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.