Manga-writing basics, Part I: Format

Note: I wrote this yesterday, but it got backdated, so I'm fixing it. Sorry if this keeps popping up on your reading lists.

Because we don't have enough to do, telophase and I will be editing and publishing an anthology of original manga short stories. You may write and draw, or submit as a team.

The points below are mostly for artists who aren't experienced writers, beginning writers, and/or writers who have never written in a script form before, and is probably way too basic to be useful for anyone who has written in a dramatic form (ie, comics, TV, plays, movies) or gets paid to write fiction.

I. Format.

Ii. Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Dream Country contains a comic book, "Calliope," and also the script for it. If you flip back and forth between the script and comic, you will get an excellent idea of how words translate into pictures. Note that Gaiman uses a great deal of detail in his script. This is fine but not necessary; personally, I prefer to leave more to the artist's interpretation.

Iii. A script will note the page number and the panel number, then describe the action going on in that panel, plus the dialogue or other text, if any.

Iiii. If you are a writer collaborating with an artist, even if you're using a very minimalist style, at least make sure that you say what's going on in each panel. If you just write the dialogue, your artist will be confused and baffled.

Good example # 1 (minimalist):
Page 3, panel 4: Text with shoujo bubbles in the background.
Text: I wonder if he remembers my name.

(Note: Shoujo frequently uses abstract backgrounds-- bubbles, flowers, or geometric shapes-- to indicate emotional states.)

Good example # 2 (more descriptive):
Page 3, panel 4: The interior of a Texas-style soul food restaurant in Los Angeles. This is really homey-looking and intimate, with peanut shells on the floor, pies in a case at the counter, and lots of somewhat tacky Texas memorabilia, frequently featuring longhorns and armadillos. We can see part of the kitchen through an open door. There's six tables, but only one is occupied. Miko, a pretty, businesslike Japanese woman in her mid thirties, sits at a table across from her husband, Joe, a big Iraqi man with black-rimmed glasses and five o'clock shadow. They're tucking into a giant platter of barbecued spare ribs.

Miko: I like these ribs better than the ones at Dr. Hogly-Wogly's.

Joe: Me too. But Mo Better Meatty Meat Burgers has better potato salad.

(Note: panels 1-3 would probably be fairly small to leave enough room on the page to fit this much detail and dialogue into panel four.)

Bad example:
Page 3, panel 4:
Josie: You cannot escape my mutant power to make explosive spitballs! Ha-ha-ha-ha!

(Note: Who is Josie? Where is she? What is she doing? Is there a background? What's going on?)

Iiv. Avoid writing in more than five panels per page, because odds are good your artist will need to add some stuff, and you don't want the page to get crowded.

Iv. Page 1 is by itself. Pages 2-3 face each other. Remember this, because if you want a two-page splash page, it will have to be across an even page-odd page. Also, if you want something to be a surprise, put it on an even page, as people's eyes automatically scan forward to take in the entire two-page spread.

Ivi. Make sure that each panel doesn't contain more action than you can actually see in it.

Good example # 1 (action in single moment and view):

Page 2, panel 1: Wide view of the OK Corrall. Smoke drifts from Wyatt's drawn gun. Billy Clanton is collapsing in a cloud of dust.

Good example # 2 (action broken up into separate moments):

Page 2, panel 1: Close-up of Wyatt's hand hovering over his holster.

Page 2, panel 2: A vulture, backlit by the sun, comes in for a landing atop the saloon.

Page 2, panel 3: Wyatt's hand grabs the gun. Speedlines in background.

Page 3, panel 4: Tones in background.
sfx (ie, sound effect): BANG!

Page 3, panel 5: Billy Clanton collapses in a cloud of dust.

Bad example:

Page 2, panel 1: Wyatt draws his gun and shoots Billy Clanton, who falls over and dies.

(Notes: There's several actions separated by time here that can't occur in the same panel: Wyatt's draw, Wyatt's shot, and Billy's death. Good example # 1 occurs within the second or so after Wyatt has fired, which is the moment when Billy goes down.

Next post: Dialogue.

Manga-writing basics, Part I: Format

Note: I wrote this yesterday, but it got backdated, so I'm fixing it. Sorry if this keeps popping up on your reading lists.

Because we don't have enough to do, telophase and I will be editing and publishing an anthology of original manga short stories. You may write and draw, or submit as a team.

The points below are mostly for artists who aren't experienced writers, beginning writers, and/or writers who have never written in a script form before, and is probably way too basic to be useful for anyone who has written in a dramatic form (ie, comics, TV, plays, movies) or gets paid to write fiction.

I. Format.

Ii. Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Dream Country contains a comic book, "Calliope," and also the script for it. If you flip back and forth between the script and comic, you will get an excellent idea of how words translate into pictures. Note that Gaiman uses a great deal of detail in his script. This is fine but not necessary; personally, I prefer to leave more to the artist's interpretation.

Iii. A script will note the page number and the panel number, then describe the action going on in that panel, plus the dialogue or other text, if any.

Iiii. If you are a writer collaborating with an artist, even if you're using a very minimalist style, at least make sure that you say what's going on in each panel. If you just write the dialogue, your artist will be confused and baffled.

Good example # 1 (minimalist):
Page 3, panel 4: Text with shoujo bubbles in the background.
Text: I wonder if he remembers my name.

(Note: Shoujo frequently uses abstract backgrounds-- bubbles, flowers, or geometric shapes-- to indicate emotional states.)

Good example # 2 (more descriptive):
Page 3, panel 4: The interior of a Texas-style soul food restaurant in Los Angeles. This is really homey-looking and intimate, with peanut shells on the floor, pies in a case at the counter, and lots of somewhat tacky Texas memorabilia, frequently featuring longhorns and armadillos. We can see part of the kitchen through an open door. There's six tables, but only one is occupied. Miko, a pretty, businesslike Japanese woman in her mid thirties, sits at a table across from her husband, Joe, a big Iraqi man with black-rimmed glasses and five o'clock shadow. They're tucking into a giant platter of barbecued spare ribs.

Miko: I like these ribs better than the ones at Dr. Hogly-Wogly's.

Joe: Me too. But Mo Better Meatty Meat Burgers has better potato salad.

(Note: panels 1-3 would probably be fairly small to leave enough room on the page to fit this much detail and dialogue into panel four.)

Bad example:
Page 3, panel 4:
Josie: You cannot escape my mutant power to make explosive spitballs! Ha-ha-ha-ha!

(Note: Who is Josie? Where is she? What is she doing? Is there a background? What's going on?)

Iiv. Avoid writing in more than five panels per page, because odds are good your artist will need to add some stuff, and you don't want the page to get crowded.

Iv. Page 1 is by itself. Pages 2-3 face each other. Remember this, because if you want a two-page splash page, it will have to be across an even page-odd page. Also, if you want something to be a surprise, put it on an even page, as people's eyes automatically scan forward to take in the entire two-page spread.

Ivi. Make sure that each panel doesn't contain more action than you can actually see in it.

Good example # 1 (action in single moment and view):

Page 2, panel 1: Wide view of the OK Corrall. Smoke drifts from Wyatt's drawn gun. Billy Clanton is collapsing in a cloud of dust.

Good example # 2 (action broken up into separate moments):

Page 2, panel 1: Close-up of Wyatt's hand hovering over his holster.

Page 2, panel 2: A vulture, backlit by the sun, comes in for a landing atop the saloon.

Page 2, panel 3: Wyatt's hand grabs the gun. Speedlines in background.

Page 3, panel 4: Tones in background.
sfx (ie, sound effect): BANG!

Page 3, panel 5: Billy Clanton collapses in a cloud of dust.

Bad example:

Page 2, panel 1: Wyatt draws his gun and shoots Billy Clanton, who falls over and dies.

(Notes: There's several actions separated by time here that can't occur in the same panel: Wyatt's draw, Wyatt's shot, and Billy's death. Good example # 1 occurs within the second or so after Wyatt has fired, which is the moment when Billy goes down.

Next post: Dialogue.

Manga writing basics, Part II: Dialogue

Of the elements that make up a story-- plot, character, theme, visuals, etc-- dialogue seems to be one of the most difficult to get a handle on. If you are writing in English, your dialogue should not read like a bad translation of the original Japanese (and if you're writing in Japanese, it should not read like a bad translation of the original English, but if you're writing in Japanese, you need to find a different publisher anyway.) And yet it frequently does in manga and and Western-style comic books.

There are two key factors that make writing dialogue for comics difficult:

1. Because the space is so limited, every single word must have a purpose: the dialogue must be stripped down to its essential elements, or you will end up with an illustrated novel rather than a comic book. Good forms to practice brevity with are drabbles (stories containing exactly 100 words), haiku, and sonnets.

2. The characters cannot sound as if they are only saying what the writer absolutely needs to convey, or they will sound stilted and unnatural.

Therefore, you need to wield a narrative sleight of hand: the dialogue must be only what's absolutely needed, and yet it must sound spontaneous.

Note: I am assuming here that the writer wants the dialogue to sound like the way that real people talk. There is a great deal of variation in terms of how that can be accomplished, and you can achieve a "realistic" feeling even in very formalized and non-realistic genres like fairy-tales and high fantasy. The important thing is not to sound stilted.

I. Manga is a visual medium. If the picture contains all the information you need, you do not need to add on dialogue or narration to support it.

Good example:
Page 1, panel 1: Aerial view of a bunch of kids pelting a girl, Josie, with rocks.

Bad example:
Page 1, panel 1: Aerial view of a bunch of kids pelting a girl, Josie, with rocks.

Josie's narration: The other kids hated me and picked on me. I didn't fit in.

II. Avoid expository lumps. This is when you try to explain what's going on rather than showing it happening. Expository lumps are usually boring, and take up a lot of space, which is especially bad in a manga where you don't have a lot of space to begin with. Also, they frequently involve characters telling each other things they already know.

Bad example:
Page 2, panel 3: Josie sits down on the sofa next to Bob, who is crying.
Josie: I understand why you are crying. As you know, Bob, it has been nine years since our mother died in that tragic flambeeing accident.

Nobody talks that way. It's stilted and awkward and long. Bob knows how his mother died, so Josie does not need to tell him.

Better example:
Page 2, panel 3: Josie sits down on the sofa next to Bob, who is crying.
Josie: It's OK to cry. I miss Mom too. It may be nine years, but it feels like yesterday.
Bob: Yeah. I'm still scared to flambee.

III. People don't say exactly what they mean, mean exactly what they say, and discuss only the matters at hand. Offhand comments and subtext are what make dialogue interesting and real-feeling.

Bad example:
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: The Three-Neck Killer has evaded capture once again.
Officer Josie: We must confess to our superiors that we have failed.

Better example # 1 (sarcasm):
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: You wanna tell the chief we lost the Three-Neck Killer?
Officer Josie: Yeah, Bob, I'm just dying to do that.

Better example # 2 (subtext-- this assumes the readers already know they didn't catch Three-Neck.):
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: You want some coffee?
Officer Josie: No, I don't want any goddamn coffee!

Better example # 3 (non-verbal responses):
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: The chief's waiting for our report.
Officer Josie: OK, I'm coming.

Page 3, panel 2: Officer Josie, still seated, is stacking the pens on her desk into a Lincoln Log-like structure.

IV: Different people talk differently.

Go read any volume of the manga Saiyuki for examples of this. There are four characters who are all young male badasses. All four of them have such distinctive speech patterns that you can tell who's speaking by the dialogue alone, without looking at who's in the panel.

Manga writing basics, Part II: Dialogue

Of the elements that make up a story-- plot, character, theme, visuals, etc-- dialogue seems to be one of the most difficult to get a handle on. If you are writing in English, your dialogue should not read like a bad translation of the original Japanese (and if you're writing in Japanese, it should not read like a bad translation of the original English, but if you're writing in Japanese, you need to find a different publisher anyway.) And yet it frequently does in manga and and Western-style comic books.

There are two key factors that make writing dialogue for comics difficult:

1. Because the space is so limited, every single word must have a purpose: the dialogue must be stripped down to its essential elements, or you will end up with an illustrated novel rather than a comic book. Good forms to practice brevity with are drabbles (stories containing exactly 100 words), haiku, and sonnets.

2. The characters cannot sound as if they are only saying what the writer absolutely needs to convey, or they will sound stilted and unnatural.

Therefore, you need to wield a narrative sleight of hand: the dialogue must be only what's absolutely needed, and yet it must sound spontaneous.

Note: I am assuming here that the writer wants the dialogue to sound like the way that real people talk. There is a great deal of variation in terms of how that can be accomplished, and you can achieve a "realistic" feeling even in very formalized and non-realistic genres like fairy-tales and high fantasy. The important thing is not to sound stilted.

I. Manga is a visual medium. If the picture contains all the information you need, you do not need to add on dialogue or narration to support it.

Good example:
Page 1, panel 1: Aerial view of a bunch of kids pelting a girl, Josie, with rocks.

Bad example:
Page 1, panel 1: Aerial view of a bunch of kids pelting a girl, Josie, with rocks.

Josie's narration: The other kids hated me and picked on me. I didn't fit in.

II. Avoid expository lumps. This is when you try to explain what's going on rather than showing it happening. Expository lumps are usually boring, and take up a lot of space, which is especially bad in a manga where you don't have a lot of space to begin with. Also, they frequently involve characters telling each other things they already know.

Bad example:
Page 2, panel 3: Josie sits down on the sofa next to Bob, who is crying.
Josie: I understand why you are crying. As you know, Bob, it has been nine years since our mother died in that tragic flambeeing accident.

Nobody talks that way. It's stilted and awkward and long. Bob knows how his mother died, so Josie does not need to tell him.

Better example:
Page 2, panel 3: Josie sits down on the sofa next to Bob, who is crying.
Josie: It's OK to cry. I miss Mom too. It may be nine years, but it feels like yesterday.
Bob: Yeah. I'm still scared to flambee.

III. People don't say exactly what they mean, mean exactly what they say, and discuss only the matters at hand. Offhand comments and subtext are what make dialogue interesting and real-feeling.

Bad example:
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: The Three-Neck Killer has evaded capture once again.
Officer Josie: We must confess to our superiors that we have failed.

Better example # 1 (sarcasm):
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: You wanna tell the chief we lost the Three-Neck Killer?
Officer Josie: Yeah, Bob, I'm just dying to do that.

Better example # 2 (subtext-- this assumes the readers already know they didn't catch Three-Neck.):
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: You want some coffee?
Officer Josie: No, I don't want any goddamn coffee!

Better example # 3 (non-verbal responses):
Page 3, panel 1: Officer Bob leans over Officer Josie's desk.
Officer Bob: The chief's waiting for our report.
Officer Josie: OK, I'm coming.

Page 3, panel 2: Officer Josie, still seated, is stacking the pens on her desk into a Lincoln Log-like structure.

IV: Different people talk differently.

Go read any volume of the manga Saiyuki for examples of this. There are four characters who are all young male badasses. All four of them have such distinctive speech patterns that you can tell who's speaking by the dialogue alone, without looking at who's in the panel.