Daisy Chains
Gold River Western Shore
A big thank you to Laura Webber and the rest of the crew at
Gold River Western Shore Elementary, where I visited last week.
Thanks to the kids for all your questions, and for sharing many great stories with me.
And what a beautiful spot, looking out over some of the islands of Mahone Bay. Driving to the school, I was thinking (again) about how lucky we are to live on the beautiful South Shore of Nova Scotia.
The library
OK kids. I've got an assignment for you. If you don't know where your local library is, ask your parents, or your teacher, or the librarian at your school (if you are lucky enough to have one).
Buying books and comics is great. But they can be expensive. The library is full of them. And they are free.
Last week I was visiting a school to talk about writing the Daisy Dreamer comic. I talked about what a great place the library is to find comics and graphic novels. And, of course, it's a great place to pick up Chickadee magazine, where Daisy's adventures appear.
I asked the kids in one of the classes where their local library is, and they didn't know. If you don't know where the library is, you can't visit it. So please, ask your parents, ask your teachers, find out, and then ask someone to take you.
In my house, we have a big plastic box for library books. It's always full, and it's always fun to flip through it and find something new to read. See you at the library!
Rewrites, rewrites, rewrites
Who likes to rewrite? Probably nobody. Who needs to rewrite? Probably everybody.
Here I am, rewriting the October Daisy Dreamer story for Chickadee. There are rewrites for every issue -- it's an important part of writing the comic. Even though I know I will have to rewrite, I think that every month I expect that
this time I won't have to do it. But of course I do. No script is ever perfect.
The neat thing is that I learn something new every time I rewrite. This time, the lesson is that I have to watch out for how many settings I use in each story. Sometimes I get carried away. Daisy is here -- then she's there, then she's in a third place. Then back to the first one. All in 14 panels! It can get silly. So my assignment for today is rewriting and cutting down on all those locations.
And the name is...
"Where do you come up with names for the characters?"
That's one of the questions I hear most often. Of course, I didn't have to come up with a name for Daisy Dreamer or her best pal Ravi, since they were created long before I started to write the comic.
For Annie, Daisy's other best pal, I had wanted a name that had something to do with flowers -- like Daisy does. My first choice was Zahara. According to my book of baby names (which is where I get a lot of names for characters), it means flower in Arabic. But she wound up as Annie, which also has a flower connection. How? Her first name is actually Anthea, which means flower in Greek.
Yesterday, I had to come up with a name quickly. There's a character who will be appearing in the September comic. I hadn't given him a name, but in the end I was asked to come up with a last name. Mr.....? Something short.
It's Stanley Cup playoff time. I had hoped Montreal would beat Carolina, but they ran into a hot goalie named Cam Ward. I called Mary at Chickadee. "How about Mr. Ward?" I said. She had the artwork in front of her. "He
looks like a Mr. Ward," she said. Perfect!
That's the first time I've ever used hockey to name a character.
Daisy Dreamer's October Adventure
I am in the middle of writing the October Daisy Dreamer story. Sometimes the stories are easy to write, and sometimes they are harder. This is one of the harder ones.
Why? There are a few reasons. For one thing, Daisy and her pals are in a place that has lots and lots of people, and a lot of different activities going on. But because the comic is only two pages long, and only has about 14 panels, it's impossible to draw lots of crowds or to get too much detail into any one image. So I have to think about writing it in a way that gives the feeling of a crowd, without expecting Gabriel to draw hundreds of people.
The place the kids are visiting is one where people dress up in an old-fashioned way. I've never been to this kind of place myself, so I've been spending a lot of time on the Internet looking at pictures of events like the one Daisy and her friends are visiting.
To make things even more complicated, I came up with a story idea that had too much action. Mary, who is the editor of Chickadee, warned me that I might have to cut out a few scenes, because I was trying to have the kids do too much. She's right! I almost always write too much in my first draft, and then I have to go back and figure out which panels to take out. This time, I'm trying to take out scenes that I thought up before I've even written them. In the end, I'll probably still write too many panels anyway.
The last thing is that it was really hard to come up with an animal for Daisy to turn into. I suggested a dog, but Mary said why choose a dog when there are so many amazing animals out there? She was right, and we came up with another one instead.
Even though it's hard to write, I think in the end it will be a good story. I can't wait to see it in October, once it's been illustrated and published. But first, I'd better get back to writing it.
Don't wait for next year
After talking up Free Comic Book day in my last post, I didn't manage to go myself. Fortunately, one member of my family made it to Strange Adventures, and he came home with 11 comics. One of them was signed by the artist! I hope he will let me borrow them.
If you missed Free Comic Book Day too, don't wait until next year to pick up a comic book. We can go down to our local comics shops and buy books any time. It's always a good time to discover some new writers and artists and rediscover old favourites.
Free! Free! Free!
Tomorrow is one of the most exciting days of the year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas, or even anybody's birthday. It's
Free Comic Book Day! Click the link to learn more or to find a store near you that will be handing out free comics all day.
Why do shops all over North America give away comics for free once a year? It's a way for them to get more people excited about comics, and it helps you discover new comics too. Last year, I read in a Free Comic Book Day comic that the amazing Michael Kupperman was starting a new comic book series called
Tales Designed to Thrizzle. Now I buy each
Thrizzle (unfortunately there have only been two so far, but I hope there will be lots more to come) as soon as it comes out. Thank you Free Comic Book Day!
Smokey Drive Elementary
What a great day I had at
Smokey Drive Elementary in Sackville, Nova Scotia, today. I was so impressed with how many of the kids read
Chickadee and loved to read Daisy Dreamer's adventures, and by how much so many of them knew about the character, the stories, and the animals she had turned into.
I often spend time with grade 3 and 4 classes, which is great, but it was also a real treat to spend time with the primaries and grade ones yesterday, reading Daisy Dreamer stories and talking about the comics.
There was so much energy in Miss Reid's grade 2/3 class, it was amazing! I could have stayed all afternoon answering questions and talking about Daisy and the animals she has and could turn into. The shark theme returned again today, with a few kids saying they would like to see Daisy turn into a shark sometime. There were even story ideas! Maybe people start thinking more about sharks as summer gets closer, and so does swimming in the ocean (at least in Nova Scotia). Or maybe sharks are just super-neat animals.
If any of you kids in Ms. Robitaille's class are reading this, I hope you get working on that evil robot and giant guard dog story we were talking about. You had lots of energy and super ideas for comics. I was impressed.