I’ve always loved the idea of comics and graphic novels, although I never read any at all until recently.  It’s a brilliant mesh between written storytelling and visual art.  I want to be a writer and I want to be an artist.  I figure I’ll try doing both at once and see how it goes.

I expect this to be an enormous project — much bigger than the novel, maybe.  But hell, I can’t learn without trying, so here goes.  First order of business is writing out the script.  I’ll update again once I’ve finished that.

The plan is doing the whole graphic novel in my own digital painted style. Nothing cartoony if I can help it. A daunting project, but if I can pull it off I might find a life calling.

Cheers. (EDIT: Doing this with a new story called Pastel Sun instead)

Onto the topic.

I’m working on two novels right now.  That statement makes me prouder than anything else true that I have to say.  Saying that I’ve finished the rough draft and an edit on one of them doesn’t even compare, because that doesn’t imply whether or not I’m still working.  But I am, I’m working very hard.  This is all new to me, and I’m sure with practice I’ll be working with substantially more efficiency and skill someday; but I am working hard.

I’m going to give it another week for Summeryear beta readers to get back to me.  Likely on September 7th, then, I’ll start compiling my notes and spend another couple weeks editing.

That edit will put Rusalka* on hold, because to get the entire edit finished within a couple of weeks it’ll probably need my full attention.  Until the 7th, I’m working on outlining and brainstorming for Rusalka.  Occasionally thinking about what I can do for Summeryear without all the notes together, but mostly leaving that at peace for now.

Rusalka exists in a very fun state of outlining right now. I’m getting more and more into the story myself and it’s evolving at a solid pace. Until I start writing it out, however, there still isn’t really much to say about it specifically. Once I start, I’ll update regularly with word counts and comments on how it’s all coming along. I’ll do that here and on my Twitter.

*Czech-English translation: undine.  English-NonfolkloreobsessedEnglish translation: water spirit.

The next day I began to outline my story.  It took about a month of plotting and planning before I started writing, and then I ended up restarting the project almost entirely from scratch because of a substantial plot change early on.  Two months had passed before I started the rough draft of Summeryear that I ended up keeping.  That rough draft has become a first draft after an intensive edit, and now sits comfortably in the hands of two remaining beta readers out of five that I had sent it to.

The first readers – all beloved friends – who have responded already with notes and comments have been incredibly helpful.  It’s a goal of mine to have a final draft finished and ready by Halloween so that I can begin sending it out to publishers and agents, or consider less conventional options (Podiobook, self-publishing, etc).  Regardless of when or if I ever get published, I want to do this story justice.

I tend to be hard on myself after a writing session, thinking that it wasn’t great (but as the wonderful Mur Lafferty* always says – you are allowed to suck) and that I’ll end up redoing most of it in an edit somewhere along the line.  Even through what I perceived were the sloppiest bits of writing I had ever pounded out in text, I was irreparably and irrevocably in love with these characters and their story.

And that is, as far as I’m concerned, the most important part of writing – loving it.  That I do, so I will write for all my life.  And that starts here, with Summeryear.

* Mur is a fantastic writer and podcaster, check her out: http://www.murverse.com/ and the I Should Be Writing podcast: http://isbw.murlafferty.com/