Cooking lessons

K, writing a graphic novel is HARD. Writing a graphic novel for young readers is VERY, VERY HARD. It is so hard. I've never had it so hard. Did I mention it's hard? I know there are people out there who think that it must be easy to write for kids and easy to write something that's illustrated. Ha! Double ha-ha! This one is kicking my hinny. rapunzel's revenge didn't burst from my head in full armor. There were many rewrites, many hours of frustrating discussions of plot, many times I wanted to throttle the script and scream, "Why won't you work right?!" But we got it eventually. I am ridiculously in love with it.

But now the sequel is saying, "You thought rapunzel's revenge was a challenge? I laugh in your face! Triple ha-ha-ha!" I don't know if I can describe why getting any story to where it needs to be is so challenging. I think most people who have gone through this process have had the same experience, but for people who don't, I think it's difficult to understand. When you read a book, it seems obvious that this had to happen in order for this to happen, or that character had to be a certain way or the writing style had to be thus in order for the story to work. But when you're writing it from scratch...well, the only way for me to describe it is through metaphor. It's like saying to someone, "You know how to scrabble eggs, make chocolate chip cookies, and chili. So obviously you know how to cook. Now I want you to make chicken pompeii. It should taste like this. There's no recipe, and I can't tell you what's in it or even show you a picture of what it'll look like when it's done, but you'll find what you need at the grocery store. Also, there are live alligators at the grocery store. Good luck!"