Talk About Options.....

Once again my reach exceeds my grasp. Doing layouts is more time consuming than I initially realized. It's fun work, but can't be rushed. Take for example the following page of dialog. There are four speakers and six word balloons. (The final cartoon will have six speakers but I grabbed this page at random and am too impatient to find a page that better illustrates my point).


Since eyes scan left to right, top to bottom, Dr. Q is always in upper left hand corner. But there are dozens of variations of how to arrange the other speakers in the panels.


Rather than give four speakers four word balloons (Sample One below), I stretched the text in panels two and three, and four and five, in order to slow down time. The nanosecond it takes for readers to move their eyes from one panel to the next is just enough time to create the illusion of passing time.

SAMPLE ONE

With the magic of Publisher program I can combine panels; Sample Two (below) has been morphed from six to two panels...and I've added several non speaking characters. I'm toying with the idea of having these "extras" tell their own story in pantomime.

SAMPLE TWO

Now notice what happened in Sample Three (below). With a rearranging of word balloon "tails" and linking them I can move speakers around in the panels. Readers see the speakers with their word balloons when I place them to the left of the panel....or readers see the words first and find out later who is doing the speaking when I move speakers to the right.

SAMPLE THREE

These minor details aren't so minor. While I'm not really sure which way is best, my gut tells me to try 'em all and keep readers' attention with variation.

The option to make panels vertical isn't really an option. There are no tall buildings, aerial shots, or flying birds to accommodate. The pictures really are in service of the words and not the other way around. Getting too fancy with the illustrations would, I suspect, detract from the story.

Let the Layouts Begin

Since Dec. 15 last year I've been stringing together nouns and verbs and adjectives to tell a story. The dialog that I've created these five months has now been divided into over 2000 word balloons, the space of each being smaller than a 140 character tweet.

During the writing process I've tried my hardest not to think visually. I've forced my word making lobes to have precedence over my picture making lobes. I've not been entirely successful; visual images have sneaked into the making of this book.

But now, at long last, the words are as done as they're going to be. I suspect future proof readers will catch glaring gaffs and omissions and make editorial suggestions which I will welcome. But as of this evening I'm officially finished creating words, writing text, and telling stories. The novel part of this graphic novel is done. It's time for graphics!

This means I'm now going to look at 428 pages of Draft Three using my picture making lobes. I'm going to size up each page and arrange in my mind's eye panel adjustments, combinations, divisions, and settings. Character development isn't in the works yet. I'm merely plotting the stage, the rows of seats, the blocking, and whose face appears in which panels. As mentioned earlier, this is the delicious task I've been drooling over. I want to write a novel because I like to write, and I want to create a graphic novel because I like to draw.

Some things to ponder as I make this major shift.

1.  I've given myself time estimates for the creation of a pencil ready rough draft. Let's see how long blocking takes.

2.  Will using my graphic lobes (visual cortex?) create as much dopamine as writing did? We'll see.

3.  How will the addition of space and air and bodies and faces affect the text I've created? I'm not merely illustrating raw words. I'm illustrating words which have been crafted in anticipation of getting the graphic treatment. Writer's old saw, "Show, don't tell," is certainly apropos for graphic novels.

4.  The template I've created for each page consists of six equal sized panels. Now that the writing is done I have the brain power to focus on changing, adapting, and morphing those six panels. Pages could become one large panel, two rows of one rectangle panel each, two rows each comprised of one panel plus two combined panels, and etc. etc. etc. As I sketch these out I'll post 'em here so you can see what I'm talking about.

5. Just as pictures were not entirely expunged from my brain while writing words, I suspect the characters yet to be created will not be entirely expunged from creating this stage. To use an exaggerated example, if I knew I had a ten foot tall character I'd be forced to create a stage that could accommodate a giant. Lacking such a character I'll be creating a normal sized class room. But that in turn requires that I not create any ten foot tall characters. In other words, I'm able to play with several variables as I create the stage for the characters.

6.  Odds and ends: I'll be trying to incorporate skulls and hourglasses into the class room in homage to "vanitas" paintings of yore. I'm going to sneak in some M. C. Escher like images in homage to my hero. I'm going to put a window in the class room so the A.D.D. characters can stare out it. I'm going to link word balloons so one speaker need not be redrawn over and over. I'm going to do a lot of guessing letting my visual sense of what looks good be my guide. This is highly risky because I thought Comic Sans looked good and that just about killed me.

Doing It Wrong

Since a new threshold has been crossed (finished Draft Two) work on Draft Three reminds me how many mistakes I've made already. Let me count the ways....

1.  I should have written the whole script in WORD (as a stage or screen play) and once finished dumped it into Publisher. Instead, plot development has been encumbered since day one by images, page layout, fonts, balloons, characters, etc. I wonder how the creative writing process would have been smoother had I not been juggling so many tangential details. On the bright side, keeping all these details in mind has left little room for grieving.

2.  I should have gotten a better handle on the perplexities of Ecclesiastes before launching this project. Instead, I've been plodding through verse by verse supplementing my musings with commentaries galore. I'm not sure why I think creativity should be linear. In my case it's anything but.

3. I shouldn't have used that bad font. It took ten unpleasant days to replace it.

4. I should have bought stock in Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. As you can see in the previous post's video, I'm going through a lot of paper. Draft Three initially was to be the hard copy on which I drew pencil sketches. As it turns out, I'm honing Draft Three by combining all the ideas I've collected in Drafts One and Two as well as inserting random words, phrases, ideas which I've collected in a separate file. It's now becoming a mass of corrections and therefore unsuited for drawing. This means Draft Four will be the one on which I start pencil drawings. Good night, another 428 pages to be printed. Trees shudder at the sound of my name.

5.  I should have been more thorough in project management. My task list is helter-skelter. Once Draft Four has been roughly drawn I will then scan it and combine pages creating 214 digital pages. That doc will then be offered to several persons for proof reading. The subject of proof readers requires a blog post of its own so I'll come back to this. Once proof readers have made suggestions I'll incorporate them into Draft Five which will be printed on card stock, penciled, inked, colored, and once again scanned for final unveiling to the public. I have no road map on how to create a graphic novel so I'm sure I'm wasting lots of time.

6.

Three Drafts Video Review

Word Balloonology

Ten days ago I finished Draft Two and began work on Draft Three with high ambition--designing characters, drawing profile sheets, editing dialog, checking the development of the characters, etc.

Instead, I spent the last ten days transforming 12 point Comic Sans into 14 point DIGITALSTRIP 2.0 in 2600 word balloons. This also meant adjusting the little line that goes around each balloon. I'm glad that's over!

Now I'm ready to return to the tasks of turning Draft Three into Draft Four which, if all goes according to plan, will be the card stock draft on which I'll draw the pictures. My check list of tasks now includes:

1. Eliminate hyphenated words in each word balloon. 
2. Read this "easy to read" draft in one sitting to see how the thing flows. I suspect I repeat myself at times.
3. Ferret out the non funny pages, of which there are many. To move the plot along some pages are sheer narrative with theological and philosophical import. But my inclination is to pay more attention to humor than content (given the somber nature of the text). Tina Fey is my inspiration this week.
4. Trace each character to see how they change over time: do they stay "in character?", is their development contrived or organic? 
5. Pay attention to the scientific materialist (atheist) guy. I think he gets more lines than any other character. This might be a problem. I just watched The Gray with Liam Neissen (an atheist). The plot was, "Where's God?" It was a very Ecclesiastes-type movie although unlike Ecclesiastes, the film's ending was hopeless.
6. Pay attention to timing. A typical college class is 12-15 weeks. How will I mark the passage of time?
7. Pay attention to thought units. Now that I've got 428 loose pages (no more stapled sections) I'll be unshackled from traditional chapter and verse and I can let the text fall naturally into discreet units or paragraphs (identified by forthcoming background colors).
8. Play around with page design. I can combine 2 and/or 3 panels for variety's sake. That's a drawing task and I'm not quite there yet. Still gotta get those words nailed down. 

The Tedium Chronicles

The new thing to report in this memoir about creating a graphic novel is, "Tedium is a type of creativity." I'm up to page 324 of editing word balloons. After the first hour of mind numbing click and drag, my mind finds ways to engage itself. It's almost like meditation. I haven't had a job with repetitive motions in 40 years so I'm unaccustomed to looking for things to keep my bored mind busy while my hands do the work.

But at this stage in spiffing up Draft Three I treat each page as a stand alone work of art. The content and position of the word balloons is as important as the (still to come) drawings. 428 pages sounds cumbersome and beyond realistic for a graphic novel. But I embrace each of those 428 pages as (listing as many metaphors as I can) a link in a chain, brick in a wall, cell in a living being, tiny scoop of dirt while tunneling under prison walls, and cog on a wheel. In short, rather than dialing down my mental expectations I elevate the work I'm doing. Tedium forces me to turn mundane tasks into significant parts of the larger whole.

Aphorism of the day: if you feel like a cog on a wheel either resign yourself to lowly cog-dom or remind yourself of the importance of the wheel.

Okay, back to clicking and dragging.....

What They (whoever they are) Don't Tell You about Creativity

Creativity isn't all bolts of insight. There are hours of tedium. I've spent the weekend changing fonts and font sizes. There has been lots of mouse clicking.

Once the font is correct I rearrange the text boxes in each panel. I'm finicky that the boxes be uniform, aligned 3/16s of an inch from the top of the panel, and centered.  There has been lots of mouse rolling around.

Between hours of tedium I tried in vain (apropos of Ecclesiastes) trying to download audio books from the library and then from iTunes. I also spent three hours trying to figure out if Publisher allows me to link text boxes and change them all at once. I'm actually pretty sure it can be done but I failed to crack the code. It has to do with Font Schemes and Style and Formatting. Failing these techy tasks I return to the tedium of tweaking thousands of boxes. I'm up to page 168 (there are 428 pages).

I want to maximize the drawing space in each panel so this means shrinking the text boxes as much as possible. I thus edit like crazy. One line is best, two better, three = max. Text boxes with four or more lines are the exception. 

Consumers of this project will never know (unless they read this blog) what goes on behind the scenes. I'm making mental notes for where breaks occur, what the panel arrangements will be, and what the characters look like. Because character coherence isn't on the top of my to do list at present I store that (and 100 other) tasks in my brain along with other random questions:

1. Will readers think the author (me) was angry? I don't feel angry.
2. Is this graphic novel a subconscious reaction to living alone? I don't feel lonely.
3. Is it true when Ecclesiastes says envy motivates all toil? I don't feel envious. 
4. Are students' reactions to Dr. Q legitimately funny or just snarky on my part? I don't feel snarky. 
5. After editing a joke five times it loses it's edge. I imagine future readers laughing. But I don't feel funny. 
6. Where can I put this quote, "Ecclesiastes University sardonically skewers the Dostoevskian sense of despair and anxiety that faith in a scientific world creates."

Draft Three Taking Shape

Draft Two was in worse shape than I thought. There are many improvements to make, so many it's hard to keep them clear in my mind. For future reference (if I ever create another graphic novel) please note:

1.  The work of art that takes shape before your eyes looks great compared to the void from which it came. But compared to the finished product it's a mass of garbled lines/words; there are hundreds if not thousands of adjustments to make.

2.  Do not under-estimate the amount of time it takes to change 2400+ word balloons. I regret starting with an inferior font. The new one looks great but what a chore to change 'em all.

Panel 6 of this page will be the "reveal" of a new character, a muscle bound militarist.
In panel 4 I'll be pulling an Alfred Hitchcock--putting myself in the strip.

3.  Currently I'm preparing (in Publisher) Draft Three which will eventually be printed to hard copy. That prep involves changing the font including size and position and outlines, improving the flow of the narrative. Sadly, it bogs down a lot. Poor Doc Q speaks in fits and starts. After his every utterance the class goes riffing and quipping and cracking wise. He is thus reduced to sound bites. I'm still not sure if the format is a lost cause or pioneer work of uber-creativity. I'm also paying close attention to see if we can combine characters; why have two characters when one will do? I'm also entering into Draft Three the corrections I made with pen on Draft Two.

Tedious Note Department 1: I've changed Mr. Q's name to Dr. Q. With the switch of a letter he's just got an advanced degree. "Mr" is for laymen; "Dr" reinforces the notion that he's a man of letters.

Tedious Note Department 2: Draft Two exists in two states: digital [Publisher] and hard copy. To create a digital copy of Draft Three I open the Draft Two file and with hard copy in hand I make the changes to Draft Two calling it Draft Three. All the while I'm adding new ideas to Draft Three as they occur to me. All this to say, editing is more work than the original composition. Anyone can do a mind dump. The skill is carving that tapestry into a woven story replete with mixed metaphors).

4.  On the hard copy of Draft Three I'll draw pencil sketches of each character. I've yet to design those characters since I'm still sorting 428 pages of dialog, making sure characters stay within character.

5. The process is agonizingly slow. What keeps me going? A sense of calling. I believe that this comic treatment of Ecclesiastes will aid and abet the growth of the human spirit, foster endurance, and inspire faith and virtue. That, and get a few laughs.

Time Travel

While spending many tedious hours this morning manipulating my mouse creating spiffier text boxes with a new and improved font (Draft 3), my mind wanders. What would my 18 year old self think if he were transported from 1970 to 2012 to observe the (nearly) 60 year old self he became? I imagine that younger me being an invisible ghost watching with dumbfounded awe at the old guy he became. I am so unlike what the young me imagined I'd be. Here's what I imagine the young me would write in his journal.

I ended up living alone? Yikes! What year is this? Where am I? Who the heck is this old guy? Where's his family? Is he not married? He has no dog? I loved my dogs growing up. And no guitar? No Beatles in the background? Why is he listening to Miles Davis? I hated Miles Davis in high school.


He stares at a flat box on his lap that glows. What the heck is that blue thing in his hand? Did the young me turn into a sorcerer? How can he do such magic? He rubs that blue thing on the couch cushion, clicking and clicking, and pictures on that lap thing change! Holy crap, what is happening?


Why isn't he working? It's 9:00 AM on a Friday and he sits in this living room hour after hour moving that blue thing around. Is his rich? How does he pay his bills? Where are Mom and Dad? The back yard is all green--trees, leaves, lawn, bushes. It looks like Washington State but I can't be sure. I never got to Australia like I hoped? Nuts!


I can see that he's working on a comic book. Well that looks familiar....some things never change. I used to sit in my room in silence and draw for hours and hours when I was 18, too. 


I see I grew facial hair. Where was that beard when I needed it? I would have killed to be able to grow a beard in high school. But the pot belly, gray hair, crows feet, and glasses make me look like the dorky adults that intimidated me as a teen. I'm actually astonished that I made it to 100 or however old that ancient me is. 


What's with that stack of books about Ecclesiastes doing on the coffee table? Did I become a religious fanatic? And why is he drinking coffee? I hated coffee as a teenager. 


Where are my buddies Jeff, Paul, John? I still can't figure out why nobody's around. Is he in some kind of jail? House arrest? Maybe the world ended like in Twilight Zone and he's the last guy on earth. I see a TV in the living room. Why isn't it on? I loved TV when I was in high school. I wonder if Gilligan ever got off the island. 

The Tasks of Creation (theology of creativity)

In my men’s group this morning one of the participants gave a summary of Jamie Buckingham’s books, Strength Finder and Stepping Out. I self scored low on eight strengths but relatively high on creativity. Here’s why: I have a theology of creativity based in Genesis 1. I describe it here, applying the tasks of creation to Ecclesiastes U.

The Universe	Ecclesiastes University
In the beginning God created heaven and earth with a big bang	On December 15, 2011 I began creating this graphic novel with a big burst of enthusiasm
The earth was without form …	I’ve completed two drafts of this book so far and they are without (much) form. My ambition with Draft Three is to impose form on this mass of paper, words, and faces
And void…	As I peruse the 428 pages of Draft Two I see plot holes, glaring inconsistencies, and a Milky-Way-sized humor void
And darkness…	The subject matter in Ecclesiastes is dark, gray, and ambiguous
Was on the face…	Into these 428 pages I’ve scotch taped approximately 2568 faces frozen in time
Of the deep…	Qoholeth is so deep I’m afraid I’m in over my head. I want to shine a light on the profundity of skepticism
And God separated…	My big task with Draft Three is to separate (see below)
And God put them in the garden…	Once I tease out all the tangled threads of Draft Two I hope to reweave them into the tapestry of Draft Three
Humans were created in the image of God	I believe humanity has been endowed with the God-like ability to separate and then reconnect

This will be difficult but in combing though (separating) the tangle of Draft Two I hope to end up with the following discrete and tidy threads.

Separate certainty from faith from doubt

Separate individual characters from each other

Separate characters’ earlier selves from their later selves

Separate students' responses to what Dr. Q is saying from their misunderstanding of what he's saying

Separate boomerisms (there are many) with Gen-Y-isms (there are too few)

Separate panels into one, two, three, or more per row

Separate the texts into smaller sections distinguished by different background colors

Once all separated into tidy piles I hope to then reconstruct them so they look like jazz: improvised and complex yet organized.

Finished Draft Two

There are twenty-five stapled packets sitting in front of me. Each packet contains between ten and twenty five pages. All tallied there are 428 pages. The stack is about four inches high (due to the fact that each page has pictures scotch taped to it). I am thrilled, happy, excited, nervous (what if my house burns down and I lose five months of work?), and eager to begin work on Draft Three.

Dr. Q has left the classroom and the TA has taken his place (panel 1) doing a wrap up. In the final edit I hope to draw walls, doors, backgrounds, full bodies seated/walking around, and in color. I also plan on giving pink slips to many of these stand ins and replacing them with full time actors more suited to the roles. Doing this casting will be a big challenge. How does one know what physical features cohere with the character of the characters? I don't know, yet.

God, Disease, and Glibness

When I was a Calvinist pastor (23 years) I could glibly site all the Bible passages that made God responsible for sickness: Exodus 4:11, Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Deuteronomy 32:39, There is no God besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. Ecclesiastes 7:14, When times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Not to mention a hundred other proof texts for the sovereignty of God concerning plagues, disease, calamity, destruction, trials, tribulation, and all manner of abysmal conditions.

Now that my wife is terminally ill I'm not so glib. Times are bad. Unlike Job's wife I'm not inclined to curse God and die. Atheism would certainly solve the theodicy problem but theism is in my DNA, not to mention creating a host of new problems (namely, the problem of good, beauty, and meaning). For existential reasons I choose faith despite this apparent reason not to believe.

But neither am I, in true evangelical fashion, able to say with glib confidence that her Alzheimer's is to teach character, bring glory to God, the result of sin, or the consequence of the fall of Adam. I'm a child of Adam and I don't have this disease. There is a category of illness in the Bible called, "sickness unto death" but that still doesn't answer the "Why her?" question. I try not to dwell on this too much; I have trained myself rather to ask the, "What do I do next?" question.

Yet I can't avoid asking the why questions. I'm pounded every day with a clash between a God I want to love/trust and visits to see Vicki. I'm not enamored of the One who put my young wife in a nursing home. (If you want to know what I see there, read Ecclesiastes 12:1-7. Or wait about a year until my illustrated version comes out).

Which brings me to the impetus for spending five months (with more to come) creating a graphic novel based on the book of Ecclesiastes. Qoheleth touches something deep within me. Despite his glowing endorsement as a wise man of God by the editor in chapter 12:9-14, I doubt that his brand of doubt would garner him any ministry positions in a modern evangelical church. Certitude (glibness?) seems to be a litmus test for orthodoxy. Yet here's a Bible writer wracked with anxiety due to the clash between his theology and the evil he saw all around him.

I can understand why Ecclesiastes isn't popular. It's gloomy! And I also see why when Ecclesiastes does get air time Qoheleth's tensions are sanitized by glib dismissal, relegating his words to the trash bin of secular humanism, and thus easily ignored.

But the guy wasn't a secular humanist. He was a sage puzzled by the problem of evil. Ecclesiastes University is my attempt to come to grips with this very personal issue.

My Work Area

The couch where I've planted myself since last December. My lap top is playing iTunes radio (classical music), the curtains behind where I sit are closed to help me concentrate, and my tools are all within arms' reach.

Stack of reference books (mostly Ecclesiastes commentaries), a stack of files in which I store rough drafts, clip files (pages of faces to cut and tape to draft two), master pages (pages of faces I photocopy when I run out of clip files), and on top them all is a yellow page. This is the chart where record Ecclesiastes University (EU) files, which passages in Ecclesiastes they contain, and the running number of pages. I'm not skilled at taking camera photos so the fine print is hard to read, but EU24 has just been completed (covering pages 390-409). The lap top is opened to Thesaurus.com. I was looking for a synonym for "end" as in "my end is the grave." I found the word "terminus."

I keep a visual reference of all the characters handy for quick viewing. When I have a word balloon without a speaker I look over the roster of potentials and pick the one who would most likely utter the words in that balloon. I've gone through four rolls of scotch tape since December.

Fountain pens (my writing instrument of choice), cordless mouse (which works without mouse pad on our couch), note card on which I've noted another contradiction between Ecclesiastes ("remember days of darkness") and other verses in the Bible that tell us to forget the past (or quit thinking negative thoughts), my lap board on which I draw/write, and EU25 (draft 1) awaiting my editing. It sits on top of EU24. Dr. Q has left the building. I again felt a twinge of sadness when Dr. Q leaves muttering, "Meaningless, meaningless."

I need to learn how to take better photos but the fervor of finishing EU25 drives me to ignore all extraneous projects.

Bringing Draft Number Two in for a Landing

Today is May 13 (2012). My deadline for finishing draft two is May 15. I think I'll make it! Already I'm drooling over the next tasks. Once all 420 pages are completed I'm going to:

• read the whole thing cover to cover in hard copy. I'm still old fashioned enough that I don't trust editing on screens. I'll be looking for major plot gaffs, repetitions, and other errors.
• read the whole thing through the eyes of each character. One of the reasons I've attached pictures to the word balloons is so I can scan the document with my eyes tracing the dialog of each character. Are they consistent? Do any of them make out of character comments? Is there growth (toward or away from Dr. Q)? 
• read the whole thing again visualizing sections. I've broken the twelve chapters into 25 working files (EU1 to EU25). But each of those files contains thought units which will be identified by unique background colors. Within each thought unit I'll be checking to see how many characters are present, how many I can expunge, replace, or combine with others?

Once those corrections are made I then begin the delicious work of printing finished pages on which to draw pencil roughs. This will help with blocking (where characters stand), setting (what's on the class room walls?), clothing, passage of time, etc.

Final draft four will be lightly penciled, then inked, then colored with color pencils.

I hope to scan those pages for public consumption either here on Blogger (if the quality coheres) or on a new website dedicated to this project. The anticipation is releasing dopamine into my system even as I type. Creativity is so much fun. 

The Serendipity Factor

I can’t believe I haven’t yet described the serendipity factor in writing this graphic novel. Every time I sit down to adjust this second draft I stumble upon some unforeseen witticism, plot twist, or character nuance. Here are some examples.

I just finished EU23 which begins with, “Cast your bread upon the water.” In response I wrote in Draft One these random word balloons, “Do I detect a note of optimism here?” “All these weeks of doom and gloom and Dr. Q is finally offering some practical advice.” “The generous person gets lucky.” “The person with many investments increases their odds of return.” And then the final panel, “Hey, turn off your music. This just got good.”

As pure text it’s boring as can be. But when I attached characters to those word balloons magic happened. One of the characters is named Rich, the money lovin’ guy. Those word balloons fit him perfectly in several ways.

• Dr. Q’s words agree with Rich’s values.
• It’s fitting that Rich and Dr. Q finally agree on something. As I bring this novel in for a landing we’re tying up loose ends of how these lectures have impacted each student. It’s been 381 pages of battle between Dr. Q and Rich.
• The narrative took a happy twist when one student (Rich) pitched to a fellow student (wearing headphones) the importance of what Dr. Q is saying. It’s a gradual but very important part of the story. Rather than telling readers some students are agreeing with Dr. Q, I’m showing it.

Serendipity number two: In a squabble between the feminist 

and the militarist I had this exchange in draft one:

She: I think you are an elitist snob.

He: You are an anarchist!

Which morphed into:

She: I think you’re elitist!

He: You’re an anarchist!

Which morphed into:

She: You’re an elitist!

He: Anarchist!

Which morphed into:

She: Elitist!

He: Anarchist!

Why didn’t I simply begin with one word jabs at each other? Because I’m not that good a writer. Some writers would know to economize; I start wordy and pare down.

A third serendipity: On page 375 Dr. Q begins by saying, “A feast is made for laughter; wine makes life merry.” In the earlier draft I bootlegged a quote from Charles Dickens and put it in the mouth of the heavy drinker. “Let’s fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship and pass the rosy wine.” Initially this was my homage to Dickens and a way to spiff up the brains of my students. On second thought, I expunged the whole quote and feel much better. Less is more when there’s limited space for dialog.

Each time I experience a serendipity I get a buzz. At some point I may take pictures/scans of a page from draft one and arrange it next to draft two (improved text), and draft three (penciled drawings) and draft four (ink and color). But I haven’t started draft three yet…so this task will wait. I anticipate artistic serendipities when I begin illustrating. Please stand by.

Verbal Combat and a Metaphor Menagerie

This graphic novel is a novel of verbal combat.

Dr. Q makes statements--erratic, shocking, evocative, provocative, illogical, common-sensical--and students respond in kind. In fencing there is parry and trust.

In debate there is point and counter point.

In boxing there is pummeling and blocking.

Today I'll compare the classroom combat to base ball. Dr. Q pitches curve balls, fast balls, spit balls, in the strike zone and out, balks, etc.

Students swing and miss, swing and foul, get beaned, not swing at all, or, in this fantasy world, steal first base!

What makes writing this thing so dang interesting to me is the infinite variety of configurations and permutations. I can't control what comes out of Dr. Q's mouth; this is okay. On his own he comes up with the most outrageous quotes which are like food for thought...

...grist for the mill...

... and toss of dice, the outcome of which determines how much money each student bets.

But I control (back to my baseball metaphor) which batter/student comes up to bat. In baseball, if coaches knew what pitch was coming they'd arrange the line up in order to maximize hits. In this novel I'm not interested in giving each batter/student a base hit or home run. I'm arranging the verbal pitches and swings in such a way to portray how Dr. Q's steady stream of pitches slowly galvanizes some students...

... and molds/shapes others.

I haven't started drawing yet but I suspect I'll even be able to manipulate Dr. Q's facial expressions so he too is either galvanized or molded by his students.

The plot of the book is to trace the gradual changes students go through. The same sun that hardens the clay ...

... melts the ice.

The same teacher who drives some students from the class prompts others to stay and fight, stay and defend, or stay and grapple.

I choose which student comes up to bat and then I choose how they respond to Dr. Q's pitch. How do I do this? It's all very mysterious, actually. I sit here in silence and mentally flip through the roster of nineteen or twenty potential batters. When I stumble upon the batter that best fits the plot, I then I flip through the dozen or so possible responses: agree, disagree, explain, argue back, mock, make jokes, worry, stubbornly resist being influenced, or succumb to Dr. Q's influence like falling dominoes.

There's one more thing I keep juggling in my head--continuity through all 400+ pages. I've got to keep the characters in character while at the same time portraying growth, change, or resistance keeping the class whole. It's like those videos you've seen of flocks of birds flying in sync.

What made the Rubik's Cube so popular was the perfect blend of simplicity and complexity.

The plot of this graphic novel is boringly simple. A guy talks; students respond. But the narrative drama is infinitely complex. Twenty or so students twist and turn, align or contrast, cohere or get jumbled. It's like playing chess with pieces with free will...

...like playing music with liquid sheet music...

... like playing philosophical whack-a-mole.

End of metaphor menagerie. You can kill me now.

Comic Sans

Apparently the font I've been using in my second draft is verboten, poison, vile, and anathema to all font aficionados. What bugs me about this discovery is not the chore of replacing 2508 word balloons with a new and improved font (yet to be chosen). I'm happy to do what's necessary to improve the look of my pages.

What bugs me is the snooty condescension of Comic Sans haters. My choice was an honest mistake. Of the fonts offered by Microsoft Publisher it looked the most cartoon friendly. Alas, you'd think from the rants against this font that I was an uncultured Philistine, a cultural Luddite, and an ignoramus whose choice of font cost me my civil rights, forfeit my membership in the human race, and earned me a flogging.

I'm not being over sensitive am I?

Stalled on Eccl. 8:10-17

Chapter 7 and the first half of chapter 8 finished with a flourish. But these final 8 verses (EU19) are a killer.

¹⁰ Then too, I saw the wicked buried —those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise^[a] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless. ¹¹ When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong. ¹² Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men,who are reverent before God. ¹³ Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. ¹⁴ There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. ¹⁵ So I commend the enjoyment of life , because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun. ¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man’s labor on earth —his eyes not seeing sleep day or night— ¹⁷ then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.

My mission is to illustrate this passage in a way that helps readers "get" what Dr. Q is saying. The challenge is to fit it into the narrative arc of the novel AND make it funny. I also feel my self imposed deadline approaching so I'm working under pressure. That's just what I don't need. Creative writing is hamstrung when rushed. The beauty of this project has been the luxuriant ease with which I sit silently and, in a semi contemplative state, let ideas emerge. 

This isn't to say the work is easy. I'm juggling 101 things in my head at once and keeping all the loose ends straight is hard work...as is avoiding mixed metaphors. 

My resolve weakens in moments like this. I feel discouraged and dried up. The ideas aren't emerging. The complexity of stringing these random verses together into a plot is maddening. I've got some good ideas but there are gaps. Who is speaking? How many different ways can I have the students riff on "meaningless?" And I'm haunted by the existential angst of, "Does the world need more verbiage about existential angst?" 

On the bright side: I do entertain the fantasy that once this script is finished and have drawn model sheets for the 20 main characters, I'll draw pages with superlative artiness and verve. The odds of this happening are actually quite slim since I'm not that great an artist. But in my imagination I create real arty art. It's funny how I can be enthused, discouraged, grandiose, delusional, and plum out of ideas all at once.

It's 10:25 PM, it's been a long day visiting Vicki, moving furniture for my mother, cleaning the house, and spinning my wheels with this text. Let's hope for a creative breakthrough tomorrow.

Random Thoughts

I'm a notorious paper saver. I jot notes everywhere and throw them into various files. (Pascal did this and stuffed them into the lining of his coat for some odd reason). Here's a sampling of my Pensees concerning Ecclesiastes. If you can't make sense of these, join the club. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

1. Focal point
2. Characters in relief with each other
3. Diffusion of expectation
4. Counter point
5. Ethereal
6. Ambiguity
7. Pre-visualized fantasy
8. Stink eye
9. cultural landscape
10. inner Zala
11. write the plot in one sentence
12. synaptic cinematic firing of ideas
13. slight tilt of the head with much meaning
14. Jedi
15. hoodie
16. what do characters hear? Voices, lap top keys clicking, cell phones going off/vibrating, shuffled papers
17. What weather do they experience? They're indoors.
18. Illustrate Pascal's Pensees or Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death
19. omniscient shot (camera angle of viewer who watches this drama in the class room--12 Angry Men)
20. What is plural of axis? Axees? 
21. I'm a non-atheist
22. booty call
23. metro sexual
24. Mr. Q is foil to students; students are foil to Mr. Q

Out of this oddball collection of two dozen mind scraps I can respond to item 11, "Write the plot in one sentence." Here it is.

"A mishmash of university students with a variety of interests respond to the philosophical ramblings of a depressed existentialist."

Revised Time Line

In a previous post I mentioned I'd like to be done with Draft Two by May 15. That's only two weeks away. My self imposed deadline was overly ambitious!

Today I'm finishing EU17 (Ecclesiastes 7), page 272. I've still got 144 pages to go. Editing Draft One has been a fun but massive project since it was atrocious. Here are the challenges of creating Draft Two:

1. Characters: I wrote the words first and am now figuring out who said them. This task is sheer bliss but it's time consuming. God invented people in seven days. It takes me a little longer.
2. Character depth and consistency: My hope is to create characters readers care about. I gotta keep them "in character" and hopefully multidimensional (as if comic book characters can have depth).
3. Staging: who is on stage (in the panel), what's the fewest number of characters necessary to complete a thought unit, how often do I reveal a new character, and have characters storm out of classroom?
4. Text: the rough dialog in Draft One had potential. In Draft Two I'm sharpening the philosophy, theology, psychology, and humor sometimes eliminating the dialog entirely and rewriting from scratch.
5. Word balloons. I'm putting Publisher's Basic Shapes boxes around each text box. Six boxes per page times 272 pages (so far) is 1632 boxes too many! Again, highly time consuming. But this will save me having to hand draw them. Uniform and crisp text boxes will add a touch of gravitas and hopefully will subtlety accentuate the words; hand drawn boxes will be distracting.
6. Cutting and pasting. Rifling though my file of 20 characters, cutting out each face, scotch taping them to Draft Two is all very time consuming. 
7. Emailing. I do all this work on my lap top which is not hooked up to a printer. I therefore email finished files to my desk top (in the next room) and print hard copies there. 
8. Mulling. These first seven challenges are peppered with my ongoing inner dialog, "What's the time line of this thing? Do the characters change clothes? How do I get drop outs back into the classroom? How will Mr. Q respond when challenged by students? How will I divide the printed book? 416 Publisher pages will become 208 Paint pages. But there's no 208 page graphic novel. Do I print this as a four part trilogy? A ten part mini comic? Do I print hard copies at all or is it pure digital? Who will I get to proof read this? Do line editing? Evaluate the plot, humor, coherence, etc?"

Despite all these challenges...I'm still shooting for the May 15 deadline to complete Draft Two. 

I suspect I'm going to print a hard copy Draft Three on which I'll draw penciled layouts. (I'm anticipating the joy of designing pages, getting creative with panel shapes, and drawing detailed spreads of the whole class room). I dare not ink/color Draft Three however. That will be Draft Four. I'll give Draft Three to some folks for their feedback. Sigh....that puts me months behind schedule. Oh well.