Hatching a Graphic Novel: From Heart to Page with Marcy Bursac

In this Success Story, Marcy and Maria’s comments are adapted from Marcy’s podcast, The Forgotten Adoption Option. Listen to more of Marcy and Maria’s conversation on How to Write a Graphic Novel about Foster Care Adoption.

Author Marcy Bursac

“Giving space and time for the story in my heart to emerge is a multi-faceted process of discovery, vulnerability, and ongoing refinement. Maria’s creative energy, style, and pace drew out the story within me. And we had so much fun!”

Marcy Bursac is a nationally recognized foster care adoption advocate, author, podcaster, and researcher. An adoptive mom to siblings, she founded the Foster Care Adoption Awareness Reading Program and has dedicated her work to supporting and educating families about adoption from foster care.

Raising Adoption Awareness Through Story

Marcy’s passion is to raise awareness of the needs and experiences of families and children in the foster care system awaiting adoption. Through her mentoring and classroom resources, she had already been doing this in elementary schools, and now wanted to reach middle and high schoolers with a single book. Educators, librarians, and teens she consulted with recommended creating a graphic novel.

Service Details

We worked together on the graphic novel in two phases.

Writer’s Roost

“Maria understood my vision and mapped out the steps and timeline for writing the story in my heart into a short screen play for my illustrator to create the visual story in a graphic novel.” – Marcy

Following the Writer’s Roost Package services, we developed the novel’s story arc, including main characters, themes, scenes, and settings.

Maria: I’d worked with Marcy before and knew: “This woman is so creative. She will pull out the stops in service of this message and mission.” Our Writer’s Roost process began with homework for Marcy around the Fore Core Framework questionnaire and articulating her Controlling Idea. Marcy knew the kind of story she wanted to tell, one woven from real-life experiences.

We got more clarity about the message she wanted the reader to take from the story, and, about our main character/protagonist: How did we want to see her change from the beginning of the story to its resolution, and what was going to happen to her in between?

Manuscript Migration

Building on our Writer’s Roost outcomes, Marcy wrote the initial draft of the story and Maria provided the developmental edit using proven story analysis guidelines aligned to the graphic novel format. This edit included an annotated manuscript, consultation, and Next Steps report outlining the work to be done to polish and finish the manuscript, all part of the Manuscript Migration process.

As the manuscript was created and revised, Maria used visual mapping to guide emotional intensity and provided ongoing analysis and guidance to refine and polish the story.

Marcy: During one zoom meeting, I was overwhelmed by her passion for the project and how deeply she cared about the story we were shaping together. Choking back tears, I asked for a pause. She thought I meant to pause the recording—so she did. But I told her it wasn’t about the recording.

“I needed to pause to acknowledge the beauty of the moment: how the story was coming to life in a way I couldn’t have done alone, how her coaching had pulled things out of me I didn’t know I could write, and how this whole process felt like such a profound gift.” – Marcy

Each step of this journey felt like an unfolding celebration—of both the process and the story itself. From sharing ideas that had been held in my heart to refining them into something tangible, I remembered that growth takes time. I embraced every milestone with gratitude, knowing that every conversation, every note, and every moment spent writing brought this project closer to life.

Maria: It’s a very vulnerable thing to turn your writing over to someone and say, “What do you think?” It’s important to me that we have a space where it’s understood that this is safe. This is not going to be a place where you walk away feeling torn down, but a space where you will be affirmed in what’s working and given clear feedback on how to improve the work where needed.

“I know from my experience as a writer, and from countless colleagues and clients, that we can start the project with a clear understanding of how it’s going to go, and then new things emerge, and some roadblocks come up. Sometimes what comes through in those insights and hardships is some of the best stuff the story can offer.” – Maria

I wanted us to put forth a story that was authentic, that was in the right voice – resonant for readers who may have shared the experience of the people in the story, and that would call forth a layer of empathy and compassion for the people who didn’t share those experiences.

When we give a story time to develop, these magnificent things come up that we didn’t see in the first place. Then readers come back and say, “Oh, I love that part!” and that very element of the story didn’t emerge until the process of drafts and rewrites and feedback. If you push the work through too quickly, you short circuit those opportunities.

The Epilogue

Marcy: Several of my other books are prescriptive nonfiction, where I’m explaining and teaching. What was interesting to me in working with Maria on a graphic novel is that the teaching no longer had words. The teaching came through in other ways. Some of it was depicted in the scene, through dialogue or props they were holding, or in a single image. This was so different from anything I’ve ever done. I am so grateful I found Maria and was able to figure out how to translate what’s in my heart into a story.

If you’re thinking about writing something, and you’re thinking “I don’t actually know what to do,” that’s great, because you don’t need to know what to do. Just knowing the heart of what you’re doing is enough. I’ve learned in this graphic novel space that though I didn’t know how to put the pieces together and how to write this short screenplay, I knew that I could trust Maria. I could trust her and her process. Even though it was messy, and I feel like I started over multiple times, it was okay. Because that was part of the journey.

“I grew in my creative openness. I was okay in the process, knowing that even what I wrote yesterday…it was really good when we talked, but then, when we met the next time, because of what we had learned, it needed to be moved or shifted or removed. I could trust enough that it wasn’t a waste of time to go through the learning.” – Marcy

Maria: One of the things I loved about our working together on this was the opportunity to take this story from conception to finished work. Oftentimes I’m entering at different phases along that journey. I’ve evaluated completed manuscripts. I’ve joined writers midway through: they’ve reached some blocks or they’ve written their way to a place, and they need help visioning where that story can go. I’m happy to drop in at any point.

I welcome clients who are committed to being in that creative space together, where their work isn’t too precious. They’re willing to accept feedback because developmental editors provide such a wonderful perspective on the work, and that’s where Marcy was all through the process.

Editor’s Reflections

Maria: I was so moved by Marcy’s experience and the real-life stories she shared and wove into a single story, by the characters she wanted to bring in, and what she wanted to say. We wanted the story to create a similar experience for our reader. We wanted them to be as invested in our main character as we were invested in the people that were inspiring Marcy to tell this story. I am grateful to have been in that space with her – bringing this marvelous story into the world, through real-life anecdotes adapted to this story…that I could stand in that space with her to bring all of that in and to say, “Okay, this is so beautiful. How can we use our storytelling tools to bring that experience to your readers and make an impact?”

“It’s this potential impact that makes storytelling a sacred trust. At our most fundamental level as human beings, we are wired for story. It is how we connect with each other. Story is how we give each other advice, guidance, how we find our home, our connection with others.” – Maria

Crafting a story is a big responsibility because of the potential impact on readers. When they open themselves to a story, they will assimilate it on some level. Or they might reject it. In any case, by telling a story, the author creates a space where the reader may be changed through the transformational arc of a character. In crafting a story with a message for the reader, we’re helping to form that person, and ultimately, how they show up in the world. As with Marcy’s graphic novel, I want to tell stories that are good and true and beautiful that elevate the reader. That to me is a sacred trust.