The Elements Of Graphic Novel
Finley Chopin
Snow Wildsmith is a writer and former teen librarian. She has served on several committees for the American Library Association/Young Adult Library Services Association, including the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award Committee. She reviews graphic novels for Booklist, ICv2's Guide, No Flying No Tights, and Good Comics for Kids and also writes booktalks and creates recommended reading lists for Ebsco's NoveList database. Currently she is working on her first books, a nonfiction series for teens.
The Onion Method is a outline method that consists of two major elements (Character-Driven Plot, and Thematic Thesis) riffing off each other. One informs the other, vice versa, creating multiple alternating layers in conversation.
The main goal of an Onion Story is to create an emotional response in the reader that correlates with its intellectual response. For example, if you want to make a book that thematically critiques Orientalism, you may also want to provoke empathy from the reader towards the character who experiences Orientalism, so they can feel hurt when the character is viewed falsely; disgust when the character encounters Orientalist stereotypes; and a sense of gleeful spite shared with the character when the antagonist gets their comeuppance. This empathy is itself a critique of Orientalism, because it puts the reader in the emotional and mental headspace of the character, therefore disproving the entire premise of the Other as the Unknowable, Foreign Non-Person.
It sounds very dry and cut laid out like that. But this is how I wrote The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, Volumes I and II (which, from what I hear, are digestible and emotional books to the average person).
A lot of people like writing stories that start from this systemic cerebral standpoint. A lot of people like to analyse stories from that standpoint too. What a lot of people fail to recognise is how important the human component is to storytelling, and the effectiveness of said storytelling.
The Onion Method is also the opposite of automated, formulaic writing. As I will explain in the process below, the Onion Method forces you to treat each book individually. It requires a lot of back and forth thinking. While I think the Onion Method can be adapted for a pipeline, the rush of a deadline, or the lack of creative coordination between an author and artist (if they are not the same person), may stifle the true potential of an Onion Story.
It teaches you the skills to make a custom-tailored shirt for each unique body, rather than provide you a one-size-fits-all shirt to place everybody into. Seance Tea Party is different than The Carpet Merchant than Alexander Comic.
Character-Driven Plot: Lora feels like becoming an adult means losing who she is. As a child, this makes sense, because up till this point, her entire identity is constructed around being an imaginative, carefree child. She neither has the hindsight or foresight to comprehend this.
Character-Driven Plot: No. Lora will have mentors and friends who will show her that being older still means being yourself, just different. (This is where I add the secondary characters in the draft)
Thesis: Because what that fear actually is, is not knowing what to do with the sudden freedom to do anything and be anyone. What do we want to say about this, to the kids who will be reading this story?
Because of the continual interaction with the character-driven plot, the thesis will continue to grow, expand, mature, improve, etc. And vice versa. Your character will somehow end up doing something that will change the narrative, and this might have implications for the thesis. Should you amend? Should you keep? Should you revamp? And what options does the reformed thesis offer for us and our characters?
The Onion Method is a dynamic process, that starts from the moment you have the idea in your head and ends when you finish that last page. What you end up with can be different than what you started.
Brilliant. Never heard it explained this way before and it makes a lot of sense. Writing is so challenging and this approach makes it feel like you can start intuitively. these intentional and thoughtful questions can be answered in a sort of gestational stage of writing. Will share with others. Thank you.
She writes and illustrates quite a few webcomics and graphic novels. When not making books, she lulls away her time with essays on craft, life and experiences in the publishing industry. Some of her thoughts of art and life are rather unstructured and will evolve over time as this blog matures, as they should be.
However, teachers and literacy experts disagree with this. Graphic novels will improve your child's reading skills like any other book would, and they are fantastic choices for reading outside of class.
By providing access to engaging books across a variety of formats, children are more likely to build strong reading habits. Frequent readers have an average of 139 books in their homes compared to 74 books for infrequent readers. Graphic novels are a great addition to your home library, as they powerfully motivate both avid and reluctant readers by igniting kids' imaginations and sparking creativity in new, exciting ways.
With graphic novels, kids still must follow plots and character development. They must understand cause and effect, and they must learn about perspective. All of these things will improve their reading comprehension.
2. Graphic novels are engaging. Often, especially for reluctant readers, graphic novels add the extra support kids need to help them through a text. The combination of text and pictures can be particularly captivating, providing context for stories that kids might not completely understand otherwise.
3. Graphic novels are high-quality reading material. Just like traditional novels, graphic novels have exciting and complex plots, characters, and conflicts. The plots have twists and turns. Characters are developed and dynamic. Conflicts are presented, unwound, and resolved like they are in other texts. The only difference is that graphic novels have more images to support the development.
Introduce the great graphic novels below to your reader and follow along! We promise that you'll be drawn in to these books also. You can discover graphic novels and much more at The Scholastic Store.
This week Wednesday marked National Grammar Day and, comic book fan that I am, I recognize this as a moment to highlight the grammar of graphic novels. Like me, you may have run into folks who still need to be convinced that comics have literary value. Never fear! There are scholars out there investigating the brain science behind sequential art, going back to the seminal text Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud.
Graphic novels, in particular, give a creator the space and the pages to include even more nuance than comic strips. A beginning, middle and end sequence can employ more than three or four panels; it can take up multiple pages! This allows clauses, which in comics are panels that add pauses, panels that clarify ideas or action, and panels with asides (such as jokes and tangents). Psychologist Neil Cohn discusses how these features work together in his book The Visual Language of Comics:
As a librarian, a true joy in my life is sharing titles and formats that excite and interest me. One of my favorites to share: Graphic Novels for Early Readers. Publishers have been providing a great number of titles beginning in 2020-2021. While this is not a new format, it is one that continually impresses me.
Many titles, regardless of publisher, follow a similar pattern by including an introduction to characteristics you find in graphic novels, such as speech bubbles, word balloons, thought clouds, and panels. They may also provide tips on how to visually engage with the images, how to follow the story within the panels, and how it all contributes to the story and reading experience.
Titles for early readers typically include simple, silly or humorous drawings. Many of the characters are portrayed as animals or other nonhumans including food, robots, inanimate objects. There are easy-to-follow page layouts. The reliance on pictures assists the reader to create visuals as they read text, preparing readers for early chapter books that do not include as many visual elements.
Some stories need a little more, and a visual novel can do that. The visual style adds another layer and the interactivity allows the reader to create their own story. There is a paper version of this too: the Choose Your Own Adventure books. You get to pick your own path through the story and reread it for a different adventure.
A visual novel often incorporates gaming elements as well. The interaction with the environment to find new clues in a murder mystery, or buy specific gifts for the people you meet. Some games focus heavily on romance and are called dating sims. While you choose the person you end of with, or be alone, there is usually a major plotline you follow. If you decide not to romance anyone, you can still reach the conclusion of the general story. Think about reverse harem novels and being able to pick the partner you want.
The visual novel has been turned into an anime, something that happens often with visual novels. The anime follows the main storyline, picking a certain route. This might be different from the on you chose when playing the game. I like how they reach a wider audience this way.
The best thing I read this year wasMarch(2013) by Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. Inspired by theinfluential pulp comicMartin Luther King and the Montgomery Story(1957), Lewis wanted to make a comic book for the modern era that told the storyof the Civil Rights Movement from its tumultuous beginnings to its culminationin the march from Selma to Montgomery.
One of the most stirring visual elements in the novel is when white people yellracial slurs. Slurs are depicted as illegible scribbles. The crass scrawls letyou feel the meaningless, vulgar, twisted, and grotesque words.
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