Want to illustrate a short story?, "Chasing the American Dream" Options

[Craig]

I wrote a version of this story back in college about 16 years ago. I dug it up and re-wrote it about two years ago. I've always hoped to see it illustrated some day. Since there are lots of talented artists here who are always looking for practice I thought I'd offer up my story to you all.

I can't vouch for the format. I don't know the right or wrong way for presenting a story to an artist. I've broken it down into seven pages. I've noted dialogue (there's very little on only one page), and basically just noted the key visual elements that each page should have. If there's too much per page, I'm not averse to you adding a page. I'd just love to see the best told version of the story. I've intentionally left nearly all layout and details open for the artist. As there is virtually no dialogue it will be completely up to the artist to convey the story visually.

The story itself? It follows a little girls life from child to old woman, with her chasing "the american dream" throughout. The american dream is represented by a balloon she receives and loses as a child. The story has a definite political slant to it. Though it was written quite a long while ago, it seems more timely than ever with the Occupy Wall Street protests that are currently going on.

I think it would be a hoot to see several versions of this from different artists and see how much they differ. I run a comic art website/blog and would love to share as many finished versions of this story as I could there. Seems like win-win to me. You get practice with sequential story-telling, get some added exposure to your work on my blog, and I get to see my words brought to life.

What do you think? If you dig the idea, let me know and I'll send the script to you.

[Tyler James]

I can't vouch for the format. I don't know the right or wrong way for presenting a story to an artist.

Craig,

Highly recommend you check out two free online resources for aspiring comic writers:

1) Bolts & Nuts - Comic Scriptwriting 101 by Steve Forbes

2) The Proving Grounds - The Script Editing Workshop Column, also by Steve Forbes

If you actually want to see this story come to life, you owe it to yourself AND your artist to LEARN format and how to present a story to an artist. It's not hard, but it does require putting the work in.

You will level up 500% if you spend some hours reviewing the above links.

I hope you do.

Good luck!

[Ron Fortier]

Or you can ask me to send you my oh so short script sample that I created while teaching a class in HOW TO WRITE COMICS. Its for a short five page story, and pretty much in simple, easy steps explains it all. So you can learn in ten to fifteen minutes what it would take you hours on those other links.
Helpful Ron (whose been doing this for 35 yrs)

[Tyler James]

Or you can ask me to send you my oh so short script sample that I created while teaching a class in HOW TO WRITE COMICS. Its for a short five page story, and pretty much in simple, easy steps explains it all. So you can learn in ten to fifteen minutes what it would take you hours on those other links.
Helpful Ron (whose been doing this for 35 yrs)

Sounds like a great resource, too. Send one my way.

[ChadStrohl]

I've been trying my hand at this as well. Not that I've never scripted, I just haven't scripted well.

I've been recently digging into screenwriting fundamentals and I'd say the two are very akin to each other. It all seems to boil down to a 7Up approach (probably stepping on a trademark there).

Keep it Crisp, Clean, and Clear.

Crisp = Short descriptive sentences. "Noun Verbs another Noun" with adjectives if absolutely necessary.

Clean = No muddy metaphors and light use of simile if absolutely necessary. If it can't be drawn, don't write it.

Clear = Each descriptive sentence in order of visual appearance. If two characters are doing something in one panel, move left to right as it would be read.

Obviously, this is a very minimalistic assertion and there are all kinds of other things to take into consideration such as how much dialogue can fit in a panel, pacing, ending pages on a "page turning" moment, etc. There's a wealth of information on every aspect of every aspect. Too much maybe

Half of writing can be taught. The other half has to be learned. Sounds like I just said the same thing, but I didn't.

[ChadStrohl]

Oh...

And a cool website to check out.

www.comicbookscriptarchive.com

Providing you don't try and read the Alan Moore stuff. You'll shoot your eye out.

[Craig]

Sorry for the slow response...I must have my profile set up incorrectly, as I didn't realize so many people had responded!

Thanks for the tips, and I'll be sure to check them all out!