Writing My First Book

Inspiration often comes from the strangest of places. I’m not sure I’d say that of my author origin story (I guess that would be up to you to decide); but nevertheless, it is my story. I was playing monster with my little girl, two-years-old at the time (her, not me), ‘tired,’ shall we say; and bunkering down in her princess tent for some much-needed rest. My legs were stretched outside the folds and, in my head, I picture her shouting “arrrghh, there’s a monster in my tent!” Although I’m pretty sure that’s just a figment of my imagination, concocted to relate it to my story even further. Either way, that’s the scene I’m setting. 

I’d always wanted to write a book. I’d begun to write a novel, but never found myself to have the time to stick to it. I didn’t have the motivation when it came to doing a bit of writing here or there, so it was left at three chapters (each at first draft). I worked as a Content Executive full time, writing descriptions of restaurants seven hours a day, and I just didn’t have the energy to do more writing after work, especially after putting an energetic two-year-old to bed. There was little appetite and even less brain power, even if I did enjoy this style of writing much more than I did my day job.

I’d been thinking about writing a children’s book for a few years; having been told I had a talent for it by a college tutor, but I'd never followed up on it until that point. Ideas were hard to come by, so I was stuck choosing between piling all my energy into creating a competent picture book or finding the drive to have a real go at my novel; ultimately getting caught somewhere in the middle. Then came COVID, furlough and, ultimately, redundancy. Suddenly there was much more time and, thanks to an eager, creative, playful child, a move, a late evening, an early morning and a bright pink princess tent, an idea was born. A long, sometimes arduous journey was about to begin.

Well, the seed of an idea had been planted anyway, which I just needed to water and let grow. Once I started, it took a few hours to create a plan that was in some way comprehensible (at least to me), complete with a description of the images that I wanted (although this did change a few times throughout the process). I began with a skeleton plan (one or two-word bullet pointed ideas whenever one cropped into my head) and I expanded it from there, with full descriptions separated by page numbers (like mini chapters). I then attempted to jot down examples of the pictures that I wanted, but upon showing them to my wife (who subsequently looked at me like I’d just tried to demonstrate them in Mandarin), I decided that this was a fruitless task.

Then came the writing. I went back and forth on style, but when I started rhyming, everything began moving forward a little more smoothly. This was probably the part that came easiest to me and I was through the first draft in a couple of hours. I took inspiration from many different children’s books, The Gruffalo being a major one (describing the monster). This was but an extension to the planning process however, and in truth the full project took a few weeks. I wrote, then I read through it, amended it, and then left it. After a few hours I read it, then amended it, read it again and amended it etc.  

I left the story for a few more weeks then looked at it with fresh eyes. I pulled it apart in sections and edited it further, continuously reading it aloud to make sure it flowed. Eventually, I was happy and sent it across to different publishers, getting a variety of responses. Once I’d gotten acceptance from some, I chose the traditional publishing method with a company called Olympia, and I went about trying to source an illustrator (I cannot draw for toffee, as I indicated earlier). I felt, in hindsight, that I should have done this earlier, but I lacked confidence and was sceptical that it would be accepted, so I wanted to ensure that the writing was good enough first.                                          

As it turned out, using the hybrid publishing process (contributing to the payment necessary in creating the book) with Austin Macauley and paying a little extra for the book to be illustrated by them was almost as cost effective and less effort from myself in terms of searching for an illustrator. I sent on the image descriptions that had been tweaked a few times, and from there the dance began. Back and forth, back and forth we went, seemingly with no end in sight. Sometimes it was just a matter of making little alterations, other times whole picture changes needed to be made (which was mainly my fault, as I’d changed my mind).

I consulted my wife at this stage, and she her biggest criticism was that my portrayals were very "samey", which made it seem boring (she was correct). It took almost 2 years to get right, but finally I had a finished product. Then all that was left was production and marketing, off-which I would receive my release date (2nd February 2024) and the ways in which my book would be promoted over the coming months. A couple of months before it was released, I was so excited to be sent copies of my book among other promotional materials. From playing (resting (sleeping, maybe)) in a pink princess tent with my two-year-old, I was now able to read to my five-year-old the book she inspired.

By Calum Dewsbury