How I am preparing for Graphic Novel Pro

Fey Realme

Hello, all y’all red rabbits!
I am planning on enrolling in Graphic Novel Pro, and I want to include you all in my process of preparing for the class. In this thread I am going to share what I am learning from the “You Are a Storyteller” podcast with Brian McDonald, and what story homework I am doing based on that. If you want to follow along doing the same exercises and story homework, I would love to hear about it in this thread (Let’s prepare our stories for Graphic Novel Pro together!)

My goal is to have a revised draft of my story by the 20th of February 2025 so I can get the most out of the graphic part of the class–this is an illustration school, after all, not a writing school.

A very valuable piece of insight I picked up from Jake’s Comic Book Workshop and Nate Hale's “How to Make a Graphic Novel” course on svslearn.com (and my own adverse experience in a narrative illustration course in college) is that it is MUCH EASIER to make a graphic novel if your script is locked in AND NOT OPEN TO CHANGE. The art in a graphic novel is like a beautiful quilt that you drape over your story skeleton to create the experience. It is so much work to make the quilt, that if your story is not structurally sound–still fluctuating and under construction–it is impossible to be precise in your art and you will end up doing a lot of extra work in an already enormous project.

The next most valuable insight I have on graphic novels I picked up from Brian McDonald on his podcast. The author of numerous screenplays, several graphic novels, and dozens of comic books (including two Predator comics for Dark Horse), He said: GRAPHIC NOVELS ARE A LOT CLOSER TO THE MOVIE EXPERIENCE THAN THE BOOK EXPERIENCE. I have to say that I agree. Think about it–both movies and graphic novels combine words and visuals to tell the story so thoroughly that they are inseparable. Both find inventive visual ways to solve problems and are better when they are succinct. Even Jake said in his Comics workshop that the cool shots you are used to in movies were picked up from innovative comic books–not other movies.”

So this is my plan to prepare:

Watch and analyze classic movies Brian uses to teach important story elements
“ ” to see how they solved story problems visually–saying more with less, elegance
Read and analyze graphic novels to grow my visual library of graphic novel approaches
Build my story, consulting the principles Brian discovered through extensive study. (I will write my first draft during the month of November for NaNoWriMo)

I already have an idea and an outline, but I still have a lot of work to do…. But it is worth it! because, like Lee’s fortune cookie said that one time, “A GOOD BEGINNING IS HALF DONE.”

I am excited to share my progress with you here and I’m even more excited to hear about your story ideas and progress in this thread (Let’s prepare our stories for Graphic Novel Pro together!)

Fey Realme

Here is my timeline/plan to have a script for my graphic novel by March:

Stage 1: (Sept 1-Oct 31) Develop my outline, character backgrounds, & do research
- Listen to episodes on story elements
- Study a referenced movie
- Read 2 Graphic novels per week

Stage 2: (Nov 1-30) Write the first draft
- Listen to episodes of Masters of the Craft
- Decompress

Stage 3: (Dec 1-Jan 31) Study visual problem-solving in old films
- Listen to episodes about directing
- Watch old movies and collect (draw) inventive shots of visual problem-solving
- Read 2 graphic novels per week
- (Finish preparing for SCBWI Conference)

Stage 4: (Feb 1-28) Revise the draft
- Listen to episodes on simplicity
- Keep reading graphic novels
- Keep studying old film

Stage 5: (March) Take the class and follow the instruction

Fey Realme

Week 1 story homework | My thoughts

The armature: The idea of everything in your story hanging off a central skeleton of something helpful you want to tell people or a question you want to explore, is very appealing to me as an outliner who is more comfortable with written words than pictures. I have a two-year-old, and my 18-year-old sister lives with me and my husband, and I just have all these things overflowing inside me that I want to share with them to help them succeed--so I love the idea that If you have something helpful to share, you can turn it into a compelling story by digging into that thing you want to say.

It is very comforting to me that you can know how you should do every single thing in your piece by consulting what it is you are trying to say to your audience. like they said in the podcast in a story where you know what you are saying, the family isn't one way just because--because of what you are saying the family HAS to be this way. These are the interactions they need to have, this is what they need to say because everything should drive in that central thought.

Now the homework movie was The Wizard of Oz, but I actually did that last week-- this week my two-year-old and I watched Mary Poppins close to 4 times. Have you ever watched a movie 4 times and asked yourself what they were trying to say, and looked to see if EVERY single thing in the piece supported that central theme (armature)? It was delightful to discuss with my husband and sister all week.

What is the armature? it is difficult to spot because they don't come out and practically say it at the beginning but washes over you either way, and at the end, you understand that good humor, fun, and taking time for children are important to your quality of life and your very survival (after Mr. Banks goes missing after being discharged the maid speculates he might have committed suicide--and he very well might have if he had not been gradually taught what matters most--the reason for living-- throughout the piece)

That is no accident. every decision is made to support and develop the story that proves that truth in a way that reaches your soul. It starts at the very beginning when we meet Bart, who embodies the idea of living your life to create beauty in the lives of others and always taking you spoonful of sugar.

Lets take a look at what happens at the beginning of the movie--this is where the writers make a promise to the audience about what problems they are exploring, and what they are going to end up resolving. What problems do they present? how are they resolved?

We meet our guide, Bart, who devotes his life to making beauty in the lives of others and always takes his spoon full of sugar every day.
We meet the women, who overall are trying to avoid being burdened by the inconvenience of the children in their lives.
We meet Mr. Banks who is so far out of touch with reality, in his own world of banking (where everything is stern, no-nonsense, and beautiful) that it takes him five minutes to realize that his wife is telling him the children are missing.
The children are brought back by a constable who labels them as "valuables" that had been lost before leading them in-- no one expected the children to walk in after that announcement. The children present their broken kite and a petition for their father to help them make it a good kite.

The constable tries to provide some advice about paying attention to children but is shut down, thanked, and dismissed.

Then comes Mr. Banks' song where he dictates an ad to the Times, asking for a new nanny. It is so well disguised that you don't realize he is setting forth his worldview and his philosophy on how children should be raised--perspectives that will be directly challenged in every instance of the movie from that point on until even Mr. Banks realizes they have been disproven.

Watch Mary Poppins again--How does every single element of the movie work together to present the perspective of Mr. Banks-- and disprove it on every point?

Bonus questions:
How many emotionally charged objects are there? what do they mean to who, and why?

What is the song "Feed the Birds" REALLY about?

What are the most important pieces of dialog that set up the theme of the movie (before the nannies come to interview)?

Fey Realme

This week, focusing on finding the armature for one of my stories helped me figure out how I needed to handle the stuff in the middle of the story.

I came up with this idea for a picture book about two years ago (when I was still a recently married woman by anyone's standard) based on a combination of pushing back on the "and they got married and lived happily ever after" ending, and a fragment of an Asian fairy tale I heard once where soulmates are connected by a red thread that is tied to both of their pinky fingers.

here is my original outline and my first "finished" draft

Well, I really did not and still do not like that draft. I wrote the ending as I walked into the writing group meeting so I would have something to show--but overall this just isn't it for lots of reasons. Since then I have written a lot of drafts, and I have struggled with the ending, how to handle the interactions with the characters in the middle, and what the main character's emotional experience is (and we aren't even going to talk about how I am avoiding thinking about how do illustrate a story with a blind guy as a main character.) The other reason it felt wrong (besides the ending feeling forced and unrealistic) was that every time I told the story to someone or read it or made a draft it felt like it dragged on! Something about the conflicts in the middle made them feel like the middle was way too long--the energy was not flowing right.

Wanna know why I have been struggling with this so much? I don't know what the story is about. I know everything that needs to happen, but I don't know the most important thing: WHY and TO WHAT END--That is armature guys...
and the story felt wrong because I was not using the rule of three correctly, so the audience was always confused and bored at the same time.

Well, after telling it so many times, and thinking about it, and digging into what was inspiring the story to begin with, and listening to various episodes of the story podcast and thinking about how the structure tips from their toolbox could be better applied in my story--and FINALLY figuring out the armature last week, I was able to solve each of these problems more or less, and I made another draft with an actual thought out ending.

here it is

What do you think? is there any part that is boring or confusing?
Im planning on doing it as a sort of longer children's book but in a graphic novel sort of format, so it would be a bit transformed and less on the nose perhaps.

What would you say the armature is? (please do say what you think)
thanks for following along in this journey thread

p.s. yes I did have to stop writing this post to write the actual draft I just linked here, start to finish. (cobbling it together and rewriting from scraps of previous drafts and a draft where I only wrote the ending--it is really helpful for me to isolate/compartmentalize bits of the problem and put them together later. it feels much less overwhelming) Having to share something is, like, the only way I actually get around to doing anything writing or art-related.

Mariana B.

@Fey-Realme I read all the versions you linked in your post and I see you put a lot of work on them!

From the very first outline to the “first finished draft” I see how you really expanded on the concept.

As I was reading the “first draft” I could imagine visually how fun it would be seeing him dealing with the tangle at the house, and then all the landscape that he goes through.
I like very much the idea of the magical thread which although not mentioned, sounds like the perfect gift for someone who is extremely forgetful and someone who can’t see, they always can find each other.
I liked the hints of humor here and there were a refreshing note along the adventure.

Now for the final version titled “12 with a point” I must admit, and I apologize in advance, I didn’t like it the same way as I liked the other version and here is why: the tone of the story does a full 180 flip. While in the first draft Wilhelm is loving, patient, and caring, accepting that his wife is a free spirited and prone to trouble person, the Wilhelm in the final draft shows so much frustration and resentment towards her that makes me feel their marriage is in downfall.

In the first draft he goes to search her out of worry, but in the second he goes to find her in anger for not being where she belongs and almost in a threatening way he says she will be in trouble.
I know you are trying to stabilish at the end that she went on through all that trouble to help him, and he wasn’t able to see that until the end. But waiting until the very end to redeem his angry behavior didn’t work for me to make me feel better about the whole 75 percent of the story.
Indeed when he lashes out at the door and yells why bother at all, I was questioning that too. He doesn’t act like he loves Griselda, instead he acts like he is annoyed that “his girl” isn’t where she is supposed to. So why does a blind guy would go through mountains and caves to find her then? This question takes my mind to sinister conclusions, which I know is not at all what you are trying to do.

At some point at the end he says that his frustration was because he felt lonely sad and hurt, but that is not really shown anywhere, only we see his bursts of anger.
I personally would like to see those emotions in the first story, where this compassionate man who is practically blind, worries not only for his wife, but then he is hit by the realization of his loneliness without her.
In short, I liked the 1st draft, but with the ending of the second draft( from the moment she puts the glasses on him)

Regarding the armature, I’m not very sure, it seems that what he learns is that he was seeing the wife, and her actions through a wrong lens , what he took as uncaring and reckless was actually her caring. But as mentioned before, having read both stories one after the other, the second one didn’t make me feel that the ending was earned. Maybe if I hadn’t read the first draft and only had seen the last one my opinion wouldn’t be so biased, but I guess it all goes down to the kind of feeling each person wants to feel when we enter into a story, something I think I remember listening in one of sanderson’s lectures (and very possibly some other places too) as “promise of the tone” .

I really hope this feedback is helpful. I always aspire to give honest and open opinions but internally I always worry they will be taken wrongly. But I believe as creators we can always take and discard what aligns or not with our vision.