All Change!

7 Jul

Hey y’all and happy July! We are officially 67 days into the second half of 2025 and there has been so much change.

During the sizzlingly hot month of June, I was working on Above & Below, fleshing out the script for the first book and realised I needed to change the story, like the WHOLE story. There are several very important reasons for this drastic change of events, {dramatic much!} First, I felt like my characters Bo & Cody didn’t really fit into this world, or should I say story 🤔, as the story is currently and secondly, at this moment in time, I don’t think I can complete an illustrated graphic novel. I know, I know, cop-out! But hear me out, I feel like the way I want to tell this story, there are a lot of words {that I couldn’t bring myself to edit out, ie cut 🥲}, and graphic novels tend to be ‘show don’t tell honey, we’re here for the pictures’. So, in order not to have every illustrated page be full of exposition and heavy dialogue, a novel or maybe even a visual novel feels like the best course of action.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but the issues I’ve been running into with this series have been constant. What parts do I draw? What do I write here, or should it be an image? Where does Bo fit into this story, and why this story? Meaning my brain was in perfectionism overdrive. I realised Bo doesn’t really fit, and the problem was that I was trying to force a character from another world or time? into this one. Why? Maybe because I haven’t written Bo’s story and she was becoming impatient, and showed up while working on Above and Below or simply because I was the problem. I didn’t want to forget about the girl who got me through uni and that was tough to deal with because I realised I was trying to do right by a character so I didn’t put her to the side like I had done for so many years with the first characters that showed up to tell me their story, my girls the triplets from Above and Below. Right now, it just feels like she’s making the story more complicated than it needs to be and as much as I want to do it all, I need to pace myself. I’ll make time to write Bo and Cody’s stories later, as I already have ideas for a mystery series brewing.

That brings us to the crux of all this change. I’ve removed Bo from the story… again. {story for another day} I had to do a whole new outline, {which isn’t quite finished yet 😬} I gotta commit to a fully written novel and not a script for a graphic novel, but possibly with visual elements and illustrated pages, and centre my interests. Meaning more words, this also means a visual novel can focus on my love for concept art and individual illustrations. Now I can finally lean into writing, probably a series, as a romance, fantasy book. Listen, if you can’t tell, reading is one of my favourite pastimes, and I want to see if I can be a writer and finally write all these stories swimming in my head. I feel like I say this all the time, but it’s true, so here we are.

Also, update, that you didn’t ask for or need, guys I’m trying to hold myself accountable here, I didn’t complete the comic competition. Yeah I know, but the struggle to do storyboards let me know I’m either not ready or I really just enjoy illustrating single images and concept art. Sooooo I’m guessing you’re sensing a theme here and you’re not wrong. I tried a thing, hated it, and now we’re trying something new. Better to try a thing and fail rather than sit and struggle 🫠.