National Graphic Novel Writing Month 2018! #nagranowrimo
Yes, we got enough demand from you that we’re doing it again! For the month of November, we’re going to help you learn how to write a graphic novel! Stick with us for 30 days, and we’ll go over just about everything you need to know about writing for the specific requirements of comics!
It is our hope that by the time we’re done, you’re going to be well on your way to being able to show us your work, and be able to guide you to the next steps of creation. We also hope you’ll share these lessons with other folks far and wide.
First: let’s pull out some of the textbooks you’re going to want to read. Your first homework assignment is to get some of these from the library or the store.
We’ll recommend others as we go.
Second, let me tell you what this is NOT going to be.
This is not going to help you create your idea for a graphic novel. We’re starting with the assumption that you already have an idea for a graphic novel, and need help trying to write it.
This is not going to require you to be an artist. While there is a place for the person who can both write and draw, this is intended for the person who is going to be working with a collaborator or two. As such, you’re going to learn the best ways to write in order to make it easy for a collaborator– even it you don’t even know who’s going to draw it.
This is not even going to require you to have any drawing skills. If you can make stick figures, you’re qualified. Yes, you will have to draw stick figures.
This is not going to be genre-specific. Comics contain multitudes– superheroes, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, humor, porn, educational materials, biography and autobiography, on and on and on. We’re not teaching you how to write Batman, we’re teaching you how to write comics.
And finally: This is not going to be a rah-rah confidence builder. There are plenty of places where you can get the types of affirmations to help during long nights staring at your wall, and you should make use of them if they help you– but this is for the nuts and bolts of writing for comics, and the only way to really learn that is to sit down and write them. These lessons are not to help you power through the creation of a comic, giving you “waytogos!” as you hit particular word counts during the month. In fact, there will be no word count goal in your creation process.
Why? Because it’s impossible to quantify how many words are needed to make a graphic novel. It could take 5000 words– or 500,000.
And on that terrifying note… see you tomorrow.