So, exactly what is the difference [format-wise] between a Graphic Novel/Comic Book script and, say, a screenplay? I've written a screenplay, and am toying with the idea of writing a graphic novel script this year. But I haven't got the sightest clue how to go about it.

Could anyone help point me in the right direction?

(I couldn't figure out if I should post this here or the Formatting forum - I decided to post it here because you'd all know best XD)

A graphic novel is broken into pages, which are further broken down into panels or cells (the vocabulary is a little fast and loose). There are two styles of graphic novel/comic book scripts - actually there's probably a million - but the main two are a synopsis type of script that instructs the artist to draw the main action, and then the author fills in the dialogue later, or a detailed script that you'll probably want to write for this frenzy.

A good resource is this page: http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=pd&article=21... which shows a couple of example pages, and this one: http://www.marvwolfman.com/WHAT%20TH%2049.html

Both of these are templates so feel free to take them as a starting point rather than written in stone.

And there's a bunch of other resources online if you google comic book scripts or writing for comics. Hope this helped!

A comic book script let's you away with a paragraph per page :p

I like the examples at scriptsmart personally.

Like other people have said, a graphic novel script is usually broken up into pages and panels. But personally, as I'm both a writer AND artist, I prefer to figure out page layouts and such while I'm drawing, not while I'm writing. So I just write out the comic script more like a movie script.

But if you're writing it professionally, and/or if you want someone else to draw it, then DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY use the official way of formatting.

I think it depends on what you want to do with the script, who is going to see it, and your personal style.

But of course, I'm not a professional. Nowhere close. I'm just a measly little webcomic artist :)

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SF '07: Sand & Stone (Won)
SF '08: Untitled [amount plotted: 5%]

Angelfish, my sci-fi/fantasy webcomic.

This example has helped me greatly: http://www.darkhorse.com/company/ghost_sample_comic_script.doc

It's what I'm basing my script format on.

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2008: The Crane Girl

how I support my writing habit

I've done some very amateur comicking before, and the way I do it is that I write a script pretty much similar to a screenplay first, and then do "thumbnails" of page layouts to get a good idea of how things will be paced and how everything will look. It also helps me get a good idea of whether what I've written is actually going to work on the page, and lets me know if I need to make any changes to the script to make the story flow better before I start putting full pages together.

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Progress Blog | Snippets & Doodles

Thanks for sharing, Bunbury. I like having an actual example to format off of.

~Merc

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The Toasted Scimitar

Thanks so much for the links. I was wondering how to format a graphic novel script myself.

I found this one helped me:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2102602_book-script-full-script-style.html

I was struggling with how to format it too!

Green Raven

Follow your passion whatever it is,
If you don't do what you love, you'll never get to where you want to be!

It depends on the author, what they are trying to convey to the artist, and what the artist/author relationship is. I am lucky that my husband is my artist so I can write the script how I want and if he doesn't 'get' what I wanted per panel, all he has to do is lean over the desk and ask me. I tell him what I NEED to happen on this page and he can fill in the blanks, and I only write something if I want it drawn. If you are the artist as well as the writer, you won't need as much detail per panel as, say, a writer whose artist is a thousand miles away.

Some OGN authors write their scripts like screenplays, including camera angles. Alan Moore rambles on for fifteen pages about the God of War for a one-panel description. I'm serious. His standard 22 page comic book scripts were easilly a hundred pages long. But, he's cheating.

Typical Marvel way, however, is page, panel, description.

Write On!
-K

I decided to throw out any rules (whatever they are) since I'm not verifying as a winner this year.
I don't have a "real" computer.

I'm doing something inbetween a comic and graphic novel - I suppose. I've written 100 scene ideas on giant index cards. I've decided to do a full page for major parts of the story. Kind of in the style of Mad Magazine's old "behind the scenes". That will be on the right-hand page. Then on the left hand page I'll do close ups and more of the story.
Probably in two columns - one frames, one story.

I'm a real beginner with cartooning and have little drawing talent. I've decided to do some kind of mixed media - cartooning / collage / whatever works.
I have no intent to publish so I'm pretty free to do whatever art and format I want.

Possible title: "Senior Delinquents"
I have some sub-plots and comedic "how to's".
If I do 6 to 7 pages of drawing a day - the full pages of penciling will be done by the 15th of April. I figure penciling isn't cheating - it's extra. But it's easier for me to tell the story visually.

I found adapting one of my short stories into a comic was harder than doing NaNoWriMo. I'm serious - I've won NaNo 3 times (one year close to 100k) and wrote a 20k stage play last year for Fenzy. I think starting with a comic/graphic novel format will be easier than adapting.

I suppose the length makes it more of a graphic novel unless I figure how to break it up into a series of comics.

TJ