Big Little Tales

Starting to write a graphic novel

So as I’m in the writing stage of my graphic novel at the moment I thought I should probably blog about that! I’ve reached about 100 pages in my storyboarding, and I know the final count will be less than 200 pages but probably a fraction over 150. I know it’ll be a lot of work, but I’m also really enjoying the process so for now just seeing where it takes me. My graphic novel will be mostly a travelogue based on 6 months I spent travelling in Mexico when I was younger… there will be other aspects to the narrative but those are a secret for now!

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Above: I’ve been reading travel comics by Lucy Knisley and Enrico Casarosa for inspiration…

The biggest thing I’ve realised early on is that I can’t always worry about the final page-count and try to squeeze as much into as small a space as possible. When I began planning, this was my general strategy as I was thinking in terms of trying to keep my workload down when I would come to final art. But I quickly realised that pacing was really important, and that I would need to take my time over certain parts of the story and that not everything should be done with the aim of being brutally concise.

It was also interesting to think about varying the focus… that I needn’t always solely include the most ‘important’ stuff. I realised that at times relating funny, mundane aspects of the story would be almost as important as describing the more dramatic experiences.

It reminded me of a technique used in some Japanese animated films ('Ghost in the Shell’ is a good example) - where there are quite long sequences where nothing happens and the viewer is shown nothing but scenery and music. They are incredible and moody and haunting, and a perfect example of the value of emptiness and stillness as well as action…

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I also thought of Guy Delisle’s travel writing where he includes a lot about the tedium and loneliness of spending time in hotel rooms. Another reminder that to convey the whole experience of the journey will involve showing the boring as well as the interesting at times! 

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My process so far has involved reading my journals from a decade(!) ago… and noting down the stories I want to focus on. Then I start with a grid of empty panels and work out some VERY rough storyboarding for each chapter. Very rough… in fact in some panels I’ve just made a note of what I’ll show there and will come back to sketching once the whole plan in is place. I mainly go straight into planning panels (as opposed to writing it out as a script first as some people do,) to keep my word count down. When I’m writing every word into a panel I can tell immediately if I’m using too many words and re-think it then & there. I also keep a tiny rough dummy just to keep track of where each chapter starts & ends… and where important page-turns etc will fall.

I’ve drawn up one full page as an experiment so far, to test colours etc. I can show a couple of very small sneak peeks from it before I sign off…

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More soon :o)


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Notes

  1. katchapman reblogged this from biglittletale and added:
    A blog-post I wrote about the early stages of writing a graphic novel… and what I’m learning so far:
  2. biglittletale posted this