Your writing process

[mcfadyn]

Jay and I usually just sit around for about half an hour and punch out a few scripts here and there, or he just texts them to me and we go from there.  We have a word document that has all the scripts that we save up, I go and just pick on that I usually feel I can work with that day.  As for the actual WRITING of Louder than Bombs, we just chill and talk about things and our views on stuff.  We like to talk about funny situations or use universal themes and work with those.  Alot of times we come across a word or a phrase we really like and work a comic around it.  Lately, though, we've gone to wikipedia and simply clicked 'random'.  Just to see what pops up.  Try it, it's fun and keeps you on your toes :)

I may be off base with this, but I think it's more difficult to do a gag-a-day.  To be funny ever single day.  For a comic with story, you don't need to be funny... you just need to move the story along.  Especially if you have a long running graphic novel-esq webcomic where the pacing is slow unless you're reading through the archives.  By no means am I shitting on story based comics, it takes alot of effort and work to do those too.  I just find that doing something funny everyday seems like it would just take more.  When I say gag-a-day, I definitely mean, something that is constantly funny, not just stupid for stupid's sake or 'oh, I've gotta update... I guess this will do'.

[Rob]

Ace,

I believe I asked the questions I asked in your introduction thread here. And you can feel free to answer them there as well if you want. Unless you feel the discussion fits better somewhere else.

If you want to discuss your obviously complex creative process in the art section I wholeheartedly endorse you starting a new thread. It can be just for you or a "Your artistic Process" in general thing if you like. Your call.

And I agree with Gibson. As I writer I watch a lot of DVD extra features and storyboarding is very common in the movie industry.  ;)

[Gar]

I may be off base with this, but I think it's more difficult to do a gag-a-day.  To be funny ever single day. 

Writing gags and writing story are pretty different disciplines, I'm not sure you can meaningfully compare them in terms of difficulty. It's like saying table tennis is more difficult than city planning.

[Gibson]

I may be off base with this, but I think it's more difficult to do a gag-a-day.  To be funny ever single day. 

Writing gags and writing story are pretty different disciplines, I'm not sure you can meaningfully compare them in terms of difficulty. It's like saying table tennis is more difficult than city planning.

I've done both and they're not that different, really. It's more like saying Bridge is harder than Poker. I would say that writing one gag-a-day strip is harder than writing a single page of a story comic, but that becomes less the case when it's drawn out on longer scale. With strips you may have to be funny every day, but you only have to be funny "once a day". With a story comic as a whole, it requires a much greater depth than strips, requires a lot more in your head and on paper, requires more vivid characterization, requires continuity and chronology, blah blah blah. And let's face it, strips aren't funny every day.

[plughead]

Hey Guys

Yes, while storyboarding is common in action and scifi films, it's usually only budgeted and/or needed for action scenes. For Alien Res, Jean Paul Jeunet intensely wanted to direct the film, so he did storyboards for the entire film, trying to get the gig, IIRC. It's been awhile since I watched the specials/commentary on that DVD.

That alone was the main inspiration for me to relaunch Sarah Zero in basically "living storyboard" format. I love making spread after spread of just one huge shot after another, each a frozen moment in time!

[Swinsea]

That's about as far as I usually get for a "script" before I go straight to storyboarding and the finished pages. It's really hard for me to just sit and write a script... I'm a visual person, and I get impatient and antsy.

Sticky notes work wonders for people who can't sit and write like me. It allows for a tactile way to organize key moments, always with room to add in notes about things the characters should say, wording, little details, etc.

Each page in my sketchbook represents an issue, and there are six sets of sticky notes, each representing key moments in the flow of the story. This helps me make sure there's a decent amount of material in each installment and enough action to balance the quiet moments.

[mcfadyn]

Wow, does that ever look more involved than our writing...

[Gar]

There's...there's so much writing per sticky!

Although yellow stickies are great. I did this comic on them for a while until my boss gave out to me for drawing at work.

[operationremie]

Hey Guys

Yes, while storyboarding is common in action and scifi films, it's usually only budgeted and/or needed for action scenes. For Alien Res, Jean Paul Jeunet intensely wanted to direct the film, so he did storyboards for the entire film, trying to get the gig, IIRC. It's been awhile since I watched the specials/commentary on that DVD.

That alone was the main inspiration for me to relaunch Sarah Zero in basically "living storyboard" format. I love making spread after spread of just one huge shot after another, each a frozen moment in time!

omg! i remember this comic! i was trying to find it for ages. this was one of my inspirations to do a webcomic! i remember talking with you way back in the day haha

[operationremie]

i usually just write at work since it's easier to do and no one really seems to care as long as i do my work at the same time. i've gotten about 2-3 scripts done when i do them at work. i go back and edit them later but it just gives me the basic premise of where i want it to go.

[Richard]

Well since my primary job for my comics is writing I have to do quite a bit...

First- I usually get myself into the right sort of mindset by putting on various music (depending on the genre and tone I'm going for) then I go straight into the outline for my comic.

Second- The comics we run on the site go for 24 page issues, so I usually put in the basic "points" I need to cover in the comic over six page increments.

Third- I get down what is happening in the first, twelfth, and twenty-fourth pages.

Fourth- I start writing the script for each six page section until I am done with all twenty-four pages.

Five- I go over with pages and begin the process of my first edit.

Six- I do my first rewrite of the script.

Seven- I go over the pages yet again to look for mistakes. Usually at this stage I get a second opinion as well.

Eight- Polish off the script and send it to the artist.

Nine- Sometimes I have to make last minute changes when I misjudge space for dialogue on a given page. Fun, fun, fun...