FLIGHT

First off, this is the OFFICIAL SEQUEL to the How Do YOU Color and Dynamicness threads. Because you guys are so helpful and awesome, I figure I'd ask how you guys write good comics/stories/characters. I know the question is super broad, but what makes good comic dialogue/writing? I know NOTHING about it. When I tried to make a comic series a while ago, everyone just seemed... the same. They seemed one person- me- in different bodies. Now, how do YOU write comics? You guys are awesome.

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c l a a a n k d o t c o m ! ! ! !

Clank,
I get lost in the story (and characters).
Then when I look back at it (the script), I think
"What do I, or a reader, like to see "
It sounds too easy, or simple, but that's my route.
Mood's also a big factor in the very very beginning, I had to add.
At least for the most part.

Sorry if this is to vauge

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Visit the GK Movie Watch Blog at www.Galaxykid.blogspot.com

Not that I'm a huge producer of comics myself, but I'm all about character and personality. You have to develop the psyches of your characters independently of whatever story you're writing.

Books on writing fiction will tell you to lose yourself in a character, to know that person and how he or she would react in any situation. You have to know what motivates them to do and say things all the time; otherwise, they're just shapes standing underneath word balloons

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Monk,
You hit in on the nose.
Getting lost in your own idea, world, plot, etc.
That's the key
Thanks

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Visit the GK Movie Watch Blog at www.Galaxykid.blogspot.com

Yeah, I was going to expand in the last post, but had to leave prematurely.

Clank, take people you know and boil them down into their component parts... what makes your best friends unique and makes you want to hang out with them? What do they do that really annoy you or make you think? It's these little things that give characters depth and make stories worth hearing.

Also, too many people, comic artists, writers create funny or cool scenarios they'd like to depict without really having a reason or background. Good characters will create stories and scenarios for themselves. This is all what my creative writing textbook tells me

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I used to play with action figures as a kid. I would talk as if they were talking and smash them into each other. That is pretty much what I do when I write a comic. I go back to being a kid again playing with my toys. Also, I just start writing having no idea where it will go. The characters pretty much decide what they will do and you just have to be there to draw it down on paper. Draw as fast and and rough as possible. My thumbnails are so rough only I can tell what they are. This way I can keep up with what the characters are doing. So it's basically like you are watching a movie unfold before you and you are capturing it on paper as fast as possible. Don't worry too much about themes and settings and such. you should be able to take any theme and make it interesting by what the characters do and say.

I do pretty much exactly what Rad does, except I never played with action figures and I always think about the major themes and overall story. Of course, once I get into it, a lot of stuff tends to change. I try to stay the course, though.

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get a writer, and just draw the pictures

do you ever have a point that you want to get accross initially? or do you just build a character to go along and fly around and do things>?

ldo some of you Think about the ZINGER ending first?

The thing is, where you start is just the entry point into the story, once you're there, it doesn't much matter where you come in (I know a lot of people disagree with this, and say you HAVE to start with character -- I say no, you have to HAVE character). So whether you've got a character that just fascinates you and so you build a world and story around them, or a setting, or a scene, or a concept, you can still build a great story.

But I do think character (in terms of dynamic, changing and acting character) is the aspect that gets skimped on the most by new writers, and therefore gets hammered the most by writing textbooks.

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with Drawing a Blank: News from the Drafting Table
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What I do when I'm writing is start with an idea. Cultivate that into a loose plot. I'll then do research and build the characters. After that, I'll usually write a very brief script with some dialogue to set the pacing (make sure I'm not asking the artist to draw eleven panels per page) and then fill in the details.

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