Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games

This book is about writing, but it's also an insider's view to the industry. I give it five stars because it's clear and to the point, it covers a lot of ground, because the author's years of experience in the business shows.People think that being creative is about inspiration, some magical wand beaming an endless stream of imagination to your brain. Maybe it is, but the author shows it's mostly hard work. She is clear in telling that professional writing and storytelling should be a careful, considered process and it's best to follow the footsteps of experienced professionals.Having worked with Flash animation for a long time, as an employee and a freelancer, I have to agree it's a tough job. You have to work along with a team, accept criticism lightly and then deliver some amazing jaw dropping stuff!The book is not about developing ideas for scripts or coming up with some formula for characters, plots etc. It is about the day-by-day practice: how to format your script, deadlines, teamwork, resources etc etc.She shows what professionals - bosses and co-workers- expect from a writer, what are the standards and common practices in each of the three areas. That's a lot of information! And priceless.I love it because it helped me build up a method for work that is more productive and to the point and to bring more focus to the decision making involved in the creative work, specially animation and comics.

Of all of the websites, and others forms of information i've researched on being a script writer for animation and video games this is by far the most awesome. Christy Marx has literally broken down the process piece by piece, and gives an in dept look at how writing works for the three subjects she covers in this book. Thus far i've only begun reading the animation part of the book due to me only receiving it about 2 or 3 days ago, but it's absolutely fantastic! She gives you advice on the business, and what to prepare for before she gets into the formatting of the script, which i thought was a nice little touch, then she explains some modern terminology for a script, and the differences between some terms that seem to have the same meaning, while also giving examples of what the sluglines would look like. Again i've just started reading a few pages, but i'm really pleased with this. After coming to the realization that i wanted to be a writer, i searched all over the net for information on the formatting, and what to & what not to expect. I began searching Amazon for books on writing for animation & video games, and lo and behold i came across this book which covers the script formatting for both! I highly recommend it for someone looking to get into the writing world. I don't know if this book is currently being used for college classes on writing (it's not being used in my current community college), but it should be just for the sake of being a great guideline for beginners.

I'm starting in animation and I found this book very helpful, full with recomendations and interesting information.

More than a few years ago, I had the extremely good fortune to be mentored in the art of animation writing by Christy Marx, who told it like it was about the biz and taught me all about the basics in great detail. Now a professional myself with credits as an animation production coordinator and writer, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book. Not only does it cover all the ground she taught me about animation writing with the same depth and care, it takes on comics and videogames, two mediums which have become more and more intertwined with animation over the last two decades -- something which is taken into account throughout the book. Whether you're trying to figure out if any or all of this areas are for you, or just looking for a better understanding of the business, this is an excellent primer.

This is the best compilation of *practical* information for the business of writing that I've seen yet. It is very well organized and just about every piece of knowledge in there is indispensable. It helped connect a lot of dots for me that I had gleaned elsewhere but sometimes without the proper context. Most books touch on one or two things really well, but Ms. Marx's book is the best overall "primer" out there.Although I already have a number of writing credits, I'm still really just starting out and I found the book very helpful. The information helped validate some of the things I'm doing and also give a little more direction for the future.If you're interested in writing for any of the three fields, the book is worth buying. If you are interested in more than one, then you can't pass it up under any circumstances. Highly recommended.

Transmedia storytelling is one of the big new buzzworthy concepts right now, as evidenced by the multiple-media narrative campaigns of HEROES, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, FIREFLY/SERENITY, TRANSFORMERS, THE MATRIX, and so on. Although she doesn't explicitly use the term 'transmedia', Christy Marx has written a sort of proto-primer for writers looking to tell stories across multiple media. Being able to understand the basics of writing for each media type goes a long way towards understanding how to tell a story using each of those multiple forms. That the book is both very well-written and an entertaining read are added bonuses. Highly recommended!

I was expecting a little more on the process of writting but this book contains more about career moves toward animation, comic writting, and games. This is not a good book for anyone looking for inspiration on their own writting or some sort of guidance to help the quality of their writting.