Happy Winter Solstice

And lessons from creating a graphic novel

Crin and Iggy and I took a play day away from making their graphic novel. We only have a few pages left to illustrate, but the recent snows were too exciting to miss out on.

Iggy is very excited to share their story. Crin is a bit unsure, but Crin’s learning that you can do just about anything with the help of friends.

I haven’t been writing on Substack much lately because making an 80 page graphic novel and living daily life is pretty all-consuming. And pretty awesome.

There have been some things that I wanted to share with you, that I think at some point I will including a handful of recipes that I created over the summer and fall. But, sometimes you just need to rest and let the ideas pass you by.

As this year winds down, and the days now will slowly grow longer, I wanted to share with you some things I’ve learned on this journey of creating a graphic novel.

1. When you finally decide that your story is worthy of sharing sharing and you stop waiting for others to realize it too, the story grows in ways that you never originally imagined.

2. The more you draw your characters and write what they have to say, the easier it gets — most of the time.

3. I love creating little elements that have more details than may be necessary for their short life on the pages. It started with this box of cereal.

   

   Then there is the song and a game. The game became so real to me, I was distracted for a bit wanting to make it into a real game. I wrote the rules and began design the cards and, well, you’ll see— later.

4. It’s lots of fun to go off script. It makes the story richer, and I hope funnier.

5. When you find yourself smiling and excited about your page, you know you are on the right track.

6. If your page bores you, you recognize that your reader will likely be bored too.

7. This is when you need patience. You have to slow down and wait. Wait for your characters to give you a fresh idea. I had been working on a sequence in the story and it was two panel page after two panel page. That was Ok for the pacing for a bit, but also lulling and getting boring. I was stuck. I was feeling behind on my project and fear of not finishing by a certain date was setting in. That combo back was making it all worse. I needed to let go of the fear and frustration and trust that the next right step would come to me. I took my dogs for a walk and as we were heading back to the car, FLASH!, the idea of how to move forward popped in. Oh, the beautiful magic of nature and letting go!

8. Just because you have a great idea, doesn’t mean the execution of the idea will be easy. And those pages become some of your favorites because you solved the challenge.

9. Maybe it’s because I have aphantasia, but seeing my graphic novel (“What do you mean your graphic novel? You wouldn’t have made it without us.” — Crin and Iggy) . OK, Seeing our graphic novel as a finished real book has become clearer and clearer the more I do the work. If this is part of aphantasia, I feel like it’s a benefit. It’s been like driving through a long dark tunnel.

   

   Elroy-Sparta State trail Tunnel 1 (43°48’47.8”N 90°25’46.1”W)

   At first you aren’t even sure you see the speck of light at the end. As you keep going, the light gets bigger and shapes on the other side form into actual things and you feel a sense of excitement and purpose and even a bit of trepidation. It’s bright out there and you kind of got used to the dark — and well . . . Then it’s time to put your sunglasses on and keep going because magic is happening all around you and dreams are becoming a reality and there’s no failing because the success was in the journey.

That’s it. We better get back to work if we are going to have our graphic novel ready by this spring. There are a few more pages left to illustrate and a whole bunch of editing to do.

If I added a number 10, it would be that it’s pretty cool to make your own font. And that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been meeting with my incredible critique partners. That’s not something I learned this year. I’ve known it all through this process, but they deserve a shout-out. Thanks friends.

We’ll see you in 2026!