Project: Write a novel. (i.e. convert my stage play into a novel)

Status: In progress. (writing complete. edits and illustrations in progress)

Narrative:

February 10, 2013

After completing Closure: a veteran’s inner skirmish and seeing it produced on stage, I imagined a novel format would be a way to reach a larger audience and tell the story in ways that are not possible on stage. Therefore, NaNoWriMo gave me the push I needed to get started in November 2012. I didn’t complete the goal of 50,000 words in a month, but I got it up to about 23,000 words and from here I continue writing efforts. The research and brainstorming of the play started in December 2011, and here over a year later I have found myself again returning to research to fill in details of the depicted Civil War battle scenes. Finding that most novels are 70,000-100,000 words, I’m not sure at this point if I’ll reach that number. I have other ideas of  adding a number of illustrations equal to or greater than the number of chapters. These illustrations will be done in the style of battlefield illustrators of the time.

March 6, 2013

Conceding that I will not reach a novel length of 70,000 with the current content, I decided to make this a novella with illustrations. I have been particularly inspired by the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Edits on the text are in progress and some illustrations have begun. Using a light brown paper, the illustrations are done in pencil and charcoal with white charcoal highlights to simulate many of the Civil War era illustrators that depicted battle scenes on site.

April 9, 2013

I have a half dozen sketches of Joseph Hall as I develop the style for the book. I hadn’t touched it for a while, but I decided to have at it again and I am happy with the progressed style. Sketching it on brown paper and adding white charcoal highlights, I scanned it in and did some composition realignments and added a ink wash background and framing in Photoshop. Now just 50 more to go.