THE WRITING OF THE WRITING
I love writing script. The script is where a comic writer tells the story to the artist and other collaborators. In many ways, it's the culmination of everything else we do, we do everything else so we can write the script, whatever form it takes.
I've written before and I'm sure I'll write again my feelings on what makes a good script, and this isn't the place to go on about it again, so I'll focus here on the Wuthering Heights script and the shape it took.
Now, I've been writing comic book script for a long time. I wrote my first one sometime in I'm gonna say 1990 to the soundtrack of They Might Be Giants' brand new album, Flood. I was 16 and it was awful. Since then, I've written well past 3000 pages of script between single-page gags and graphic novels and in between. You'd think I'd have it down by now, but every script I've written has been a little different. Sometimes the project demands it, sometimes the artist prefers a specific style, and sometimes I just fancy a fresh feel.
For Wuthering Heights, I set myself some rules that I haven't used before. One, a comic page should be no longer than a single sheet of paper in the script, a single speech-balloon of dialogue should be no longer than a single line in the script. The point was to keep the pages from getting too bloated with panels, and to keep the dialogue reading well and not too dense. There were a few places where each of those proved a challenge, but I managed it.
The other rules weren't rules as much as a style to the panel descriptions, and my reasons for them were, for me at least, the heart of what a script is for.
A script isn't for the writer, nor is it a piece of writing that most readers will ever see. With a script, the writer is talking to their collaborators, a set of instructions instead of a finished work. It's an intimate record. That's very freeing, but it also makes it a challenge.
Foremost, I try to avoid including too much detail in panel descriptions. It's not my job to draw the panel for the artist, but to get across mood, pace, character attitudes and actions, or environmental things like weather, time, setting, and so on. If an angle or pose or blocking is necessary for a specific effect, I'll include it, but I don’t need to describe the look on everyone's face in every panel If I convey how the character feels and trust the artist knows how to portray that.
This leaves me room to be fun with the descriptions, to drop in little jokes or use colourful imagery when setting a mood. I like to make the artist laugh. I live to make the editor laugh. I work to make the script enjoyable to read, even if fewer than 10 people will ever read it. I hope that makes me fun to work with and not annoying and juvenile. Or maybe it's both.
At any rate, it took me a few months to spackle and spit together the first draft script out of pages of notes, plot, bits of dialogue and feedback from Rori. Wuthering Heights' initial target length was 256 pages, and the first draft came in at 306. I was happy with it, at least as a first draft, and it was solid enough in the story that I wasn't going to have to make major revisions, which is always a relief. I'll leave the editing process for another post, and wrap this up with a little sample of that first pass.
Cheers, babies. See you next time.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS SAMPLE SCRIPT
Page 60
Panel 1 – Heathcliff, mallet in hand fixing the gate at the entrance to Wuthering Heights. It is early in the afternoon, but the sky is grim. The children are older now. Some time has passed since the last chapter and Heathcliff has had a growth spurt, standing several inches above Cathy.
Panel 2 – Cathy approaches, Heathcliff perks up when he sees her, handmade nails in his mouth.
Cathy
Have you finished your chores, yet?
Heathcliff
Nearly there.
Panel 3 – Heathcliff offers Cathy the mallet. Cathy picks up the hem of her dress very delicately as if she is about to begin dancing.
Heathcliff
It'll go faster if you help me.
Cathy
Then they wouldn't be YOUR chores, would they?
Panel 4 – Heathcliff chuckles.
Heathcliff
Then it will take slightly longer.
Page 61
Panel 1 – Cathy sits on the fence as Heathcliff returns his attention to the gate, his mirth still on his face.
Heathcliff
And what adventures await us today?
Cathy
Terror on the high seas, perhaps?
Panel 2 – Heathcliff looks up to the clouds with concern.
Heathcliff
In this weather? I'll remember to bring a coat.
Panel 3 – Cathy frowns as Hindley calls out to her from the yard in front of the house.
Hindley (shouting)
Catherine! Come here!
Panel 4 – Cathy shouts back angrily, defiant.
Cathy (shouting)
Hindley! Go away!
Panel 5 – Cathy rolls her eyes to Heathcliff, terribly put out. Heathcliff smirks, still working.
Cathy
I should go see what His Smelliness wants or else he'll come outside and frighten the horses.
Heathcliff
I'll be finished when you return.
Page 62
Panel 1 – Cathy crosses the field to the house.
Panel 2 – Cathy approaches Hindley next to the house, both scowling bitterly.
Cathy
What is it, Your Royal Loudness?
Hindley
You'll be making supper tonight.
Nelly will be busy taking care of father.
Panel 3 – Cathy is confounded, irate.
Cathy
And why should I make supper?
What is the matter with your hands that you can't overcook a stew?
Panel 4 – Hindley sneers. Cathy purses her lips, delivering the zinger.
Hindley
Don't be stupid. Men don't cook.
Cathy
Perhaps you could if you were smarter.