Wait, hol up, comic maker, do you write scripts of your comics before starting?

[llobucervallince]

I have at least like half of the entire episode done in writting before I start drawing, I know other people do so, but how many?
I also have like a general timeline to define specific/ key parts of my story, so that I can build a bridge bewteen each point.
Edit:
All right, let's do something new!

Here's my script! show yours! let's learn from each other!

Larry is sleeping in his old bed peacefully, suddenly Henry opens his door and starts yelling.

HENRY
Good morning kid!
Larry jumps from the scare the hare just gave him.

LARRY
Mr. Hare? What?

HENRY
I said good morning, come on we have a lot to do today, I have many projects to resume and starts, for starters, my lighnig...

Henry looks back at Larry, who fell back asleep.

HENRY NARRATING
Oh you little...

Henry snap his fingers making a trompet come from another room and landing in Henry's hand. Henry blows the trompet very loudly. Which makes Larry jump again, but further this time.

LARRY
AAAH!

More here!

INT. HENRY'S KITCHEN ROOM.

Henry and Larry are eating breakfast together. Larry is
still half asleep.

HENRY
All right, so, your chores today will be to...

LARRY
I have chores?

HENRY
Of course you do, you're not expecting to live here for free, are you?

Larry stays quiet. Looking at the hare for a few seconds.

HENRY (CONT'D)
Okay, first life lesson of the day.

HENRY (CONT'D)
Nothing in life is free, I'm not going to let you ocupy a room that I could be using without you earning it.

LARRY

Oh, okay. What do you want me to do?

HENRY

Well, as I was saying, I have many things to do today, but I also been wanting to clean some of the rooms, like the kitchen, the bathroom... basically everything except the shop, the forge and my room.

LARRY
So I have to clean every room today?

HENRY
I mean, not today, it would take me like a whole week to clean all of my house, just start with the... storage room, is one of the dustiers.

LARRY
Okay.

[faisalhussein394]

If you check my comic; Mukhtar, you would immediately say that I have prepared a full scripted but believe me when I say this I never made a script for my comic. I don't need papers or data files to prepare one, It's all stuck in my head.

Still, If anyone still need to fill a script for stories, plot, etc for their comic, go ahead.

[Aeneas1]

Unfortunately, I need to. It helps keep me organised, even if the story isn’t. I’ve never really been good with scripts. They’re so hard to make workable. Nevertheless, I have recently begun using scripts when previously I just made up a portion of dialogue as I went along. About 50% of Nixvir is still unscripted. I do however have the ending scripted now. Yes, it has an ending and it will be very good.

[delladz]

for people who are confident and talented enough to write the comic without a script, you've earned a kudos and a wtf from me lol you are truly blessed with that ability

My process is an outline of the ENTIRE story(yes beginning to end of the dang series) with scripts of each chapter(if you read 7ssc, each tapas episode is really just a part of the bigger chapter) to fill in the details and I have about 3-4 chapters written AHEAD of the chapter I am currently working on. Having an incredibly slow working pace helps with that though lmao

For me, having those outlines and chapters written ahead of where the published story is, is important for me to prevent plotholes and having meaningful and impactful effects down the line XD As a reader, it's really gratifying to have those pieces of foreshadowing and dramatic irony to really flesh out the story so not writing something fresh as I'm working on it really helps me pull together details that I know will feel satisfying to me

[allisoncandraw]

Yep, even for my slice of life series I like to have a basic script before I make a strip

[BoomerZ]

Complete script with dialogue, panel by panel. Take a page from movies. They use scripts for a reason. It's not set in stone by any measure but at least you know where you are going. Having it "in you head" is not a good idea as soon as you understand how memory works (as in it doesn't).

[AmysGames]

I have scripts written out very far in advance, lol.

But yeah, while there are certain types of comics where you could probably get away with not having a script, I would strongly recommend it for a story-based comic.

[thepenmonster]

Rough ideas and outlines are done in a notebook. Thumbnails/scripting done in sketchbooks.

Four big sketchbooks with six stories for the same character in them. All of them have been trimmed and rewritten multiple times so I have extensive notes telling me stuff like "New segment in Book3" and "Return to previous thumbs"

Very likely I'll only ever get one story completed.

[Rhynne]

Oh, I love seeing the responses here. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't script. I knew all the advice I read said to make one, but I couldn't force myself to do it--which is extra wild because I have a separate artist who must have unlimited patience. I draw stick figures with poorly handwritten dialogue in bubbles and vague actions, with way too meticulous notes filling the gutters that I happily send off to my artist like it's acceptable.

--I'm a disaster and I have a lot to apologize for is what I've just realized.

[allenT]

No i didn't. I only wrote bullet points & hints for each chapter.

It's not that I'm confident about it, no. I feel if I wrote all the finish scripts-- then I've already experienced all the little details of the story-- and I've already "done" my story I may lose my excitement & passion to continue. I only know what things would happen, but not the 'intricate how'-- I'll leave that part when it's time to prepare the story segments.

[abigaillmartin]

I write the dialogue in my thumbnail sketches. I do it at the same time and then write the dialogue on my phone.

[2DLenzy]

I definitely have the story laid out in bullets long before I put pen to digital canvas...I already have arcs planned out for next year and even the ultimate ending is already written down...

For the stuff in-between, I do bullet points for events/major story elements, separate arcs into parts.
Then I do thumbnail sketches, and dialogue included for each part, to visualize length of episodes (I try to make each part fit an episode, with either a continuation into the next part, transition, or revolution if it's the last part of an arc) See "Tryons" for my honest attempt.

I tried to write all lines of dialogue in a separate document, but that enables me to overwrite it (aka they talk too dang much!) The visuals (thumbnails/storyboard) actually help me to keep the dialogue itself short and simple...most of the time.

I can't do panel-by-panel scripts, that's too restrictive for my ever-changing creative brain...though that free-thinking explains why I have continuity errors (the fence in bg changes from picket to wire several different times, and a barn magically appears in my most recent arc, XD)

[kalmia]

I have a script… kind of lol. It’s less like a script and more like me just writing paragraphs upon paragraphs- more like a really badly written story in my own words on a google doc that I then translate over to visual form. But I also have an entire other google doc with the main point points listed out in chronological order and important events, that when when i’m writing my “script” I know where I need to take the story and dialogue.

As you can very obviously see, it’s nothing like an actual script. It’s full of grammar issues, slang, typos, and emoticons lol. Basically whatever helps me visualize the scene I have in my head better through text. Some dialogue or part described don’t always make it over to the finished version on the comic. I could write it like an actual script, but this is just so much more fun to me.

In the end, this is what that paragraph translated into-

I don’t really think there’s a right or wrong way to script (unless you’re doing it professionally of course), and I don’t think a script is even necessary, though they’re extremely helpful, especially for larger, plot heavier stories. Whatever helps you convey your story how you imagine it is the best way to do it. For some people it’s a regular script, or just a few bullet points, or an entire story that they’re translating into a comic. Whatever works

[morganicfoods]

For a more story-focused comic like mine, I NEED a script (and so do you, sorry!). The ability to rewrite, rework, redo, or cut scenes without having to redraw anything has a major positive effect on the quality of my writing. Maybe by scripting through thumbnailing, or if you have an absurdly good memory, you can get away with it. But having tried both storyboard-scripting and memory, it's much more fruitful to script.

I write my dialogue completely seriously, but I get a lil gibberish-y in the directions. Only my girlfriend and I need to understand what's going on (she proof reads my dialogue and tells me when my writing sucks). I find it much more entertaining for myself if I'm not completely serious all the time.

Here's part of pages 16&17

Read Light Rising :: p16&17: Pretty Girls | Tapas Comics

....and then if I'm passing my script to someone else (like for translating), I gotta simplify and serious-ify my script lol

[CandiChaos]

I am turning my novel into a webcomic (because i'm a masochist I guess. who needs free time) so while I don't have a typical script I mostly follow that. I would be lost without any kind of written idea for it though

[BoomerZ]

I find the easiest way is to just make an outline script. Each point is a panel. That way you know the number of panels and what happens in every panel.

[GodbreakerComic]

Of course. If someone making a comic doesn't do this, they should really start. Not only do I have the script written, but I have a timeline with each plot point mapped out to avoid inconsistencies.

Know what you're doing before you do it.

[Insanebaker92]

I do this all the time. Once I done that, I have a script editor that helps me to check any grammar mistakes and polish the sentences to make it more dynamic. After he has done editing the script, I start making my comic.

[hakei]

I started my main series without much planned because I was very new + it was meant to be a super short story.

But now I have a document with the big outlines (that I don't end up following lol) and shorter episode documents that I try to write before I start the particular episode.

The scripts I write aren't super detailed or complete, being focused on key dialogues and the occasional sound effects. (and sometimes I add new dialogue as I'm drawing.)

Plus it's a good litmus test -- if I myself can't tell who's speaking without those 'Character X says this, Character Y says that' notes, I know I've got some tweaking to do.

I don't write my scripts in English but if translated it'd look something like:

A complete nonsense script for anyone else ahaha

[Caro]

I have a written outline and then do all of my “scripting” in loose little thumbnails.

Old thumbnail examples

I used to try to strictly script for years but it always makes me write extremely stiff dialogue and if I’m working on a project on my own I don’t need anyone else to understand my notes and I’ve been doing it this way for over a decade. I like having the ability to improvise a lot when I get to the final version.

Even when I work with publishers most of them have never asked me for a proper script and when they have I just reverse engineer my thumbnails to a quick, dirty script. No editor expects a script to be exactly the finish product anyway.