Three years ago I was given the job of writer for Apartment 3-G. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had and I love it! [If you've never heard of Apt.3-G go to King Features and read a bit of its history.] Basically it’s a “soap opera” strip about three young women seeking their fortune in New York City: Margo, the brunette diva, Tommie, the earnest redhead and Lu Ann, the innocent blonde.
So how do you write a strip that someone else draws? I was unsure but I knew the previous writer had simply typed up scripts with stage directions. It sounded simple but I knew it would never work for me. So I’m going to show you my process. Although, honestly, I could talk about these “girls” until your ears fell off; I’m going to restrain myself and stick to the topic.
Every week I write six dailies and a Sunday re-cap and it all begins in my cheap, spiral notebook. The first draft is over-written on purpose; I need to know everything the characters are thinking and would like to say if they had unlimited space. 
The next re-write is a winnowing process and I can’t do it well without allowing some time to lapse between drafts. On Tuesday morning Monday’s clumsy and/or redundant phrases will stick out like a sore thumb. That draft also goes into the notebook and steeps overnight. With any luck at all it will be tea by the next morning.
The third draft is where things get serious. It looks like this.
If there’s a fourth re-write it involves white-out and a copier. At this point the roughs go to bed for a couple of days. In the meantime I type up the script and tuck it in for a nap in the 3-G 2009 folder.
Lastly, I proof read everything one more time and send them all off to the artist.
And, almost immediately, it begins all over again. That part looks like this.
And on and on. “Suddenly,” as we say in the continuity biz, “six weeks later …”
Apartment 3-G week 5-18 09 published and polished.
But by this time I’ve moved on. Why you wouldn’t believe what’s happening NOW?!! And you can’t drag it out of me. Go ahead, try. Please?
May 21st, 2009 at 7:02 am
Margaret, this is fascinating! Just the stuff I love finding here. I am a long long long time fan of 3-G, and remember my delighted disbelief in 1979 when I moved to NYC that I was going to live in the same city as Margo, Tommie and LuAnn!
May 21st, 2009 at 10:02 am
Hi Kassie, Once again, you’re a girl after my own heart. I think it may be fairly unusual for a strip to be set in a real city; I know it makes it more exciting for me! So here’s the big question: do you have a favorite “girl” and if so, which one??
Margaret
May 21st, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Margaret,
Really interesting to see how you do the strip.
Thanks for giving us this insight!
Steph
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:52 am
Oh, it was always Tommie: smart as a whip, blazing hair, helping profession, etc. Plus she historically had fewer love muddles, which always appealed to me. [By the way, the year I was in grad school, I taught a Pop Culture course on 3-G, but this was in 1978!]
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 am
[...] I’ll throw this in here from Six Chix. It never fails that I learn some new approach or handy shortcut every time I see how [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Kassie, I may be needing some of your expertise: Finding 3-G history beyond the 90s has been a challenge.
I too can’t help but relate to Tommie. But as a writer, my heart belongs to Margo!
May 26th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
GeezLouise, when I was a kid there was this recurring Jimmie Stewart kids’ author with a stuffed hippo and giraffe who’d show up and romance the ladies. He may be a distaff relative to the Professor.
I want to see Margo have an adventure in China that reveals her to be heir to Modesty Blaise. No lie. Get cracking on it. And have Eric being kept from Death’s door by a sweet young Tibetan lass. So brave Margo remains single.
Tommie seems so bland and unable. She’s supposed to a fiery redhead who breaks hearts left and right. The one who gets entire foreign navies to do the Congo down 71st Street (like by Cornell NY State Hospital).
Lu Ann is supposed to have ‘Perils of Pauline’ type of nonsense happen to her. She’s the type to fall into a well.
May 27th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Hi WP, Thanks for the input! Tommie does need to get her groove back. And the Tibetan lass is a consideration. But she might be a nun? Maybe Lu Ann is NOT as dopey as she looks?
May 27th, 2009 at 5:53 am
I just registered to make this post:
I thought the explanation of your writing method was great! Keeping track of all of those characters and all of those years of continuity has to be killer!
I’ve got one complaint: The character design:
Your artist is skilled, but the clothing drawn on these 3-G girls makes them look like old ladies, not young single girls in the big city.
Could your scripts include clothing references from Vogue, The Gap, or even Old Navy?
The artist on “Judge Parker” does a great job of making his ladies look sexy and competent… I know it’s not impossible…
May 27th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Hi Graz, Thanks for registering. I appreciate your kind comments. And, Yes, I do send pages from Vogue and Glamour to my artist. Frank is an incredibly skilled draftsman and his watercolors are impressive.But, he’s no fashionista.
You can check out his website at:
http://www.frankbollestudio.com/
His career portfolio is vast, so say the least!
May 27th, 2009 at 7:57 am
OH BOY !! Frank Bolle : ) I loved the Winnie Winkle of the 70s … was he involved then? I’ll never forget Winnie’s devoting WEEKS to designing the “ponchetta,” only to have it ripped off my competitor Top Flight Fashions. “MY ponchetta design… stolen by Top Flight!” she thought-bubbled. And then th eclosing panel showed Winnie on a bench, depressed. Funny how some things stick in one’s mind… !
http://JimmyBoi2.WordPress.com
May 27th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Margaret, if you’re looking for A3G history… a friend of mine worked for a company which put all the archives of certain King Features strips onto microfilm/microfiche (she mentioned Blondie specifically, but there were others as well).
Since you’re the writer for the strip, maybe King would loan you a copy of the A3G archives?
May 27th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Hi Jimmy Boi, I know Frank drew Winnie for an quite a while but I’m not sure if that includes the 70s? He always speaks of Winnie very fondly; I think she was one of his favorites.
Thanks for the tip, John. In some ways I feel I’ve probably gleaned enough information. At some point I had to decide to make it mine.But it’s good to know that the history survives on microfiche!
May 27th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I’m old enough to remember A3G in the 60s. Would you believe Margo was only a secretary then, occasionally helping her handsome boss, Byron Frost, fend off intriguers in the big cutthroat corporation where they worked? Well suited to this atmosphere, Margo was something of the ‘bad girl’ of the three roommates, once even attempting to steal LuAnn’s latest guy from her. But she had fewer romances then than Tommie.
May 28th, 2009 at 3:54 am
Hi Phred, Sounds like Margo has had a long history of stealing Lu Ann’s boyfriends.I’m impressed that you remember her boss’s name! Any more memories of Margo?
May 28th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Byron Frost, Byron Frost, Byron Frost!!!!!!
Phred, you rock! Thanks for digging out a truly deeply-imbedded memory…
May 28th, 2009 at 8:04 am
[...] Shulock, one of the Six Chix cartoonist, has written about her experience writing a continuity strip, in this case Apartment 3-G that she wrote for three years ago. So how do you write a strip that [...]
May 28th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I’ve always been interested in how a strip gets pulled together when multiple people are involved, thanks for the insight. I unironically love serial comic strips, Apartment 3-G being my favorite. I was a kid in the nineties, and the A3G artist back then had a much more severe style than Mr. Bolle… Margo in particular looked very intimidating. I think I like Mr. Bolle’s gentler style better. And the head bobbles, I really can’t get enough of them.
I follow Apartment 3-G daily in my blog, The Lovely Ladies of Apartment 3-G (http://ladiesofapartment3g.blogspot.com). I hope you don’t find it too rude; I really made the blog out of love. For example, Mrs. Bloom with the taser? That was just such a wonderful moment.
I hope you don’t mind if I link to this post on the blog?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:20 am
[...] [Commentary] What writing a continuity strip looks like Link: Margaret Shulock [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 5:43 am
Hi Magada, I visited your blog and I love it. I’m glad you linked and happy that you liked the taser lady. I thought we all needed a laugh; things had been a bit dark at 3-G. I have you bookmarked.
May 29th, 2009 at 7:46 am
[...] | Margaret Shulock walks through her process for writing the Apartment 3-G comic strip. [Six Chix, via Mike [...]