As a new writer of comic scripts, I've been using the Alan Moore two hundred and ten word system, he has said that he had heard of an editor of superman in the nineteen sixties, reportedly a very unpleasant man who had a strict rule, "if you have six panels on a page, you may have no more than thirty five words on a page". so six panels on a page, that's two hundred and ten. so I tend to divided those two hundred and ten words between the panels based on, how many, how they're split up. it takes a bit of maths but I've found it works really well. the narration is also included in that word count. great video as always.
Genuine sounding dialogue is REALLY tricky. Worst part is you think it reads effortlessly and cool but when you see the finished page, it's actually stilted and wooden. It's improved a lot since I started reading it aloud. Also heard that Alan Moore used to lumber about in his writing room (a shed, I recall) and pretend to be Swamp Thing to get into the mindset of the character. Thanks for another informative video Matt! The Bendis advice is gold.
Ha...cheers mate. Lad the videos are helping...and yep bendis’ advice is gold! I’m sure I’ll be mentioning him are more times in the up coming videos! 😜
Does my comic dialogue really need fucking cursing in it? I mean, I could put some curse words in there like Fuck and Damn, but what about those fucking little kids at the convention? What if they come up and start reading my comic and then they are like, "Hey Mom, I want this fucking comic book", then what the fuck am I supposed to do? How do I explain this to the fucking mother?
When I ever have a kid come to my table I always just tell them they need a parent or if the parent is looking at my comics I politely tell that some of my comics are not appropriate for kids. Most say “thank you” others say “they’ve seen worse in tv don’t worry they live game of thrones” 🤣
If you have writers block try to figure out one line that you know needs to be there. Use that line as your anchor and work around it. For instance write the preceding line, then the followng line, then the line before the preceding line and so on. That works because theres only a certain number of ways you can get to that anchor line, so it greatly simplifies the possibilities and choices to the point you dont need to think much at all.
starting out would it be easier to make characters as extentions of yourself, to make that dialog more natural.. ? then as you evolve in writing can experiment more?
Totally. When it’s your first draft you write that dialogue whatever way you can to get it to sound natural. Do whatever you need to do to get that first draft out because that is The toughest part. THEN when you rewrite it you can develop the characters individual “voices” When I do a first draft...I put in what I call “hold” dialogues, which is dialogue that I want to characters to say but in its simplest generic form...then I go back, tweak, rewrite, evolve, expand or reduce! You can do it, fella!
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As a new writer of comic scripts, I've been using the Alan Moore two hundred and ten word system, he has said that he had heard of an editor of superman in the nineteen sixties, reportedly a very unpleasant man who had a strict rule, "if you have six panels on a page, you may have no more than thirty five words on a page". so six panels on a page, that's two hundred and ten. so I tend to divided those two hundred and ten words between the panels based on, how many, how they're split up. it takes a bit of maths but I've found it works really well. the narration is also included in that word count. great video as always.
That’s very interesting…my Marta sucks though 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks so much for watching!
This has been way more helpful than I expected. Thank you soooo much
Thank you 🤣
Genuine sounding dialogue is REALLY tricky. Worst part is you think it reads effortlessly and cool but when you see the finished page, it's actually stilted and wooden.
It's improved a lot since I started reading it aloud. Also heard that Alan Moore used to lumber about in his writing room (a shed, I recall) and pretend to be Swamp Thing to get into the mindset of the character.
Thanks for another informative video Matt! The Bendis advice is gold.
Ha...cheers mate.
Lad the videos are helping...and yep bendis’ advice is gold!
I’m sure I’ll be mentioning him are more times in the up coming videos! 😜
I’m writing my first comic, and this is helpful. Thanks!
No worries buddy, glad it helped thanks for watching
Thanks for sharing this, Matt. The "loud speaking" looks cool. I'll try with my dialogues. See ya.
Ha cheers… took the advice from a grant Morrison interview I listened to. If he does it, it can’t be wrong 😜
Does my comic dialogue really need fucking cursing in it? I mean, I could put some curse words in there like Fuck and Damn, but what about those fucking little kids at the convention? What if they come up and start reading my comic and then they are like, "Hey Mom, I want this fucking comic book", then what the fuck am I supposed to do? How do I explain this to the fucking mother?
When I ever have a kid come to my table I always just tell them they need a parent or if the parent is looking at my comics I politely tell that some of my comics are not appropriate for kids.
Most say “thank you” others say “they’ve seen worse in tv don’t worry they live game of thrones” 🤣
Yes, thankyou!
Definitely going to come back to this after i finish my first outline!
Good lad!
Glad it helped...I think next weeks video might be useful too, so stay tuned 😜
If you have writers block try to figure out one line that you know needs to be there. Use that line as your anchor and work around it. For instance write the preceding line, then the followng line, then the line before the preceding line and so on. That works because theres only a certain number of ways you can get to that anchor line, so it greatly simplifies the possibilities and choices to the point you dont need to think much at all.
Thanks for the input 👍
You’re amazing! This is great!
Happy to help matey 👍
Great stuff, Matt. Thanks.
+Marc Olivent thanks buddy!
Appreciate the support!
Nice vid
Cheers dude!
starting out would it be easier to make characters as extentions of yourself, to make that dialog more natural.. ? then as you evolve in writing can experiment more?
Totally.
When it’s your first draft you write that dialogue whatever way you can to get it to sound natural.
Do whatever you need to do to get that first draft out because that is The toughest part.
THEN when you rewrite it you can develop the characters individual “voices”
When I do a first draft...I put in what I call “hold” dialogues, which is dialogue that I want to characters to say but in its simplest generic form...then I go back, tweak, rewrite, evolve, expand or reduce!
You can do it, fella!
I stick to a max of 20 words per bubble
That’s a good rule!