Graphic Novel

Now that you have your storyline, your setting, and sequence of events, it is time to layout your graphic novel. There are many ways of formatting pages with different sizes of cells. Visit your local library or bookstore to look at some graphic novel layouts as examples. Make a schedule of days and times that you can work on your graphic novel. Set a completion date. You are an artist author!

Graphic novels take place somewhere in some time. Choose a time period - the past, the present or the future. Choose a place or series of places where the story will take place. Decide if your story will take place in a city, the desert, the mountains, or the jungle. Do some research about the type of setting that you have chosen. Gather images to help inspire your imagination. Prepare some drawings of your setting in different times of day and from different viewpoints.

A novel has a beginning, middle and an end, even in time lapse or real time stories. Outline a storyline. Imagine characters, settings, events, and story map each person, place, and happening in detail, using your strongest descriptive words. Along with the story map, start sketching views, point of views, action scenes, etc. Format the outline with sketches into a continuous storyboard. Start writing and drawing your first graphic novel! Be an artist author!

• A graphic novel is a visualized narrative.
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• Graphic novels are a form of art.
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• Graphic novels can reveal current cultural issues.
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• The drawings in the graphic novel are valued equal to the storyline.
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• Most graphic novels are paperback.
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