In a post on LitReactor, Peter Derk recommends that writers add Alan Moore’s Writing for Comics to their library of how-to books. “Writing For Comics belongs up there with the greats,” he says. “It’s thoughtful, it’s a quick read, and holy shit, it’ll save you a ton of time and heartache as a beginning writer. The advice is practical and it’s easy to apply yourself.”
While emphasizing comics scriptwriting, the advice can help storytellers of any kind. Derk shares a few highlights:
Plots and Ideas
The idea is what the story is about; not the plot of the story, or the unfolding of events within that story, but what the story is essentially about.
Transitions
If a transition is handled incorrectly, what is does is bring the reader up short against the fact that he or she is reading a story.
Simple Ideas
If I want a realistic-sounding name for an ordinary citizen of Louisiana I look in my Houma telephone directory until I come across one which strikes me as having a nice ring to it: Hattie Duplantis is a nice name. So is Jody Hebert.
On Challenging Yourself
Attempt things that you are not sure you can accomplish: if you’re certain that you can do a thing, this means that there is little to no point in actually doing it. The reason you’re sure you can do it is that you or someone else has done it already.
Parting Words
Finally, if you want to be a truly great writer, it is perhaps worth remembering that even in this, it is more important to be a good human being than it is to be a good writer.
