Ryan Maloney breaks down his system for finishing a graphic novel: commit 45 minutes to two hours daily, work from the same physical spot, and block out months on a calendar without breaking the chain. Picture books take two months, graphic novels a year. Two years means something's wrong.
Chapters
Making a graphic novel, part 2. First thing I do is figure out how much time I want to commit to this project. So for the current project I'm working on, I work on it for about 45 minutes to 2 hours every day. It's a little bit like working out. You don't want to do too much where you get burnt out, but you don't want to do too little where you don't get anything done. Next thing I do is think about a location where I want to write and draw the novel so I don't have to think about it every time I go to start to create. Again, comparing it to working out, there's going to be days where you don't want to write and you don't want to draw, but you just want to have your location and time locked down so you know where you can show up. You don't have to do the work, but you have to sit there for that time period. Next is schedule. I really just block out months, sometimes years, to work on a project, and my goal is to never break the chain. Even holidays and weekends, I'm still working on the project. For a picture book, it can take 2 months. For graphic novels, it can take a year. 2 years, you're probably doing something wrong. In the next video, we'll talk about ideas and story structure for your graphic novel.
