The Return of Graphic Novel Month

Graphic Novel Month was something that was cooked up by my twitter pal don_macdonald and myself around this time last year. We originally came up with the idea because there was no real equivalent of National Novel Writing Month for comic artists, and we wanted to change that. The original challenge was to make a 125-page graphic novel script in 30 days, and we even came up with a logo for it to try and make it a national thing.

I think, eventually, it was only he and I doing this. To make it more difficult on myself, I upped the page count to 220 in 30 days. It was crazy, but it would fill up one of those mini sketchbooks that fits inside of purses and things, which was what I used in the challenge. To my utter shock and joy, I finished all 220 pages of it!

This July I’m recreating the challenge:

Graphic Novel Month. 200 pages in 30 days. No excuses if I fail.

I’m doing this again because there had been a wonderful idea that I’ve been wanting to write in graphic novel form for over two years now, but I have never gotten to actually sit down and start the rough draft. I’m going to take the leap and see how much story I can make with 200 pages. No holds barred. No more pre-planning, because I keep scrapping all of my pre-planning over and over again. I’m just going to grab this idea and RUN WITH IT, and see what comes from it.

You all should get in on this, too, because Graphic Novel Month is a WONDERFUL exercise in what Chris Baty called “Exuberant Imperfection,” because let’s face it: this thing I’m working on is the rough draft of a novel. The first draft. And the first draft is always sh*t. But that’s ok: it just gives you more of a chance to let crazy ideas fly. That’s what I intend to do!

Good luck to all of those who want to join me in this challenge, and Don’t Forget to Be Awesome!

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