To understand what a storyboard is, let’s take a trip down memory lane. The first to use storyboarding was Walt Disney in his 19289 animation “Plane Crazy.” According to eLearning, “Disney drew up numbered panels, indicating how they were to appear- before the development of the film.”
Storyboarding is a Tool
It took me years to realize that I am a visual person when it comes to writing fiction. When they say “A picture says a thousand words”… for me that could not be more true.
I struggled writing outlines – putting to words the scenes I was trying to capture from my mind. Then, I ran across a photo of a woman. In that one photo, I knew everything about the character, the struggle she would have in the story and her eventual victory.
With over 30 years as a graphic designer / illustrator at an advertising agency, I gleaned from what I knew – and I know art, or more precisely, the art of using a storyboard. I would never consider filming a TV commercial without first sketching a storyboard of the concept. So, once I put that experience to work for my fiction the struggle of creating an outline was resolved.
Storyboard Sketches for the childrens book HERO OF SEASIDE
Storyboard Defined
A storyboard is a set of plans for your novel – or in simpler terms: a blueprint. Building your story can be compared to building a house. You have contractors, framers, painters, and a roofer. You also have the location and the basic plans on how you want your house to look: starting with a solid foundation, then walls, roof and finishing touches.
But without a plan, you may end up with an exterior door on the second floor heading to nowhere. (I grew up in a house like this: At My dad’s house we called it the guest room.)
When writing a novel you have great content, graphic designers and editors. But it you don’t have a storyboard or outline – What Happens? You run into a lot of dead ends. Think of the storyboard as your blueprint that keeps you focused and on track.
Storyboard = Blueprint.
OK, you understand the analogy. But art doesn’t mean being artistic. It means a good practical sense of how to execute the required task. And because it is “art” that means is there is no right or wrong way to do a storyboard.
Conclusion
The storyboard is a logical sequence of scenes in your story and it is up to you to determine what scenes to detail and how many. For some, you may need only a few sketches; others may want several detailed images to capture a scene – whatever works for you.
How do you write an outline? Index cards? Storyboard? One-word or extensive details? Let me know.
