Photo Caption:
This photo is used in a literal sense, but it best illustrates the process of cutting unnecessary elements out of the original narrative to turn it into a comic. (Photo Credit: Freepik)
My initial literacy narrative felt more like an essay than a story/narrative. That’s why when it came time to turn it into a comic, I had trouble figuring out which elements to keep and which to cut. I decided to focus on my CommonApp essay, where I wrote about my personal growth through the play I participated in during my junior year of high school. Choosing what to include in the comic relates to the “rhetorical composition” learning outcome, specifically the concepts of organizing and developing my thoughts in a way that provides me with a clear idea of what the final product will look like.
The hardest part of this assignment was drawing the comic itself. I am not artistic, so I was nervous about drawing a 3-4 page comic. However, drawing out the storyboard was a helpful tool for gathering my ideas and figuring out how to use them best. I could then take the storyboard and trace over it using a thicker pen tool before adding color to make the comic more pleasant to look at. I enjoyed the coloring process because it allowed the page to come to life as if I relived the memory. This process relates to the “visual thinking” learning outcome because I used the means of drawing and art to communicate my ideas to an audience. I took many creative liberties that I certainly wouldn’t have taken in different circumstances. The combination of various mediums has always interested me, and I was excited to expose myself to a new medium that involved drawing. As a result of completing this comic, I have a newfound confidence in drawing that I hope to apply to my other classes, specifically my freshman seminar, where our final project will be designing a video game. I am excited to use what I have learned in this class throughout my college career!
Creating a comic from my literary narrative also allowed me to show my understanding of Scott McCloud’s “Clarity” diagram. As I began the storyboard, I became aware of the five categories in the diagram. As I explained in the first paragraph, I had to find the moments that mattered most and cut the ones that didn’t matter as much, which relates to the “choice of the moment” section of the diagram. Another diagram section that stood out to me was the “choice of flow” section. Flow is crucial to me when reading any literary work–otherwise, I lose interest and give up reading the book. That’s why the moments I chose to use were so important–they needed to fit together cohesively and flow to keep the audience’s attention.
This process allowed me to revisit my literary narrative in a new light. My narrative is a narrative now instead of an essay that only serves as the answer to a given prompt. The limited drawing space forced me to jump straight into the narrative’s central idea(s) instead of “tip-toeing” around them, which was one of the main critiques about the first part of my narrative. My narrative now feels like a coherent story that shows growth in myself and the quality of my writing (as seen on the third page).
View my literacy comic here
