Graphic Novels Belong on a Young Author's Bookshelf

A character says, 'I'm fine.' In the next panel, their hands are shaking. The words and the picture disagree, and that disagreement tells a story. A young writer can learn a great deal from that small moment.

Graphic novels invite readers to follow both language and images. Reading Rockets highlights their relevance for older children as well as younger readers. For an aspiring author, they also offer a concrete place to study what a scene reveals and what it leaves unsaid.

Read the spaces between panels

Choose one page from a book you already have. What happened between its first two panels? Did a minute pass, or an entire afternoon? Look for clues in a changed setting, a character's expression, or an object that has moved. Readers do some of the storytelling work themselves.

Now cover the dialogue. What can you still understand? Uncover it and notice what the words add. This is a useful revision question for prose, too: does a line explain something the action already makes clear?

Draw a six-panel problem

Divide a page into six boxes. In box one, give a character a goal. In box two, place an obstacle in the way. Use the middle boxes for an attempt and a complication. Reserve the final boxes for a choice and its consequence. Stick figures are enough; the exercise is about sequence.

Try limiting each panel to one speech bubble. When space runs out, decide what the reader truly needs. A short line paired with a useful action can carry more than a crowded explanation.

Translate the scene

Write your comic as a prose paragraph. Replace an important expression with a physical detail: a hand gripping a backpack strap, a chair scraping away from the table. Compare the versions and name what each format does well. You do not need to abandon one kind of reading to learn from another.

Source: Reading Rockets, Graphic Novels and Picture Books for All Ages — https://www.readingrockets.org/videos/meet-authors/graphic-novels-and-picture-books-all-ages