Reverse Engineering 🛠️🪚🪛😅

In the last couple of newsletters/ posts we’ve been looking at the benefits of planning a book vs going by the seat of one’s pants. The rough drawings below are pages from my book.

And I mentioned joining SAW (Sequential Artists Workshop). I took their Graphic Novel Intensive and learnt about planning a book. Over the next couple of years I muddled my way through to the end of the book in rough drawings - 300 pages of them!!

If I was starting from scratch, I would follow SAW’s wise recommendation to learn the principles of storytelling on small projects first, then apply what I’d learnt to a larger project. Like learning to build a shed before embarking on a sprawling monolith.

Well, with no experience, I built a sprawling monolith and how did I miss the fact that the foundation was worthless and I didn’t put in a toilet on the ground floor? And how did I forget that I always dreamed of a turret at the top like my grandfather had?

Heading into SAW’s Graphic Novel Intensive the second time, I hoped to fix the plumbing and do any re-wiring and retro-fitting.

There were several exercises I didn’t grasp at all the first time around. I felt they might help me figure out what this book was about.

And once I understood what I was trying to say - have I conveyed my thoughts as I hoped?

Describe your project in one sentence:

An artist battles demons of doubt and self-loathing - is peace a possibility?

Describe your project in one word:

Freedom!

Show your project in four panels:

The first two exercises were hard but this was impossible! It took much pondering, many attempts, and great feedback from fellow students and teachers at SAW. I’m grateful for all the encouragement to persist - it was invaluable to start seeing what’s at the core of this book.

Next month we’ll look at things I thought would be insufferably dull - like writing a script - and discover how liberating they can be!