Completed Draft Four!

Don't ask me how I did it; I'm as astonished as anyone. But after six months I'm done writing, and after what seems like 200 years I'm done arranging dialog boxes. Art Spiegelman did 'em by hand; I used technology. I hope that by doing so I haven't given the book a mechanical look. Anyway, I've been tweaking words for half a year forcing myself not to start drawing this thing. But the waiting is over and I'm giddy as a school girl.

This major shift in project management (moving from writer to artist) will be interesting to observe.

• Will my blog posts improve? My subject/predicate synapses will now be bored! 
• Will my whining about tedium decrease? Let's hope so! 
• Will my dopamine transmitters unleash euphoric brain chemicals? I can't wait!
• How long will drawing Draft Four (thumbnail sketches) take? 
• How will my initial readers respond? I've got 30 names I'm going to invite to "proof read" this thing with me. I'm going to ask them to invite their friends in secular university (age 18-22) to join us.
• Will I migrate to the drawing table I set up?
• Or will I be able to do these prelim drawings on the couch where I've planted myself?
• Will my decision to start drawing thumbnails rather than making full character design pages help or hurt? I plan on making up each character on each page and collect these into individual folders for each individual character. 

It's too dark to make a video so here are some photos of my labor since last Dec. 

You've seen this before (64 pages)

228 pages with scotch tapes faces inside

The world's most boring photo! (228 pages of scribbled character seating arrangements)

My pride and joy, Draft Four (229 pages waiting for thumbnail sketches)

The whole she-bang (with chapter division chart)

NOTE: As I add thumbnail sketches to Draft Four I'll be calling it Draft Five.

Status Report

Just finished page 289 (Eccl. 8:9) in Draft Four.

Each successive draft takes longer than the one previous. I would not have predicted this. I thought things would go faster as time passes. Alas, I am very wrong. The reasons for the slow down? In earlier drafts one could slop any old idea together. As one nears completion one becomes more careful knowing the days of editing are nearing an end.

Draft Four is 428 pages of hard copy with completed text, word balloons, and panel arrangements just waiting for pencil roughs. When I do the pencil sketches on Draft Four do I still call it Draft Four? Draft Five doesn't seem right. How about Draft Four, Part Two?

The stage (as I now imagine it) will be an angular, straight lines, interior class room. The characters will be lumpy and round and flexible. Lumpy characters on their angular stage will be "carried" in panels which themselves are angular, square, rectangle, and uniform. The six panel "grid" for each page gives me leeway to combine panels in about 6-8 configurations. But they're all very orderly and not cartoony at all. This raises an interesting question about graphic novels. When does the art serve itself rather than the text? I don't want to get so fancy with drawing that story flow is sabotaged.

Creating is evolution; evolution is creation. As I tweak dialog and word balloons I'm tantalized by the visual jokes I anticipate making (pictures on student tee shirts, caricatures, Power Point slide shows, lap top screens). The odd thing is....I don't know what those jokes will be but I'm confident they'll show up when I need them.

I purchased METAMAUS by Art Spiegelman. He won a Pulitzer for his graphic novel, MAUS. As I read METAMAUS I'm hoping to find tips on how I too can win a Pulitzer. There are so many differences between our creations that I'm not holding my breath. At the same time, I am highly inspired by his process.  It took him eleven years! I'm giving myself one to two, max. He started when he was 24. I'm almost 60. Were I young I'd perhaps be more careful and thorough. Sadly, I gotta get this book done soon as there are other tasks I need to accomplish in my third third (age 60-90).

Adjusted Time Line

Just finished editing page 201 (Draft Four of EU13).

Heavy black line indicates linked panels.

Connecting word balloons, blocking panels, and making seating arrangements is more time consuming than originally planned.

How I place students on the stage affects the positions of word balloons.

I wonder what makes one so optimistic (unrealistic, grandiose) prior to a project? The notion of biting off more than one can chew is so common it's got it's own metaphor. Poor planning? Unthinking?

Here's what I think is a more realistic time line. But don't bet on it. I've been wrong this whole process.

July 15. Finish Draft Four editing and printing hard copy (ready for pencil sketches).
August 31: Finish 20 character designs complete with names, clothing, ages, gender, hair, etc.
September 1: Begin pencil sketches. Upon completion of each section (52 of them) send digital copies to selected readers.
December 31: Finish sending all 52 sections and incorporating suggestions from readers.
January 1, 2013: Begin final ink drawing (print on card stock, pencil lightly, black ink line drawing, erase pencil lines, color with pencils OR water color).
December 31, 2013. Whole book finished. Digital copies on line.
January 1, 2014. Look for publisher.


Someone once said we over estimate what we can get done in a day and under estimate what we can get done in a year. I am so bad at estimating I focus more on the immediate tasks at hand than making hard and fast predictions. This time line is a psychological ploy to keep me motivated. By extending the dead lines I feel less pressure. By missing deadlines I drive myself crazy.

Back row, L-R: Draft One, Draft Two (waiting to be visually checked), Draft Three (waiting to be visually checked).
Front Row, L-R: Draft Three (checked), Draft Four (finished, waiting for pencil sketches), Draft Two (checked).

Tweaking Word Balloons

CREATING SPACES IN WORD BALLOONS

This action makes space for the word balloon “tail” that I’m going to draw by hand in Draft Four (printed hard copy), pointing the “tail” toward the mouth of the character who is speaking.

1. Click on next page number on bottom of the page (pulling up a new page in Draft Three).
2. Place curser in first word balloon.
3. Click on drop down arrow next to page enlargement tool.
4. Click on 400% (which makes the word balloon as large as it can be).
5. Click on Line Tool.
6. Place curser somewhere on the bottom of the text box.
7. Drag it approximately ¼” creating a black line upon line.
8. Click on Line/Border Style Tool.
9. Click on 4 ½ pt. line width.
10. Click on Line Color (white).
11. With that new white line still “selected,” click the copy tool.
12. Slide page movement thingy bob on the bottom of the page to the right which moves the next word balloon into view (still at the 400% size).
13. Click paste. A new little white line (invisible on the white background) magically appears. Click and drag it to the bottom of the text box in the second word balloon.
14. Slide that page movement thingy bob to the right again which puts the word balloon in the third panel in view. Click paste, click and drag the invisible white line to the bottom of the text box and voila! The third word balloon is now ready for my hand drawn “tail.”
15. Slide the page movement thingy bob on the bottom of the page to the left. The page on the screen moves to the left so its left edge appears on the screen. Drag the page movement thingy bob on the right edge of the screen down thereby bringing into view the second row of three panels on the bottom half of the page.
16. Click paste again and position that white line on the bottom of the fourth text box.

Repeat 2568 times.

Someday remind me to describe these chores: re-positioning text boxes (repeat 200 times), connecting text boxes (200 times) and connecting panels (400 times). As tedious as all this is, in the long run it'll prevent reader eye fatigue by allowing me to put different characters in each panel rather than repeating the same character over and over. 

And they say creating a graphic novel is all thrills and chills and tense excitement.

I Am My Own Experiment

Part of the attraction of Ecclesiastes is my fascination with the attempt Dr. Q made to be his own science experiment. He looked for the scheme of things and studied his reactions as he searched.

This blog is the summary of my lab experiment. I have undertaken a creative task and am keeping a record of the nuts and bolts of creating a graphic novel. But the meta-study is larger in scope; I'm studying the creative process itself. One of the curious phenomena I experience as a creative guy is flagging interest. I've often wondered what gives me energy to sustain projects? And more importantly, what causes me to lose that energy?

Last week I embarked on a new series of tasks for Draft Four, namely, making panel shapes and blocking characters. I got to page 86 and tedium set in. I, the subject in this psychological science experiment, want to think about tedium and its negative affect on creativity. Here's what happened.

1.  Repetitious actions bore me. The act of spiffing up the word balloons two weeks ago (Draft Three)  just about did me in but I soldiered on breaking up the tedium by marking my daily progress.

2.  To add to the visual impact of each page I've been connecting panels and word balloons (Draft Four), figuring out who sits where, and how to create a coherent novel without characters showing up in odd places at odd times. But it was repetitious work.

3. With my interest lagging in panel arrangement an idea resurrected itself which I've had in the back of my mind for ages. I took the bait and have been working on it now for four days. It's related to Ecclesiastes so I took a tiny detour guilt free.

4.  My best analogy: while engaged in creative writing and plot development I had no need for new ideas. Dopamine jolts kept me going. But when the repetitive panel-linking-actions took over the dopamine dried up. Like a drug addict needing his fix, my mind wandered to a new project that requires a ton of concentration. I was a sitting duck, vulnerable shell-less clam, and patsy for the old bait and switch con. (My journey to the Nobel Prize for Mixed Metaphors continues).

5.  For the last four days I've worked on this new project (details below) somewhat anxiously, knowing panel connecting must be done. But I ignored my inner nag; I was getting high on this new project. I rationalized: "I'll get back to panel connecting soon, this new project is cool, it'll give me a bone to throw to family and friends who've seen nothing of this graphic novel, I'm learning more about Ecclesiastes, I crave the buzz this new task affords," on and on.  


6.  After four days I completed ground work for the new project and was just about ready to embark on phase two of the new project when it occurred to me, "Whoa. This is bigger than I thought. I can't continue postponing panel connecting. I will stop this new venture."


7.  While that inner debate raged I took comfort there are no subscribers to this blog waiting impatiently as I putz around with some tangential project. My inner team of rivals got noisy; that should have tipped me off I was getting off track. I think rationalizations trip the dopamine trigger, too.

8.  But I am now exercising self discipline once again and, fully chastened by this slight detour, am committed to the boring but necessary task of linking panels.

The details of that side project

I read Peter Enn's entire commentary on Ecclesiastes again (226 pages) and took pages and pages of notes: key words, key phrases, and key interpretations by me. I entered those into a Word doc table.

Collected 122 of 'em! I arranged them alphabetically, honing the text to be as brief as possible. (Even as I type the dopamine courses through my veins again; this is one awesome project). I then divided those 122 quotes into six categories (to aid in the presentation of masses of data on an adjustable round chart).
I then designed the top wheel of a volvelle and planned to enter all 122 text boxes (488 total) into a new file.

When I realized that entering all that data, creating all those tiny boxes, creating the template for 60 key words per side, arranging 60 guide lines spaced six degrees apart, I lost interest.

I have now returned to Ecclesiastes University with my tail between my legs. Wheels will have to wait.

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.