I started writing my first book when I was still at school. It wasn't historical fiction, it was high fantasy, and it was the first of ten books, under the collective title The Watcher's Heir . I knew from the word go that it was going to have this number of books, although I didn't really work out exactly what would happen in each one. Twenty-five years on and the books are still not finished, although I now only have a couple more to go! Every Christmas I settle down and manage to write a chapter or two more, and every New Year it is my resolution to finish them. I suspect this will go on for a few years more. In the passage of time since then, I've written more than a dozen books. I can't quite pinpoint what it is which keeps obstructing the conclusion of these books. It could be that I am not the same person I was 25 years ago (who is?!), and so the voice which began the books is almost unrecognisable. It could be that I have now passed the age almost all of my ...
Friday 22nd November – Illustrations
I respond best to visual learning styles. I’m always looking
for pictures. Whether it’s a pre-existing landscape just begging to be
photographed, or the words of a writer on the page calling out to be
transformed into art.
I’m not the best artist in the world, but I can make a
decent attempt at drawing. But the hardest thing about illustrating a book is
pleasing the author, while the hardest thing about having your own work
illustrated is relinquishing your hold on it.
So, what I tend to do now is wait to be asked to illustrate
things, or else I illustrate my own stories. Over the last few years, I’ve
offered to illustrate people’s favourite poems for National Poetry Day, and this
year I had my first published illustrations in “Rosie Jane and the Swadgrump”. When
we launched the book in the school, the thing which most impressed the children
was how I’d managed to do the characters' hair(!) and how I’d reproduced the same
character, from scratch, in every picture. Their awe really gave a newbie like
me a massive confidence boost! This was the first time I’d shared any of my digital
graphics with the world, creating most of the pictures in strong, bold colours
using the computer’s shades rather than my own.
One thing I’ve learnt (although, not always done!), is not
to fill a picture. Look at the needs of your audience, and the needs of the
illustration itself. Sometimes, empty spaces aren’t blanks, they’re
vacuums which draw the reader in.
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