I can’t remember exactly when the idea first hit me—the idea of trashing the 40,000 words of half-done novel that I’d worked on for months and building a graphic novel out of the rubble.

I do remember how hard that story was fighting me. I had a main character with no arc, so many side characters I could hardly count them all, and no ending whatsoever. There were only a few things about it that I liked; the concept was one of them. But it needed a major change.

The more I looked at that MC’s arc (or lack of it), the more I realized I just wasn’t excited about the character. I also started noticing how many similarities my story had to Mulan stories—so I decided to embrace it. The book became a re-imagining of the Mulan legend, and my MC became a woman. A woman named Vienne.

The graphic novel, though? I have no idea where that came from. I think I just realized in a blinding flash of inspiration that I could combine my passion for writing and my passion for art in a single piece of media, and I ran with it. It’s probably the best creative decision I ever made. Looking at the difference between my art then and my art now, I almost can’t believe how much I’ve improved and how far I’ve come. And I can’t wait to see how far I will go as I continue pursuing this project.

Today, my MC has an arc. There are still a ton of side characters but at least they all have a purpose now, and thank goodness I eliminated four of my MC’s siblings, and two of my four princes. (I love princes as much as the next person, but four gets to be a bit excessive, especially when none of them have personalities. Ugh, my storytelling has improved so much.)

I also have an ending now—or perhaps I should say, I have a nice conclusion to the first story, because I have so many plans for future additions. But I’m not going to get ahead of myself just yet.

For now, we focus.

For now, we work.