The Neverland Wars Begin
When the muse arrives, one must meet her.
That’s something I’ve learned over my years as a creative. You have the idea, and if you don’t put pen to paper (or thumbs to Notes app, which is often the case for me), you lose it.
I had the concept for The Neverland Wars as I was writing the graphic novel script for Immortal Bones in my Writing for Comics and Graphic Novels class at AAU in 2022. Only then, it was called Rise of Pan, and I had a very different idea of where the story would begin.
After writing ideas down for a spell, I realized the story would be best told from the perspective of Tinker Bell.
I left it alone for a long while, my thoughts returning to it every now and then, but I was determined to finish two other books that I had in various stages of the creative process.
The muse, it seems, had other plans.
In October of 2023, I decided to embark on the journey of creating a dark fantasy collection of characters from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy novel. I began with Tinker Bell, envisioning her as a warrior princess clad in leather.
I usually ink all my illustrations in straight black and white, but for this collection, I decided to add single a color. Red.
Next came Hook, now Peter Pan.
Who will I illustrate next?
After posting a few reels on Instagram, videos of the process of inking Tinker Bell, I began getting bits of dialogue and scenes coming through. I never liked writing captions, not as an artist or writer, anyway, which is funny considering writing takes up so much of my day.
But these captions were different. There was something electric about it, writing scenes that might go into my novel one day. Key words: one day. I even posted a story telling everyone how I wasn’t going to write this book until I finished a few other projects.
Foot, mouth.
Around a week ago, I was writing something for a reel of the Peter Pan illustration, and what came out struck me. I knew it was the opening to the book. And, I had my duology’s title, thanks to the line following the paragraph. It goes: Recovered records from The Neverland Wars. That was the line that sparked everything. I might still use Rise of Pan for the title of the first book, but I haven’t committed to that, yet.
So, I started writing that same day, clearing my calendar and ignoring everyone and everything except my cats. I wrote the next day, then the next. And so it’s been every day since that initial lighting strike of inspiration.
Currently, I’m well into Act I, establishing the situation and conflict and moving into the major visual action before Act II.
Neverland is consuming my thoughts, and I’m not mad about it.
