Oh, Jesus, the plan. I have to have a plan. Capitalise it: The Plan.

So, yes, I’m writing a graphic novel over the next year. I’m going to write a bit of explanation here about rough ideas taking form but below, I’ll share The Plot of The Book, the plan with The Art of The Book and also The Plan.

In brief:

  • Take a huge risk by writing full-time
  • Write the overarching story and structure of the book
  • Flesh out all the details
  • Practice art skills
  • Figure it out as I go

Projects, and how they take shape

I’m taking January to August off of work to do this, and it will be by far the biggest project I’ve ever done. Oh, Christ, it’s a bit scary.

My Dad was a project guy. He’d make his annual income in a short time by selling all of his art at an exhibition, and then he’d have ample time to mess around with some creative project for fun. When I was a kid, Dad:

  • Built a land yacht
  • Built a three-storey wooden tower, so that he could paint from the top
  • Made the tower into a slide from the top, out of old window-cleaner ladders.
  • Made a pulley system with a chair, so that you could pull yourself by rope to the top of the tallest tree in the forest
  • With our help, hacked a triple-entry tunnel system through acres of dense, thorny Gorse Bush, to a secret clearing in the middle of the forest
  • Built a stone hut in that clearing
  • Built a working Dutch windmill

What I love about projects is how they come alive. Think of, right now, the biggest trip you’ve ever taken. The biggest thing you’ve ever made or created. It could be learning a language, or painting, or a road trip, or having a baby.

You’ve got this vague, enticing idea. Maybe it’s just a single thought. You have many ideas, but this one is somehow more delicious. You think about it more and more, and turn it over in your head.

The idea stays with you. You start thinking of “what if”s: what if I just book the ticket? What if I just send an invite to everyone? What if I just sign up for that course? What if I just watch some videos on how to do it? What if I do a tiny little version of the big idea?

The idea won’t let go. You start making tentative steps towards making it happen. You discuss it with some people, and their feedback is encouraging. You start budgeting, or doing serious investigation.

You’re committing to the idea. You’ve booked the ticket! The details aren’t all fleshed out but the ticket is booked! Now you’ve just got to sort out all the details of the plan. And the sorting out of the details is delectable, one of the loveliest parts of the project.

As you sort through the details, and as the time draws closer to the beginning of the journey or project or language or baby, the project has changed. It started as a shapeless form. You probed the idea, you poked it from all angles, you whittled away the ambiguity,  and through this process your project has taken its shape.

The time arrives, and here it is: your shapeless void is now a defined thing, existing in the world. You started off by looking at a map and now you’re here, driving a jeep across Morocco. You admired a friend who could speak three languages and now you’re here, in Seville, practising basic Spanish. Your project is alive, and it has a life of its own.

My biggest project yet: a book. Oh Christ when I say it like that I sound ridiculous

This graphic novel is about myself and my family, growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness (I’ll generally be referring to them as JWs), leaving the cult (we all left in different ways and at different times), and rebuilding our lives. This will be nonfiction, but I’m fictionalising some details so as to anonymise my family.

I decided early on that I wanted the book to have many meta elements. The structure and content of the book will be using my life as the backbone. However, I’ll dip out of my story, and into the stories of my family (who are all older than me, and have more of a story to tell), at specific points. I’ll do this by having long-form interviews with my family members. I have not written and do not know the life stories of each member of my family. I am not going to, until I’m interviewing them for their specific section. I want the experience, and the writing, to be as open as possible: the reader is finding out things as I find them out.

The plot of the book

Skip this bit if you don’t want to have it spoiled for you. I’d say: just let it be spoiled.

Note: Section 12, the final chapter, is not my story at all, and can be read at any time.

  • Section 1: Now, right now.
    • Me, preparing to quit my job. Preparing to spend the next year writing and drawing a graphic novel. Doing background research on the JWs, interviewing ex-JWs to get more context on the day-to-day realities. Practising my drawing and writing skills. Discussing the project with my family. Getting my life and finances in order.
  • Section 2: My early life
    • Our family, as JWs. The Divorce. My mum leaves the cult. Our family, torn between two worlds. My brother and I, the youngest, are in split custody between one JW parent and one ex-JW parent.
  • Section 3: My brother’s life
    • I interview my brother, and find out more about his life. What was his experience growing up as a JW?
  • Section 4: Some more of my life
    • Life as the child of divorce. As the youngest child, at home while my older siblings have gone far away. Split between freedom and confinement (mentally speaking). Mum and I move further away, and I see less of my JW Dad. My eldest sister is still a JW, and is married with children now.
  • Section 5: My sister’s life
    • I interview my sister. My sister has had an absolutely mad life. She was kicked out of the religion, and disfellowshipped (purposefully shunned by everyone who is a JW) at the age of FIFTEEN. That includes our father, who excommunicated her forever, before she was the age of consent. What was her experience?
  • Section 6: More of my life
    • Mum and I move country, and I only see Dad (and have to pretend to be JW) during holidays. Eventually, I rebel and quit. I grow into adulthood. Brother and sister are off living their life. Eldest sister is still a JW. We eventually have a big argument with eldest sister, and we don’t talk for many years.
  • Section 7: Time passes, life changes
    • My twenties end. Everyone has their lives. One day, my stepfather suddenly dies. And with that, we all meet at the funeral. I see my eldest sister for the first time in ten years. She is making tentative steps to leave the JWs. She eventually does.
  • Section 8: My eldest sister’s life
    • Unfortunately, we’ve spent a lot of our lives not being in contact. She had the longest journey to leave this religion, and I don’t know even half of it. I am so looking forward to learning more about her, her life, her journey, her thoughts, her beliefs, her family.
  • Section 9: Reflections
    • A reflection on how growing up as a JW (and leaving) shaped us all, in many varying ways.
  • Section 10: My mum’s life
    • My mum escaped with us, in a very daring way, from a violent man, when I was 5. As of this year, I’m the age she was when she escaped. She’s got a big story to tell. I’ll interview her, and begin to close out the story, having gotten as much of the picture as I can.
  • Section 11: My dad
    • An explanation, and a reflection, on my Dad.
  • Section 12: Epilogue and Fact Time! (This can be read at any time)
    • A factual explanation of:
      • The history of the JWs
      • Their indoctrination and control methods
      • Daily life as a JW
      • Their core beliefs and practices

The art of the book

Just as the story has this meta-narrative in which it is clear that I’m figuring things out as I go along, I’d like the art to reflect that. So, right now, I’m doing my best to build my art skills.

Currently, my skills are not quite good enough to draw a graphic novel.

But so what? I don’t have the time to spend the next ten years becoming an experienced Graphic Novelist. I’m not setting out to become a Graphic Novelist. I’m setting out to make one graphic novel, right now: this one, this story. Whatever art I make will have to do.

With that in mind, I will be open with the reader about my lack of skills. I will draw as I go, and won’t go back to make things better. The start of the book will have a lower quality of drawings, and by the end (I certainly hope) I will have advanced somewhat. Sometimes I’ll not have the skills to make a scene, and I’ll just have to make do. Some form of art style will arise from this, I imagine.

The Plan

I’m pretty far into The Plan already:

  • September to December 2024
    • Wrap up my life as it currently is. Practise the skills. Do my research.
    • Write Draft 1: Basic Story Structure, 200 words (done)
    • Write Draft 2: Detailed Outline, 3500 words (done)
      • This is essentially a list of scenes, in order
    • Write Draft 3: Scene-by-scene Outline, (in progress, 6000 words written, should end up being 10-15,000 words)
      • Breaking down each scene into its content: the people, the arcs, key actions.
      • Checking over the whole story to ensure that enough detail is given to:
        • Each family member’s development arc
        • Life as a JW and an exJW
    • By the end of December I should be ready with:
      • Draft 3 finished, ready to write the actual script
      • Art skills polished to my best ability in this time period
      • Background research done
  • January – June 2025
    • Write Draft 4: Scriptwriting
      • The actual dialogue and prose of each scene, with a written treatment of how each panel of each scene should be drawn.
      • As I write the book, when I get to the part where it is the story of my Brother, Sister, Eldest Sister or Mum, I will conduct their interview at that time.
      • I hope that their interviews, their stories, influence my story. I hope to find out many things: where I’ve been wrong, things I never knew, things I’ve always hoped.
    • Draw Draft 5: Storyboarding
      • Rough initial sketches and composition of each scene, leaving space for dialogue and narration
    • Draw Draft 6: Illustration
      • Final drawing of each scene, each panel. Adding in dialogue and narration

Note: The drawing drafts (5 and 6) will happen concurrently with Draft 4; I’ll be writing sometimes, drawing sometimes. This is both to keep the theme of Openness and Learning By Doing, but also, because sometimes you want to Write and sometimes you want to Draw and I’d like to switch between the two on a whim.

  • June – August 2025
    • I don’t have infinite money, so at this point I will be preparing to go back to my regular job of teaching.
    • If the book is on track to finish, at this point I should try to get it published.

There. That’s the plan. I’ll keep the blog going as I carry out the plan – it’s good practice.

Thank you for reading this.