If you have an idea that you want to turn into a comic book or a graphic novel but you’re not sure about how to craft a story, this course will get you started with the most important skills. Writers often have a ton of ideas but don’t know how to assemble them into strong form, or they understand story structure but can’t get their ideas out. This workshop will give you exercises to overcome unnecessary carefulness that stifles creativity, and a series of questions that will prompt you to find the “shape” of your story. I will teach you the secrets of how to produce any kind of story, and also show you how to master the specific building materials of the graphic novel: pages and panels.
This course meets for a varying number of sessions.
SESSIONS & TOPICS
Writing from the Gut
-
- Brainstorming
- Stream-of-Consciousness
- Subjective Structure
- The Secret of Productivity
Revising from the Brain
-
- Finding and Developing Conflicts
- Objective Structure
- Mapping your story
- A List of Questions to Refine a Story
Designing Panels & Pages
-
- Clarity & Composition
- Flow & Impact
- Analysis of Steranko’s Ideal Page
I taught this course at Laguna College of Art and Design to talented students who later became professsionals. This is the same material boiled down into a crash-course workshop. It is not merely lecture. It includes exercises to help you develop your project, so show up with an idea in mind.
Materials:
Bring a sketchpad and a mechanical pencil or pen or some other non-messy point media. No charcoal or dusty media or anything that leaves shavings.
Note:
This is not a university curriculum course and you will not receive college credit for it.