Hello pals!
As long promised, I have here a post about the editing process I've been using to work through story problems in my graphic novel. It's pretty much the same process I was introduced to at the Comic Art Workshop residency in 2015, which I completely fell in love with and have adapted into my own writing practice.
I never thought I would actually look forward to and enjoy receiving feedback on any of my creative practices (I studied classical percussion at Uni and was terrible at getting feedback on my musical performances; I took everything personally and couldn't separate myself from the performance), but this method of editing has really helped me to embrace areas in my story that could be improved and not feel like I'm a failure of a human because my story needs some help from my friends.
Never underestimate the power of outside eyes! For example. I'd not noticed that I had never mentioned whether my brother or I were the older sibling, because it was something that I knew so well I'd completely forgotten that any reader who wasn't a good friend or a family member wouldn't know. This meant that people going into the story would make assumptions about which of us was older (it's me, just so you know). The upshot of this was that the reader, not knowing this information, would assume that I was whichever sibling they were (if they were older I was the older sibling too and if they were younger I was obviously the younger sibling). It was great that the readers would identify so heavily with me that they placed themselves in my position but I really needed them to know that I was the older sibling because it's important to how I tell my stories.
So this is sort of a step-by-step guide about how to use the editing process I do (with a few personal interjects from my cartoon self).
I hope that made sense and was hopefully some use to you and your creating!
Have a wonderful day, whichever day it might be.
Gx
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Following on from my last post about how the design of the characters in my graphic novel, Oh Brother, have changed over the 7-ish years I’ve been working on the book, this post is about my absolute favourite thing: drawing emotions!