Know the Novel (Er...Comic?): Introducing War and Peace On a College Campus

Boo! Hi, guys, it's Miss Megan, only you can call me Nutmeg now. I've decided the new chapter in my life doesn't warrant hanging up the blogging hat entirely, but it does warrant a new blog with a new pen name to match. So here we are. 

This new rendition of Only Mildly Mad is supposed to be more intentionally focused on my creative aspirations, as opposed to my Ramblings on Life in General, because...I dunno, creative aspirations are fun things to share, and I need something to keep me accountable for, like, making progress on the Comic Space Opera. So yeah. Here's hoping for a fun time.

SPEAKING OF FUN TIMES. Christine Smith's fantabulous linkup, Know the Novel, is live this month! Wherein writers of all shapes and sizes (so I assume, never having seen most of them actually) gather to squeal about the stories they are working on throughout that most glorious of seasons, Autumn. You can read more about it here. (And join in the fun! Please do join in the fun!!!)

I have participated, mad with joy, for the last five years running.

In 2018 I was writing about 1920s airplane pilots, in 2019 I was drafting Book 1 of my Comic Space Opera, in 2020 I was drafting Book 3 of my Comic Space Opera, and in 2021 I was drafting Book 2.75 (?) of my Comic Space Opera. 

In 2022 I am not drafting anything.

Well except for another (yet another) major overhaul of Comic Space Opera Book 1.

But was I gonna let that stop me from taking part in Know the Novel?

YOU BET YOUR SWEET LIFE I WASN'T. 

I almost introduced you all to CSO yet again. Which would have been, methinks, cruel and unusual punishment for all involved. Me, you, Dar Beauregard. ("You're telling them the basics about me aGAiN? but there's SO MUCH MORE TO ME THAN THE BASICS!") 

Happily I have thought of an alternative. 'Tisn't a novel, exactly. I'm cheating. But when it comes to events as fun as Know the Novel my personal bloggerly integrity kind of goes out the window. 

(JK.)

1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?

Well, it's not a novel. It's a comic. 

I read War and Peace last year for school, and now one of my friends is reading it and we chat about it a good deal. We also watched the new BBC series. (I was favorably impressed, by the way. Jolly good show, chaps.)

Meanwhile, for the last year or so, my amazingly creative sisters have been working with much love and increasing skill on a comic of Lord of the Rings, but set in the modern world. It’s smashing good fun to watch the beauteous thing grow. Also, I’m jealous of how much their drawing has improved from working with the same characters month after month. Hence, I decided to play copycat.

(See? Personal integrity. Evidently it's an issue.)

2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!

I mean, it’s Tolstoy’s War and Peace set on a college campus. More fan art than anything else. But for something in the public domain. So I can pretend it’s mine.

3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

That’s rather a good question.

The main action happens at Bald Hills University and its surrounding suburban neighborhood, but I’m not sure if that fictional place is supposed to be in any specific country. I think I’ll keep it vague, since obviously it should be in Russia but also I don’t KNOW Russia. 

As my only experience with the modern world is in America, the world will probably look suspiciously Midwestern. And I’m ok with that.

4. Tell us about your protagonist(s).

Natasha. She’s a freshman in the school of music performance, all naïveté and innocence, brimming with enthusiasm for life. An unstable mixture of "awkwardly shy" and "irresistibly interested in people." Comes from a happy home life in a well-enough-to-do family. Second-youngest of five. Drives a VW bug. Devotes herself to her studies. Loves unquestioningly.

Pierre. It’s his fifth year in college and he just changed majors for the umpteenth time. I think it’s poly-sci now; I don’t know what it was before. Financed by his super rich and very absent father, so that he only really has to worry about restocking his apartment with ramen and ice cream every so often. Too existentially minded for his own good. He probably would have been happy as a philosophy major, but they started him out on a logic course and he couldn’t deal with that. A bit of a party animal.

Andrei. Is taking an extra (very light) semester to finish up his third major while also holding down a real job. Is in ROTC. Intensely serious. Emotionally and intellectually DONE with the college scene, he is just so over that stage of life and ready to move on. 4.0 GPA. Intensely ambitious (I’m not sure in what area). Intensely practical. Too busy for most things. Clean living to the limit of human endurance. 

Those are the main 3. Andrei and Pierre are best friends for some unfathomable reason. One breezy September day Natasha is going to break in on Pierre’s life like a sunbeam, and through Pierre’s life to Andrei’s.

5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?

What an excellent question.

The easy answer would be “war,” with the caveat that this may or may not be a metaphor for internal conflict and personal flaws. The original plan was to send Andrei into a zone of conflict, naturally, but…we’ll see.

OH. There is also Anatole.

The JERK.

I'm afraid he's gonna translate into the modern scene so effortlessly.

6. What excites you the most about this novel comic?

Having fun with it! I'm hoping my drawing will improve with practice, but I also know that my drawing won't get anywhere if I don't enjoy what I'm doing, y'know? So yeah. Playing with Tolstoy's wonderful, deep, fleshed-out characters by plopping them into a very mundane setting and watching them have existential crises in university coffee shops is just....it's gonna be fun.

7. Is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?

Well. It’s a comic. And it’s fan art. So…something else?

The genre is kind of forgiving because you don't really have to finish it in order to feel you've accomplished something. If you can get something about Tolstoy across in a single square, then that single square is satisfying, y'know? It's not like anybody's depending on you to finish the project in order for them to know what happens in the story. Anybody can read War and Peace to find out the fates of Andrei and Pierre. 

8. Are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?

I mean, Tolstoy kinda wrote an outline for me…

But yeah no I'm definitely more on the pantsing side of things. Like I'm gonna just sit down and draw when I feel like it. 

9. Name a few unique elements in this story.

Well, again, it’s stolen from Tolstoy, so. Unique is not the aim.

And I feel like if I plugged “war and peace modern fan art” into Pinterest a ton of stuff would come up.

*tries*

*is surprised by how little there is*

OK so maybe plopping Tolstoy into the modern world is a little bit unique? 

10. Share some fun “extras” of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you’ve made, a special theme you’re going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).

I shall share with you ze character design pages I doodled preparatory to launching the adventure in me brand new sketch book. 

(Ignore the blobs that are supposed to be planes in Andrei's page, I have no idea if he's gonna be in the Air Force. Not EVERY story I play with has to have a pilot in it...) 

And that's all I've got for you today! Next month I'll be back with some doodles of the comic itself. And I may possibly be back before then either 1) squealing about my own stories, 2) squealing about other peoples' stories, or 3) squealing about the cool things in real life that I would write stories about if I only had time. In any case there will be squealing. 

Meanwhile, I want to know:

ARE YOU DOING KNOW THE NOVEL? Have you read War and Peace (or watched any of the movies/TV shows)? If so, who's your favorite character? (I am hopelessly partial to Prince Andrei myself.) Do you like to draw? Have you ever made a comic? Any tips for a rookie? What's your creative workload like these days?