I usually try to get a morning walk in across the fields, through woodland, along footpaths, when I can, after doing the school run. It banishes low feelings, exercises the body and gets me thinking about the day ahead. It’s especially useful if I’m working on a new Jack and Boo book, which are all set out in nature. A writer needs to observe the world and then try and describe it anew. I try to do this when writing Jack and Boo books. I try to think about how I can describe something we might see everyday and take for granted, in a new way. Our autumn book called Jack and Boo’s Wild Wood took ages to write despite its brevity. This is partly because I’m the world’s slowest writer, but mostly because the story follows the adventures of Jack and Boo in a wood from spring through to autumn. It’s a challenge to write about a season or event you are not directly experiencing, so I make notes through the year and then later refer to them. Ultimately, you cannot beat getting out into nature and observing. But, please do watch out for cows.

On my frosty walk today I encountered a herd of cows blocking the style I needed to cross. Bearing in mind this is the same field I got chased by sheep in during summer, I really didn’t fancy my chances, so I opted for the country lane instead. Still, all grist for the mill…coming soon… Jack and Boo’s Terrifying Run from a Herd of Evil Cows!

Some time ago I was asked by Beth Cregan, a teacher and writer, based in Australia who runs a great educational/writing company called Write Away With Me that inspires young people, children and teachers to educate through story telling.  She asked me to write a blog piece about my inspiration for writing our books. I’ve reproduced it here with some edits in case you missed it, which include some insights into how we create our books:

I’ve always loved picture books. Like most children, picture books were my first introduction to the world of literature. I have wonderful electric feelings of being read a picture book on the sofa or at bedtime by my mum and grandma. My favourite picture book, or at least the one that resonates most from my childhood, is Cuthbert and the Thingamabob by Kim Chesher, illustrated by Yasuko Kimura, and a sequel, Cuthbert and the Sea Monster, now both sadly out of print. (Interestingly, there are other versions published where the name Fergus is used in place of Cuthbert?)

This story and the images in the book stayed with me until I had children of my own, when I was delighted to find out my mum had kept the luminous green, well worn, hardbacks to give to me to read to my two offspring. To my surprise, one of the books even has some of my first attempts at writing – T’s and H’s scribbled at varying size and my attempt at drawing the eponymous Cuthbert of the title in red felt tip all over the interior title page. On first discovering this, I thought the graffiti was the work of my young daughter who regularly fills paper pads with letters and drawings. It reminded me that picture books, the shape of letters on the page, the rhythm of hearing our parents read them, are an essential step in learning to read and write.

And so I rediscovered my childhood favourite, but this time as an adult, and now a writer, seeing other layers to the simple story of how Cuthbert searches for a special Thingamamob that reminds him what kind of animal he is. What chimed most as a child was the picture book images, the monstrous versions of familiar animals, although on re-reading (especially reading to my children) I noticed the author’s writing, the style, the flow and rhythm. This is normal as a child does tend to focus on the illustrations, especially at pre-school age. But words are just as important and must work together with the images, often with a subtext flowing through both. Words and pictures have to compliment one another, but can also subvert to create humour or surprise.

To write picture books you have to read them to understand how they are constructed. It’s only then you can find your own likes, dislikes and develop your own writing style. What initially put me off writing a picture book was the picture bit, something that obviously makes up a considerable part. I’d known through my research that publishers tended to only accept picture book text from writers, sent in without pictures, and if you were lucky, good enough and fitted into their existing list, they’d match an illustrator to your words. Obviously if you are a writer and illustrator, and you have a truly original style in both – greats like Quentin Blake spring to mind – then you’re laughing.

I was fortunate that my wife was handy with a pencil and taking inspiration from our own family adventures with our two children, Jack and Boo, the characters in our book, were born. We wanted our book to easily stand alongside other published picture books, so we chose a popular modern format and went for a standard 32 page interior. (Basically picture book page counts must be divisible by 4 i.e. 4 pages to each sheet of paper.) When I wrote various drafts I’d just write the text on a new page in word, to represent each picture book page. It was a long process finding the right style and what really helped was creating several “book dummies” made from plain sheets of paper folded and stapled, to get a visual feel of where things should go, how the story should flow – essential to simulating what a reader experiences as they turn the pages.

To keep things simple I chose a standard format of text on the left, with an illustration on the opposite page. I particularly like free verse and prose poetry and, as the idea was to capture a family day out, I wrote it in this style, as though writing a diary using poetry, but from the child’s point of view. While going through old photos we hit upon the idea of using them in the book as we hadn’t seen that style before. My wife’s illustrations reflect a snapshot in time, like a photo, but don’t necessarily represent the exact actions of Jack and Boo described in the text – the picture or text should bring something new to the party. Often the text talks about a moment just before or just after the snapshot, and in this way I hope children enjoying the book will imagine what happened leading up to the event, or following the event, sparking their imagination.

Jack and Boo’s Bucket of Treasures, or our new book Jack and Boo’s Wild Wood, are nothing like the Cuthbert stories, but I hope I’ve captured the spirit of it in my own style. Now when I sit down to write a story, I start by rereading a childhood favourite to remember how it inspired me. When I write I then try to recreate that sense of magic, wonder and discovery that I felt.

As a writer you have to get used to criticism, whether it be from your own critical brain, or from an external comment from friend, family member or professional. I’ve had my fair share along the way and still get criticism and rejections, every so often. But, if you publish your own books, you avoid all this, right?

That’s what somebody on Twitter implied to me the other day - why am I worrying about rejection if I publish myself? I’m sure they assumed I was trying to get something published, but what they may not have realised is, as independent publisher, you still have to go out and try and sell your book to the world, try and persuade the “gatekeepers” who own the bookshops, book buyers, distributors, wholesalers, organisations, why they should take a risk with your book. And, remember, it is a risk taking on an unknown book from a new author or independent publisher, unless it’s an easy sell, preferably, a book that has got the backing of a TV series, film rights sold and from an established author.

And so, like a writer trying to get their book published, trying to sell your self published book is also a struggle, one that is littered with rejections and criticism along the way, but hopefully if your book really is good (it is good isn’t it?), some great feedback and success too.

I write this because recently I’ve stepped up my marketing activities in order to get our books sold in more outlets around the country. I say “outlets” as you have to think further than traditional bookshops (my views on the future of real bookshops, however much I love them, I’ll save for a future blog post). I recently got some feedback on our new book from a senior person in a big organisation that I won’t name. It was confusing as the email was very vague and suggested that certain aspects of our book would not chime well with them. I immediately went into panic mode, flipping through a copy of the book on my desk, checking to see if there was anything contentious contained within.

I started to guess at a few possible things, mind racing. In the end I was bold and politely emailed back to ask for some clarification, asking that their expert feedback would be greatly appreciated. To my delight I got back a quick email with more detail. I took on board the feedback and realised that some elements of the book could be construed in a different way, from their point of view – they were thinking of a managerial point of view, health and safety etc. I could have just thought – no I’m not changing MY BOOK, how dare you, it’s perfect! But, they did have a point, and if a senior person, experienced in their field, noticed things that set off alarm bells, other people might also think the same. This would have been devastating  if we had thousands of stock books piled up, but we use Print On Demand (POD) technologies to only print the books we want at the time. I have now made some changes, which only took a few hours and future books will be improved following detailed constructive criticism. And that’s the point, when you get criticism, ask for more detailed feedback.

This is easier said than done as I know, if we’re talking about getting published, agents and publishers rarely give you specific feedback – a standard form rejection is de-rigour due to the sheer height of most slush piles. Having said all this, years ago I got a hand written rejection from an agent that gave me so much confidence on my writing (the story sucked) that it really helped me push ahead.

And so, I say, to all those that give criticism, please, please, if you can, spare a moment, a few helpful, honest, specific words to the recipient will be appreciated. And to those who have got some recent criticism and rejection, please listen to it then wipe away the tears, make some changes, get back on the horse and make that jump. Although, be prepared to fall off into that muddy ditch again, sorry.