I appreciate your comments about the helpfulness of creating an outline as a way to avoid wasting time. I think this is great advice for all creative pursuits! FYI, I landed here because I noticed your comment on Debbie Ohi's recent post. I recognized your "face", having read Bird & Squirrel last week with children I was babysitting. Both of the kids (ages 5 and 7) laughed all the way through it. The precocious 7-year-old, who is working on her own graphic novel, wanted to read it to me aloud because your drawings inspire her! I was pleased that you chose some challenging vocabulary words to tell your story. Books for young readers often do not.
Thanks for reading. All the characters we've created in the past are just waiting for the right story to come along. I've got several waiting in the 0s and 1s of my harddrive and my sketchbook.
I've never written a regular novel, so I have no idea. For a graphic novel, a good portion of the story is told through art, and since I'm also the artist, I don't add too much descriptive detail. Only enough to make sure the story reads clearly and makes sense to a potential publisher, editor, or my agent.
I write my outlines similar to this. It helps when I sit down to write the book to know where I'm going. Pantsing a novel would be too stressful to me!
I agree. When I did my graphic novel Gabby and Gator, I just started drawing and creating the story as I went, which resulted in a lot of wasted drawings and effort. Mid way through that process, I stopped and wrote an outline to save time and energy. Now I always write an outline while I'm designing and developing the world with some sketches and art.
I appreciate your comments about the helpfulness of creating an outline as a way to avoid wasting time. I think this is great advice for all creative pursuits! FYI, I landed here because I noticed your comment on Debbie Ohi's recent post. I recognized your "face", having read Bird & Squirrel last week with children I was babysitting. Both of the kids (ages 5 and 7) laughed all the way through it. The precocious 7-year-old, who is working on her own graphic novel, wanted to read it to me aloud because your drawings inspire her! I was pleased that you chose some challenging vocabulary words to tell your story. Books for young readers often do not.
Hey! Happy to hear the kids were enjoying Bird & Squirrel. I like to use big words to challenge kids to learn them.
Thanks for sharing your process. I love how you brought squirrel back. I'll have to go back and see which of my old characters could play a new role.
Thanks for reading. All the characters we've created in the past are just waiting for the right story to come along. I've got several waiting in the 0s and 1s of my harddrive and my sketchbook.
I love reading writers' creative process, this was great! Do you find graphic novel outlines need to be more detailed than for a regular novel?
I've never written a regular novel, so I have no idea. For a graphic novel, a good portion of the story is told through art, and since I'm also the artist, I don't add too much descriptive detail. Only enough to make sure the story reads clearly and makes sense to a potential publisher, editor, or my agent.
Thank you! I'n excited to see the character designs :)
I write my outlines similar to this. It helps when I sit down to write the book to know where I'm going. Pantsing a novel would be too stressful to me!
I agree. When I did my graphic novel Gabby and Gator, I just started drawing and creating the story as I went, which resulted in a lot of wasted drawings and effort. Mid way through that process, I stopped and wrote an outline to save time and energy. Now I always write an outline while I'm designing and developing the world with some sketches and art.
where can I see some internal tables?
By tables do you mean pages? The best way would probably be to find a copy of the book at a bookstore.
Glad this post was helpful and I appreciate you buying the books. Thanks so much.