What is Script Development in Comics?

Part III in the Intro to Developmental Comic Editors Series

Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash

Everything is ready. You know your plot, characters, and story lore. You’ve written a script and are ready to send it to your editor. You send it off and await comments. This is script development!

The step of script development is a make or break event. It is the most commonly known aspect of comics editing and one of the most important. Your editor will track story beats, dissecting plot events that occur. In this step, it can be easy to see structural problems. These need to be fixed as early as possible. When I see enough issues, I begin to question whether something should even be a comic. Sometimes the script is better served as prose such as a short story or novel. It is imperative that the editor let the writer know ASAP if the script is better suited for a different medium.

While looking at structure, the editor will look for art direction as well. Something to remember: the major rule in comics is one action per panel. For instance, a character cannot take off running to hug someone and perform the hug in the same panel. So an editor needs to watch out for that in this stage. Art direction can vary, but the script needs to be written in a way that an artist can understand what to illustrate. It is imperative to remember that an artist is a collaborator. You work together to create the final product. The writer’s job is not to simply tell the artist what to do. It’s a team effort and the writer must give the artist room to be creative and do their own thing. More on this in the artwork development article coming soon.

Dialogue and character is next. Do the characters come alive through their speech? If you covered up the character name, would you be able to know who is speaking? If your gut says you can switch them out and not notice a difference, then the character development needs work.

Another stage is obvious, and that’s grammar and syntax. I think this is what most people think of when they think of editing. When you are in the super early stages of the script, this is still important. You can’t have errors making thing way through in multiple stages of the script.

This is not an exhaustive list of things to look for and they can all happen at the same time, but it is the foundation for script editing/development. Once the script is finalized, it’s time to get ready for some artwork development!

Read other posts in this series: