I read volume 1 last night and got to this panel and the memory of reading this post came flooding back to me, lol. What an amazing series so far, on to volume 2!
I have a question. I see a lot of reference to ‘Beat Sheets’. My understanding is that beats are basically parts of a scene, so are Beat Sheets just detailed outlines or something else?
Yeah, we often talk about beat sheets when outlining - they're sort of the same thing - or maybe more accurately one exists within another?
If you're trying to break an issue (which basically means break the story down into BEATS) - you might do a beat sheet either as your final doc to work from or as a stepping stone to doing a more detailed outline or summary of the issue or arc.
There are a lot of different ways to do this. Maybe you do a rough outline or summary of the overall arc. And each issue you've written a couple lines about so you know generally what's supposed to happen in there. But from there you might go in and do a Beat Sheet to break it down page by page. Getting much more specific about what the beats are - what needs to happen in a scene to get you to the next one.
Fascinating! So how does your approach to scripting a comic differ from writing prose work?
Do you like to outline the whole plot first regardless or do you have specific scenes written out in detail that you join up together? Do you ever doodle/draw out portions that are hard to explain?
I keep my process as "the same" as possible -- in part because it IS very different writing scripts vs prose and so keeping as much as possible the same is helpful.
After getting lost in the woods once on a novel when I didn't have an outline, I swore to myself to ALWAYS use outlines - it's a map and you're crazy to go on an adventure of any significance without a map. But sometimes things go crazy and you do find yourself without it, but yeah, I try everything I can to make sure I have one. It's invaluable.
I used to thumbnail my scripts as I was writing, which helped me with pacing and how I moved my characters in the scene, but as I got better and more experienced I was able to move away from that method. While it was helpful to me for a time, I don't typically recommend it for writers because it can end up leading to you micromanaging your artists and not giving them enough room to stretch their own storytelling muscles within the project.
That said, there are a few instances when I had to draw (very bad) sketches of an atypical idea I had that was not coming across in words alone. The scene in Rogue & Gambit #2 when they're arguing in therapy and their word balloons are filled with images instead of words is a time when I had to do a sketch to help Pere understand the weird thing I wanted. But it was worth it, it's one of my favorite moments in that series, and Pere nailed it once he understood what I was aiming for.
Well that scene is absolutely the best! It was really the perfect way to convey so much history and emotion in a single image. Also it's just kind of hilarious because they really needed to get that out of their system. (Maybe we all did?) Best idea ever, Kelly! And of course Pere pulled it off perfectly. I love it!
That makes sense with outlining the plot for either type of work to keep from getting off track. That has to take some discipline, especially when you get hit with inspiration or have a scene you just really want to zoom in on.
Even with fanfic, endings seem like the hardest thing to nail down. Plus it's so easy to over-focus on something or change direction midway though a story. 🤦♀️
That said, dialogue is my strength and yes, that and more generally "character" tends to get me excited about a project and at various (all!) stages of a project I'll be writing little snippets of dialogue here and there as it comes to me. Most make it into the final in one form or another.
One question though (if you’re willing): Do you remember how it came to be that Elena ended up changing the first panel from what you had in the 2nd script (i.e. focusing on Viper instead of Arcade)? Did an editor intervene? Did you shoot her a separate email? Did she do that of her own volition?
(Also, the Casagrande/Bellaire art on this series has been bananas awesome)
We definitely didn't discuss it, so we'd have to ask Elena to know for sure (and it's a couple panels among hundreds if not thousands she's drawn, so I wouldn't really expect her to remember).
However, because I consider Elena a great storyteller, MY take is that she assessed the page (which was really tough and probably asking too much to be reasonable - it happens sometimes!) and realized she wasn't going to be able to get everything in there, and so she prioritized the important things - e.g. she might have liked my opening with Arcade making a joke...but she understood it was less important than other things on the page that we had to convey. And as much as I love jokes (including my own), she was absolutely right.
This is fascinating- thank you so much for sharing!!! As a writer myself, I love to see how others format their scripts. I love seeing all these different steps.
This post blew me away. I knew I loved behind-the-scenes details and stories about the creation of one of my all-time favorite things… comics. But I didn’t know the term “process junkie” until your series for this Substack. Now that I know, I can officially declare “I AM A PROCESS JUNKIE.” This is an amazing peek behind the curtain. Thanks so much for this and for all the work you do to entertain the heck out of us!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge around this process! Really interesting to read about.
Thanks, Mike!
I read volume 1 last night and got to this panel and the memory of reading this post came flooding back to me, lol. What an amazing series so far, on to volume 2!
WestCoastAvengers.04.Final.Final.Final.FINAL.docx
too real. lol
Terrific post.
I have a question. I see a lot of reference to ‘Beat Sheets’. My understanding is that beats are basically parts of a scene, so are Beat Sheets just detailed outlines or something else?
Thanks, Dean!
Yeah, we often talk about beat sheets when outlining - they're sort of the same thing - or maybe more accurately one exists within another?
If you're trying to break an issue (which basically means break the story down into BEATS) - you might do a beat sheet either as your final doc to work from or as a stepping stone to doing a more detailed outline or summary of the issue or arc.
There are a lot of different ways to do this. Maybe you do a rough outline or summary of the overall arc. And each issue you've written a couple lines about so you know generally what's supposed to happen in there. But from there you might go in and do a Beat Sheet to break it down page by page. Getting much more specific about what the beats are - what needs to happen in a scene to get you to the next one.
Does that make any sense?
Fascinating! So how does your approach to scripting a comic differ from writing prose work?
Do you like to outline the whole plot first regardless or do you have specific scenes written out in detail that you join up together? Do you ever doodle/draw out portions that are hard to explain?
I keep my process as "the same" as possible -- in part because it IS very different writing scripts vs prose and so keeping as much as possible the same is helpful.
After getting lost in the woods once on a novel when I didn't have an outline, I swore to myself to ALWAYS use outlines - it's a map and you're crazy to go on an adventure of any significance without a map. But sometimes things go crazy and you do find yourself without it, but yeah, I try everything I can to make sure I have one. It's invaluable.
I used to thumbnail my scripts as I was writing, which helped me with pacing and how I moved my characters in the scene, but as I got better and more experienced I was able to move away from that method. While it was helpful to me for a time, I don't typically recommend it for writers because it can end up leading to you micromanaging your artists and not giving them enough room to stretch their own storytelling muscles within the project.
That said, there are a few instances when I had to draw (very bad) sketches of an atypical idea I had that was not coming across in words alone. The scene in Rogue & Gambit #2 when they're arguing in therapy and their word balloons are filled with images instead of words is a time when I had to do a sketch to help Pere understand the weird thing I wanted. But it was worth it, it's one of my favorite moments in that series, and Pere nailed it once he understood what I was aiming for.
Well that scene is absolutely the best! It was really the perfect way to convey so much history and emotion in a single image. Also it's just kind of hilarious because they really needed to get that out of their system. (Maybe we all did?) Best idea ever, Kelly! And of course Pere pulled it off perfectly. I love it!
That makes sense with outlining the plot for either type of work to keep from getting off track. That has to take some discipline, especially when you get hit with inspiration or have a scene you just really want to zoom in on.
Even with fanfic, endings seem like the hardest thing to nail down. Plus it's so easy to over-focus on something or change direction midway though a story. 🤦♀️
So moral of the story = Outlines? 😂
Haha. Always outlines! That's the moral! ;D
That said, dialogue is my strength and yes, that and more generally "character" tends to get me excited about a project and at various (all!) stages of a project I'll be writing little snippets of dialogue here and there as it comes to me. Most make it into the final in one form or another.
Awesome post, thank you, Kelly!
One question though (if you’re willing): Do you remember how it came to be that Elena ended up changing the first panel from what you had in the 2nd script (i.e. focusing on Viper instead of Arcade)? Did an editor intervene? Did you shoot her a separate email? Did she do that of her own volition?
(Also, the Casagrande/Bellaire art on this series has been bananas awesome)
Thanks, Matt!
We definitely didn't discuss it, so we'd have to ask Elena to know for sure (and it's a couple panels among hundreds if not thousands she's drawn, so I wouldn't really expect her to remember).
However, because I consider Elena a great storyteller, MY take is that she assessed the page (which was really tough and probably asking too much to be reasonable - it happens sometimes!) and realized she wasn't going to be able to get everything in there, and so she prioritized the important things - e.g. she might have liked my opening with Arcade making a joke...but she understood it was less important than other things on the page that we had to convey. And as much as I love jokes (including my own), she was absolutely right.
She made the right call for sure.
This is fascinating- thank you so much for sharing!!! As a writer myself, I love to see how others format their scripts. I love seeing all these different steps.
Well, I've got a post coming up which have sample pages from a bunch of writers - so keep your eyes peeled!
This was great, especially seeing how the script changed after the art came in.
Thanks, Jon!
This post blew me away. I knew I loved behind-the-scenes details and stories about the creation of one of my all-time favorite things… comics. But I didn’t know the term “process junkie” until your series for this Substack. Now that I know, I can officially declare “I AM A PROCESS JUNKIE.” This is an amazing peek behind the curtain. Thanks so much for this and for all the work you do to entertain the heck out of us!
Thank you so much, Rob. I wasn't sure about this post, so it is great to hear this. <3
This is so cool. Thank you for sharing!