answers here: https://forums.tapas.io/t/writing-novels-vs-writing-scripts-for-comic/66769/5?u=tedgravesart

[Kelheor]

I actually think that "I don't know if I should post it or make it a comic first" is a dead end way of thinking. Unless you are the artist for your own comic, getting someone to draw your comic based on your idea only would be really hard (unless you pay them good money). While getting people to read your story and maybe someone would like it so much they'd agree to draw seems more reasonable.
Are novel and script different things? Yes, they are. Script doesn't need fancy descriptions and artistic writing language, it needs the plot, the scenes, the description of what's happening on the panels.
Will you ever get anyone to draw this script for you? Now that's the question. If you think your writing is good - write, and show people that you can make an interesting story.

[Questionable_Liquid]

If you have the patience to draw again, and again, again, post it as a comic.

If you are unsure with your story, try and get an editor and use Grammarly. Don't use Grammarly to change your script, but more to check for grammatical errors.

I can be your editor, but because my Spring 2022 semester just started, I won't be available as often, but can still get work done.

[RedLenai]

Hi there, artist here.
While I don't mind a Novel that it's still on the making I personally believe that you need to provide an artist an actual comic script.

Why? Because you, the author, and the artist, are different people. You're not going to imagine a situation the same way as the other person, you're always going to clash or even narrate events on a different matter, especially if you don't have much of a chemistry.
Most of artist would like to have clear ideas about what to draw, otherwise they have to spend time thinking about the angle, the shot, the way the character looks, what actions to prioritize for the sequential art, the rythm or speed of the story, etc. As well... some artists may find that they waste time reading a bunch of text and even may get confused to find exactly what is what they have to draw and in which way. And the most important part, if the author is not satisfied then that's mean we have to erase, re do, until the person is satisfied, basically spend more time than needed in the making process

While we understand that not all writers are good telling in short sentences what do we have to do, therefore they end up being too descriptive or too vague with their scripts, even if you don't know how to draw, having at least stick-man figures as storyboards helps a lot.

For example, while the author gives me a written script, they also give me a storyboard telling me what goes in each panel.

Then, I can draw and nail things faster, corrections will be minimal, and then we'll be able to move faster onto the inking and coloring phase

On other note, we artists who work professionally like to have most of things ready so we can get to work. That means, please don't come with a "I have this idea for a comic but I didn't write it yet lmao, let's brainstorm together", because most of artist will reject a project that has no form, independently if you have the means to pay them, usually, not having even a single chapter ready means trouble, wasting time and most of artists are desperate to look for jobs that provide a steady income, if your project doesn't even have that first chapter it's more likely that they'll move into something that guarantees they can work fast so they can get paid.
You can make a novel if you don't know how to draw nor are good finding an artist, you can consider it as a way to give form to your ideas and when you notice that you either can turn it into a comic or you have the means to pay someone to work for you (Because it's not an easy thing), you can start to translate your novel into a comic.

[Kuma]

I'm not an artist, but I've worked both writing novels and writing comics.

I think the most important thing you need to know when adapting a story to a comic is understanding the difference between how much information you can concentrate in a panel.

Comics have their own flow, as you need to consider the visual information on each panel added to the layer of text you include with dialogue and narration.

The amount of information you can cram into 20 panels depends a lot of how dense you want to make it. In comics Space = Time. You can't control time like in a movie, but the number of panels dedicated to an action or scene will control the pacing of it.

If you use a bunch of panels for a single move you are giving both time and importance to said move.

For example:

If you want to show a character punching in a novel you would write

"Robert closes his fist and clocks Patrick in the face" (This would be a simple way to put it)

In a comic you can go in many directions with this.

Panel 1 - Close up of fist closing
Panel 2 - Wind up
Panel 3 - Close up of fist travelling
Panel 4 - Close up of Patrick reacting to the incoming attack
Panel 5 - Patrick getting punched by Robert.

But you can also go

Panel 1 - Close up of fist closing
Panel 5 - Patrick getting punched by Robert.

And it could work, but you remove importance and emphasis to the moment.

So

1. Properly split your scenes into chunks
2. Understand which scenes are more important or need more panels
3. Go into detail only when it's necessary, try to have a lot of pre-production work done with the artist.
4. Profit

[jasonboredd]

Wow! Thank you for the info! It was very informative

[Lensing]

I like this answer so much I will make a screenshot of it

[RedLenai]

oh, well thank you! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[Shomin]

Well, overall novel serves as a backbone of the story. It gives an idea of how the manga will be in terms of the general plot.

Imo, i've read so many manga/comics that are only in it for beuatiful epic artworks. But the stort were like... meh. that's the reason why i started my project with the novel first. Then illustrate it and then adapt it into manga.

But ut is true that each panels need to be planned. Like when my novel is 50k words long with 35 chapters. In manga, it might go up to over 100 episodes. And my own calculation calls me for the next 18years to complete adaptation of my manga (if i work alone only during weekends).

[Mallory]

Honestly, as an artist, I've come to hate scripts. I've written a bunch for college and I always found that I felt stunted/trapped, so nowadays I generally just go straight to storyboards + dialogue for my own writing. If I'm stuck on a scene, I'll actually write it out in prose, and then break the prose down into pages and storyboard those with the dialogue.

That being said, if I was for whatever reason looking for a collaborator, I'd probably not look seriously at anyone who didn't have a script for at least the opening stretch of their story and a completed outline from start to finish (i.e. the equivalent of a professional pitch). Writing a script shows commitment to the comic beyond the "I'm an idea fairy" thing you usually hear from the "writers" looking for artists, and can also easily show if they understand the medium and its strengths.

[system]

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