Breakout 4: A Graphic Novel Workshop for Illustrators with Sharee Miller

 

Wow, Sharee Miller presented a super informational session on graphic novels! Of course, the presentation was very visual, as you might expect from a talented graphic novelist. I'll include just a few points here.

Sharee started her career in picture books; however, she soon got an idea for a graphic novel. CURLFRIENDS was soon born. It's a character-driven series about a group of Black girlfriends in middle school. There will be others in the series as other characters take on their own stories. 

Where to begin?

Read. Read. Read. You'll need to understand the genre. There is no cookie-cutter way to create stories. See how others approach the genre. What kind of stories appeal to you? Character-driven, moment-in-time, historical? 

Practice! 

Create your own short comics. Build a language and shorthand for yourself.

Practice creating sequential art to show every stage—the action and reaction.

Share on social media to get feedback to be sure people are reading your comic how you want them to. Are they understanding you?

Look up scripts. Study them. 

You can find scripts on the internet. Study the components then let your imagination run. 

Storyboarding

Start sketching! Take your time, giving yourself time to think through the characters, their worlds, and their stories.

How do we start writing?

Think about scenes and plot points

Create an outline

Fill in the dialog once you land on the major plot points.

Think about scenes and plot points. What do you want in there?

Multiple plot lines?

You may want to include multiple plot points. You can use Post-its to map things out visually so that you can see the plots and where lines intersect. This is easier to manage than the longer form of writing.

 

Writing Resources

See these books:
Save the Cat

Heroes Journey

These books will get you to thinking about your longer story in smaller chunks.

They'l also help you to see the beats in your story, the rising and falling action. Maybe you'll want to tell a slice of life ora a day-in-the-life story.

Things to note in your script

Setting mood

Panels

Dialog/type

Direct dialog; who is talking?

Choose your tools

You can work digitally or traditionally. There's no one way to make a comic, and you don't have to make your book digitally.

Be sure to back things up!

Here are some popular programs to use:

Sample pages

Create enough to introduce the first moment of drama, enough to meet the character. 

Include at least one page of what the final art would look like.

What can you expect to get paid?

$60k to $100k

When negotiating the contract, try to break up the payments so that you get income on signing, pencils, and various stages of creating the final art. You'll need an income stream because you'll be working for a while. 

Timeline

At least a year or more. The timeline can be very long.

Don't crowd the page