Drawing Out Story: Using Tools of the Graphic Novel to Create More Imaginative Prose

Instructor: Jessica Reed
Date: Saturday, April 27
Time: 1-4 p.m.
Location: IWC
Cost: $75 Nonmembers, $48 members, $42 student members/teacher members/senior members/military members/librarian members

With the expansion of graphic novels in the last few decades, creative writers have the opportunity to confront what traditional prose shares with, and where it differs from, stories that make use of illustrated panels. In this workshop, participants will examine a short story that describes panels of a hypothetical comic as the narrative unfolds and explore how it contrasts with an actual comic. We will investigate the role of image in our own stories by drawing (quality is not a concern!), story-boarding, and “translating” panels into prose. This process will illuminate the relative importance of image in each story’s mental landscape, highlight the role that language and description plays in a particular story, and possibly demonstrate that image doesn’t always come first.