HOW I MAKE WEBCOMICS (part 5)

edit: added more talk about layouts at the end!

DIRECTORY

PART 1 - intro, goals, when you should start, comic length

PART 2 - inspiration, ideas, research

PART 3 - page sizes, hosting sites, patreon

PART 4 - characters, art references, promotional 

PART 5 (here) - outlining, scripting, thumbnailing

PART 6 - sketching, inking, coloring 

PART 7 - updating, guest comics

PART 8 - merch, self-care, fandom and boundaries

outlining

i used to think that EVERYONE outlined their stories before diving into them, but apparently not! outlining is the process of writing out general descriptions and summaries of scenes in your story, like a timeline with just enough details to remember where everything is supposed to go. when i outline, i write in shorthand since it's just for me and i'm the only one that really needs to understand what i'm talking about (until i send the outline to friends for feedback, which i greatly recommend).

an outline is NOT scripting. an outline can be as simple as bullet points:

• we see mitch, javier, scratch, and cliff
• they hang a freshman by his underwear on a flagpole
• we meet jonas getting ready for school

or (how i like to do it) short summaries of scenes (this is a real excerpt from the final outline for Long Exposure):

ok so it starts out in front of the high school at like 5am. its mitch, javier, scratch, and cliff but you cant really see their faces or anything. they hang some poor freshman by his underwear on the flagpole. flagpole wedgie. thats the intro

later jonas getting ready for school, his adoptive dad dean being emotionally abusive like telling him he should be thankful he adopted him bc nobody else wanted him etc, foster kids being chaotic in general, w/e

as you can see, it's not polished at all, just simple enough to give me an idea of what to write when i get to the scripting stage. MAKE MULTIPLE OUTLINES you won't get it right the first try! LE took 7 drafts, and ROD is currently on draft 10 at the time of writing this! have friends that you trust read it over and give you feedback!!!

scripting

since i do all the writing and art in my comic, my scripting method is going to be a little different than what it might look like for someone writing a script for a hired artist to interpret. i'm sorry i can't give any advice on how to write for an artist! 

when i script, i take reference from my outline. this is when i might make notes about what kind of environment i want and other things i want to remember when i thumbnail. mostly it's just dialog! here's an example from chapter 5 of LE!

Mitch, with his arm around joey: missed you this weekend, joey

Jonas: whatever, haha… had to babysit the foster kids with sidney.

Mitch: that puppy pajama kid?

Jonas: sammy? Yeah she was there, why?

Mitch: like that kid

Jonas smiles at him

Jonas: didn’t know you were such a softy. Maybe i’m rubbing off on you.

Mitch: heh… wouldn’t mind that.

thumbnailing/layouts

if you don't know, thumbnailing is a VERY loose sketch of the characters and page layout to give a better understanding of how your pages are going to flow together. i like to thumbnail a batch of 3-5 pages at a time, but you can absolutely do more! a lot of people will thumbnail their entire comic before starting on the final art. here's an example of the thumbnails i did for a ROD test comic

and a comparison of a thumbnail to a finished page

CLEARLY thumbnails don't need to be very pretty hahaha

PRO TIP: remember to LEAVE ROOM FOR SPEECH BUBBLES in your thumbnail! sketch in the speech bubbles!!

EDIT: wanted to talk a little more about layouts here! layouts or paneling is how you get your comic to flow from image to image and from page to page. it sets the pacing and the mood starts here as well. by thumbnailing before you jump into sketches, you can see your pages next to each other as a preview for how they might flow. you don't want to repeat the same layout for multiple pages in a row, for example (unless you've got a good reason to ofc). 

generally speaking, small panels are for short periods of time in your comic, and large panels represent longer periods of time. if you want your comic's pacing to go by quickly, use a lot of small panels in a row. if you want readers to slow down, use larger ones. 

another tip is that if your characters are entering a new environment, or you've changed locations in the story, you need an establishing shot. this often looks like a large panel showing exactly where the characters are. the outside of a building, or a park, or whatever. read some comics and you'll notice this exact thing!

here's an example from LE chapter 7

first panel is establishing that the following panels are taking place at Jonas and Sidney's house

as for the character placement and camera angles/shots in each panel, i personally take inspiration from movies and TV. if i'm going to show a new character entering a room, i think back to media ive seen and what that might look like. watching media and reading comics is a great way to build up a mental reference for these things. or save shots you like to come back and look at later! i wish i could give more advice on panel shot ideas, but i really do just kind of sit and zone out and try to picture the scene in my head as if it were a movie. then i draw what it looks like.

PART 6  

if you have any questions, ask away below and i'll do my best to answer when i can!