Guest Post: How Graphic Novels are Made

As promised we have Neil Numberman and Aaron Reynolds with us today for a special guest blog post, talking about their newest book (to come out on the 23rd!!!), the graphic novel, Big Hairy Drama (Joey Fly, Private Eye, Book 2).

Welcome guys! I'm glad you could make it out to my blog today!

Aaron and Neil will be hanging around in the comments to answer any questions you have for them. ALSO...there is a contest!! So, hang around, read the post and make a comment and a random winner will be picked for every TEN comments. There will be several winners depending on the number of commenters, and the winners will receive their very own Bug Caricature by Neil. (Check out the caricatures Neil did of himself and Aaron at the end of this post.) Also, please leave your email address so I can email you if you win. Winners will be announced on Monday, Nov. 22nd.

So, without further ado, here we go on a bug adventure!!!

BUG MAKES IT BIG IN GRAPHIC NOVELS…HERE’S HOW

by Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman



(Interior. Aaron Reynolds, a writer of children’s books and graphic novels, is sitting at his writing desk. He’s typing, but suddenly stops when a shadow falls over his screen. It’s a kid, about ten or eleven.)

Aaron: (looking up) Hey.

Kid: Hey. Whatcha doin’?



Aaron: Um…writing. Who are you? What are you doing in my writing room?

Kid: I’m just some random kid.

Aaron: Ah. A random kid in my writing room. Okay.

Kid: Yeah. Act like I’m not here. (pause…Aaron starts to get back to work, but is interrupted) Aren’t you an author?

Aaron: (turning back around) Ignore you, huh? That’s gonna be tricky. Yeah. I write kid’s books and graphic novels.

Kid: Graphic novels? Like comic books?

Aaron: Kinda.



Kid: Whatcha writing now?



Aaron: An article about how a graphic novel gets made, but I wanted to write it LIKE a graphic novel, so that’s what I’m doing.



Kid: But…there’s no pictures. A graphic novel has lots of pictures.



Aaron: Not at first. Not mine anyway.

Kid: What?

Aaron: Seriously. I don’t draw.



Kid: I must have the wrong house then. I thought the dude that lives here makes graphic novels.



Aaron: I do. But I don’t draw them….I write them.



(Kid pauses while he thinks about this, then…)

Kid: That’s messed up.

Aaron: No, it’s not.



Kid: You can’t make a graphic novel without being able to draw.



Aaron: Well, I do. Like my new graphic novel…it’s called Joey Fly, Private Eye…



Kid: Way to work that in there. Nice plug. Smooth.

Aaron: Yeah, thanks. Well, Joey Fly starts out like this. A script, just like this one.

Kid: Just the stuff people say?



Aaron: Mostly. I also write in what I see happening in each scene.



(Kid flops into a big cushy chair and puts his feet on Aaron’s writing desk, makes himself at home. He looks at Aaron like he’s lost his mind.)



Aaron: See? Like that. It’s called “stage directions”.



Kid: Oh cool! Like actions and stuff!

Aaron: Yeah, exactly.



Kid: Do it again.

(Kid gets up, kind of excited now. He’s putting it all together in his head, but then he notices a fresh sandwich on Aaron’s desk. Goes over, lifts the bread…he’s kinda hungry…but decides he doesn’t like tuna. Flops back down in the chair.)

Kid: Hey, that’s awesome how you made me do all that stuff! And I do hate tuna.

Aaron: It’s a script. In the graphic novel, I write the story. I come up with the characters. In Joey Fly, Private Eye, I create what happens, what characters are in it, all that stuff. Then I put it into a story…a script like this.

Kid: But it’s not a graphic novel. No pictures.



Aaron: Not yet. It will be soon. But first, I break it into panels.

Kid: Panels?

Panel

Aaron: Like this. Chunks. How I imagine it will get broken into boxes in the finished graphic novel. This helps me figure out the flow and pacing of the story, helps me cut extra junk that’s not needed, and helps the illustrator figure out how he’s gonna lay out the pictures on the page.

Panel

Kid: Cool. I notice you use lots of words like “gonna” and “whatcha” and stuff. My Language Arts teacher would go nuts on you for that.



Panel

Aaron: Yeah, well… I try to write how people really talk. I think that’s important, especially for a graphic novel. It all depends on the character. Like, Joey Fly says some gonnas, but he also uses lots of detective-y phrases…

Panel

Joey: Life in the bug city. It ain’t easy. Crime sticks to this city like a one-winged fly on a fifty-cent swatter.



Panel

Aaron: Like that. That’s his opening line in the book.

Kid: Okay, that’s pretty funny.

Panel

Aaron: Well, I try.



Panel

Kid: But it’s still not a graphic novel.

Panel

Aaron: Man, for a random kid who shows up in my writing room, you’re seriously pushy.



Panel

Kid: Do you know many eleven-year-olds? We’re all like this.



Aaron: That’s right. Not being one, I forget sometimes.

Panel

Aaron: Well, now that it’s all broken into panels, I give it to my publisher. And once she’s happy with it, she sends it off to the illustrator and he starts drawing.

Panel

Kid: You tell him what to draw?



Aaron: No.


Panel

Kid: You tell him what the characters should look like?



Aaron: No.



Panel

Kid: What do you tell him?



Aaron: Nothing. Most of the time, we never even meet.



Panel

(pause…the kid’s mouth is hanging open.)

Panel

Kid: That is seriously messed up.



Panel

Aaron: That’s how it works. Unless you are the writer and the illustrator (which I’m not…I don’t draw, remember?), that’s how it works.



Panel:

Kid: So what happens then?

Aaron: The illustrator looks at it and begins to sketch out what he thinks the characters look like.



Panel

Aaron: Like, for Joey Fly, Private Eye, the illustrator is a guy named Neil Numberman.



Panel

Neil: Hey kid. What’s up? Hey Aaron.

Panel

Aaron: Hey Neil. So, Neil might decide after reading this script that you look like this:

Panel

Kid: That’s me?



Neil: Yep.



Panel

Kid: You made me a bug!



Neil: Well, we’re talking about Joey Fly, Private Eye, so I’m thinking in bugs. It’s my job to use my imagination, to come up with my ideas of what Aaron’s characters and story look like.



Panel

Kid: Cool.

Panel

Neil: And as I start drawing and figuring out what it all looks like, Aaron’s story moves away from being a script and I start creating real characters…

Neil: …and pretty soon, I take Aaron’s written words and begin to put them into the mouths of the characters I’ve created.

DIDN'T YOU JUST LOVE THAT? WAY COOL! I LOVE SEEING HOW THESE TYPES OF BOOKS ARE MADE. HERE'S A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE CREATORS:

Aaron Reynolds is a human, not a bug, but he often writes about bugs. He is the author of Chicks and Salsa, Superhero School, Snowbots, and, of course, the Joey Fly, Private Eye graphic novels. Visit him at his website at http://www.aaron-reynolds.com/.

Neil Numberman is a termite currently residing in New York City. Joey Fly, Private Eye his first graphic novel series, but he is also the author/illustrator of the picture book Do NOT Build a Frankenstein. Stop by his website at http://www.neilnumberman.com/.

So, there you have it. And just for kicks I'm going to post the book trailer for book 2 for y'all to watch again 'cause it's just so darn cool!!

 

Thanks again to Neil and Aaron for being here today! And to all of you who came out! I will be in the comments off and on throughout the day. Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did and can't wait to see who won the contest! Stay tuned!

This month Neal Shusterman is my literary hero...

Okay, so I'm breaking my hiatus of all things bloging to write this post on a book I read and something I learned from it.

Something that I have noticed when my beta readers come back to me is that the beginning of my book was just plain slow. I felt like I had all the neccessary plot developments, I even worked on those, yet still something lacked. Luster? Life? Loveability?

There were elements every reader was sure to like, so I added those like spices.

Then....

I decided to read again, get some inspiration, study the pros.

One book I picked out for myself (to help me with my male protag's voice) was a book with a YA male MC written by a male (to totally emerse myself in testosterone...or maleness, or whatever). First off...Neal Shusteman rocks!! He is brilliant! If you haven't read one of his books, READ ONE. He is amazing. He takes a super creative out-of-the-box story premise and adds, not just a pinch, but a barrel-full of creative word play, humor, anicdotal whatknots. It's great!

As soon as I was finished with Neal's masterpeice, BRUISER, I went right back to my MS and re-wrote the first chapter. Let me just say I am well pleased with myself. I contacted my inner boy voice and got to work created boy-isms galore. I couldn't help but giggle my girlish giggle at the wonderful silliness of it all.

After this revision I had my brother (also a writer) take a look at it. It FINALLY GRABBED HIM! Yeah! (hopefully he wasn't just being nice...but that's what beta readers are for, right?)

So, here are my TIPS for spicing things up in your writing:  (AKA, what I learned)

• If your writing is lackluster (and you are even bored when you read it), try taking one sentence or a whole paragraph and make it a mountain of wit. (or just more interesting =)...

  EX.

 #1 - The food in the cafeteria was seriously greesy. Christian chose a hamburger, it being the safest choice by far.


  #2 - Christian chose a delightful looking concoction known as ‘Cheeseburger and Fries’, though it looked more like a swamp land of hydrogenated vegetable oil with bits of grain and potato doing the backstroke in its glossy surface. 

Better 1 or better 2? You tell me?

Here's another...

  #1 -  His dad, who began studying paperwork the moment he sat down, wouldn’t even glance Christian’s way until the flight was over.

 #2 - Major Lewis looked like a modern-day Napoleon pouring over maps and plotting battle strategies, only there were no maps, just paperwork; and, as far as Christian knew the only battles his dad was plotting were with his son, not the world.

Here is an example of Herr Shusterman's writing. #1 is what I would have written, (borrrrrriiiing) #2 is what he wrote... (BRILLIANT!!!)


  #1 - Bronte said, "Excuse me, but I can take care of myself." To which I merely responded, "I think not."

  #2 - (and I quote) 'My sister, Bronte, gives me a look that says Excuse me, but I can take care of myself, and she says, "Excuse me, but I can take care of myself." She learned that look from our mother, God rest her soul. I give Bronte back a look that says I think not, and say, "You gonna eat that piece of pizza?"

Yeah, I love that book. I may have to leave my husband for that book. Okay, maybe not, but it's totally superb.

I am also working on making my scary (or even just barely iffy) scenes more tense. I added elements, physical feelings, sounds, built the emotional plank, so to speak. RAISE THOSE STAKES!!!


Hope this helps all of you out in Wunderland. (Yes I meant to spell it that way). Maybe you are now inspired and will write a million times better than me. Well, maybe not, I know I am preeeettty amazing! =)

Utah Writer's Conference

Sorry I took so long to talk about the Writer's Conference. I also would have pics but those will have to come later. (Sorry sorry sorry...but they will be well worth the wait, I hope =).
The conference was held in Sandy, Ut at the Waterford School. I only went to half days (unfortunate this, because I heard SOOO many great things about the morning classes). Here is a rundown of what we did:

Monday we had intros to the 'staff' (authors, editor, and agent). I couldn't stay for anything else that day because of babysitting issues...

Tuesday: Christopher Robbins (he was sure to make sure we knew he wasn't the cartoon character =) did an impromptu talk on the world of publishing, how the problems with the economy affected book sales, and what the future holds. Actually, he said that the children’s book market wasn’t really affected. People still want what’s best for their kids, and obviously that means books. As for YA, it was a little affected, but the future is bright. Adult books were the most affected, but I’m sure they will also get better.

He really emphasized what Publisher’s costs were because many writers are always under the impression that they are scanty with their pay-outs and picky about whom they take on. Really it came down to the investment they put in to each writer and he listed all the costs related to each book (and each department that works on said book). This I realized, as I am sure most of you do. There are a lot of people that work to put out a book. It costs a lot. Paper costs a lot. This:   Publisher

is the publisher that Mr. Robbins heads up. He made it a point to let us know that they are doing their part in using as much recyclable material as possible with each book they print off.

Another interesting thing (that again, should be obvious, but I didn’t really think much about) is that besides we, as writers, being the best sellers of our books (word of mouth, etc), we should also be thinking of the future in terms of how to best sell or market our MS. There are new technologies coming out all the time and if we can think of ways to configure our work into the world of tech., then we have a better chance of selling it.

Just a thought.

(Sorry this is going to be a long post…hopefully it is helpful to you).

LATER: Ally Condie (novelist, who wrote ‘Matched’) spoke to us about her experiences getting to the point she is at now. I won’t go into much detail, but one point that really resonated with me as a mom was that we all have lives. Each and every one of us is busy. We have family, kids, relatives, friends, work, whatever. But we still write. If it is important to us, we do it.

Anyway, maybe I shouldn’t go into too much detail about the conference or this post will end up being longer than all the posts I have on here altogether. Needlesstosay, I met and talked with several authors, including Alane Ferguson, Ann Dee Ellis, Mary E. Pearson, Sara Zarr, Ally Condie (as noted above), etc. As well as agent Mary Kole, and editor (of Sara Zarr) Jennifer Hunt. Alane Ferguson was great! She talked about first chapter blues. Ways that we can do a good job (cutting out first scenes that start in dream sequence, characters alone, thinking, writing for YA but focusing too much on adult characters…because we ARE adults and it is easy to escape into the mind of an adult character, and there were more…just basically making us CARE about the MC and jumping right into an emotion-packed sequence…but not TOO emotional, otherwise we don’t care) Blah blah blah…I can hear all your thoughts. You are all so brilliant and don’t need my blathering =). HA!

Anyway, she, Elane, did what she calls ‘Flash Critiquing’ of a couple of first pages from people in the class. She would have done more, but time was afleeting.

The Closing Ceremonies were an excellent array of silliness and prizes. Sadly, I didn’t win anything, BUT I DID get a copy of one of Sara Zarr’s books for asking a question of her editor, Jennifer Hunt, while the latter spoke to us about the publishing world. (Sara Zarr handed it to me personally! Swoons. JK =) (I’m trying to be modest and humble about this…can you tell? NO really. I am.)

On another note: I just finished ‘The Adoration of Jenna Fox’ by Mary E. Pearson. WHAT A BRILLIANT BOOK!!! No wonder they are making it into a movie! (check into that, I will). (link to her news) She really is a superb writer and really inspires me. There are certain things I really wanted to do, sort of like on the old movie ‘Willow’ where the magician of the village asks Willow ‘which finger holds the power’ (or something like that) and he wants to pick his own finger but thinks that is stupid. That is how I feel. There are things I really wanted to do in my book, but discarded those ideas because I thought I was ‘up in the night’. Now that I have been on my own personal journey of writing I am going to go back to those ideals and weave them into my story.

There is no holding back.

The only person that can make me fail,

Is

MYSELF.

Always remember that! (well, in your case it would be YOU that makes you fail, not me…please don’t come after me… =)

Just let loose those creative genes and be daring! Let go of all inhibition (unless that other inner voice is telling you, you really are being crazy =).

Sorry, again, this is a long post. I really learned a lot. But those of you who can’t make it to a conference, don’t despair! There are other ways to learn. The internet is a wonderful tool. Use it correctly and it will help you overcome your obstacles. I love it! It is my learning tool, my helper, my non-living teacher. There are many resources out there. Use them!

New Contest

Shannon Whitney is having a contest. Drop by her site and you just may possibly win a ton of stuff. Not only will she mail you TWO SIGNED copies of Lisa Mantchev's books, 'Eyes Like Stars' and 'Perchance to Dream', but Lisa Mantchev will also throw in some little extras to sweeten the deal up even more!

My secret adiction

Before I go into a post all about how awesome the writers conference has been, I thought I would gather my thoughts (and photos) and decide what to write. Didn't want to plunge in without a moment after it was all over to download and otherwise process the events.

Meanwhile...

I purchased three books...actually, I take that back (see, this is why I have to think before I write), I bought two books (the third was graciously given to me by Jennifer Hunt and Sara Zarr...more on that later). These books I plan on using for inspiration for my next stint of writing. I already started Sara Zarr's book 'Story of a Girl' and am already pumped up.

Anyway, more on my point for this post...I happen to have a weakness for The Lord of the Rings. I have read the books several times, of course watched the movies. But something I do that may seem crazy to anyone but myself (and my husband can attest to this because he does it with me) is that I watch ALL of the discs of the making of the movies in the extended collectors adition. I also love watching the entire movie with the commentary (and I'm talking about EVERY movie, Fellowship, Two Towers, etc) listening to the actors, art dept., you name it, ALL the commentary. (I know, crazy right?) This is something that absolutely fascinates me to no end.

If I didn't have children (which would be sad, because I love them to death)...IF I didn't and IF I knew what I know now, had the experiences etc that I have now, I would have LOVED to go off to New Zealand with my husband and work on the LOTR Trilogy! That would have been the absolute best. I don't even care what dept. I would do anything just to be apart of something so amazing.

My point with this is...I was watching 'The Making' of LOTR tonight instead of reading (because I just had to =) and it got to the part where they talked about the editing of the film. Well, it was totally inspiring.

When they showed the part where Gollum dies and the ring is destroyed, they decided to change the sequence. Originally it was very quick. Gollum falls. Ring sinks. The end. The hobbits get the heck out of there. Well, to make it more dramatic, they decided to prolong the agony, so to speak. This made it so much more enjoyable. They followed two struggles:

One: Sam trying to get Frodo not to let go and...

Two: The fall of Gollum and the demise of the ring.

This cutting back and forth really impressed me with my own MS. How can I make that moment, where the 'bad guy' is conquered, more dramatic? Do I just kill them off and that is it? Or can I go back and add, drag out (in a teeth chattering way) the final demise? Now, this may seem obvious, but it really hit me just then for some reason.

I know I can do better.

Now I have been inspired. I have more of an idea on how I can do this. And now I know I can do it. (Thank you Peter Jackson!)

But in all earnestness I have always been inspired by JRR Tolkein as well as Peter Jackson when he turned those amazing books into film. Very great. Love it!



Now..to the rest of the conference. I will try to gather my notes soon and create a post on my experiences. In the meantime, if anyone has questions about Writer's Conferences, please email me. (this is my first, so I am in no way an expert, but I will do my best =).

Tomorrow is the last day. I am in part happy that it is over (no more long drives and painful 'goodbyes' with baby) and in part very sad. I really have loved the experience.



PS. If this post was poorly written, just keep in mind that I wrote this after 11pm at night...WAY past my bed time! =)