Manga Storyboard Script Template

The storyboard is the skeleton of a manga. Plenty of beginners skip it and jump straight to finished art, only to hit the halfway mark and realize the pacing is off, the double-page climax lands in an awkward spot, and the dialogue won't fit in the panels — and redrawing costs far more than storyboarding first ever would. A storyboard table lets you run the pacing of the whole sequence at low cost before you pour effort into the art.

The panel number should pin down 'which page, which panel,' so you can control the rhythm of the page turns — a huge part of manga's payoff comes from the jolt at the moment you turn the page, so save your big reveals for the last panel of a right-hand page or a double-page spread. The scene description spells out in words what each panel shows: who, where, what action, what expression, and what's in the background.

Dialogue and camera work / composition are the heart of a storyboard. Write the dialogue right alongside the artwork, because its length directly determines how much room the panel needs. Under camera work / composition, jot down the angle (low, high, close-up, wide), the direction of the negative space, and the lighting — these are what translate the 'script' into 'images,' and they're the language you use to communicate with your artist if the work is split up.

The notes column is for emotional beats and special treatment — which panel gets blown up to half a page, where to leave transition breathing room, which panel is the emotional peak. Rough out the few key panels of a scene first, then fill in the dialogue and camera work panel by panel, and the rhythm of the whole sequence falls into place. An extra hour at the storyboard stage saves you ten at the drawing board.