Two years of living Graphic Novelly – 5

One of the things that has been painful to learn was that the comic font that is standard with windows and Photoshop is not, I repeat, “not” a comic font. This is because of the way the capital “I” presents as a capital “I” whether in the middle of a word or at the beginning of a word. As comic or graphic novels are frequently in all capitals, this look is deemed distasteful and sets one apart as a rube and a novice to the business. Fortunately, if you do your own lettering and need comic book fonts, there is a really good site that provides some free and some inexpensive fonts that are easy to download and add to your font library.

http://www.blambot.com/index.shtml

So, for those new to living Graphic Novelly, get thee to a font site.

Another thing I wish I had learned was to plan my novel better before starting out on the 2 year journey – should I say quest – for a completed work of my very own. I had read “someone” who said that some writers have the entire novel in their minds before starting to write, while others just write and like to have the characters they create surprise them. So, I thought, I must be the latter. Heck, I thought that whatever problem I created for myself, I would fix along the way. In the end, I redrew most of the first and second chapters and had to work the story line a lot. What I really wanted to do was get right in there with both feet and be graphic novelly right away. Now, working on my second graphic novel, I am taking a much more planful and organized approach before I even draw the first panel. I have found some books that I wish I had read before I started the first novel, but, considering my overwhelming desire to have that first novel, I probably would not have heeded the advice. On the other hand I regret nothing. So, the books:

Plot Perfect – Paula Munier

The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction – C.S. Lakin

The Scribbler’s Guide to the Land of Myth – Sarah Beach

Creating Graphic Novels – Adapting and Marketing Stories for a Multi-million Dollar Industry – Sarah Beach

Of far, my next book is on a different footing thanks to the insights and no nonsense approaches discussed by these authors.

And Yet, I want to rush ahead. I can see my characters and the great scenes that I am going to be able to develop and I just want to get at it. No matter what, it has been fun and the sense of mastery I have gained is rewarding, even if it means that I will look back after “4 years” of living graphic novelly and think, what an idiot!