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So you are interested in writing comics? Perhaps you are a passionate artist, or you just like to write, and feel that you are ready to write a comic book, go for it! You could have the next most popular comic book series. You will never know until you try!
The more you write, not only writing comic books, but anything, the better the writer you will be. Everything in life takes practice. The more practice we have, the better we become. Do not settle as a mediocre comic book writer. Strive to be the best you can be by writing as much as you can. You may just start writing lots of short stories, and then realize that one of your short stories could be the best comic book plot ever!
Experienced Enough?
Some people are talented artists and would like to write a comic book, but do not have terrific ideas for a plot, or any idea of what they want to write about. The best way to get ideas is to read books, watch movies, or search the Internet. The more you read, or watch different things with a comic book in mind the more ideas you will get. You are not going to steal someone’s ideas, but it will get your thoughts flowing to help you write your own plots. You also learn about details in a certain situation you would only learn by experience, or by seeing and reading about it.
The more you read and watch TV the more you learn about different things you can put in your own stories. The more details that relate to your plot, the better your story will be. If your comic book is about crime scenes, you will benefit by reading true crime stories, or any kind of crime TV shows. You may hear something during the show that you would have never known before. The more you read and watch TV, the better your story will be. Some of the best writers are movie, and TV buffs.
Sketch Your Ideas
If you are a strong artist, you might want to illustrate first when you write a comic book, you can do that too! Start drawing and see where your pictures lead you. You can add the text later. Very few people can draw and add the words as they go along when they write a comic book.
If you have some fantastic ideas and you just need a way to get them out on paper, the best thing to do is to brainstorm all your ideas. You can start by writing down every thought you have for writing comics. It could be one book, two books, several ideas, etc. The first step is just to get every thought you have down on paper. You do not need to worry about organizing them; you just want to get them out and onto paper. You will organize them next. This will help your thoughts from getting bottle-necked. You can get them all out, even if they do not actually fit in the same book, but that you can use them in another. Write a comic book that will draw people in.
After you have spent a few minutes racking your brain for all the ideas you might have, you will want to get another piece of paper and start to place your thoughts from the first paper in some kind of logical order. This is where you will take your information off of to write a comic book. Consider if all your ideas are for the same comic book, or if you have enough information for 2, 3, or even a full series of comic books.
“Who” & “What” In Your Comics
Make sure your characters can be related to. Yes your story will have good and bad people in them, but your target audience needs to be able to relate to these characters, for them to be able to truly get into the story. You want them to feel like they are a part of the story, when they read it.
Editing: Before & After
After you have written out your first rough draft of your comic book, put it away! Stephen King suggests when writing comics that you need to put it away for some time before you go back and edit it. It is better if you edit your work this way, because when it is fresh in your mind, you may not catch as many mistakes. After you have looked it over a few times, have someone else check it over too. Other people will catch the mistakes you did not. Do not make the mistake of letting someone check it over before you do, because your story may not flow the way you had wanted it to, so you seriously should be the first person to do it. Asking other people to check it over, is vital too, you want to see how your audiences can relate to the characters in your book.
When you go to edit your work make sure you cut down your text. Writing comics, should not be about fluffy writing. Pull out any fluff you may have added. Be careful doing this step, you want to make sure your story still flows, and makes sense, but you do not want any extra fluff.
Finance, Publishing & Exposure
When you are ready to get your comic book published, you will need to do your research. Depending on how much money you have to publish your comic book, will determine how it will look. If you want it to be in color, it will cost a lot more money than to publish your book in black and white.
Self publishing your comic book is possible, and costs a lot less money. You can take your comic book to a local printer, and have them print 50-100 copies. Then you would do your own advertising and showing off your work at conventions, or wherever else you can get your name out there. Your first comic book is a way to get your foot in the door to the comic market.
Have fun writing comics. Let it be a pleasurable experience, because if you like what you do, it will show in your work. Do not give up on writing a comic book! Many people write tons of comic books before actually publishing their first one! Good luck with your first adventure writing comics!
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