The Event Timeline

Everyone who does a 48 hour graphic novel is probably going to do it differently, and more importantly, should do it differently and make it their own.

But when you plan out the event, you need to make decisions. The only rules put in to this concept, obviously, is that it’s 48 hours and it’s a graphic novel. Beyond that, it’s open. And point of fact, I don’t even have any control over you doing a 46 hour graphic novel, or a 48 hour quilting bee, so really, even those two “rules” are just guidelines.

The timeline we planned in the very first graphic novel weekend

For the first GNW, we had an evening session on Friday, a full day on Saturday, and worked until 5pm on Sunday (48 hours after the beginning). The beginning evening was mostly planning and discussion, with some work being created. The second day was really the meat of the project. The third day was a mad dash to finish everything. We made sure there were regular meals brought in by caterers and snacks available all day.

We found that over time there was less need for the writers to be present, as the art naturally takes the most time. But Initially, the plan was to have morning meetings with the writers on both Saturday and Sunday. The initial goal was to have act 1 finished the first day, act 2 the second day, and act 3 on the third day. The writers instead planned a structure on the first day and each took a chunk of the story. So that turned out not to be necessary, for us but you might want to do it the way we (i.e. the organizers) originally intended.

We also determined that we wanted people to be able to sleep between the days, to have a more balanced experience than 24 hour comic day can give (after being awake for 24 hours, if you’re writing in sequence, act three is bound to have a few inconsistencies).

But this was what we planned out for that event. There are definitely other options.

Make it your own, but make it

Helmuth von Moltke, a Prussian General who died in 1891, had some advice for those engaging in a 48 hour graphic novel. He said, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” All the same, it’s still better to have a battle plan. I recommend making a detailed planning of what you expect to happen, and what needs to happen in the project, based on the time you have. Figure out when you want people at the location, when food will be there, when you’ll start, when you’ll end, etc. Things may shift almost immediately, but the next steps still need to happen, and this will help you determine order changes.