As I am sitting here with my coffee, I am trying to sort out what my plans are for today. Whenever I try to create plans I start thinking about everything I want to do. Usually, this pushes me away from all my possible plans and I get nothing done. This morning, all of my thoughts led me to an interesting question I wasn’t expecting.
Should I turn my graphic novel series into a traditional novel series instead?
I have shared many posts commenting on my work creating my graphic novels. (See: Organizing My Thoughts x3, Manga Style or American Comic Style?, & Back to Page One!) These thoughts have been there for a long time and I am working to make them something larger than simple thoughts. Creating this series is making me take on some interesting methods to finish it. Thankfully, it’s been enjoyable and I’m glad it’s something I am trying to accomplish.
It’s been fun, but my nerves have grown a little from time to time because I have never written a graphic novel before. Let alone a whole series. (I did write a cute story for my husband when we were dating, but it was a short story without much hope for anything more). My own thoughts continue to destroy all of my progress. “I could write this story as a novel and remove all these challenges…It doesn’t need to be a graphic novel…” But I have worked so hard and chased after this dream for so long. It’s too late to give up now.
Still, I have enough decency to admit some people only see graphic novels as foolish picture books for children. You have the right to your opinion and I’m not going to judge you for it. I started with writing traditional novels so graphic novels might surprise and turn some of my readers away from my new work. That’s when it hit me. Wouldn’t it be interesting to write/draw the story as a graphic novel series AND as a traditional novel series?
If I want to do both, there is an order I should follow to make these different versions easier to complete. First, I would write the graphic novel series since this was my original plan. Graphic novels also call for a bit more time and dedication, in my opinion. When it’s done I might decide I don’t want to write the series again. But if I do still hold on to the desire, I could make an announcement in the final book about my to-be released traditional novel version of the series. Putting the official announcement at the end gives me time to back out if I want. Of course, all of my blog followers might feel cheated if I do this, so I’ll apologize now if that happens. Sorry!
Obviously, my thoughts on the matter are bouncing everywhere and there are a lot of factors I need to sort out. Knowing my story would reach even more people with these two styles encourages me to continue taking on this challenge. I’ll find the best way to make this happen…or maybe I will decide to give up. As long as I try that’s all that maters to me.
Which style of reading do you prefer? Graphic novels or traditional novels? Or maybe forget all the reading and you prefer to listen to audio books? Let me know in the comments below!
Writing My Career 