Robot Museum Process Part One

I thought it'd be fun to to post all my progress on Robot Museum here on my blog, right up to it's publication. Yesterday I posted the main character to get things started and today I'll start with the earliest parts of actually making the story happen.

 It was around Christmas time I decided to finish the Robot museum outline I'd had kicking around for a long time and with a lot of work things started to fall into place. All the world building and characters started to build a story on their own. I started by scribbling notes and sketches in my sketchbook. I was travelling when I started so this makes sense, but it's how I always start something.

Once I was back in Toronto I started gathering up all my notes and began the process of actual outlining. I like to have my outlines typed up. I have been using Scrivener for a while, Scrivener is a Mac writing program which is deep and excellent. But I needed something simpler. So I went back to using Word. which is great. But more recently, after having memory lapses and not saving stuff I opted for Google docs and it's wonderful autosave. Not only autosave but I can edit on my mobile. Perfect! Thanks to my friends at the International Komic Krit team for pushing me in that direction.

Speaking of IKK, the next thing I did was get together a team of international cartoonists and writers to help each other edit our work. These people are mercilessly helpful. It's amazing. With my writing I feel I have good ideas and can even manage a good basic structure for my stories but i lack the self awareness to really examine it and see what could make it the best story I can write. I can't say enough good things about a good editor.

so now I'm editing in google Docs on my desktop and my phone. The ability to do this is great.

While working on the outline i also work on thumbnails. In my own process the words and pictures go back and forth from the beginning informing each other. I find this back and forth magical. something new emerges from this process. It's r a lot of work but it's also really exciting.

And that's where I'm at right now, a nearly completed outline and ongoing revisions to both the outline and the thumbnails. I'll update again soon. I'm doing the thumbnailing a little differently this time around and I want to share it.

Keep an eye here tomorrow afternoon! I'll be announcing a special sale at my shop!