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ivyblossomYesterday I was fine. Today I am sick, just like a friend of mine at work, but about a day behind. She told me this morning that she was completely incapable of getting out of bed today, so I don't have high hopes about tomorrow. I took some dayquil a couple of hours ago, and while it's helping a bit with the aches and running nose and the acidic throat, the caffeine is making me a bit manic.
Sigh.
I asked a few weeks ago about how a person goes about writing a graphic novel, meaning, the part that isn't the artwork. And I got many fabulous answers, I'm grateful for every single one of them.
This idea of working on a graphic novel, or, more precisely, my involvement in the creation of a graphic novel, has been floating around me for quite a long time. I've resisted because it always revolved around my main oeuvre, the manuscript I've been writing/re-writing/editing/throwing out/starting up again for longer than I'd like to admit. Somehow I just can't give that one away. It might have some elements that would translate into a visual medium, but too much of it would have to disappear. So I like the idea of working with someone on a graphic novel, but I'd want it to be something completely new. (Also: I wouldn't ever want to just commission someone to draw me something I scripted; I'd want to really work collaboratively, and it would be pretty much impossible to work collaboratively on something that's been exclusively mine for longer than I'd like to admit.)
I've spoken to an artist friend of mine about this idea, and she also is down with it. I know she would draw an outstanding graphic novel. My job is to come up with a story and characters interesting enough to catch her interest, something that would at least come sort of close to living up to her artistic talent. We left it at that for a while. (We both have day jobs, after all.) My original plan was to maybe start thinking about it next summer.
I don't remember how it started (and it was only a couple of weeks ago), but suddenly I had an idea for it and it's just been rolling along ever since.
I'd forgotten how much fun plotting and world-building and character-building is. When everything is so new the answer to most questions is "I don't know". I don't remember the last time I didn't know something about my current manuscript. There are lots of things I change my mind about, but nothing I don't know.
I have three moleskines in use at the moment: one for the manuscript, one for work (bleh) and one for the graphic novel project. This last one has been getting the most workout in the last couple of weeks.
This is a fun project because I know I can't finish it. All i can do is prepare for it, and cook up some plotlines and character backgrounds. I can sort out the details about how and where and why; I can even plot out the scenes, but I can't write it. That's actually way more freeing than I would have imagined. I have the first chapter roughly in order, and it's awesome to not have to worry about the actual writing. I have a first "chapter" which is about 1000 words long; just to-the-point descriptions of actions, some dialogue, some brief descriptions, the kinds of descriptions you write when you know no one's going to read it. In this skele-chapter, I refer to one of the main characters, who is not properly introduced in the story at that point, as "Eat More Greens". I would never have done that in a planning document before. Somehow I really have to train myself to be casual; my default with writing is to try for the best shot the first time. So this project is really teaching me how to plot casually, construct carefully but not permanently.
I can see that this is probably what I should do with the rest of my other manscript as well; just plot it all out, describe the scenes the way you do when you're explaining it to someone else, not the way you do when you're trying to impress a reader (or whatever). I'm working on chapter 8 of my manuscript (of probably 18 chapters in total), and I'm stalled a bit because I've realized there are critical elements missing in this draft and I want to go back and put them in. Would this have happened if I had done this casual plotting out the first time around? It's really pretty fun to do. My desire to get things done fast and jump into the formal manuscript really just makes the whole process take so much longer.
I know that plots don't just appear out of thin air, and even a few weeks of working on a story isn't near enough. I know I will sit with this graphic novel plot idea for at least a year before we do anything with it. But it's still pretty exciting. Working on it has shown me more about writing a "normal" story than I would have imagined.
Working on something totally new has also answered another question, the one that goes like this: what's your uberstory? What's that theme that you're really secretly always writing about, over and over and over? I have indeed found mine, and it's apparently anything to do with funky memory tricks. Fortunately there are enough variations on that theme that it should keep me busy for a while.
Sigh.
I asked a few weeks ago about how a person goes about writing a graphic novel, meaning, the part that isn't the artwork. And I got many fabulous answers, I'm grateful for every single one of them.
This idea of working on a graphic novel, or, more precisely, my involvement in the creation of a graphic novel, has been floating around me for quite a long time. I've resisted because it always revolved around my main oeuvre, the manuscript I've been writing/re-writing/editing/throwing out/starting up again for longer than I'd like to admit. Somehow I just can't give that one away. It might have some elements that would translate into a visual medium, but too much of it would have to disappear. So I like the idea of working with someone on a graphic novel, but I'd want it to be something completely new. (Also: I wouldn't ever want to just commission someone to draw me something I scripted; I'd want to really work collaboratively, and it would be pretty much impossible to work collaboratively on something that's been exclusively mine for longer than I'd like to admit.)
I've spoken to an artist friend of mine about this idea, and she also is down with it. I know she would draw an outstanding graphic novel. My job is to come up with a story and characters interesting enough to catch her interest, something that would at least come sort of close to living up to her artistic talent. We left it at that for a while. (We both have day jobs, after all.) My original plan was to maybe start thinking about it next summer.
I don't remember how it started (and it was only a couple of weeks ago), but suddenly I had an idea for it and it's just been rolling along ever since.
I'd forgotten how much fun plotting and world-building and character-building is. When everything is so new the answer to most questions is "I don't know". I don't remember the last time I didn't know something about my current manuscript. There are lots of things I change my mind about, but nothing I don't know.
I have three moleskines in use at the moment: one for the manuscript, one for work (bleh) and one for the graphic novel project. This last one has been getting the most workout in the last couple of weeks.
This is a fun project because I know I can't finish it. All i can do is prepare for it, and cook up some plotlines and character backgrounds. I can sort out the details about how and where and why; I can even plot out the scenes, but I can't write it. That's actually way more freeing than I would have imagined. I have the first chapter roughly in order, and it's awesome to not have to worry about the actual writing. I have a first "chapter" which is about 1000 words long; just to-the-point descriptions of actions, some dialogue, some brief descriptions, the kinds of descriptions you write when you know no one's going to read it. In this skele-chapter, I refer to one of the main characters, who is not properly introduced in the story at that point, as "Eat More Greens". I would never have done that in a planning document before. Somehow I really have to train myself to be casual; my default with writing is to try for the best shot the first time. So this project is really teaching me how to plot casually, construct carefully but not permanently.
I can see that this is probably what I should do with the rest of my other manscript as well; just plot it all out, describe the scenes the way you do when you're explaining it to someone else, not the way you do when you're trying to impress a reader (or whatever). I'm working on chapter 8 of my manuscript (of probably 18 chapters in total), and I'm stalled a bit because I've realized there are critical elements missing in this draft and I want to go back and put them in. Would this have happened if I had done this casual plotting out the first time around? It's really pretty fun to do. My desire to get things done fast and jump into the formal manuscript really just makes the whole process take so much longer.
I know that plots don't just appear out of thin air, and even a few weeks of working on a story isn't near enough. I know I will sit with this graphic novel plot idea for at least a year before we do anything with it. But it's still pretty exciting. Working on it has shown me more about writing a "normal" story than I would have imagined.
Working on something totally new has also answered another question, the one that goes like this: what's your uberstory? What's that theme that you're really secretly always writing about, over and over and over? I have indeed found mine, and it's apparently anything to do with funky memory tricks. Fortunately there are enough variations on that theme that it should keep me busy for a while.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 02:35 am (UTC)I think there was a reason why I was obsessed with the lady of Shallot.
~N~
no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 11:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-05 11:44 pm (UTC)