Passing Clouds collected by David Huyck

Hey! A few of you have asked about what Laura’s planning on covering, so here are a few snippets:

Lettering: Laura will take guide you through the basics of developing an alphabet. Then, take you beyond the basics to consider how lettering gives an extra emotional depth to comics and lettering a compositional tool.

Color: Aside from watercolor demos, Laura will talk on color’s role in telling a story. She’ll walk you through, “Things like using color because it can offer a different and (maybe) more immediate connection to your story. And how color can be used for rhythm.”

Memory: Whether you’re an autobio cartoonist or not, you still use memory to create your comics. Laura will talk about her own work and experience creating comics from memory. Different exercises will explore different ways of narrating memories.

We expect it to sell out, so sign up today! 

Workshop Details:

February 27 – March 3, 2017

11am – 5pm each day (don’t worry, there will be breaks for snacks and lunch)

$275 payable by PayPal, cash, or check (email admin [a t] sequentialartistsworkshop.org to sign up if you’re paying by cash or check).

1. Cut anything that you’ve already said before once. Readers do not need to be hit over the head with things. I know, I know. There are a lot of writers who do this, and it makes for an easier read because you can skip every second paragraph, since the writer will only tell you again. But my standards of good writing decry this.

2. Make sure everything you say is absolutely clear. Sometimes we get this idea as writers that if we take a long time to say something, use lots of metaphors, and have characters talk about it, it is clear. Not true. Clear is simple. It is also not confused later on by second or third revisions of the text that mix things up. If your characters are confused, make it clear that this is so. Also make it clear when they are no longer confused.

3. He said/she said. “Said” is a great word because it’s invisible. Use it as much as possible in dialog.

4. Tell details that are interesting and unique. One little detail is sometimes all that is necessary. Anything that is not interesting and unique as a detail should be cut out, or changed for one that is unique.

5. Cut out all the boring parts. If you as the writer are tempted to glaze over a section, this is a big warning sign.

6. Write in English. Especially a temptation in genre writing, but it bleeds into other writing, as well. Psychological explanations that go into jargon–don’t do it. Courtroom jargon–cut. You are not writing an article in a magazine for experts. You are writing for the layperson.

7. Watch for dangling participles and noun/verb agreement. There are phrases in English that work colloquially in speech that don’t work in a novel. You sometimes have to write around them. Someone doesn’t want their coat, for example. Yuck.

8. Check for repetitions. Repetitious sentence structure and word choice are examples of this.

9. Read aloud. I do this sometimes at the computer, sometimes on paper. But the point is, sometimes things sound differently read aloud, and it will give you another angle to check your prose.

10. Check and double check spelling. Just because it is a word according to your word processor, that doesn’t mean it’s the right word. It’s/its, theirs/there’s, and so on. The editor in me comes out fiercely when I read manuscripts that make what seem to me to be simple mistakes. You want to look like a professional when presenting a manuscript to an editor or agent.

While I’m telling you every day that I have a new book, my friends in the publishing world are knocking it out of the park, and this fall especially seems like an explosion of activity.  The links are to Amazon for quick reference, but keep an eye out for these in stores and anywhere you like to get books.  To have a new book in fall 2016 feels like I’m on a championship team.  So I want to tell you what is up!

Cat Rackham by Steve Wolfhard

Cat Rackham is the beloved creation of a much loved cartoonist, and I’m over the moon that this book is coming out.  Steve is a shining star of talent and his stories are full of feeling and humour and I can’t say enough good things about them.  Basically everyone I know is pumped that a Cat Rackham book is finally here.  Of course Koyama Press is publishing this book, because they publish the best.

Leave Me Alone by Vera Brosgol

To be a fan of Vera’s work is inevitable, all you have to do is look at something she made and you wish you made it yourself, then you follow everything she makes like a lost puppy.  This book is so bright and funny and sassy and perfect, just perfect.  And we all need some alone time, I feel that grandma. I still need alone time and I work from my house.  

Burt’s Way Home by John Martz

I love this book.  A little boy with a big imagination and a story taking on the joy of that imagination along with the sadness of life, while the reader figures out what is really on his mind, where Burt is trying to get to.  It is a beautiful book.

Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North

This came out in the summer but I didn’t mention it much then, so I am making up for lost time.  Ryan’s humour is among my most favourites, witty and clever and irreverent but always welcoming and fun.  

Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden

Sarah is one of my girls, of ole Pizza Island, famed Brooklyn studio that I miss terribly.  I used to watch her work and listen to her talk about it, and her dedication to telling very human stories while always concerning herself about how to tell them right, for what purpose should she tell them, how to do it best, etc - I’ve always been impressed.  She frames people’s voices beautifully in a journalistic sense, while using her own to guide you through the narrative with warmth, humour, empathy.

We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen

This book needs maybe the least introduction as Jon is the current picture book king even though he would hate that I said that.  The “hat” books were always going to be a trilogy, so here is the final instalment at last.  I’ve seen the way Jon works on picture books and I have never seen anyone apply so much theory, of image and text and idea, into it, so no wonder his books are such gems.  He’s like, “I think this book is about the nature of human relationships” and I’m like “my book is about a farting horse.”

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis

When I met Carson Ellis, I had been such a fan for such a long time that I tried to play it cool but I sincerely doubt it read that way in person, because I was probably sweaty-palming that handshake with a dose of nervous cackling and stammering.  She’s the greatest.  At Book Expo America where all the fall books were previewed last spring, I sent my friend Seth to go look at this book and he made a dotted line to her table and then a dotted line back to me and said I LOVE THIS BOOK in one fluid motion.  You will love it too.

Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran

Paraphrased from George Saunders on the Longform Podcast (at 12:14), in two steps:

1) “Thanks for saying that, it means a lot to me.”

Hey it’s the end of the day but we’re still celebrating Edmund Unravels’ birthday!

In honour of being one year old today, I’m gonna do a small contest for a signed (and personalized, if you’d like!) copy of the book!

Alls you gotta do: • Like this post • Reblog this post • Include all this boring text in the reblog • Accomplish this before Friday, March 11th 8:00pm EST

A Leap Year classic. Feels like this was almost four years ago!