The first full draft of the project exists on notecards. I used a drafting technique I learned at The Center for Cartoon Studies during the wonderful graphic novel workshop taught in the summers by Paul Karasik. Basically each index card is a thumbnail of a page. It includes brief, very rough layout sketches, and a list at the bottom of what each tier of comics on that page will convey. It is a fast and complete way to work through the story without committing too much time to script or art that might just get tossed. I completed a 320 page rough draft version in about six weeks.
This second full draft is much slower (I've been working since the first of November, I have about 200 pages sketched in six months), but still rough and faster than a final version would be. I am spending more time working out sketches. And I am writing the script.
To keep things moving quickly, I am doing it all digitally. And since I'm most comfortable and experienced as a writer, I am creating my script in my trusty tool, Scrivener, on my computer, while creating the page drafts on my ipad in Procreate.
As each page is drafted, I print it out, and put it in a giant binder, which I then use for continuity reference as I go. Plus, it's just cool to see your project growing!
When I finish, I will have a script draft that matches the rough draft of the comic. And then I'll see what seems like the best way for me to move along to the next draft.
I know that the way I write involves many drafts of things, and I already have a long list of changes I will need to make in draft three.
I keep noticing how similar the process is to when I wrote my mystery novels. And, of course, how different the process is, since I'm working in a completely different medium.
