I’m considering enlisting a writers help in producing my comic. I’ve never worked with a writer before though and am naturally curious. That’s why I made this post, I want to know more about how others partnerships have worked. It is my hope that I will come to a better understanding of what I may expect if I chose to follow that particular path.
So, please share your experiences, as it would be of great help.
Thank you in advance and please no flames. <3
Guardsman
Creative Collaboration: Working with a writer/artist.
Re: Creative Collaboration: Working with a writer/artist.
I have not worked with a writer as an artist. I have, however, worked with writers as a writer: co-writing, so I do believe I can offer imput here.
Firstly.
YOUR OPINIONS WILL NOT ALWAYS LINE UP. It's inevitable. My co-writer and I can be terrifyingly clone-like, and we still occasionally clash. Severely. If you clash all the time, it's not worth the effort, you need someone you can work with, but inevitably you will clash to a degree.
Second... as an artist, you'll discover that your writer works way faster than you. A writer can do pages when you're working on the pencils. Writers work faster. Make sure they understand this. Perhaps you'll want a complete script before you start, perhaps you'll want someone to write a page every once in a while for you, perhaps you'll be telling them 'I want this' and expecting them to write it... either you'll clash, or you might end up with more than you can handle in one shot or whatever.
Thirdly...
There is no 'format' for writing comics and graphic novels. There's a format for novels, there's a format for screenplays and scripts, but every writer kind of has their own way of writing a story for a graphic novel script. I write for myself, so it's no big deal--I know what I require to draw off of. But here, you might specifically want it formatted by panels, or maybe you'll just want a story written in narrative and you can wing the layouts yourself. Make sure your writer knows what you want: communication is key. Which brings me to point four...
Communication is key.
Get IM. IM is useful. Or email, or google docs, or phone, or sit down in the library together. I like instant messenging my co-writer. We both write fast and we work well that way. Skype is great too, we can blather about plotlines while writing. Stay in contact.
And remember, your visions might not always match. If that bothers either of you, you might not be fit to work together. However, if you can bounce off each other to make a much greater vision, more power to you! It's amazing working with another person who you can trust with your ideas and characters and letting the combined effort make it so much better.
In my experience, I wouldn't give up cowriting for a huge multi-million dollar contract. I made a lifelong friend through it and together, we're much more powerful than one writer. Bwhahaha.
You just have to be openminded enough to listen to advice from your partner, and willing to work with each other's ideas. And communicate! I CANNOT STRESS COMMUNICATION ENOUGH. Don't go "hey, you're my writer. Great. Here's your outline, now start writing!" and never talk again until it's done. Stay in contact. They might go 'hey, this idea here is a bit shallow, can we consider this instead? Or you might go 'I hated my ending, I want it different' or 'I really need this scene written in a much more descriptive manner because it'll be hard to convey with just this dialogue he wrote...'
Stay in contact. Regular contact. You are a pair, co-workers, and together you can create genius amazing things! At least, that's been in my experience. ^_^
Firstly.
YOUR OPINIONS WILL NOT ALWAYS LINE UP. It's inevitable. My co-writer and I can be terrifyingly clone-like, and we still occasionally clash. Severely. If you clash all the time, it's not worth the effort, you need someone you can work with, but inevitably you will clash to a degree.
Second... as an artist, you'll discover that your writer works way faster than you. A writer can do pages when you're working on the pencils. Writers work faster. Make sure they understand this. Perhaps you'll want a complete script before you start, perhaps you'll want someone to write a page every once in a while for you, perhaps you'll be telling them 'I want this' and expecting them to write it... either you'll clash, or you might end up with more than you can handle in one shot or whatever.
Thirdly...
There is no 'format' for writing comics and graphic novels. There's a format for novels, there's a format for screenplays and scripts, but every writer kind of has their own way of writing a story for a graphic novel script. I write for myself, so it's no big deal--I know what I require to draw off of. But here, you might specifically want it formatted by panels, or maybe you'll just want a story written in narrative and you can wing the layouts yourself. Make sure your writer knows what you want: communication is key. Which brings me to point four...
Communication is key.
Get IM. IM is useful. Or email, or google docs, or phone, or sit down in the library together. I like instant messenging my co-writer. We both write fast and we work well that way. Skype is great too, we can blather about plotlines while writing. Stay in contact.
And remember, your visions might not always match. If that bothers either of you, you might not be fit to work together. However, if you can bounce off each other to make a much greater vision, more power to you! It's amazing working with another person who you can trust with your ideas and characters and letting the combined effort make it so much better.
In my experience, I wouldn't give up cowriting for a huge multi-million dollar contract. I made a lifelong friend through it and together, we're much more powerful than one writer. Bwhahaha.
You just have to be openminded enough to listen to advice from your partner, and willing to work with each other's ideas. And communicate! I CANNOT STRESS COMMUNICATION ENOUGH. Don't go "hey, you're my writer. Great. Here's your outline, now start writing!" and never talk again until it's done. Stay in contact. They might go 'hey, this idea here is a bit shallow, can we consider this instead? Or you might go 'I hated my ending, I want it different' or 'I really need this scene written in a much more descriptive manner because it'll be hard to convey with just this dialogue he wrote...'
Stay in contact. Regular contact. You are a pair, co-workers, and together you can create genius amazing things! At least, that's been in my experience. ^_^
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Re: Creative Collaboration: Working with a writer/artist.
My experience is that working in team with someone is essentially different from working solo. As solo, you have a vision of what your comic will look like and how it will develop. As a team, your comic is a result of two (or more) different sensibilities and results are much less predictable. Both of these are wonderful in temselves, but they're very different.
Perhaps I'm subjective about it because I'm very individual and (as far as I can tell) function fine on my own, so with projects I call my own, I could hardly bare anyone's input (creative, that is, not critical). I like working in teams because results are often more uninhibited and imaginative, as two heads are smarter than one, and there's a lot in lobbing ideas among the team members. But in such working enviroment, I have to give up on part of creative freedom from the very beginning, and to start appreciating that results will often be different from what I imagined.
I think that you'll have to too, as you'll hardly find someone who'll write exactly what you imagined.
Perhaps I'm subjective about it because I'm very individual and (as far as I can tell) function fine on my own, so with projects I call my own, I could hardly bare anyone's input (creative, that is, not critical). I like working in teams because results are often more uninhibited and imaginative, as two heads are smarter than one, and there's a lot in lobbing ideas among the team members. But in such working enviroment, I have to give up on part of creative freedom from the very beginning, and to start appreciating that results will often be different from what I imagined.
I think that you'll have to too, as you'll hardly find someone who'll write exactly what you imagined.
