How do you find a balance when working with dialog within panels? How much is too much?
Answers by:
There's an old rule-of-thumb to be applied to dialogue when starting out. I think Stan Lee came up with it. It works. Hold yourself down to a maximum of twenty-five words a panel. That's 25 words for everything, dialogue and captionwork. (Alan Moore still uses 29 words per panel as his guide, I think.) Try it. See how it works for you. Once you're comfortable with it, and you've got it working, start playing with variances. But not until you can make the rule work for you.
And that doesn't mean pack 25 words into each and every panel. The biggest mistake new writers make is not allowing silences in their work. There are times when you just have to shut up and let the art work for you. You'll learn when.
-- Warren Ellis
It all depends on the circumstances. I try and say what needs to be said in as sicsinct a way as possible but depending on how much room the artist leaves is usually the determining factor on how much I have the character talk. If the artist leaves a lot of dead space-- I'll fill it but I'm constantly keeping in mind who the characters are and how they would talk-- there is always certain information which must be stated in order to advance the story but beyond that crutial information that needs to be there-- given space, I can dealve into the characters a bit more. As for how much is enough-- I'm restricted by the space provided. Yes, it might be nice at times to be able to have the characters say more but if there isn't room, I won't ruin the art by covering it up-- ultimately, I have to go with what makes for the best end product and way what my word have to offer against what the artist is bringing to the table. Now is not the time to fight the artwork or let my ego get in the way-- comics are a sythasis of both story and art and one should not get in the way of the other. Part of my job is making the artist look good-- and I'll do my best to make that happen.
If I'm the artist-- I just say what I need to--in the case of Savage Dragon, the artist is always willing to accomidate the writer (me) and I'm never confined by any limitations-- that's why it will almost always be a better end product than my other projects. It's the perfect blend.
-- Erik Larsen
Depends on the size of the panel. In general, if there is any such thing, the first job is to communicate that which you have to communicate. If the artist didn't quite deliver, more dialog is called for. If he hit on something you might not even have conceived of, like getting an emotional expression into a face you didn't think he was capable of achieving, maybe no dialog is the best choice.
It also depends on the pacing style of the writer and artist. Chuck Dixon, for example, writes less dialog and therefor has different standards than me. As a rule though, I like two or three balloons per panel with only a sentence in each balloon.
-- Dan Jurgens
It's hard to articulate You do what feels right. When you're starting out, you should do "what feels right," then go back and pare it down a lot more. Remember, we're telling stories with pictures. Any words that don't convey meaning (plot info, speaker's personality) have got to go.
On the big impact splash panels -- like surprise endings, or shocking appearances by the protagonist's dead uncle -- use as few words as possible. If you load it up with captions and balloons just because they fit, you'll slow the reader down and deliver all of the impact of a wet kleenex. You don't want them to linger on your shock panels, you want them to be shocked and move on. Like any good rule, this doesn't always apply; certainly on opening splashes, you have to set the scene and give a lot of info, plus you have credits and such. But, generally speaking, when you want the size of the picture to do the talking, shut the heck up.
-- Tom Peyer
There's no hard and fast rule for this, and if you compare the work of a couple different writers, you'll certainly be able to see preferences and styles emerge almost immediately. For myself, personally, it's more interesting and challenging to concentrate on the uniqueness of the medium as a primarily visual form of storytelling, and I would imagine that as an editor, I would be most impressed with a submission that could convey articulate economy. In general, comics is a "show don't tell" medium, and although there are some respected professionals who do this, I hate seeing a panel of a hero taking to the sky and reading a caption over it to the tune of, "he took to the sky!" Think about why your story is a comic -- and if there's no reason it couldn't be told as a prose story, if there's nothing about the comics medium that advances or enhances it, think about whether or not you really have a comic.
As for specifics obviously, when your text is crowding out the art, you have too much text. You just need to pay attention to how many panels you have on your page, and how much room you've left in any given panel. The more brief and seamless your exposition can be, the better, but sometimes you're going to need to use more text than you feel like you truly have room for, and there are tools for handling this -- you can utilize some gutter space (if you've left any!) or specify a no-background "talking head" shot, etc. Just don't call for a panel filled with every member of a ten-member team and then expect to have room for the leader to make a long speech!
Another thing to watch out for is the passage of time. If you have a panel in which someone performs a distinct action -- say a kick -- you don't want to disrupt the flow of time by having that or any other character making a two minute speech while the kicker's leg is still up.
The actual "balancing" of dialog is something you just sort of get a feel for as you go -- though I will say that the number one mistake I see beginners make (and I did it, too!) is not how much dialog is in a panel, but how many words are in a line of dialog. It's fine to have a character talk for a while, but you have to break it up into small chunks (or your editor will do it for you!). For example
I think I'll end every question this way, but comics is still a relatively new medium, and although it's crucial to strive for mastery of the basics -- story structure, thematic development, characterization, basic formatting, etc -- we're still learning new ways to do things every day, and that's what I would hope anyone interested in breaking into comics is coming in to play with!
-- Devin Grayson
When I was teaching Writing for Comics I gave certain rules of thumb
In any ONE panel, no more than THREE balloons or combination of balloons and caption boxes.
In general, no more than about a line and a half of double-spaced typed wordage per caption box or balloon. Certainly never more than three double spaced lines and THAT only when you have only ONE balloon.
Less is more.
When in doubt, cut it out. If they can (and should) cut Shakespeare, they can and should cut you.
Less dialogue during fight scenes.
Remember -- dialogue can be used to PACE a book as well.
Too many word balloons (and or captions) on a page and the reader will simply skip them.
Kill your darlings. Sometimes you may really love a certain phrase and way you worded something. Does it advance story/character or does it simply sound good in your head? When in doubt, cut it out. Less is more.
You can't write a dramatic speech and ask it to fit in a panel the size of a postage stamp. Either give up the speech or ask the artist to re-draw (lots of luck!). Write to the space you have, remembering that you cannot hide necessary art. If the artgist consistently does not leave you room for dialogue (some don't) then tell your editor. Better yet, talk to the artist and explain the problem.
When in doubt, cut it out. Less is more.
If you want somebody to remember something, repeat it. --John Ostrander
I guess when the characters keep bumping their heads on the balloons. I
think it's a judgement call - the reading experience vs the visual design.
-- Terry Moore
Balancing the amount of dialogue in a panel or page is tough. You have to
think, first, about what you can cover up in the art, and then you have to
imagine how terrible that panel will look if it's literally jammed with words.
Write your dialogue, and then go over it again and again to see if you can say
the same thing in less words. As a rule of thumb, people usually speak in
short sentences, and you do have twenty-two pages to
dialogue, so spread it out. Another thing I do is, try to keep a comic page's
dialogue on a single, typed page, double-spaced. If it goes over once in a
while, that's okay, but it keeps you terse. Let the art do its job as much as
possible (provided the artist did his or her job!) When I wrote my first story
for DC, Mike Carlin gave me a hard time, saying, "All you artists become
writers and blab blab blab!" I took it to heart. He also has a rule he
enforces that a caption or balloon should not take up more than two typed
lines. It's a good rule, to keep the balloons from being too massive.
-- Jerry O.
It all depends on the number of panels per page. You learn by experience.
Most new writers (including myself) can be overly wordy. Let the artwork tell
the story as much as possible.
-- Geoff Johns
Page created by Dave A. Law
Last update: December 28, 2003
Copyright © 1999 - 2004 by Dave A. Law