I’m going to take you through the process of a graphic novel in a series of posts. This is from my perspective, as a writer and artist who makes fantasy books for middle grade and young adult readers - but hopefully it will be helpful even if you’re interested in making a different kind of book!
This may be off-topic, but I have been thinking about it since you mentioned you did fanfiction for fun last summer as a way to decompress. Do you do extensive outlines for these fanfictions, like your 73K novel “In All the Ways There Were,” or did you write it as it came to you? Just curious if you use the same creative process across the board, or if there is a difference.
THANK YOU for that accurate description of the 6 hour writing process, oh my god. this often happens to me, going down the wikipedia hole, spending half an hour focusing on a side character's name and writing [joke goes here] so I don't lose the flow when I'm finally getting a scene done. my god, it is frustrating!
I kind of always feel guilty when this happens to me because I have an 8-hour daily job and write on my free time, so when I don't meet my writing goals I end up feeling like I didn't fully seize my time. but thank you for reminding me we all go through that, and most importantly, that writing sessions like those are just a natural part of the process.
again, thank you for this class, I hope you have a fantastic week!
Very useful, thanks! Really appreciate the advice about sensitivity readers, too. Something I definitely want to put into practice with my next project.
MOLLY THIS IS SO HELPFUL! Writing the script is the stage that's been giving me the most anxiety, because I've never done anything like it before. I'm glad to hear that there are no hard and fast rules for graphic novel scripts the way there is for film/TV. Thanks for sharing your scripts and how they look as final pages -- it's cool to see how your translate between the two medium. I also appreciate you pointing out the "daydreaming" phase of writing. So many people beat themselves up for the amount of time they spend thinking about and researching for their stories, but it's such an important part of the process! Writing is so weird.
This may be off-topic, but I have been thinking about it since you mentioned you did fanfiction for fun last summer as a way to decompress. Do you do extensive outlines for these fanfictions, like your 73K novel “In All the Ways There Were,” or did you write it as it came to you? Just curious if you use the same creative process across the board, or if there is a difference.
THANK YOU for that accurate description of the 6 hour writing process, oh my god. this often happens to me, going down the wikipedia hole, spending half an hour focusing on a side character's name and writing [joke goes here] so I don't lose the flow when I'm finally getting a scene done. my god, it is frustrating!
I kind of always feel guilty when this happens to me because I have an 8-hour daily job and write on my free time, so when I don't meet my writing goals I end up feeling like I didn't fully seize my time. but thank you for reminding me we all go through that, and most importantly, that writing sessions like those are just a natural part of the process.
again, thank you for this class, I hope you have a fantastic week!
Honestly, it's just good to know that my writing process (some writing, research tangents, new ideas, etc.) is tots normal.
Very useful, thanks! Really appreciate the advice about sensitivity readers, too. Something I definitely want to put into practice with my next project.
MOLLY THIS IS SO HELPFUL! Writing the script is the stage that's been giving me the most anxiety, because I've never done anything like it before. I'm glad to hear that there are no hard and fast rules for graphic novel scripts the way there is for film/TV. Thanks for sharing your scripts and how they look as final pages -- it's cool to see how your translate between the two medium. I also appreciate you pointing out the "daydreaming" phase of writing. So many people beat themselves up for the amount of time they spend thinking about and researching for their stories, but it's such an important part of the process! Writing is so weird.