Writing and Illustrating a Graphic Novel
Well....Trying to, Anyway
Both my WIPs, or works in progress, are in the dreaded messy middle phase of writing/creating. I'll talk about the trouble with my middle grade novel in another post, but for this one, I'm getting into my graphic novel with you.
Because it's overwhelming me.
My last graphic novel proposal didn't end up finding a home. Which made me super sad….
but such is the way of publishing - so I've dusted myself off and gotten to work on the next one.
Only to be hit with crippling self doubt:
You're last one didn't find a home. Maybe you're not up to this.
Drawing the whole book yourself? Who do you think you are?
Everything I've drawn isn't good enough, doesn't work. You need to throw it out and start again.The script doesn't make sense - a script is not a book. You don't have control of this thing and it's veering off into the ditch!
You don't know what you're doing.
And so on.
Even writing out the list of self doubt gets my heart rate up a bit. No! I don't know what I'm doing! I'm making up this whole process as I go! I have no business trying to write a graphic novel!
But then I remember this is a familiar feeling. It happens every time I get to the middle phase of a project. And once I push through to the other side, everything starts to feel a whole lot better. But how do I get through to the other side?