Throughout this semester I watched one of my favorite illustrators posts some videos that felt like fate. Throughout the semester I watched these bits of content come flowing in but strangely I never clicked on them. My hangup was wrongfully at finding out something I didn't want to hear in regard to my process at hand (which had already begin) and the possibility of having an existential crisis or something over the matter...
Weird, right?
My top influence posted the most relevant content to my current work and I avoided it because I figured it would come as a shock that would steer me away. Well? Today I watched them all the way through and learned a few things I had done right so far.
I started small.
For being my first comic, I went with a reasonable and achievable length for the scope of the class. In his videos, Jake Parker points out that there's a difference between publishing a 200 page graphic novel and doing the whole process once, compared to doing 20 comics at 10 pages and being able to refine that process at every step as you go. In other words, I'm starting out at a scope that is reasonable.
I avoided the world building trap.
Throughout this experience I have always known precisely the amount of content I wanted to have handy (or how much minimally I would need to get started). There's still always the fear that I've created something and set it in stone for worse over better, but I figure the risk is much lower than the actual act of creating and finishing.
I think I have 40% about these characters figured out, and about 25% of their universe put together. I'll be excited to learn more about it as I continue this project on.
7 Story Beats.
That was how he phrased it, I'll call it simply the meat and potatoes of the whole deal.
-The normal world (base reality) of the universe is shown for Glenn.
-An incident occurs- something happens that sparks change.
-Break into Act II: There comes a reaction to that incident.
-The midpoint. The stakes are raised and the danger increases (even if just a tad).
-Break into Act III: A character is put on the line and has to decide what to do.
-Climax. How the conflict gets solved.
-Resolution... what next? In this case, a sneak preview of what is to come.
In regard to those 7 story beats, I think my weakest point is the magnitude of the conflict. The thought of birds being a crescendo for an entire novel is a bit... short, but it might speak something to the innocence of the characters and where their reference level is hardship-wise.
This is it, I've set their baseline tragedy and in Volume 2 I hope to have them grow.
Phew. Big goals when I have 3 or so panels to go in order to finish volume 1, yet. I look forward to it. Once more I'm back on the ball with this project and will see it through.