Re:How Do You Start A Script
Posted: 2007/10/21 07:59
For me, writing a comic script can be broken down into three phases: 1) The plot 2) The page breakdown 3) The script
Every script I write goes through these three phases. But the length of the script determines how much of that I will actually write down and how much will just happen in my head.
If the story is only 1-6 pages long, I usually just type away without bothering to write a synopsis or a page breakdown first.
For a comic of 6-22 pages, I usually skip the plot phase, but not the page breakdown. And so I write a few sentences describing what’s supposed to happen on that page for each page. Sometimes I just write down the dialogues.
If the script is even longer (or a part of a series), there usually is no way around writing a synopsis first.
So that’s how I start a script – in theory, at least. In practice, it’s usually much more chaotic.
For example, I’ve started scripts of 20+ pages by scripting the first three pages before writing a synopsis and then starting to break down the plot into pages. Every part of the script still went through the three phases mentioned above - they just didn’t all go at the same speed. It gets even more complicated with stories that miss a beginning, a middle and/or an end when I start writing them down.
Just recently, I started a 10-page story by writing the synopsis (so it could be send to the editor who had to approve it). Sometimes I need to write a synopsis after I've written the script. When I’m adapting a book, I start with the page breakdown (since the plot is already done).
So I guess I do whatever works best for me and for that particular story. And that’s the way it should be.
