Writing the Story

Writing the story before creating the comic book provides a solid plan for you to follow, and make it easier on you when you are laying out what parts of the story go on which page. When writing the story, you need to organize what is going to happen. There are many ways to organize your writing. J.K. Rowling used a chart to outline the chapters, their titles, a summary of each one and how it relates to the plot, and the subplots within. [1] Using 3 by 5 cards is another way of creating and organizing ideas for your story.  You write an event on each card and lay them out on the ground. Then you set them up in chronological order, fill in the gaps with content that will make your reader want to turn the page, plan where the chapter breaks are going to be, include cliffhangers, and write down your outline (or number the cards). [2] You can find other tactics like these on WritersDigest.

You can also improve your writing by reading books (and not just comic books) and analyzing what makes it so successful. Writing reviews or reading what other people write about a book is also helpful. This way you will learn what a reader expects from a good book and then apply those principles in your own work. Deb Aoki provides some reviewing tips on her article on how to review manga. [3] Also, write about your life experiences in a story format and email it to a friend or relative (maybe even draw it in comic page style). It’s good practice and I find that I use some of my life experiences when I work on my comic book.

Know how much writing is needed for the reader to understand what is going on in the story and include that in the comic book page. For me, successful comic books have an interesting hook, memorable plot and characters, and a strong ending.

Sources:

[1] Doland, Erin. (2010, October 12). Organize your writing, J.K. Rowling Style. Unclutterer. Retrieved from http://unclutterer.com/2010/10/12/organize-your-writing-j-k-rowling-style/

[2] Whitcomb, Laura. (2011, April 28). How to Organize and Develop Ideas for Your Novel. WritersDigest. Retrieved from http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/how-to-organize-and-develop-ideas-for-your-novel

[3] Aoki, Deb. (2010, January 22). Top 10 Manga Reviewing Tips – Simple Strategies and Helpful Tips for Writing Online Reviews. Retrieved from http://manga.about.com/od/readingcollectingmanga/tp/MangaReviewTips.htm