Such a validating rejection.

In over twenty years of working as a freelancer, I’ve experienced a wild assortment of rejections. I’ve been turned down by a company that reached out to me first and I’ve been rejected before we ended up working together for years. Most often, when a company wants to stop working with you, they just stop responding to your emails, but that doesn’t mean that when you stop receiving replies, they want to stop working with you. The freelance world is a bewildering place.

What happened here, was something else all together.

So yes, it’s the end of the Rei & Lieve comics for Tina magazine, but the start of something new! I’ve created two five page stories thus far. Below I’ll share how I deliver the work, so that what the amazing Nova de Hoo could turn it into a comic that looks like this:

Idea

I was inspired by a friend’s story. Her daughter got hit by a bikist who didn’t even stop to check on her. We were appalled by this behaviour. One of us might even have said something along the lines of ‘Who does such a thing?’ That was something that made me curious; could there be a story that justifies this?

Writing

Once I have an idea, I just start typing to see where it takes me. This is part of the script after some editing:

Two girls, strolling through the city centre.

1. Anne: I LOVE romantic movies. Stories about two people who love each other, but they don’t find a chance to tell each other…

2. Anne: … and then, in the end, one of them runs through the streets. It’s often raining…

3. Anne: … and then he finds her and says: “Darling, I love you!!”

   ---

4. Anne: And then they kiss!

5. Bibi: Pfff, not my thing. I like…

WHAM! A woman runs into them with her bike. …

.. and takes off

6. Anne: What SCUM!!

7. Bibi: We’ll get her!

   Once I’m happy with the script, I send it to the editor. I might have to change some things

   
   

   Sketching

   The next step is to sketch the pages. That’s what the numbers in the script are for, that way I don’t have to write it in the balloons. These sketches are really rough, they’re meant to show who says what in what panel. I do think about composition and camera angles, but if the artist wants to make a different decision, that’s fine! As you can see, she did make some small changes for the better.

   

It’s so cool to see my writing come to life in a way I could never do myself.

So while I loved creating the Rei & Lieve comics and they’ve helped me tremendously in writing for comics, I’m really excited about this opportunity. I feel validated as a writer and that opens up so many creative endeavours I could explore this year!

With love,

P.S. If you missed the Rei & Lieve comics I created, you can read some of them here:

• Starting a brand new comic.

• How I draw a comic strip.

• The worst draft

• Inspiration

• Trying to read a book...