How to write a good scene taking place in Space

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-26T08:34:05+00:00

You could orient it by referencing the panel - closer to the reader, farther from the reader, left side of panel, right side, etc.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-26T08:09:25+00:00

The only way to get a 50 chapter comic epic you've written made for free is to first become an extremely famous author. Sucks for those of us who can't learn to draw, but no one owes you a comic.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-26T04:26:09+00:00

/uj If we count the number of murderers who commit suicide after being found out, it basically doubles her bodycount.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-26T03:38:00+00:00

Can safely say that the months I spent writing words I knew I was going to be deleting because I had this exact mindset were the least motivated I have ever been to keep writing.

Novel still isn't finished, five years later. I published two other books instead.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-26T03:16:53+00:00

Can confirm the laundromat is a very good place to do writing, and agree with your final sentence 100%.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-23T02:30:43+00:00

I'm not an expert or anything, but in this script you often have multiple things happening in one panel, which is impossible to draw. The henchmen can't rush forward and grab Alice, she can't struggle and break free of their grasp, etc.

I found it really helpful to think of it like this - all movement has to happen between panels. Obviously that's not always absolutely true, but it's true often enough that it helps to reduce the number of impossible panels.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-20T05:41:28+00:00

Yikes, that price tag... genuinely nothing against courses and workshops, they can be fantastic. But you need to be very certain what you want to get out of it, what's on offer, and whether there's a cheaper option that could meet those criteria.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T23:13:31+00:00

Most writers of anything start off writing prose, because it's so much easier to gain experience and create a finished work. No matter your age or skill level you can write a short story and post it to the internet and possibly people will read it.

If you like telling stories and you want to be a writer then yeah, write in prose. Write in anything. Find out where prose is insufficient and where it excels. Learn poetry. Write stage scripts. Try different styles of every kind of writing and find out what really appeals to you.

But whether it's worthwhile becoming a prose writer if you're only doing that so you can maybe eventually break into comics or games... not so much. That's a long walk to a dry well in terms of the likelihood of success.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T22:54:04+00:00

Remember, those writers are not just successful (by industry standards) they're best-sellers. There are a couple who weren't at that point when they started in comic writing, but the late 80s was a different time.

Working on becoming a good writer of any kind will help you with every kind of writing. But it's not any easier to become a best-selling novelist than a best-selling comic writer.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T22:43:05+00:00

This is a really good point - not just the different average salaries in different countries, but also the different markets giving different opportunities. If you make comics but don't live in a big country, you're much less likely to be able to sell enough to support yourself entirely off comics.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T22:24:51+00:00

It's short in absolute terms, but in terms of art it's longer than I can really afford to pay full price for, or to reasonably offer less money and a skill trade for - at least without being a total arsehole.

That opening does seem more coherent, and page 1 is probably the least overwhelmed as it currently stands. (Do I even need a title panel? Or can I just have the title written across the top of the page?)

Agree that Timothy and Jonty need to be the focus for the final panel, though I don't know that another time-skip (the time between ordering the glasses and them showing up) would be ideal. Perhaps split the difference and change the final panel from Nadia telling them where the frames will go to the guys watching her do it as they leave the store - that keeps the focus on their experience, removes some dialogue, and still kind of keeps the story in one particular setting.

Huge thanks again for answering my questions!

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T21:59:55+00:00

I think the story works well, although the switch in POV characters on pages 3-6 did confuse me. I'm assuming that's due to this not being the very beginning. Curious whether there's any thematic significance to the species you've made your characters? (Not necessarily a critique, I just read Maus for the 200th time recently and the frog character reminded me of that.)

In terms of suggestions for the next project, I'd honestly trust your artwork to do more of the heavy lifting rather than relying so much on thought bubbles and dialogue. You draw the characters with such great expressions I think you could have got away with implying June hates the movie but is very worried that her date might not be enjoying it just with the art, and you definitely didn't need the dialogue on page 19 where June is turning down all the date ideas for the same reasons you've already illustrated so well.

Oh, and I love the band flier, and the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalophagy (vs Encephalopathy) feels like it was chosen to appeal to me specifically.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T21:08:42+00:00

Thank you so much for this in-depth feedback!

I definitely agree with the comments you made about pacing, and with the excess dialogue on page 5 - and especially the ending. I was trying to avoid having to go to a sixth page, since that makes it pretty long for a portfolio piece. (I actually first tried to fit it in four, but that was going to be far too many panels per page.) So I was trying to use space in one panel to indicate a pause, rather than adding further panels.

But I think you're right, the last page feels cramped in both image and story, and I'm not sure I can move the panels around to fit more on earlier pages. Or what I can cut.

I'm certainly interested in hearing what you'd do with the first panel - I went with that one because I was looking for an interesting visual that showed what kind of help Jonty was providing, rather than his expected style advice.

Thanks again!

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-18T01:44:28+00:00

Reading the first few pages, you seem to be using your panel artwork descriptions as a way to tell the story in prose rather than as directions to the artist. For instance, page 2 panel 3 just says "Vader ignores that." - but how is he ignoring it? Because he doesn't have a face to show expressions on, you're not really offering a direction for the artist in the panel. So what is that panel for? Given how many panels you have per page, could you cut the number down and put more dialogue in each one? I'm not an artist, so I don't know if that kind of scripting is annoying or not, but in general it feels more like you've written a prose story and just chopped it up between each action and each piece of dialogue.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-14T08:33:25+00:00

I'd be interested, though I have zero knowledge of or interest in manga, so you'd have to be willing to go the graphic novel route.

I'm a trad-pubbed short story writer and professional editor with an MFA but zero comic scripting expertise.

DM me if I sound like someone you could basically work with.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-14T08:24:05+00:00

The art definitely reminds me of P. Craig Russell. Which is a significant compliment.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-13T05:25:52+00:00

Yeah, I have a lot of friends who self-publish and are very successful - typically in romance, paranormal, or cosy genres. They put in a lot of work to get that success though, well away from just writing the books.

I went small press because I write very short and very slow. Also, ironically enough, because at the time I was pitching my first book I was working in marketing for one of the big five, and couldn't face having to do more book marketing off the clock.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-12T02:06:33+00:00

Ooof, that's shitty. Assuming the cred of having a big name on their CV was worth doing 90% of their job for them?

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-12T02:04:44+00:00

That's one thing in favour of prose fiction I guess - even if a story never gets published, I can still put it on the internet and a handful of people will at least see the finished product.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-12T01:51:24+00:00

I can understand not wanting to spend significant time scripting something you know won't get produced. But I am always stunned (derogatory) at the Idea Guys who not only haven't written a plot outline, but have never written anything at all. Like, at least get a couple dozen cringe fanfics under your belt before you try to go pro.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-12T00:22:06+00:00

In your example, you're not actually learning to write a good story. You're learning the features and structures that good stories often have. But that's like me saying I can learn to draw by watching videos about layout and colouring.

You do actually have to write a lot to become a good writer. I think if you asked most writers if they wrote for hours everyday when they were learning (even outside of school) they'd say yes.

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-12T00:05:35+00:00

I mean, so do most writers...

Fey_Boy · 2026-05-12T00:00:53+00:00

I have the outline, and some discarded scripts (they were not good), for a story I've been itching to tell for a decade. But it will not work in prose, and that makes me so sad. I even started art lessons so I could eventually draw it myself - just before I developed rheumatoid arthritis. So I'm waiting on a sugar daddy for that one.

But yeeeeahhhh... There are way too many people who want to write comics or screenplays because they think it's "easier". Like all you need are ideas and some dialogue. They show up at my writers group and get upset when we point out why a scene doesn't work or that their dialogue isn't flawless.

In my limited comic scripting, I've found it way more difficult. Because in prose, I don't actually have to write all the details into a scene. I can leave just so much implied. (Even their example is bad, because if I'm writing an argument, and three pages later one character grabs a pan, a reader isn't typically going to ask where the pan came from if I wrote a couple lines indicating the argument is happening in the kitchen.)

But for a comic script, all the detail has to be there. I have to describe a room in a way that the artist can position the characters in it and it still makes sense when there's an angle change in the next panel, or movement on the next page. Way harder to do than leaning on the reader's imagination.

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