Nerdvana presents Small Press Saturday – aka, Lessons Learned Self-Publishing Comics
Last week, I alluded to the classic three-act story structure, specifically as I described how I tackle my annual 24 Hour Comic Challenge. To recap, the 24 Hour Comic Challenge is a dare presented to cartoonists to create a 24-page comic book in 24 consecutive hours. I attempt this challenge every year, and I add a performative element to it by drawing for one straight day (1 p.m. to 1 p.m.) in the storefront window of Drawn to Comics in downtown Glendale, Arizona.
Incidentally, this year I’ll be tackling that challenge on Aug. 24, if you’re in the area and want to swing by to say hi. But I digress.
The three-act structure has frequently helped me tackle the issue of momentum in creating a story in just 24 hours. When I have the story’s concept (or problem, as I explained last week), I’ll divide those impending 24 pages into three acts, eight pages each, so I have little benchmarks to achieve while striving for my overall goal. When I reach pages eight, then 16, I get that celebratory rush of completing an act, and I’m excited to get through the next one.
A few years ago, I devised a slightly different structure that made the storytelling process a bit more interesting and expansive. I’m not sure if it’s been done before, but I’ve kept this scheme in the back of my head ever since, because it helped segment the 24-hour deadline a little more succinctly, and it gave my story a little more focus and intent. The storytelling strategy is simply this:
Divide your story into four parts, or chapters, each representing a different season of the year, as in winter, spring, summer and fall. I call this the Seasonal Story Structure – copyright pending!
This worked especially effectively for a 24 page comic book; I divided those 24 pages into four six-page chapters. Assigning each section a season helped with the tone of those sections, both narratively and visually. Visually, I ascribed appropriate color palettes to each section; the “winter” chapter boasted cooler tones, spring had earth tones, warm tones for summer, auburn hues for fall. The reader unwittingly experienced 365 days of transition, and they didn’t even know it!
Narratively, this structure helped with the progression of the story, especially in the presentation of the story’s problem. By starting with winter, my characters were in a blank slate state with the reader – the proverbial tabula rasa of a sheet of snow. Every story starts with characters in need of change – the promise of a personal spring. In that second chapter, the problem has flourished and grown, just like the promise of spring itself.
In chapter three, “summer,” characters feel the “heat” of the growing tension and action. This is when the problem is most complicated, and things seem most dire. In the final chapter, they experience change, like autumn leaves – a “cooling” from the problem’s intensity and the vibrancy of its lessons. See, the three act structure still exists underneath, but these symbolic seasonal transitions help the writer define and present its progression in a different, and maybe primal, way.
Interestingly, shifting the seasons alters the tone of the story, depending on the impression you want to make on your reader and where you want to leave your characters in the end. If you start with spring, you’d end with winter, meaning your characters might start in a state of vitality then end in a period of despair. If you start with summer, things might be intense from the jump, but that means you end in spring, and your characters might then be flourishing from the ordeal. This scheme is a tool designed to help craft a story – use it however you’d like!
Indeed, I present this storytelling structure to my fellow storytellers that may be struggling with pre-writing or developing plot points. Prioritizing tonal shifts doesn’t just keep your reader engaged – it keeps you, the author, engaged, as well. Take it from me – when I’m toiling in the 13th hour of a 24-hour drawing blitz, a little change does me good! However long it takes you to make your story, it may do you some good, too.
My Maker Mantras aka Small Press Saturday: Lessons Learned Self-Publishing Comics
