Notes from the Slushpile: Cathy Brett

Monday, 24 June 2013

Maureen says, 'Is There a Book Lurking in Your Head?'

by Maureen Lynas

I'm writing a book that I didn't want to write.

And I'm illustrating it.

And it's all come as a bit of a surprise.

Last year when a very successful agent, who knows what she's talking about, suggested I write a book in this genre I think I pulled a face.

The genre - Witch School.

You can see why I pulled a face. Harry Potter, The Worst Witch.

How could I compete? What could I do that would be different? I didn't even want to think about it.
So I didn't.

But then, after a year of writerly disappointments, I was trawling back through agents and publishers emails looking for positive reinforcement that I wasn't useless and I saw the agent's name and remembered the conversation. So I decided to have a go. I thought I'd invest one week in a witchy experiment. Could I write a first draft, 10,000 words in a week? Then if I liked it, I'd keep going, if I didn't, well, I'd only wasted a week.

It's hard to describe what happened next. I actually think I was taken over by the protagonist who must have been lurking in my subconscious just waiting for a chance to get out into the big wide world. For the first time in my writing career I wrote without thinking. No planning (I am a BIG planner), no plotting cards, no character lists or interviews, no chapter breakdowns, no emotional arcs. Just writing. And it was as if my brain was like one of those Chinese puzzles where everything clicks into place because you touch the right spring.

In one week I had that first draft and I felt I'd written a book I was supposed to write.

And I was in love. The little girl telling me her story was an amalgam of all the fictional characters that have made an impression on me for their bravery, cleverness, comedy, and yes, stupidity.

She was channeling Buffy, Willow, Georgina Nicholson, Adrian Mole.

She has such a huge voice, a sense of purpose, a strong sense of right and wrong and so many OPINIONS! She's so DRAMATIC!

Full of life and funny.

Then, once I'd written the draft she demanded to be drawn. I had no intention of illustrating any of my books (check out this interesting blog by Cathy Brett on the Guardian site about illustrated books for older children.) I like doodling and doing pics for Notes From the Slushpile but that's as far as it goes. But she wasn't having it. She wanted to be seen. So, I drew her and here she is - Daisy, alias Ophelia, alias Twinkle, who has just been dumped at Toadspit Towers, School for Witches by her granny.

And of course once she was there on the page she became even more real to me. Her problems meant more. But then I was the one with a problem. If I was going to illustrate the book then who else was in it? What did they look like? They weren't talking to me in the way Daisy/Ophelia/Twinkle was. So I just started drawing in the way I'd just started writing. And I came up with this witchy teacher.

And I showed both illustrations to a few people. They all loved Daisy/Ophelia/Twinkle but the reaction to the teacher was lukewarm and I realised I had drawn a witch and not a real person. So I had another go and then something else curious happened. The teacher that appeared from the end of my stylus has a wooden leg.

Now, I didn't plan that. It just happened. Came out of nowhere. And the wooden leg is called George and he demanded a role in the story too. I know that I would not have come up with George if I'd just written about Ms Priscilla Precisely and not drawn her.

Then a funny thing happened and the first witch began to demand a part and she is now in book 2 and has a major influence on the story. And she looks perfect for that part. She needs to look like a fearsome, traditional, no nonsense witch.

It honestly feels like I'm holding auditions and casting the book!

So far every drawing I've done has informed the character or added a dimension to the plot. So even if the publishers don't want to use them (if I get a book deal) they have played a huge role in bringing the book to life. I'm now 15,000 words into the second draft and I'm alternating between writing and drawing and I have never had so much fun when writing. Or been so creative.

And I wondered, has this happened to anyone else? Have you just sat down and started to write then discovered there's a character with a complete story lurking in your subconscious? Does anyone else, non-illustrators, sketch their characters and have they influenced the way the plot goes? Or who the character is? Or how the world behaves?

To finish I would like to say a big thank you to that very successful agent who said, 'Why not try writing a witch school book?' She obviously knows a lot more than I do about who's in my head. Spooky.

Without her suggestion I would never have met Daisy/Ophelia/Twinkle and I would never have written