greycat wrote:
I have an idea for a graphic novel of sorts but have a lot of ideas and no cohesiveness. How does one start and how does one structure such an endeavour? Or should i just start doing pages (each one could be a self contained statement of sorts) and let the chips fall where they may? I am afraid if i intellectualize this process too much i may never start!
I write screenplays. Screenplays and graphic novels have a lot of similarities. In fact, a friend of mine has a movie in the works from a screenplay that he adapted into comic books. The comic book then attracted the interest of Hollywood: [A href="vny!://www.galacticgladiators.com"]www.galacticgladiators.com[/A] That said, the comic book and graphic novel industry is highly competitive and the market for it has been going down, though sales of Galactic Gladiators has been increasing.
I would suggest that you put together some kind of story framework -- beginning, middle, end -- before writing your graphic novel, unless you need to do some "jamming" to untap creative reservoirs. Describe your story to yourself in one sentence (if you can't do that, you may not have a story, or it may be too convoluted). Characters are the most important part of any story. If nobody cares what happens to the characters, it's a dud. The way for readers to care about characters is to ensure that each character has a distinct voice and personal agenda, and organically fits into the ecology of the story. The hero should have a clear goal. The other characters somehow impede or help the hero's progress (life-diminishing or life-enhancing).
