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This topic jumps ahead for me, but some creators write their dialogue up front. Here are some things to consider as you approach the text and bubble layer of your manga.
My dear writers, don’t worry, the art is part of your writing, don’t feel you need to fill a page with text to be present and heard, your hand is there throughout. Where you can, translate your text info into images with the help of your artist. The artist is bringing your words to life, not just drawing a face for them to come out of. If text is your jam and images get in the way, stick to prose, and maybe write Lite novels (I know it’s light novel, I call them Lite novel because I think it’s funny. Instead of simple kanji, as that’s not an issue in English, they are short and low calorie.) I used a random page from Scatheless to show a horrific text wall, and OK text wall and how I would personally use it. The text is from this article, specifically about text walls.  Text and dialogue need to do more than one job; it guides the eye, gives voice and personality to your characters, and provides information to accentuate what’s in the art or say what the art cannot. Manga is a visual medium so I cannot overstate how important it is to have the art do much of the heavy lifting while the text is the cream and sprinkles. My dear writers, don’t worry, the art is part of your writing, don’t feel you need to fill a page with text to be present and heard, your hand is there throughout. Where you can, translate your text info into images with the help of your artist. The artist is bringing your words to life, not just drawing a face for them to come out of.If text is your jam and images get in the way, stick to prose, and maybe write Lite novels (I know it’s light novel, I call them Lite novel because I think it’s funny. Instead of simple kanji, as that’s not an issue in English, they are short and low calorie.) Bubbles Whether hand drawn or digital asset, bubbles are fun and almost their own character. They are used to guide the eye around the page, help or hinder the flow and even hint at the speaker’s voice tone. Like everything else, they should serve the story and support the art. At first, I didn’t know what to do with them so I added them after the art (I still do) so I could move them around and see what felt right. Please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t cover up hero images and your best art with a million bubbles. Design your panels with a little space for bubble placement and consider their shape, and the shape of the text as you would your art and panels.   When placing them on a page, remember that manga reads right to left, top to bottom, and each panel reads this way. So, simply speaking, each bubble should be lower and/or to the left of the previous one. The placement can affect how a page is read and what order everything goes in. Well placed bubbles will control the path and speed of your reader, but a badly placed bubble can lead to a panel being skipped all together! If you are able to resist being sucked into the story, look at just the speech bubbles in your favorite manga, and see how they are arranged. Also look at western comics as they are designed for English rather than Japanese, and it does behave a little differently. One little note, it may be a personal pet peeve as I’ve seen hyphenated words as a suggestion for achieving a good word wrap within your bubble, so try out both and see which you prefer. If your manga is originally in English, be kind to it, I know our words are horrifically long, but try not to break up a word. Find a shorter one or just shape that bubble and text block around it. In written Japanese the rules are different than in English, translators are also stuck with narrow bubbles designed for a vertical language. In fact, the entire page layout in manga is designed for a vertical language, we need to find that middle ground of narrower bubbles but not too narrow. Fonts Fonts are fun! In my first volume I gave each character their own font. It seemed like a good idea but eventually became unmanageable. A few years on, I’ve bought a copy of Wild Words and I just stick with that. I’m finding it looks cleaner and more professional. In translated manga Wild Words by Comic raft is by far the most used, most recognizable, and probably most stolen font on the market. If you use it in books you sell, consider buying a use license and supporting them.  I try to cater bubble shapes to different characters, but ultimately their voice should distinguish them. At the end of the day, every character shouldn’t sound like you, the writer! If you are struggling, take some time to imagine and feel your character as a person, let them live in your head and hear them talk. Getting to know who they are, their experience and background, you will have a better feel for what they would or wouldn’t say and how they’d say it. Fill your imaginations rolodex by talking to real people out in the world and watching movies. By connecting your character to real experience their voice will come alive and be easier to recall. Some writers instinctively connect to their characters who come alive in their heads and their words just need to be transcribed. Others must be more discreet in constructing their character and forming a voice for them. As with anything this is easier with practice, so keep at it! Keep imagining.  There are a few rules of thumb for placing your text in a bubble. Try to balance the text into an oval or a block shape. Leave some space all around the text, which should sit in the center of the bubble. Always center justify the text. 8-10 words per bubble is a good guide for keeping them from becoming too dense, but it isn’t a hard-fast rule. Sometimes 20 may work, other times 4 words or one, are all you need. If a bubble/text wall feels like too much or becomes stifling, divide the text up into multiple bubbles, maybe expand the scene over more pages, Or distill the text down a bit more and reduce the word count. The goal is to, as much as possible, make the bubble seem to disappear in your readers mind. They may even hear the words in their imagination as they become absorbed in your world. Crazy text walls and badly placed bubbles can pull a reader out of this state and snap them back to the moment. Discordant and weird writing can do the same. Our ultimate goal is to entertain the reader, and keep them in the world we’ve created. As you write, keep that in mind and hopefully the text and bubbles will become one more tool in your bag of tricks to ensnare your readers eyes and send them where you wish!
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