Re: Back on My Bullshit
Jan. 21st, 2022 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingBut what if I did write a graphic novel?
This is what would need to happen:
- The characters would need to be reduced to just the core cast: Ananth and Ceres, Marlowe on Ananth’s side, and Weive and Abbas on Ceres’s side. The giant spider can stay too.
- The story will need to be divided into three main parts, each of which will be a book in a trilogy. This means that all of the subplots will be cut, including the bits about the Northern Kingdoms. All orcs will also be cut from the story. Marlowe will be from Whitespire. In addition to being bitchy academic rivals, Marlowe and Abbas are now free to be in love. Weive can continue to be an inscrutable dragon (which is not strictly necessary, but it’s my story and I love dragons).
- The narrative focus needs to be squarely on Ananth for the first two books, and then on Ceres in the third. The main organizational division will not be a split between Ananth chapters and Ceres chapters, but between accounts of the deep past (hundreds of years ago), the near past (ten years ago), and the present. The deep past will be from Ananth’s perspective, and the near past will be from Ceres’s perspective once she becomes a viewpoint character.
- It needs to be established from the very beginning that Ananth can use time magic. Ideally, I’d like him to be killed for the first and second times (from the reader’s perspective) within the first five pages. This will explain why he’s so dangerous despite being such a fuckup, what his background in the deep past is, and what his motivation and obstacles are. I think watching him suffer will also explain why he’s so bitter and tired, as well as why he occasionally murders people.
- At the end of the first book, there needs to be an extended scene set in the world before the apocalypse. The scene will be continued at the end of the second book, thus explaining how the apocalypse happened and what the relic Ananth is trying to locate actually is.
In practical terms, I need to:
- Decide on a page count of each book (about 200 to 230 pages?)
- Decide how many chapters each book will have (six, plus three interludes?)
- Block out an outline for the first book (I did this, and it took about half an hour)
- Write super-short character bios and a precis, and
- Get the fuck over myself in terms of working with an artist
Even if I don’t end up pursuing a graphic novel, this is still a good strategy for managing the writing project.
This is what would need to happen:
- The characters would need to be reduced to just the core cast: Ananth and Ceres, Marlowe on Ananth’s side, and Weive and Abbas on Ceres’s side. The giant spider can stay too.
- The story will need to be divided into three main parts, each of which will be a book in a trilogy. This means that all of the subplots will be cut, including the bits about the Northern Kingdoms. All orcs will also be cut from the story. Marlowe will be from Whitespire. In addition to being bitchy academic rivals, Marlowe and Abbas are now free to be in love. Weive can continue to be an inscrutable dragon (which is not strictly necessary, but it’s my story and I love dragons).
- The narrative focus needs to be squarely on Ananth for the first two books, and then on Ceres in the third. The main organizational division will not be a split between Ananth chapters and Ceres chapters, but between accounts of the deep past (hundreds of years ago), the near past (ten years ago), and the present. The deep past will be from Ananth’s perspective, and the near past will be from Ceres’s perspective once she becomes a viewpoint character.
- It needs to be established from the very beginning that Ananth can use time magic. Ideally, I’d like him to be killed for the first and second times (from the reader’s perspective) within the first five pages. This will explain why he’s so dangerous despite being such a fuckup, what his background in the deep past is, and what his motivation and obstacles are. I think watching him suffer will also explain why he’s so bitter and tired, as well as why he occasionally murders people.
- At the end of the first book, there needs to be an extended scene set in the world before the apocalypse. The scene will be continued at the end of the second book, thus explaining how the apocalypse happened and what the relic Ananth is trying to locate actually is.
In practical terms, I need to:
- Decide on a page count of each book (about 200 to 230 pages?)
- Decide how many chapters each book will have (six, plus three interludes?)
- Block out an outline for the first book (I did this, and it took about half an hour)
- Write super-short character bios and a precis, and
- Get the fuck over myself in terms of working with an artist
Even if I don’t end up pursuing a graphic novel, this is still a good strategy for managing the writing project.
