How to write a comic book scene

In this resource young people can learn about the different techniques used to create comics. The resource was written by the graphic novelist duo Metaphrog(this will open in a new window). It contains activities to inspire you to create an adaption of any fiction book. However, all the techniques can be used independently to create an original comic or graphic novel.

The activities in this resource are detailed, and can be spread across multiple sessions.

Young people will learn:

• What to think about when adapting a novel scene into a comic strip
• The techniques of comic writing, such as narrative boxes or speech bubbles
• Creating setting
• Writing a script and choosing the layout for a page

The activities in this resource are:

• Comic adaptions discussion: how faithful should you be? (estimated time: 15mins)
• Introduction to a typical comic layout (estimated time: 15-20mins)
• Techniques of comic writing (estimated time: 2 hours across multiple activities)
• Bringing characters to life (estimated time: 40mins- 1 hour)
• Bringing setting to life in a comic (estimated time: 2 hours across multiple activities)
• Writing a script and choosing a layout (estimated time: 3-4 hours across multiple activities)