Writing a picture book in a sketchbook... what could be more natural?

Creating a book - I'm busy painting characters for my next book, and they're coming along very nicely. They've finally made the jump from my imagination, onto the page - yes an actual paper page...! It's a picture book and I'm drawing and writing it in a sketchbook, it seems the characters are happier to jump into a sketchbook than onto a computer screen, and who can blame them...

Everyone has a book inside them...?

They say that everyone has a book inside them, but not everyone has the passion to cultivate that book and release it into printed form...

Ideas and inspiration spring up at the most unexpected times, but not every flash of inspiration has enough momentum to become a book. That's why I don't write down everything that pops into my head - if it's meant to be it's going to stick around anyway - some characters simply won't go away, so they're not going to be forgotten just because I didn't make a note of them the first time they popped up...

Some characters will have so much to say for themselves that they become a series of books - yes I have such a character, Iver NO-Idea sprang up as if from nowhere when I was reading an article about how to write - now I'm not sure that anyone can tell you how to write. You can be taught the rules of grammar and the structure of a story, but the fun really starts when you start playing with the rules, and just let your imagination run riot...

Doodle Mayhem was born out of the idea that you shouldn't let a character take control and do their own thing - whoever thought up that rule certainly hadn't met Iver No-Idea, born out of a simple doodle drawn by Eric in class, when he couldn't think of what to write... the character really took off when he started to talk to Eric, and he literally got his voice...

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 First in the Doodle series

Eric would rather doodle than write a story, but when the words start to disappear off the page in front of him, and his doodle starts talking to him, he thinks he must be dreaming.

Eric's doodle has come to life, and he's getting bored; he jumps into Miranda's story, where he gets attacked by a rubber, then he's blown off his feet when Natasha sneezes. Miss Roper is getting angrier by the second. How will Eric ever finish his story, when his doodle just wants to have fun, and create havoc?

Step into a world where drawings come alive, meet Eric's doodles Iver No-Idea and his dog HB as they cause their own brand of trouble.

46 page paperback

Black & white line drawings

ISBN 978-0-9560232-4-7

Are your characters taking over...?

You shouldn't let characters in a book take charge and do their own thing... well why not? was my first thought when I read that advice... and the doodle series was born.

Have you ever sat down to write one story, but ended up writing another? Well that's what happened to me with Doodle Mayhem.

I can't even remember what I thought I was going to write about, but once I'd set the scene with Eric in class doodling, with no idea what he was writing about either, the cogs started turning; and once Eric's doodle started to speak he took on a life of his own and there was no going back.

If anyone else starts hearing voices in their heads it is probably cause for concern, but for a writer I believe it's essential to be able to hear the voices of your characters, and allow them to become real... 

Meet Iver No-Idea and his dog HB 

But to hear the conversation you'll need to read the book... 

Doodle Mayhem is set out in chapters with black and white drawings and is ideal for new or reluctant readers, or just someone who enjoys a fun read... 

Writing, characters and inspiration...

The characters in books didn't get there by accident, they had to struggle to be heard in the writer's head. The ones that end up in a book are the characters with the strongest voices, who shouted too loud to be ignored and had to be released ...

Writers - people who hear voices in their heads and call them inspiration...

So what happens when those characters are edited into books...? Well they constantly want to be released into a reader's imagination...