In Japanese, the word “manga” is a combination of the word “ga” which means drawing and the word “man” which means “image for entertaining and drawn in broad strokes”. So, we say a manga. A manga is, therefore, a story told with drawings. In short, a comic? Now, to write a manga script, you will be able to completely switch on your creative side. You should also seek help online for your paper from experts like Angelina Grin, a creative writer and blog editor to help with little details and edit your text.
Starting point for writing a manga
Now that we have an idea of what manga is, we can more easily address the question of how to go about writing one. Let us note in passing that a manga is generally accompanied by a whole series of derivatives such as costumes, video games, etc. which accentuate the effect.
There are also many personalized manga custom derivatives that you can take with you, such as custom keychains, stickers, patches or enamel pins. You can turn the manga characters you create into these delicate decorations or gifts and give them to fans or friends. At BPS, any pattern and request can be customized.
When you want to make a manga, the first step is to write the screenplay for its story after some useful research and reading. Here are important steps to write a manga comic script.
Create your characters
Who are your characters? How many are they? What are you going to make them do and how will they interact?
It all starts with your characters; they are the ones who will live your adventures and speak for you. Give them all the traits you want, equip them (or not) for whatever awaits them in your story, and imagine how they’ll make it through.
Make your character files by adding as much information as possible. Where is he from? What is his goal? What is his phobia?
Remember that you are telling the story from the perspective of the most interesting character. If your main character is bland, it’s not their role to tell the story!
Give your characters flaws to make them more human and likeable. Your audience should be able to relate to your story.
Choose a theme
What do you want to talk about? What do you want to say through your story? What is your message?
Writing a script for a manga without a theme is like writing a story without a character. It is therefore essential to choose what your story will talk about and in what form.
The themes have attached feelings, values and concepts.
Be careful not to confuse the theme with the idea you have for your manga. For example, if the theme is revenge, you can just as easily direct your story to a world of pirates, prehistoric men, high school girls, Care Bears or a much darker universe. The theme will always remain the same.
For some themes you can also choose your approach; Are you “for” or “against” the subject you are discussing. This is the case for some committed anime comic books.
Choose the tone of the story
Then define who your manga is for and in what spirit you want to tell them your story. Is it a love story? A great adventure? A horror story? Epic? Humorous?
What experience do you want to convey and thus bring to life for your readers?
It will be easier for you to write the script and make a manga in a style and tone that suits you the most. Once you have written several, you can have fun varying the pleasures.
Choose or create the universe in which the plot takes place
Set the scene: where and when will your story take place?
Whatever the subject, but especially if you want to deal with real-world topics in a different place or time than your own, research the cultural and historical aspects of these universes to get more plot ideas that will make you sharper and thus more credible. Document yourself as much as possible to better create your story.
Find and organize your ideas
To find all the ideas that will help you compose a cohesive story and write a manga script, ask yourself these questions:
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How? ‘Or’ What?
Organize your responses by organizing your ideas and research items into folders. Whether in a binder, in a notebook, or on your computer, make the effort to list your ideas and inspirations.
Even if your job is to write, don’t be afraid to collect pictures, photos or drawings. You can even doodle yourself the images that come to mind for a given scene and use it again when creating the storyboard.
Build a general plan
As in drawing, there are construction rules for a story:
Introduction – Climax – Conclusion
This classic pattern is a logical flow that your audience knows. It is reassuring and makes reading easier for him since he knows where the story is going. Use this base to create a storyline for a manga.
The introduction serves to introduce the setting and the characters to the reader. This is where your audience decides whether or not to continue reading. Your introduction must therefore be interesting and captivating.
We then get to the heart of the matter with the development of the story. This is where a succession of more or less important and more or less strong events will be linked. They make it possible to raise the tension until climax. Every element of development affects the story. If this is not the case, then your scene is not useful and can be put aside.
The climax is the strongest moment in history. It can be a confrontation, the culmination of a long series of adventures or misadventures, etc. This is usually when you reveal the theme of your story.
In conclusion, you must answer all the questions raised during development.
To avoid falling into the cliché and annoying the reader, surprise him with your characters and the scenes. To get there, try to surprise yourself.
Define the highlights of the story
Your story will be made up of weak times: moments of calm and strong moments: moments of action and unforeseen events which will punctuate and energize your story.
If nothing interesting or extraordinary is happening in your story, few people will enjoy reading.
You must therefore define, depending on the tone of your story and the character of your characters, the obstacles, incidents and significant events with which you are going to confront them.
Remember that every event has a cause and a direct consequence on the continuation of the story.
Before validating an event in the construction of your story, imagine the consequences and how you will orient your story from there.
Develop and order the story
List the key moments in your story and the highlights. To help you better see the progression of your story, draw a timeline with an outline.
Choose where you will start the story. Are you going to attack right in the middle, tell from beginning to end, or start from the end and then bring the reader with you and have them decipher a puzzle as you read?
Then define the format of your story. How many chapters are you going to do, how many manga pages? Divide your ideas according to chapters, then pages.
Once you have defined the order in which you will present the events, you can develop the settings.
Create the storyboard
This last step to write a manga script is not really part of the creation of the scenario but allows the transition between the writing of the story and the drawing of the boards.
It is last because it is always possible to come and correct or improve the detail of the scenario at this stage (the dialogues, certain scenes or even certain entire chapters).
The storyboard makes you transcribe the story you have just imagined into an image.
Get Edit
Many of you are considering editing and wondering what to do next.
You should totally get manga comic script professionally edited. You can get in touch with publishing houses or websites where you can get help for efficient editing.
If you want to self-edit for any reason, it’s relatively simple as you can self-publish via a specialized site where you won’t have much to do except to follow the instructions online from experts and protect your work from plagiarism. Be very careful with the methods of copyright remuneration.
Remember that it is above all the story and not the drawing that will determine the success of your manga. The drawing is only the vector of the story.
What goes for writing movies also goes for manga.
Wish you a great adventure.
