The Art of the Pause: Illustrating Graphic Novels with Rivkah LaFille

Rivkah LaFille (pronounced “lah-fee”) is a children’s writer, illustrator, and graphic novelist who currently teaches online at Kids Comics Unite while also working on a graphic novel about Creative Writing with First Second as well as a YA graphic novel with Candlewick.

Rivkah's session was the perfect one-hour craft class—I was blown away by how well paced the session (on pacing!) was—and am sure session attendees will all become comics pacing experts (a reminder the Zoom replays of all the breakout sessions are free to all registered conference attendees for up to a month after they've been posted). 

If you're reading this before September 9, 2023 then you may still have the excellent opportunity to sign up for SCBWI Nebraska's amazing sounding, virtual 16-week(!) graphic novel writing workshop with Rivkah.

Rivkah's session explored the many ways pacing can be controlled in a comic. To start I loved the way she used the repeated image of a ticking clock to simply and elegantly show how you could speed up or slow down a reader's time on a page by adjusting panel size and amount per page. That variation alone lets the comics maker achieve different visual rhythms per page similar to how authors vary sentence length in prose to vary reading tempo:

Real world examples of various visual rhythms like in FRIZZY by Claribel Ortega and Rose Bousamra

And in Jen Wang's fantastic THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER

Besides panel frequency and sizing, Rivka shares with attendees the other key ways comics makers can control the speeding up or slowing down of a scene, for example how and where lettering and/or speech bubbles are placed in a layout using, among others, pages from Vera Brosgol's BE PREPARED and Raina Telgemeier's GUTS:

Rivkah also shared a really cool drawing and writing exercise attendees could do at home to try out on their own work to vary and improve pacing. Excellent session for any comics creators wanting to learn how to make humorous scenes more effective, dramatic scenes more tense, gain better control over action scenes, and have better control over a book's tone and pacing in general.

Really hope to check out Rivkah's next workshop:

Diane Muldrow: pacing the picture book

Diane Muldrow

Diane Muldrow is the editorial director at  Golden Books/Random House, editor of Little Golden Books, a sweet, classic line for preschoolers, and the author of the smart and elegant WE PLANTED A TREE (as well as many books about Barbie, Bambi, Pinocchio and other favorite characters).

She started off our intensive session on picture book pacing by sharing a little of her background, including the fact that she was once a professional dancer who performed au naturel on a famous New York stage.

“Anything is a cakewalk after you’ve performed naked,” she said.

Anything, perhaps, but picture-book pacing. During the three-hour master class, she shared a terrific list of tools we can use to make sure our manuscripts unfold in the right way on the page.

Pacing is a central challenge of picture books.

"You have to fit information and good storytelling and beautiful pictures into a very specific format."

Trade picture books are usually 32 pages, while Little Golden Books are 24, for example.

She encouraged us to take a trip to the bookstore or library and really study the formats, taking ownership over what we're writing.

“This is your lump of clay when you’re working on it. It belongs to you because it’s your idea. What I want to see more of … is when writer hopefuls don’t take enough ownership of their idea, let alone their manuscript," she said.

Once you've figured out your format, think in pictures, and don't be shy about including art notes that are essential to conveying your vision. (Non-essential ones are coincidental details, such as the color of a character's shoes when that is not of thematic significance.)

The best picture books come from thinking visually, she said--something most writers don't really do.

In addition, keep the page turns at the top of mind. “In a picture book, it’s all about the turning of the page,” she said. That's what gives a story its building sense of suspense, and what keeps the child on the lap--the one we're writing for--engaged.

As you work, consider using these tools:

• Start your story with an opening spread (putting all the title information on that right-hand page).
• Consider paging the story out as you go. Tip: The illustration should be of whatever is the first line of text on the new page.
• Have images in mind and write to them. No talking heads. If you can't see the art, that's maybe a cue there's not enough happening visually in your idea.
• Write in a way that reaches a very young ear.
• If you get stuck as you're writing, figure out your last line? You want one with impact: beauty, humor, or some other thing.

She handed out the text for a Golden Books story called THE MERRY SHIPWRECK and gave us 45 minutes to paginate it and make thumbnails using a 24-page dummy. The task was hard enough that I had to give myself a little break for blogging, lest my eyeballs melt down my cheeks.

But it was challenging as the exercise was, it's a revolutionary way for writers to take their work to the next level. If you have a chance to take a master class with Diane, do. She's a master of the format and a compelling teacher as well.

CHRIS EBOCH: "What I Learned From Nancy Drew: Tools for Fast-Paced Plotting"

CHRIS EBOCH: "What I Learned From Nancy Drew: Tools for Fast-Paced Plotting"

It LITERALLY was a packed room for Chris Eboch's "Fast-Paced Plotting" lecture. So packed that (NO exaggeration), about a couple dozen people sat in the AISLES, taking copious notes.

Chris provided a handout with extremely detailed notes on plotting plus book recommendations. Some highlights from her handout and from the lecture:

-- She showed the original ending for a Nancy Drew cliffhanger followed by the extensive revision and discussed the reasons behind those changes. Her editor said, "I would like to see more of a slow build-up toward the intense action. In horror movies, it's always the ominous music and the main character slowly opening the closet door that scares us the most, not the moment right after she opens the door."

-- Some books she recommended included her 2009 book, "Haunted: The Ghost on the Stairs" and "Haunted" The Riverboat Phantom" from Aladdin. She also recommended Louise Spiegler's "The Amethyst Road" and "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Renni Browne and Dave King."

-- Add subplot: "If you can't pack your main plot any fuller, try using subplots to add complexity and length to your manuscript. A subplot may be only loosely related to your main plot, but still add complications."

-- Chris also advised, "To keep tensions high, make sure your characters are struggling enough." She mentioned the "Rule of Three" where a character tries and fails a first time, tries and fails a second time, and then tries and succeeds, achieving the goal by the third time. "If the character succeeds on the first tyr, then we don't believe the problem was that difficult for that character." She said it's "satisfying" when the character finally achieves the goal by the third time and proves the problem was a "worthy challenge." Although the "Rule of Three" is used in picture books, Chris advises that in novels, there are often many steps beyond just three tries, and writers must make sure these many complications always push the story forward.

Overall, Chris had a very detailed and extensive lecture with many great tips on how to improve the plot of your novel and to make sure the pacing never drags. The handout she distributed among the standing-room-only crowd was especially valuable with her meticulous notes. Another fantastic example of the wonderful information you can learn at this conference!

Posted by Paula Yoo