Storyboon lays out comic pages and panels, or a standard screenplay, as you type, with a live preview of the finished pages. The file opens in any text editor.
How to write a screenplay. The standard layout for film and TV, where one page runs about a minute on screen.
Type it, and it’s set out like a script
Start a line with # for a new page and ## for a new panel. Type a name in capitals with a colon, like NOI:, and the words after it are what Noi says. Each line takes its place on the page as you finish it, and your file stays the simple text you typed.
A screenplay works the same way: start a line with INT. or EXT. for a scene heading, and type a character’s name in capitals above their lines.
See your pages side by side
Page turns lays your comic out like an open book, two pages at a time, with each panel as a box and the dialogue in speech bubbles. It shows you when a page has too much on it, before anyone starts drawing. It works best on a computer; on a phone, turn it sideways.
5 pages · 8 panels · 12 balloons · 1 spread
Sample Comic Script
Writer A. N. Author
[This is a sample. Type over it to start your own comic.]
PAGE 1RIGHTEXT. NIGHT MARKET - NIGHT1 panel
PANEL 1:SPLASH A crowded night market under strings of paper lanterns. NOI, 16, weaves between stalls with a satchel clutched to her chest.
1. CAPTION:
Three minutes before the lanterns go out.
PAGE 2LEFTEXT. NIGHT MARKET - CONTINUOUS2 panels
PANEL 1:TIER Behind her, two GUARDS shove past a fruit stall. Oranges scatter.
1. SFX:
KRAK
2. GUARD 1 (BURST):
Stop her!
PANEL 2:TIER Noi ducks under a table of steaming pots. The cook yelps.
3. COOK:
Hey!
4. NOI:
Sorry! Borrowing your floor!
PAGE 3RIGHTEXT. NIGHT MARKET - CONTINUOUS4 panels
PANEL 1: Noi bursts out the far side of the stall row, satchel swinging.
1. NOI:
[held line, decide after art]
PANEL 2:BIG PANEL She skids to a stop at the canal edge. Water below, guards behind, nowhere left to run.
2. GUARD 2:
End of the road, girl.
3. GUARD 2 (LINKED):
Nowhere to swim, either, unless you fancy the canal at night.
4. NOI:
You would think that. But you have clearly never met my grandmother, or heard the story about the eel trap, the two brothers, and the flooded rice field. This is exactly like that.
33w
PANEL 3: Noi grins.
5. NOI (THOUGHT):
Grandmother, your weird stories are about to pay off.
PANEL 4:INSET (BOTTOM, RIGHT) Her heel at the edge.
PAGES 4–5LEFTEXT. CANAL - NIGHTSPREAD1 panel
PANEL 1:SPLASH SPREAD Noi mid leap over the canal, lanterns reflected in the black water beneath her, the market ablaze with light behind, the guards small at the rail.
1. SFX:
WHMP
2. CAPTION (NOI):
The lanterns went out.
From the script to the drawn pages
Pages 2 and 3 of Mysterious Connections, a Vongfai story, as the script laid them out in page turns, and below them, the same pages as they were drawn and lettered.
3 pages · 10 panels · 17 balloons
PAGE 1RIGHT0 panels
[Page 1 isn’t part of this excerpt.]
PAGE 2LEFTEXT. FOREST PATH - DAY5 panels
PANEL 1:TIER 1 Janida, hands on hips. Janmani in front of her, fingers to her temples, smirking. Purple wisps.
1. JANIDA:
Spirits lie, Janmani, just like humans.
2. JANIDA:
Don’t trust blindly.
PANEL 2:TIER 1 Close on Janmani, eyes closed, listening to the spirit.
3. JANMANI:
Don’t mind her. Janida is just tightly wound,
4. JANMANI:
armored in grumpiness!
PANEL 3: The village. Dark spirits swarm the houses. Villagers run. A woman screams in the foreground.
5. CAPTION:
Meanwhile...
6. SFX:
AHHHH!
PANEL 4:TIER 2 Janida whips her head around.
7. JANIDA:
The village?!
PANEL 5:TIER 2 The sisters run down the forest path.
8. JANIDA:
Let’s go!
9. JANMANI:
Right behind you, Jiko!*
10. FOOTNOTE:
*Lizard or gecko
PAGE 3RIGHTEXT. VILLAGE - DAY5 panels
PANEL 1: The sisters, from behind, reach the village. Spirits everywhere.
PANEL 3:TIER 1 Close on a spirit’s dark head. Ribbons of chant script wrap around it.
PANEL 4:TIER 2BORDERLESS The spirit’s true form shows through the shadow: a young woman, wrapped in the chant ribbons.
PANEL 5:TIER 2 Janida stares.
6. JANIDA (THOUGHT):
Huh?
7. JANIDA (THOUGHT):
Janmani’s connection is helping reveal their true form.
Preview and print
Preview shows your script on pages, the way it will print. Save it as a PDF from your browser to share it.
Download your file
Your script is a simple text file you can keep anywhere. Download it as you wrote it, or with page and panel numbers added so your artist can point to a panel.
Send it to a reader
With an account, send your script to someone by email. They leave notes on the lines they’re about, and you see the notes beside your draft.
Start with a sample
Pick a comic or a screenplay and you start with a short sample script to type over. It’s free, and you don’t need an account to start. New to writing scripts? Read how to write a comic script, or a complete example.
