Manga: Imagining a script

Manga Professional Tips

Rate this tutorial

How do you go about creating a script? No need to tear your hair out: be imaginative and, most importantly, be methodical.

A good script has a story that is easy to understand. Put yourself in the reader's shoes and ask yourself these 5 key questions: who? when? where? what? why? If you find the answers easily, you're all set!

1. Picking a theme

The theme will dominate your script… and depend strongly on your personality. Like the greatest mangakas, with experience, you will find your very own favorite theme and use it in various scripts.

Traditionally, you find certain major themes in manga:

love story (Shoujo manga)
adventure or action (Shounen manga)
heroic fantasy, a mix between legends, tales and adventure stories
detective stories
office life (Sariman)

2. Imagine the thread of a story

Start with the theme and build your story around a main character: the hero. Your script can be broken down into four parts: the intro, the development, the climax and the conclusion..

The intro :

Create the setting: where will the action take place? In what period?
Introduce the main character: Who is he? What does he want?
Bring in his friends and family: the secondary characters and the anti-hero (his adversary, his rival, or the bad guy).

The plot:

Establish the main action (the leading thread): the hero is in love, he has been given a mission, he is supposed to solve the mystery of a crime , etc.
Fine tune the hero's character traits over the course of the actions incident to the basic action.

The climax:

The situation is reversed (the hero is just about to tie the knot with sweetheart, but a rival appears!).
Develop your anti-hero.

The conclusion:

This is the logical outcome of your plot.
A happy ending or a tragic end: the choice is yours!