The process of storytelling is different depending if you are telling it through a flash fiction or through a graphic novel. When I wrote the flash fiction I had to illustrate it with words, but when I wrote my graphic novel I could just draw out those details instead of trying to use words. I found it was easier for me personally to write out details, rather than try to draw them.

Fluffy Bunny Blues

Alice the fluffy bunny beamed up at the old woman in the tutu.

“Remember my little dancers, make sure to practice on your own, in costume, before the recital!”

The young bunny admired her new tail in the tall mirrors lining the studio as she hopped up and down on all fours.  

She was still hopping when Mama came to pick her up, but was forced to be a sleeping bunny as she was being buckled into her carseat.

Once in the safety of her home, the sleeping bunny awoke, and began to attempt her hop through the mounds of sporting equipment, magazines, and clothes left everywhere by the giant boys who also inhabited her cozy burrow.  

“Sheesh Mom are you ever going to take that dumb costume off Alice? I think she’s having identity issues” whined the bunny’s oldest brother.

But Mama just smiled, and scooped up the squirming bunny off of the cluttered floor.

For the next two weeks the little bunny practiced for her dance. She hopped at preschool, she twitched her nose through bedtime stories, and she practiced using her long soft bunny ears to hear things far away.

The night of the recital Alice was ready. She and the rest of the bunny troupe excitedly hovered by the edge of the stage, waiting for the old woman in the tutu to gesture them forward. The little bunny waited and waited until finally: now! With a wave of the old woman’s hand, nine fluffy bunnies scurried forward. Except one.

One fluffy bunny stood as if in a trance, eyes wide and unblinking on the far right side of the stage. Her lovely pink bunny mouth opened wide and with her small tiny bunny teeth exposed, she began to shriek, first in high peals, and then utilized a noise most commonly found in horror films: “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”.

The little bunny could not take it any more. Her big bunny ears were hearing the breaths of what seemed to be millions of audience members. Her large bunny eyes were seeing their twisted faces, strangely red and shadowed faces under the dim auditorium lights. Her delicate bunny nose caught the scent of heavy stage makeup and sweaty dance shoes . Everything was too much: the lights! the people! the funny smells! The bunny collapsed and began to pound her silky bunny paws on the stage floor.

Suddenly the sad little bunny felt big strong hands scooping her up: Mama!

The car ride home was filled with hiccups and small exhales coming from the weak and tired Alice. But as soon as she was back home, everything was fine. The floor was crowded and potentially dangerous, but breathtakingly familiar. Her brothers’ whines and complaints about having to attend the recital brought a tiny shudder of relief from the exhausted girl. Eventually,  sometime after hot chocolate and bedtime stories, Alice found her nose beginning to twitch. Around eight o’clock, a little bunny fell asleep, safe in her burrow.