This is Part 1 of 6 of my Everything Before Gia series. Click the link to learn more about my debut novel.

Everything Before Gia was my second attempt at writing a novel. The first attempt, in 2020, taught me that I needed time to arrive at the world of my story organically, rather than forcing plot or character development inside the pages of a notebook. For my second attempt (2021) I drew inspiration from my time at the VCA to test a different approach: collaging with scissors and tape. This practice began with eighteen months left studying my Bachelor of Arts. Upon my graduation I'd produced 624 pages of material across seven scrapbooks.

Paraphernalia, notes and other materials were collected and distributed into piles every few months. Here is the final and largest batch of collected materials, from mid-2022, strewn across my bedroom carpet. The narrow strips of paper came from bullet point lists of ideas that were originally text messages I sent myself. Texting myself became my primary method of recording and organising ideas on the go.

Once each pile was formed according to a theme, scene, character or concept, I placed them into plastic pockets to reduce sprawl. After each page of material was taped down, prior collages could be reinterpreted in new and revealing ways. This was by design. I wanted to continually rediscover my work and themes throughout this process. What would my novel be about? I trusted that the scrapbooking would be complete once I arrived at ideas/themes so personally compelling that I'd have no choice other than to write a full manuscript.

What ended up happening instead was that my practice forced me to acknowledge something much bigger and heavier—I had been living inauthentically for twenty years. Because, as my ideas for a protagonist emerged on the page in semi-autobiographical collages, I completely failed to identify their gender. I asked myself, if this protagonist is inspired by my first-hand experiences, why don't I know something as straightforward as their gender? It became clear that they weren't boy, and neither was I. This epiphany occurred eight months into the process. Here is a photo of me during that difficult time.

Text-based collages were laid out line by line, like poetry. Sometimes these layouts carried over a few spreads.

The following year, in 2022, I began my transition and continued to collage tirelessly, documenting my ideas and experiences fluidly. This final batch of materials filled four scrapbooks (seven in total). I now possessed all the material I needed to write a compelling and thematically rich debut novel. I began drafting immediately, then hit a wall.

Realising I needed to sequence my ideas, I transformed these scrapbooks into a huge timeline of events.

Click here for Part 2 of the Everything Before Gia novel series!