If you were going to write a fiction novel...

[Camby Savelle]

What would it be about?

Please feel free to go into detail. I'm just curious to see what other people find "intresting" enough that they think others would enjoy reading about it as well. what would make your story sell compared to everyone elses? would love be involved? what would be your target audiance? what would be the main plot, or would there be several plots? etc?

as for me, I had an old idea a few years back to write about a girl addicted to coke in a very diffirent strange world. I really haven't found what the plot will be yet, most of my brainstorming creates scenery & charachtors. the web to weave them all together has yet to be drawn.
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[Tequila Zaire]

And old man...and the sea. Don't think that's been done yet. Or maybe a great american epic set in the civil war when a woman makes a dress out of a curtain.

[Amelia G]

I think the best fiction grows out of interesting deeply-imagined characters where the characters become real enough that the story grows out of who they are. A few years ago I was thinking about saving up to take a month or two off and try to write a novel in Portland, but unfortunately that dream was sort of sullied by unrelated issues. I've had so many short fiction pieces published, but I've never buckled down and done a novel. Of course I'd have to really love the characters to spend a whole novel with them. I worry that my life experiences have been so varied and unusual that it might be hard for other people to relate to some of what I'd want to write, but then again I've actually never finished a short story and had it go unpublished.

[Morning Glory]

I did start writing a novel. the basic background concept was that all religious mythology was true, but that it was based on science and it was only our lack of comprehention (and a bit of intention on thier part) that made us believe it was "magic" or "supernatural" and that angels where people that worked for the higher celestial heirarchy as sort of diplomats to humanity, and basically the plot was about this one guy that died and was kind of on the borderline between good and bad and that as his purgatory he had to become an indentured servant to god and it was just about the shit that happened to him. kinda like a sort of opposite Hellblazer. I stopped writing it a few years ago cuz I dunno, I was doing other shit, and i've never been in the mood to continue it.

[Tequila Zaire]

Could never commit to a novel...at least not a traditional one. When graphic novels started popping up I migrated a lot of my ideas and stories toward that. It seemed like a much better way to tell a story and had fewer "rules" than published novels tend to follow. Plus the idea of working in a genre that is relatively new is much more interesting to me. It's one of those things that's not quite a comic and not quite a novel. It's yet to really break out of being thought of in either light...it's a hell of a challenge too since you have little to go on in terms of a guideline. I think anyone with creativity in them gives writing a novel in some form a shot...and one really should complete one. It's a nice thing to leave after you are dead and long forgotten...you never know whole will find it and read it.

[Morning Glory]

I always said that a "graphic novel" was the name for a comic book made by someone who was too insecure about thier own maturity and mainstream judgements to be able to admit thier comic book is a comic book.

Of course a text novel accompanied by illustrations (such as Greg Rucka and Matt Wagner's "Grendel:Past Prime" and Charles Vess and Neil Gaimen's "Stardust", come to mind) would be a true "graphic novel"... but I think the term is thrown around far too freely these days and is more often the aformentioned case.

[Camby Savelle]

I did start writing a novel. the basic background concept was that all religious mythology was true, but that it was based on science and it was only our lack of comprehention (and a bit of intention on thier part) that made us believe it was "magic" or "supernatural" and that angels where people that worked for the higher celestial heirarchy as sort of diplomats to humanity, and basically the plot was about this one guy that died and was kind of on the borderline between good and bad and that as his purgatory he had to become an indentured servant to god and it was just about the shit that happened to him. kinda like a sort of opposite Hellblazer. I stopped writing it a few years ago cuz I dunno, I was doing other shit, and i've never been in the mood to continue it.

Wow I would love to read that. too bad you stopped, sounds really intresting. do you ever think about picking it up again & continueing where you left off??? I think that would be one book the world needs.

[Tequila Zaire]

I always said that a "graphic novel" was the name for a comic book made by someone who was too insecure about thier own maturity and mainstream judgements to be able to admit thier comic book is a comic book.

Of course a text novel accompanied by illustrations (such as Greg Rucka and Matt Wagner's "Grendel:Past Prime" and Charles Vess and Neil Gaimen's "Stardust", come to mind) would be a true "graphic novel"... but I think the term is thrown around far too freely these days and is more often the aformentioned case.

Well see that's what I thought at first too but it breaks down like this. Comics are not just simply words and pictures thrown together. Scott McCloud went into all this with Understanding Comics and I'll leave it there since he can explain it way better than I can in this lil box. But basicly the graphic novel has sort evolved in recent years. Often times Trade Paperbacks (collections of either a comic mini-series or storyline into one "book") were often mislabeled as graphic novels. Works that were massive in length and published as such were also considered graphic novels. Books with illustrations that only illustrated a written scene were not...unless the illustration adds to the story in the way the written form does not...it's just considered your standard illustrated book...and here is where it gets odd.

See if a comic done to any length PAST the traditional 24 to 32 pages of a standard monthly issue ...it CAN be labled as a graphic novel or novella without much protest. So the term right now is in flux since such work needs the label so to differentiate it from A Monthly Book, A One Shot, A Trade Paperback, etc. It's a frustrating thing because yeah it can sound like it's a comic trying to hide by another name but until mainstream culture sees comics for the artform it is...such "safe" terms are needed to get the books on the shelves. But with the term going past that into an area of a needed term within the industry it's kinda at an odd stage...mainly because you can do so much IN a graphic novel you can't do in a monthly book. Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, John Byrne, etc. all changed the way the monthly book was written and seen. They were masters at having intricate storylines take place throughout a year and stand alone issues that felt like a real developed story not something stripped down for space. That really inspired many in later years to want to do an entire comic with such long and complicated storylines in ONE big ass issue. That really birthed the standard 64 page one shots...then came Will with this crazy idea...


Will Eisner's work would really hammer the idea that a graphic novel could be something far less and far more than ttraditional comics as people knew them. From panel, page designs, and format to subject matter, distribution, and tone his graphic novels were still very much comics but like nothing ever seen before. His stuff really was the kind of work that wouldn't automaticly be placed in the cheesy metal comics racks in bookstores. The subject matter of many of his early graphic novels were about as untraditional as it got...not only did it not have superheroes but it didn't have a lot of the expected things people thought comics ALWAYS had to have....it was part fine art, cartooning, comics, novel, ....everything and the kitchen sink.

This would go on till his death not to long ago...and with a huge...and I mean huge sphere of influence it still goes on with many practicing it and doing it in such a matter that you actually find some graphic novels NOT released in comic shops but directly into bookstores. This has happend a handful of times but it's quite interesting that it happened at all. What makes it so cool is that the name makes it safe for people who don't like the image they have of comics try them out and at the same time sheds light on this almost bastard child of the artform as something new to play with and explore.

It's almost like the way serialization effected traditional books with the workds of charles dickens being a big influence on various mediums (big one on comics alone). Many forget his more famous works didn't jsut appear on the shelf in a completed form but in newspapers one chapter or set pages at a time. That's a wild idea and even if he was not the first he was certainly one of the best at it.

So to take comics off the monthly limitations and present these massive works using a variety of influences breaks whole new ground...Dave Sim is probably the most cutting edge in this field since his work issue to issue is mindblowing in terms of his use of formats and more so collected since his long storylines (sometimes spanning YEARS of monthly issues) read very diffrently at times. It's such an amazing thing that time between issues effects the storyline. That makeing you wait part is almost like the effect people have for their favourite soap opera's or TV shows like 24.

Time between reading a collected trade paperback or graphic novel can be the same way since you can plow through it in one sitting like you would a feverishly good book or take long breaks to digest it all.

The graphic novel is very much becoming it's own format and style...and one that if you can sling words together and images along with a good understanding of various formats can pay off creatively since it's not only freeing but wild and untamed.

At least for me as a creator in this chosen field...it's an exciting time.

[23*]

i have 20 000 words of a novel already....

....the average novel is about 60 000 words though.....and i spend days mulling over single sentences.....at this rate i won't be finished until 2010. and whats it all for?....to be refused by a zillion different publishers and then discarded?...hahahhahahah....life sucks!

[Ellis]

A space opera along the lines or "The Risen Empire" and "The Killing of Worlds"

[One Eyed Cat]

I'm sure if I ever worked up the wind, it would have layers of plots intertwined. I believe life has a great synchronicity to it. I know the tale I have to tell, but it just isn't ripe yet. I've written short stories, poems, articles etc.

OEC

[memorydream]

I'd like to write some suburban ghost love stories with violent natural disasters and self-attacking main characters who are bisexual and like older women. Of course, I think about that sort of stuff all the time.