Unlock the secrets to comic-writing success! "You have a story tell. It's your story... These are ways to help you get your story out, to help you become the writer inside of yourself." This is the book on writing you've been waiting for, a nuts-and-bolts guide to writing fiction for comics. While it is true that there is no set way to write a comic book script, no set forma Unlock the secrets to comic-writing success! "You have a story tell. It's your story... These are ways to help you get your story out, to help you become the writer inside of yourself." This is the book on writing you've been waiting for, a nuts-and-bolts guide to writing fiction for comics. While it is true that there is no set way to write a comic book script, no set format, no industry standard, it is equally true that someone learning to write comics needs structure. That's where Comics Experience(c) Guide to Writing Comics can help. Comics veteran Andy Schmidt offers sage advice and practical instruction for everything from writing realistic dialogue to communicating your ideas to other comics professionals. Inside you'll find: - 23 exercises to help you put fundamental writing principles into practice - Sample script formats, page-by-page outlines, scene-by-scene outlines and short pitches that show you exactly how to create these important components of the writing process - Diagrams and pages from published comics to illustrate key concepts - Tips on professional development, networking and navigating the comics industry These pages include all the tools you need to write great comics, but where do you begin? Begin with yourself. You have to know--not believe--know: You can do this, and this guide will help. Now, begin with Chapter 1...
Comics Experience Guide to Writing Comics: Scripting Your Story Ideas from Start to Finish
Unlock the secrets to comic-writing success! "You have a story tell. It's your story... These are ways to help you get your story out, to help you become the writer inside of yourself." This is the book on writing you've been waiting for, a nuts-and-bolts guide to writing fiction for comics. While it is true that there is no set way to write a comic book script, no set forma Unlock the secrets to comic-writing success! "You have a story tell. It's your story... These are ways to help you get your story out, to help you become the writer inside of yourself." This is the book on writing you've been waiting for, a nuts-and-bolts guide to writing fiction for comics. While it is true that there is no set way to write a comic book script, no set format, no industry standard, it is equally true that someone learning to write comics needs structure. That's where Comics Experience(c) Guide to Writing Comics can help. Comics veteran Andy Schmidt offers sage advice and practical instruction for everything from writing realistic dialogue to communicating your ideas to other comics professionals. Inside you'll find: - 23 exercises to help you put fundamental writing principles into practice - Sample script formats, page-by-page outlines, scene-by-scene outlines and short pitches that show you exactly how to create these important components of the writing process - Diagrams and pages from published comics to illustrate key concepts - Tips on professional development, networking and navigating the comics industry These pages include all the tools you need to write great comics, but where do you begin? Begin with yourself. You have to know--not believe--know: You can do this, and this guide will help. Now, begin with Chapter 1...
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Aaron Heil –
Quick shout out to NetGalley, for providing me with an ebook ARC of this book! Veteran comic book editor Andy Schmidt leads an intro to comics class in his new book, Comics Experience Guide to Writing Comics, affiliated with the writing resource website Comics Experience. Of all the books I would classify as “the book-of-the-website” most seem to be comics, and most seem to superfluous (except Hyperbole and a Half. I liked that better as a book), but this one, however, found me highlighting and Quick shout out to NetGalley, for providing me with an ebook ARC of this book! Veteran comic book editor Andy Schmidt leads an intro to comics class in his new book, Comics Experience Guide to Writing Comics, affiliated with the writing resource website Comics Experience. Of all the books I would classify as “the book-of-the-website” most seem to be comics, and most seem to superfluous (except Hyperbole and a Half. I liked that better as a book), but this one, however, found me highlighting and bookmarking the Kindle edition on my phone. Comics Experience Guide to Writing Comics both serves as an excellent guide to writing fiction in general and the differences that set graphic narratives apart from more traditional media. So what is Comics Experience? I read somewhere that being a famous cartoonist means being famous to a very small number of people. I apologize for my naivete on the subject to all the veterans reading this who know a lot more than me about Andy Schmidt and co. When I stumbled upon Comics Experience, I assumed it would have a few cheap DVDs for sale. I should be more optimistic. It doesn’t sell DVDs; it sells classes, like if Dave Ramsey had an MFA. But there’s free stuff, too. They offer classes on everything from character development to marketing at a rate that competes, at least, with my state university’s asking price per class. However, the most valuable part of the site has to be The Script Archive, which offers samples from Alan Moore, Brian K. Vaughn, Neil Gaiman, among others. To those who can decipher a comic book script, the Archive has excellent examples to keep in mind when writing, and the Guide helps readers make sense of them. The Guide explains nearly everything. Schmidt thoroughly describes the anatomy of comic book pages and the jargon associated with it such “splash” or “the bleed.” He describes how comic book scripts have to direct and inspire artists in a delicate balance between prose novel and near-total dialogue filled movie format. Schmidt frequently references movies and even books when describing the storytelling process because he knows that nearly everyone in the English-speaking world can grasp Star Wars. Schmidt offers some of the best arguments I’ve ever read for outlining – and this is coming from a writer who outlines nearly everything. He lists the pros and cons of a meticulous story structure and provides clear examples of characters who act on the plot rather than reacting, and why the graphic medium values them so much. While informative, The Guide suffers from a little too much enthusiasm sometimes. I’m sure the sidebars look lovely in textbook form, but it leaves digital readers thoroughly confused. Furthermore, some of them could easily be their own chapters. The information probably could best fit in an appendix after the main text. Readers looking to break into the comic book world will leave wishing for a little more detail on some of the comics publishers that Schmidt lists, but hey, he’s not writing a directory here. Schmidt provides a solid place to begin a comics project or sharpen other literary pursuits. He relates awesome tips on storytelling and character development in terms that his readers universally understand. As for comic book lingo, I basically couldn’t look at my copy of Batman: Dark Victory the same way after reading this book. “That’s a splash panel,” I’d think. Or, “Ooh, this is a grid page.” or “Man, they don’t even have to write hostile dialogue to show when Gordon’s angry.” Nerdy writers and comic book neophytes should definitely spring for the print version of this resource when it comes out on June 17.
Patrick –
Way back in 2010 I naively thought I'd take a superhero novel I'd written and turn it into a graphic novel. Tales of the Scarlet Knight Comic Book #1 I had folded up sheets of paper to make my own comics as a kid so how hard could this be? Really hard as it turns out. This book gets into a lot of the pitfalls I ran into. If you're a writer who can draw it's a little easier because you can sketch things out but if you're like me and can't draw more than stick figures it gets harder. You have to se Way back in 2010 I naively thought I'd take a superhero novel I'd written and turn it into a graphic novel. Tales of the Scarlet Knight Comic Book #1 I had folded up sheets of paper to make my own comics as a kid so how hard could this be? Really hard as it turns out. This book gets into a lot of the pitfalls I ran into. If you're a writer who can draw it's a little easier because you can sketch things out but if you're like me and can't draw more than stick figures it gets harder. You have to see everything in your head and try to divide the panels and dialog balloons and sound effects accordingly. It can be really tricky, especially if you're not familiar with the artist you're working with. About the first half or so of the book is just dedicated to creating the story itself. Then there are chapters on creating the actual layouts. In that way it's probably more useful for beginners than more experienced people. ON the Comics Experience website you can look at old scripts and even get a script template that is helpful if you're trying to figure out how to write a script. There's also some advice at the end about approaching people at conventions and such. If you're a writer who can't really draw finding an artist is pretty difficult unless you know someone. So this covers pretty much all parts of the process, though maybe not extremely in-depth all the time. Still, it should be able to give you a running start.
Doc Pastor –
He leído este libro en la edición española publicada por Anaya/Espacio de diseño, y debo decir que lo contado por Andy Schmidt es una lectura muy recomendable para dar unos primeros pasos en el mundo del cómics. Destaca el apartado final, hablando sobre la industria, contactos y otros temas que suelen dejarse de lado en este tipo de volúmenes. Eso sí, el volumen publicado en España adolece de un diseño bastante pasado de moda, además que en ocasiones la traducción y corrección son mejorables a lo He leído este libro en la edición española publicada por Anaya/Espacio de diseño, y debo decir que lo contado por Andy Schmidt es una lectura muy recomendable para dar unos primeros pasos en el mundo del cómics. Destaca el apartado final, hablando sobre la industria, contactos y otros temas que suelen dejarse de lado en este tipo de volúmenes. Eso sí, el volumen publicado en España adolece de un diseño bastante pasado de moda, además que en ocasiones la traducción y corrección son mejorables a lo largo de toda la obra. Si no fuera por esto, sin duda tendría una estrella más.
Angela –
A good intro for beginners.
Nicholas Savini –
Jeremy –
Julian Aviles –
Brian –
Joseph –
Meghan –
I received this book as an advanced reader's copy and was very excited to read this being a huge graphic novel enthusiast and with graphic novels being widely popular in my library, I thought this would fit in well with our collection. However, I was not expecting the book to be so wordy. Graphic novels as we all know have minimal words except within the dialogue and the pictures/art/graphics tell most of the story. Our patrons will be confused with this book due to the fact that all of the step I received this book as an advanced reader's copy and was very excited to read this being a huge graphic novel enthusiast and with graphic novels being widely popular in my library, I thought this would fit in well with our collection. However, I was not expecting the book to be so wordy. Graphic novels as we all know have minimal words except within the dialogue and the pictures/art/graphics tell most of the story. Our patrons will be confused with this book due to the fact that all of the steps were written in and there were not enough visuals to support or breakdown each step in developing the perfect graphic novel. Our patrons along with myself are visual learners when it comes to how to books which is why we are only giving this book 3 stars!
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