Sara Easterly on Writing a Graphic Novel, Part 4

This week we have author, readergirlz PR specialist, and former SCBWI WWA co-Regional Advisor Sara Easterly guest-blogging about the process of writing a graphic novel and working with her illustrator co-hort, Jaime Temairik. Today we have Turning to the Experts. (All illustrations are copyright Jaime Temairik!) Welcome, Sara!

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When I interviewed Disney’s comic experts Steve Behling and Rich Thomas for the graphic novel article I mentioned earlier, one of the things that I found most interesting was their vision for the future, where graphic novels won’t fall under a separate category in the publishing world. They’ll simply be another form of storytelling, like novels in verse, for example. The vision, ultimately, is that graphic novels won’t sit on one or two bookshelves in a separate section of the bookstore, but would be intermingled as appropriate with other novels or biographies.

The other thing I really like about writing a graphic novel is the company I’m keeping. I’m stretching it, I know. But it’s pretty cool thinking about all the other great writers who are also writing graphic novels. The iconic Jane Yolen has two graphic novels soon to debut. And Avi, of course, was on the bandwagon early with City of Light, City of Dark, published by Scholastic in 1993.


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This will be a five-part series all this week on the why's of writing a graphic novel, illustrator collaboration, graphic wordplay, turning to the experts, and where to start. Tomorrow: Where to start!