Making the leap from DRAWING pictures to also WRITING words

A challenge faced—whether or not you succeed—is a challenge won.

I had been thinking about writing stories professionally—ever since I started writing my thoughts and ideas down in notebooks, sketchbooks and journals., Still, I assumed it was something only WRITERS get to do. I’m a drawer, I told myself. It won’t happen for me. Then, one day, it did. 

The chance to write and draw presented itself in a very casual way. 

Gil and Rob of Oxford University Press asked me to draw some characters for a series of graphic novels they had in the works. When they were happy with my characters, they had to find a writer for the series. Gil said they would test a handful of writers and get back to me. Fine, I said, I’ll wait for the go-ahead and look forward to drawing whatever story you come up with. Then she said they’d talked about it and wondered if I was interested in writing and drawing a chapter from their outline. Having one person writing and drawing would be very handy. 

I looked back over my decades of tooling around with words and pictures, and even though it was unexpected and something I’d never tried doing—I felt I could just as well give it a try. It was scary, but I’d kick myself for not doing it. 

The worst that could happen, I thought, was I’d still be drawing the books and have the experience needed to get better at writing these sorts of things in the future.

Turns out they liked my stuff, and I got the gig!

Say, “Yes!” The worst that can happen is you end up where you were before you do the thing. 

A few things about the Supersized Squirrel series are very dear to me. 

First, here’s the technical side of this adventure. I was tasked with writing the novels from the outlines provided by Gil. Gil prepared the scaffolding, and I had the job of getting the characters from one beat to the next by building it up plank by plank with dialogue and action. Ideal for me!

Secondly, having done the test chapter—and having had fun with it—I had done the legwork of finding out what sort of characters I had to work with and how they approached their world. They were like friends I had already spent weeks playing with. I think maybe, being a bit of a loner as an artist, I enjoyed the company.

Thirdly, I got to play with the other characters—and they all have one or more surprising qualities.

Lastly, and I think this has much to do with Gil and Rob, there is a nice mix of action and kindness. As a Canadian, this touches home: ”Don’t mistake kindness for weakness.” These superheroes embody that ethos.

Say, “Yes!” The worst that can happen is you end up where you were before you were asked to do the thing.

Also, there is rainbow-coloured gooey puke, jokes, anxiety, slapstick, and peanut butter. What’s not to love?

Getting this four-book project has been a turning point for me. It put my research into writing in overdrive. Any chance I get, I eat up whatever nuggets I can to get better at crafting stories. 

I don’t know if anyone else will allow me to write stories from scratch, but it’s worth a try;)