Week 2- Plotting

[StevenForbes]

Another Tuesday, another installment of Bolts & Nuts.

Last week we started off talking about storytelling within the format of a comic book script, and we left off talking about plotting, with a promise to go into it deeper this week.

This week, I'll be keeping that promise.

Plotting is something that every successful comic writer should do, and sometime during this article, I'll give you an example of how I plot over an issue. Then you just take that and extrapolate it over a limited series.

One thing. I'm not going to talk about ongoing series too much here. As a beginning writer, it's doubtful you'll get a gig writing an ongoing series. I'm not even talking about Spider-Man or Swamp Thing- I'm talking about an ongoing from a really small publisher, like 10th Muse. It's basically not going to happen. (I was thinking about adding a title to my name, like Crusher of Dreams, or Realist Extraordinaire, but decided against it.) However, what will happen is that you can get either a limited series off the ground, and maybe translate that into an arc on an ongoing series. Either way, plotting is something you have to be good at in order to determine if you have enough story for your Great Idea.

I guess we should start with a definition, so that we're all on the same page. From Dictionary.com: 2. Also called storyline. The plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story. So, we're talking about the main story of your work. Right? Right.

Your plot should consist of every main thing that happens to your character(s). It's the story, it's what's happening, it's the reason you're writing.

Your plot can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. For right now, it just has to make sense to you. Generally speaking, no one else is going to see your plot. Not your initial one, anyway. Editors may ask to see what you have planned, and that's when you clean it up and make it nice and purty for them, but otherwise, it's a roadmap for you.

Now, I don't want anyone to confuse the Marvel/Plot-first style of writing with what I'm talking about here. In the Marvel/Plot-first style, you're almost writing a prose story for the artist to then pick and choose their own panels, pages, and pacing. This isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a basic outline for yourself to keep you on task when it comes to your writing.

A small tangent, while we're on the subject: most writers use the full script style of writing over the Marvel style. They have more control over what gets put on the page that way, and everything is there for everyone- you don't have to go back and write the dialog for a comic you wrote two months ago, and then give it to an editor for their stamp of approval before it goes to a letterer. Everything is right there in front of you with the full script method, and the only thing you have to worry about are any editorial changes. (We'll talk about editors and their job a LOT later. Nothing for you to worry about now.) The Marvel style was developed by Stan Lee because he was so busy he didn't have time to write a full script. He wrote a plot and handed it off to the artist for them to make of it as they would. He'd come back later and write dialog for it. There are pros and cons to both, and we'll get into those later. We have a lot of material to cover before we get there.

Like I said before, the plot is a guide or roadmap for your story. It should also let you know if you have enough story for your page count. Like I said last week, most comics are twenty-two pages of story, so your plot should hit your page count very time. My plots look something like this.

Amazing Spider-Man #11439

Spidey fights the Frightful Four while trying to get across town for a very important date with Gwen Osborne!

-Peter is at the Bugle to drop off more Spidey pics, so he can get paid and get across town to meet Gwen. While there, he hears about the Frightful Four's rampage downtown. 5 pgs

-Changes into Spidey after getting paid, and hears that the Wizard has collected three other baddies with him: the Lizard, Sandman, and the Gibbon. All they want is a place of their own inside the Vault. 2 pgs

-Gwen is talking to Norman, her husband who's now in a criminal insane asylum, telling him she's going to divorce him. Norman tells her that divorce isn't in the cards for them. They have great things to do together, and he'll re-kill her in order to see it done. 4 pgs

-Spidey tangles with the Lizard first. “My, Lizzy, what sharp teeth- waitaminnit! Are you stealing from the Big Bad Wolf? Bad Lizzy! Bad!” 2 pgs

-Spidey gets the Gibbon and Sandman to start fighting each other. 2 pgs

-Gwen leaves Norman, shaken but determined to find a way to leave him. She goes to meet her lawyer one more time before she meets Peter to ask him to marry her. 3 pgs

-Spidey is still watching the clock as he fights three of the four, only for the Wizard to come up behind him and place an anti-grav disk on Spidey's back, sending him hurtling upward towards space! 4 pgs

Okay, let's look at what I did here:
-I gave a title and issue number for the plot
-I gave the overall story for the issue
-I gave a scene by scene breakdown of the issue, with the number of pages each scene should take.
-I have a bit of dialog as it came to me, to be used or discarded as needed, but will remind me of the joke made
-It adds up to twenty-two pages

Now, this is just an example of my plotting method, but as you can see, it does everything I need it to do. It gives me what I need in terms of scene space, pacing, and telling a complete story. Definitely not a “done in one,” but it does the job adequately.

As stated above, this plot is nothing more than a roadmap, and the number of pages needed are guestimations at best. There is nothing hard and fast about needing to stay true to the plot, because there are a lot of times when one or the other of the following will happen: you will find that you've numbered wrong- either not enough pages for a scene, or too many pages for a scene.

A lot of times, I find that when I start writing and don't have enough pages in one scene, I have more than enough in another, and it tends to balance out when it comes to page count. If I have just too many pages all over the place, then I need to start condensing pages (but in this day of decompressed storytelling, how many times are you really going to have this problem? That's a joke, people.). I've yet to encounter a time when I don't have enough pages for my story once I've plotted it. If you find that this has happened to you, then you need to look at the story you want to tell. Your plot is telling you that you don't have enough story to carry your page count, and you have to either find more story, or tell a different one.

I suggest you plot in this way because it forces you to think about the story instead of the Great Idea. The Great Idea is perfectly safe, but it gets told through the story, and for my money, the story is best served by plotting first.

Like I said before, this is the way I do it. That doesn't mean this is the only way it can be done. There are some writers that write the script as a prose story first, embellishing it and expanding it until they have enough for a script, and then they write it. It sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but this is the way that works for them. If this method works for you, then go for it. It doesn't hurt to at least try it. The real writing is rewriting, and if this what you need to do in order to present the best story possible, then that's what you do. If you're writing just as an exercise, not doing any plotting is fine. Just don't be surprised if your story isn't tight and concise. However, if it's something you'll be trying to get published, I highly suggest you plot first. Quite simply, editors can tell.

I guess it's time for some homework. This week I want you to go into your comic stash and work the comics you read. This time it's about plotting. See if you can boil the plot down to a single sentence, and then break it down by scenes. You're looking to see if you can tell what each scene is about, and if each scene supports the main plot of the issue. Try it my way, saying what each scene is about and giving a number of pages for each. I suggest doing this for a few comics so you can start to get a feel for the plotting method. You can try writing a prose story for these comics as well, just as an exercise, but I don't really suggest it. Because you already know where it's going, it makes it too easy to start from a kernel of an idea and explode it into a full issue.

And that's it for this week. Next time, we talk about characters- what makes good ones, what makes bad ones (and not bad meaning villains, either), and we begin to touch on superheroes, which are just a little different. See you next week. Class dismissed.


__________________________________________________ ____
Any specific questions, ask them in this thread, and I'll answer them. If it's something of a more delicate nature, e-mail me. I check my e-mail constantly, and will do my best to get back to you within twenty-four hours, depending on the number of you who decide to flood my inbox. No attachments, please. They'll be deleted without being opened. (I know, I know, but blame the virus-makers.)

[SebastianPiccione]

Wow, Steve! I really like your method of plotting. I sort of do something similar, I just don't write it down ahead of time. It's all in my head.

Dude, this column is already such a boon! It's helping me tremendously.


.....and, at some point I'm gonna have to schooze you into taking an editoral peak at my script. I am the writeing equivalent of that guy at a party who, upon discovering a fellow party guest is a doctor, picks his brain for free medical advice.

[StevenForbes]

Thanks, Sebastian. I appreciate it.

We have a long way to go before we get to actual scripting, but I'm trying to make it as interesting and fun a ride as possible.

Let me know when you want me to look at the script, so I can roll my eyes and move to another conversation at the party, hopefully involving a woman.

[SebastianPiccione]

Originally Posted by Steven Forbes

Let me know when you want me to look at the script, so I can roll my eyes and move to another conversation at the party, hopefully involving a woman.

Best.
Response.
EVER!!!!!

[DavidPaul]

Your model for plotting reminds me very much of my own method of chapter summaries when I write fiction (novels, short stories, etc.). I do something similar now but not as detailed. It helps to know where you're going and how you're going to get there before you actually begin the work. I see so many writers now simply bi-passing everything and going straight to script. I don't know if that's working for them but it certainly does not work for me. I work from idea, synopsis, outline to a first draft. Then when I get the editor's notes a final script is drafted. For me this can take as long as two weeks but usually less. I haven't had to work on a schedule of meeting a deadline but I like to set one for myself so I'll be ready for that kind of discipline someday. But let me ask you about this stage. Is this important to include in a submission kit during a pitch, or is this for the benefit of the writer? Kind of back-tracking here, since we've already gotten past the pitch and onto the project.

[StevenForbes]

In a submission package, I'd say follow the submission guidelines. Terrible answer, I know, but you're trying to tell a story through that particular company. You don't want to give them any reason to put your sub in the round file.

That being said, the plot/outline is generally for the writers benefit I wouldn't include it in a submission package. If an editor wants to see it, sure, but that'll be at a later date.

Does that answer your question?

[DavidPaul]

Good enough.