Graphic novels are more popular with young adults than they ever have been before. The highest-selling category at Barnes and Noble is manga and graphic novels. Librarians across the country are seeing their teen comics section bled dry. In this presentation, I am going to first talk about why that is. Then I am going to share some tips and tricks I learned as I taught myself graphic novel script writing as an undergrad so that you can be better prepared for when you have students who want to try their hand at it.

While working on my panel for AWP I kept thinking about all the resources I used to teach myself about graphic novels while I was an undergrad. Well good writers don't gatekeep, so here is a list of books, articles, and graphic novels that were really helpful for me! Where possible, I linked a free online version of the resource.

Last Thursday, I led a workshop at BYU's Young Adult Novelist Conference. I designed this workshop to help writing students who have never dabbled in comics before to "write visually." The activity is based on a workshop led by Raina Telgemeier at SCBWI in 2023.