I sat down to an open word doc and just started word vomiting everything that came to my head about my main character. That spread to the supporting cast and then a bunch of random interactions. Everything flowed out so naturally and I remember thinking this is it. I’m aces at this and this isn’t hard at all. I most have word vomited in that doc over the course of 5 years with little to know to format…
This, of course, meant my first draft was a hot mess and had no direction. Not just plot-wise, but artistically as well. I had no breaks between scenes, no information about the world and its surroundings for drawing reference. It was just a mess,(like my topic hopping on this blog) and incredibly frustrating to go through once I tried to sit down and decipher what I was thinking since I thought I was ready to draw everything out.
Boi that was a setback and rude awakening. Obviously, this wasn’t going to be as easy as I had thought, and so I let myself get defeated and just went back to drawing one-off pieces and being intimidated by my interstate pileup of a word doc.
I knew it needed to be formatted, but I didn’t have the motivation to do it. It wasn’t until I was lucky enough to catch a free seminar downtown for making comics did I get the direction I needed.
I wish I could remember the speaker so I could give him a shout out. The seminar was actually geared toward submitting work to an anthology he was working on, but he imparted a lot of wisdom in that one hour his seminar lasted. He imparted great wisdom that got me refocused and working on what to do next. Not only that, but he was very firm about what he was looking for to include in his anthology. He provided script examples, talked about the difference between making a comic and being an illustrator, and was very open to answering questions. It was pretty amazing, and I am glad I went!
I didn’t apply to his anthology project, wasn’t sci-fi or fantasy so it fell flat for me, but I did apply his script outlining techniques to my train wreck. I started fresh and made an outline. I started from the ending and then went to the beginning and made a few things I wanted to see happen character-wise in the middle. From there I add and subtract. It has taken a long time to get everything sorted, and it’s still not complete. That’s ok though. Everything doesn’t have to be a word for word completed before drawing a single page. Having an outline and at least being a chapter ahead of everything=drawn is my obtainable goal. Doing it this way is better for me anyway. I will be able to explore ideas more freely and grow with my comic.
The takeaway… Whenever I used to look at seminars I would shrug them off our look over them. Like why bother when there is the internet, but these gatherings of like-minded individuals and professionals can be amazingly helpful, insightful, and possible networking. Neat tips and tricks, handouts for clarity, Q&A sessions, portfolio reviews. It can seem stuffy to think about, but if you can get in on one you definitely should. Conventions can be fantastic for this too, so go get it!
There’s always another way to approach a problem and you may find it at one of these gatherings.
Word vomiting may get you moving, but an outline will tell you where to go.
-Lady T.
