Writing Process: Spreadsheet Mania
The creative art using the uncreative spreadsheet method.
I’m a productivity junkie.
By no means do I buy into the hustle-bro culture, but I’m a sucker for a cheap tool that’ll keep me from a 15-minute Hades session turning into a weekend.
I’m not nearly as productive as I want to be, but over the past 20 years of writing on a mostly regular basis, I have a methodology to it.
What I share below is what I do for writing comics - though I use a form of this for short stories, screenplays and novels too. Comics is my true love though, and therefore, where I spend most of my time of late.
Breaking a Story
This is a mostly freeform endeavor. I use Penzu for journaling on a regular basis to make sure I’m not only capturing ideas, but giving myself time to have a conversation with myself — without judgement.
The goal is just to think “out loud”. The writing is pure stream of consciousness and gives me a chance to think of an idea - and revisit it regularly until it makes the next step a lot easier.
The Broader Outline
For anyone who has read Save the Cat or Syd Field’s Screenplay, you’ll be familiar with the specific formula used for film scripts.
Though they don’t fit perfectly in place for comics, I find they’re still a good guide to make sure your plot and your character arcs are consistently progressing.
Nothing is worse than getting halfway through a script then getting stuck or realizing you’ve been meandering through half your pages.
My goal here is just to see where the story fits. What guideposts I’ve hit organically and which might need some help getting there.
A, B, C Plots
The problem with a broad outline is it doesn’t provide the depth in the narrative or character development by itself. It’s great for a short story, but for a comic, there needs to be more than an A plot to keep things engaging.
I’ll take the outline and break it into three or more plot lines. Sometimes, they mesh together a bit - as you'll see with my latest comic, Stay Cool - but there’s a clear narrative arc behind each plot. Even if the same characters are involved in all of them, it keeps the drama moving forward.
Page by Page
This is where the comic-specific writing begins.
Page turns are critical to write towards. There needs to be a cliffhanger every two pages* so that the reader is compelled to actually continue on the journey with you. Every new turn of the page is a choice to continue on or drop it and look at their phone or something else entirely.
*Since many read digitally nowadays, that drop point happens every page. The term cliffhanger may be excessive. It doesn’t need to be huge. It doesn’t need to be world changing. It just needs to be something compelling enough to make it worth continuing.
It’s a good exercise in brevity and keeping exposition dumps to a minimum.
Scripting
Lastly, we get to the scripting phase. There are a couple of tools I bounce between depending on how I’m feeling about it: Google Docs and Scrivener.
Scrivener comes with a couple of templates that make formatting a breeze, even if it’s not perfect in every way.
Sometimes, you don’t want to have anything slow you down. This helps.
It’s also great for hosting all the information I’ve pumped into spreadsheets and maintaining the whole structure all in one place. It’s truly a power tool.
Google Docs is a little better when I want a distraction-free version of this. I just write and use the header-shortcuts as a way of getting the formatting done.
Last Chance to Fix: Lettering
On Stay Cool, I’ve taken over the lettering duties. This not only allows me to ensure the flow of the final book is where I intended it to be, but it also allows me one last draft.
Sometimes, the artist says more in their art than my dialogue ever could.
Sometimes, I need to clarify something that I didn’t consider.
This is my chance to make that last change before the page is ready to go.
Ever Changing Process
Most importantly, this process flexes and grows with each project. I’ve been writing for over 20 years now and I’m always learning.
If you’re a writer, what’s your process? Are you some other kind of artist - does anything here apply to you? How awesome was that Stay Cool page from Rafael and I?
Unlimited Udo - Certified Fresh
Unlimited Udo got reviewed a couple of places - and I must say I’m pleased with the reaction so far!
What’s Next?
August 15
Self-Taught by Others
My path to writing comics and more.
September 1
The Wrath of Con
Back to Fan Expo Canada!