Useful Principles

I'm going to give some thoughts on how to approach the writing of comic book scripts, in a high-level, very generalised way.

I have an assumption that if I am going to do this, I'd like to be able to do so reasonably well. Somebody very smart, who I have read a couple of blog posts from, reckons the way to get published as a comic book script writer is to get good at writing comic book scripts. Instead of giving lots of tips about how to get the attention of publishers, he focuses on the craft of being a scriptwriter and storyteller. This seems smart, and I will be starting to read things about the mechanics of telling stories, and the mechanics of telling stories through the medium of sequential art, in the same way that I am somewhat aware of the ways to string words together and use the mechanics of writing, to control the delivery of ideas.

Like this, I used a paragraph break to get emphasis.

But apart from these mechanics, I want to take a little time to think about high-level principles that might serve me well. Things that would inform my whole approach and mindset.

I have been teaching game design for fifteen years now, and have got quite good at assessing, deconstructing and assisting the construction of game ideas. I have at least six fundamental rules of game design:

1. It's all about the player experience
2. Give the player choices
3. Don't forget the fun
4. A good designer takes control
5. The needs of the game outweigh the needs of everything else
6. Build the iceberg.

In case you are wondering, the sixth one means that you need to take the detail and depth of your design, especially your world building and characters, far, far deeper than the player will experience. This is the way to make things feel real... get that depth deep enough that the players don't find the bottom.

I guess some of these will translate into script writing.

1. It's all about the reader's experience
2. Comics are not interactive, choice is less important, but I guess they could have choices in interpretation
3. I guess remember to add in whimsy and humour, even in the darkest situations, or maybe to remember sprinklings of juicy extra detail.
4. A good designer takes control. This applies to anything creative. The more the designer thinks about and crafts every element they can think of, the more chance there is that the design is good.
5. I'm not really sure about this one. In game design this means that if there is a conflict between gameplay and story logic, the gameplay wins. I guess it may be true that story is king, but I think when your central focus is storytelling, inconsistencies are less likely to be forgiven. I'm a firm believer that internal consistency is really important for storytelling, because it aids the willing suspension of disbelief so much.
6. Build the iceberg. Got a story that's four pages long? You might still need a lot more detail on the background, history and personality of your characters, your world needs to be fleshed out and rich in detail. 

So 1, 4 and 6 for sure, and the much-quoted "show don't tell". 

I have a final one in my mind, which is to imagine the reader is intelligent. One of my favourite writers on TV is Aaron Sorkind, creator of the West Wing. He has a great ability to give the viewer information in a minimal way, letting them work out what is going on in people's minds for themselves, or the consequences of a situation, He trusts the viewers to put two and two together, and it makes for a great story-telling experience. One of my favourite moments is an episode that starts as the staff are on air force one, preparing for liftoff for a trip. In the pre-credits warm-up we are shown that several people on the flight are in some kind of conflict with others, and there is an obvious intention to use the flying time to get into these issues and things are likely to get heated. In the final short clip before the credits we see one of the staff strapping in for the flight as the captain announces over the tannoy various details about the flight finishing with something about the weather and "so we anticipate we will have a smooth flight". The character we are watching just snorts a tiny ironic laugh-snort through her nose.

At that point the viewer puts together that the our character anticipates the flight to be far from smooth in an emotional sense, and has seen the irony of the captain's statement, but only in the sense of via a pun on "smooth". That snort-laugh is a beautiful piece of writing, and it relies on the viewer being able to draw these things together.

So, my rules, which I will feel entirely free to add to and take away from and alter as I get experience, are as follows:

1. Remember what the reader is experiencing
2. Use details to garnish
3. A good writer takes control
4. Build the iceberg
5. Show, don't tell
6. Use the reader's intelligence as an asset
7. Don't be afraid of emotions

I just added that last one, which is really number one wrapped up again. My best judge of what might move a reader is what moves me.

So that's it for today, one day I might break free from the pontification of this blog, but I have at least one post in me before then. One day I might actually write a script. 

One day.