Read the Artist’s tips, especially if you are not an artist, yourself. You job will be to manage them and help them get the pages out that tell your story, so it’s important to understand what the artists are up against in this process, and the recommendations they are getting, so you have as clear a sense of that struggle as is possible.
When telling the art teams what to draw, stick to what you want to happen in broad terms. You are the writer and director, but the artist is the actor and the cinematographer. You have to trust them to use the skill set they have. The less you detail you give, the more they will give you to work with in the end.
Rule of thumb: For all text on each page, you have roughly a maximum word count of 210 words. That is the absolute maximum. Less is more. Each individual word balloon should be at most 20-25 words, each panel (in a 5-6 panel page) at most 35 words.
Make your words count – less is more, but also in this project, your words can be used to cover unfinished art, or art that isn’t working. Write dialog to fit to the finished pages, but also with this sneaky corrective capability in mind.
Try to finish each page in 1-2,5 hours. If your dialogue is finished for the finished pages, meet with the other writers to discuss where things will go next.
Keep in close contact with the artists, and follow what they are doing, as well. At the same time, don’t just hover over their shoulders… that’s weird, and creepy.
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