"I have made this letter longer than usual because I did not have time to make it short.” --Blaise Pascal
I tend to overwrite. I learned that about myself in my first job out of college as a reporter for a small daily newspaper. I also learned to use it to my advantage, and made it part of my writing process.
For example, when I write a first draft and check my word count, I'm very happy if it comes out 10 to 20 percent long. I know I can tighten it into a nice lean piece that clearly says what it must and nothing else. That's my goal.
On the other hand, if my first draft comes up 10 or 20 percent short, I’m in trouble. Padding is agony.
That’s even more true in comics. I’m a words-first cartoonist, which means I script my story and then draw it. I’ve known pictures-first cartoonists who work out their story as they draw, which to me is voodoo. My scripts look like a theatrical play or screenplay: very lean, mostly dialog with some descriptions, directions and doodles.
Once I have a script, I go through every line to find opportunities to show instead of tell, deleting any text I can replace with art. My ideal comic is one in which half the meaning is conveyed with words, half with pictures, and neither makes complete sense without the other.
I don’t always achieve that ideal, but when I do it’s enormously gratifying.
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