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It's confession time and today I'm admitting to the appearance of the Green Eyed Monster from time to time. They always say that people who can do something always wish they could do something else... Tennis Players wish they were Rock Stars, Chefs wish they were Footballers. I'd quite like to be a decent illustrator.

I read Malachy Doyle's post on the Picture Book Den Blog last Sunday with great interest. His post, entitled 'DON'T DO IT! - How NOT to write a picture book' was simple and well written, offering sound advice for all wood-be picture book authors and a good reminder for those that already write picture books.

Of all the points Malachy made the one that stood out to me most was simply "Don't think it's easy"...  Many people mistakenly think that because a book has very few words it must be easy to write, however, there's a definite craft to writing a picture book story (and I'm very much still a learner) which is often belied by their seeming simplicity.

I've written quite a few books where the number of words is often predetermined and I know how much I can agonise over these in a bid to get the story to sound right with so few words available. Picture books aimed at a mass market are a little different though as with a picture book the skill is to tell the story effectively, incorporating a rhythm to the text so that it can be read aloud and shared. The low word count comes from the author's ability to effectively use 'all the right words in all the right places' (to misquote Eric Morcambe). Again, Malachy put it perfectly "Rhythm, and a delightful ease in the telling, are key". Personally, I find myself agonising over a picture book text more than anything else I do, often spending a seemingly ridiculous amount of time playing with the words and often ending up with little to show for it... but in the end it can be all worth while.

I've lost count of the number of times that I've picked up a new picture book in a library or bookshop, read it and been left thinking, often unfairly, is that it? Yes, there are those occasions when I'm left wondering how on earth a some books could have been published and at these times I just grind my teeth and return home to carry on working. But there are also many occasions when I'm left knowing that the author has got it spot on. A perfect picture book... At these times I've also been known to grind my teeth and return home to carry on working.

In the picture book world there are authors and there are illustrators. Together, their combination of words and artwork marry together and create something that is somehow greater than the sum of the two parts. But there's another breed too... not content to do one thing or the other, some people insist on writing AND illustrating - and doing it well too.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that those with the ability to do both should be locked away for all eternity - far from it - I'm merely confessing to the little pang of envy that I occasionally feel after reading a book/text and feeling (perhaps wrongly) that had I submitted it to a publisher it would have barely been given a second glance. I had such a feeling a couple of weeks ago after reading Jon Klassen's excellent, and thoroughly deserving award winner, This is Not My Hat. The text and the illustrations all deceptively simple, yet spot on. A perfect picture book.

I love that the stories I write get illustrated by so many fantastic illustrators but I do find it frustrating to come up with ideas that I know won't the light of day because I'm not able to present them more effectively to a publisher. Solutions gratefully received.

Enough of the teeth grinding for now - back to work.

Damian Harvey
www.damianharvey.co.uk
Twitter @damianjharvey

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As if it isn't enough trying to get as much writing done as I feel I should (and I rarely feel I've done enough by the end of the day) I also feel the need to review books, blog, do my own website (this week I've been creating some simple animated pictures to make it look more interesting - like this one of L.S. Lowry) and of course, I Twitter. I know lots of other writers do all these things too and I'm sure that they have no problems in doing so, and doing it well. 

The problem is that all of these things take time out of the writing day, and again I rarely feel as though I'm even doing these extra things as well as I should... It's a guilt thing.

Of all of these additional little things, surely Twitter is the easiest and least time consuming - after all, it only takes a moment to send a little Tweet doesn't it. Or so you'd think.

Love it or loathe it, online social networking of one kind or another is here to stay and I feel it's important to keep my hand in as a way of promoting myself and what I'm doing. I've restricted myself to only using Twitter as I find it does just about everything that I want. I have a Twitter feed on the home page of my website which allows me to say a quick hello to schools I'm visiting. This always goes down well when it's projected onto a screen in the school hall or in the classroom for everyone to see (making it that bit more personal) though sadly some schools automatically block social networking sites so all that appears is an empty space on the home page - so I've wondered if it's worthwhile after all.

I also tweet about what I'm doing - though as we all know, Tweeting that you're sitting at home writing everyday can become a little boring - as can the earth shattering news that you're making another cup of coffee. To make it a little more interesting I do try and tweet about other things - what I'm doing and where I'm going etc... including pictures from time to time where relevant and when there's a signal on my phone. I know I could make better use of Twitter though - again if only I had the time. Just as I start to think it's not worth the effort, something happens to change my mind. Recently I've been invited into schools as a result of interest generated by Tweets from and to other schools, I've also had contact from publishers. So I've decided, yes... it is worth the effort (for now) and of  course it only takes a moment to do.

As a result of this, I've recently decided that I should be a little more proactive on Twitter. I've made an effort to follow relevant people - seeking out schools, teachers, libraries, librarians, publishers, authors illustrators, bookshops and other book related people and organisations. If any of these follow me then I follow back - after all, what's the point of it all if you are only tweeting to a handful of people. Although I'm keen to build my followers I have no intention of playing the game of following hundreds of random people, then unfollowing as soon as they follow back (as I've noticed some do). I want to try and keep it relevant. I've also taken the time to unfollow those people that, after a period of time, don't follow me (again, what's the point unless you are genuinely interested in them or they are relevant to what you are doing). friendorfollow.com is a great help in this.

I've been slowly going through the list of people I follow and creating little lists to make it easier for me to find them - this task is still ongoing. I know need to actively retweet relevant tweets from people, favouriting  here and there and commenting etc. The problem is, it all takes time doesn't it... and what started out as a quick and simple tweet easily becomes time consuming. It's easy to start obsessing over numbers and why so and so has suddenly stopped following you.

Today has been a good day - I've written quite a lot, I've done a new web page showing new book covers (History Heroes), I've written this (waffling) post, I've Tweeted a bit and I don't feel guilty...
Tomorrow I'll be visiting a school (so no writing) and I'll tweet about it too if there's a phone signal.

Damian Harvey
www.damianharvey.co.uk
Twitter @damianjharvey

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With so many libraries around Great Britain closing many people are looking for ways to increase library usage and to prove that libraries are as important and valued as we know them to be - rather than the soft target for cutbacks that the government seem to see them as. The recent trend of opening large, modern, inner city libraries such as the ones in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Cardiff is all very nice but not when it is at the expense of the smaller branch libraries which are extremely valuable. As a child my Mum took me to our local library every week to borrow new books - not something that would have been as easy to do had we had to travel further afield to visit the main library, and it's the same with children now. It can be hard enough getting children into libraries, however, here in Wales a new initiative was launched earlier this year to try and encourage all children to use their local library.

Welsh Libraries and Primary Schools have joined together to support children's reading and literacy by making Every Child A Member of the library, something that I can't help should have already been going on.

In a Welsh Government press release the Minister said: "The link between library usage and literacy levels is well documented - over 42,000 children in Wales took part in last year’s Summer Reading Challenge which ran in 245 libraries across the country.
"Those children that took part maintained or improved their reading levels and we are hoping to build on this by giving every child the opportunity to use their library to borrow books and access all the other services available to them.” 

Initially, this opt out scheme is being trialled by the Gwent, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Powys and Swansea authorities but is planes for rollout across the country in the near future.

I was delighted to be asked to take part in the launch of the Every Child A Member initiative by visiting local libraries and meeting year four children from local schools, many bussed in from outlying areas. All the children received their new library cards and were then let loose to choose books to take home and read - as well as receiving a goody bag. As well as being able to talk about my own books it was great being able to read from and suggest books by other authors that they might like to read - John Dougherty's Stinkbomb and Ketch-up Face went down a treat.
Although many children were already members and keen users of the libraries they visited, there were many more that weren't. Some had never been to the library before. Will parents keep coming back to the library with their children? This has yet to be seen, but I can't help feeling that this is a late, but welcome start to getting children into the libraries. Without creating this link between children and libraries what hope is there for the future.

Damian Harvey
www.damianharvey.co.uk

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Children and adults alike often ask how long I’ve been a writer and, have I always wanted to be a writer? Adults also share the fact that they too would like to be a writer and ask how  they should go about it. I answer these questions as honestly and truthfully as I can of course. Inside, I have felt that I’ve been a writer for a very long time – though at first I didn’t actually do any writing. So tell that if you really want to write then you need to sit down and write. Every day if you can, but certainly most days if not.

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Character names are so important and coming up with names is a task that I can love or loath with equal measure. It seems that some characters arrive ready named mind whereas others are far more problematic, and I just can't seem to settle into the writing until I've got the right name.

Working in schools with children on their creative writing shows that they too have difficulties with the naming process, though they are often more than happy to settle with the first thing that comes into their heads. You can almost guarantee that the chosen name will be Bob. I try to get them to come up with something different, a bit more unusual perhaps... think about this character and what he/she/it is like. If there a better name than Bob? I just know that the next suggestion is going to be Bobby - but we don't leave it there.

I feel that some names have been used up now and I would find it difficult to have a character called Harry in either a picture book (Harry and The Dinosaurs) or in a longer book (Harry Potter).

In a series of books I wrote about robots I thought it would be good to give a few of the robot characters machine, tool or industrial sounding names so I had Crank, Ratchet, Buzzsaw,  Pylon, Sparks. Ratchet had to be changed at the last minute as the name matched that of the lead character in the animated movie, Robots. I couldn't think of anything at first but the title of a song came to my rescue and I called him Al. When I came to create a strong female robot character I wanted a name that sounded strong, feminine and futuristic. I thought I was being quite clever calling her Avatar but did didn't feel quite so clever when a film of that name was released.

A series of books about a family living in the Ice Age needed, I felt, a title that was Flintstone like so I had fun mixing and matching words until I came up with The Mudcrusts. Whereas the Roborunners characters had names linked to machines and tools etc I wanted something more primitive for the Mudcrusts. Some of the characters were named after personal characteristics - Lowbrow Mudcrust has a prominent brow and Chief Hawknose predictably has a large hawk-like nose. Other characters had names that were linked closer to nature - two sisters are named Flora and Fauna and Lowbrow's wimpy younger son is named Bogweed.

In school I try and encourage children to create names for characters that they might not normally think of as being names. It's a fun thing to do, especially when you combine everyday words, and can result in some very interesting possibilities for characters - sometimes we find that a name comes before a character but lends itself to visualising what sort of character it is. In a book I'm working on at the moment I have a nasty little piece of work known as Simian Scrape - a bully of a boy who bares more than a passing resemblance to a monkey. The most problematic character name for this book was for the evil villain - a mad scientist like character called Melvin. I knew Melvin needed to have a more sinister name but I just couldn't quite get it right, and neither, it seemed could the character himself so I have a scene in which the character devises struggles to come up with a new name for himself, though much to his eternal disgust, Mother still insists on calling him Melvin.

As a child I remember complaining to my own mother at her choice of name for me. Why on earth did she have to call me Damian - especially with all the movies about the demon child of the same name that seemed to hound me throughout my school life. "It could have been worse," she told me. "We were going to call you Warren but changed our minds when my mum said you would get called Bunny."

I think I'll settle with my own name after all and just have fun creating more interesting names for my fictional characters.

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Over the past few months I've travelled the length and breadth of Great Britain visiting lots of schools and libraries to share stories, poems and rhymes, talk about writing and being a writer, lead writing workshops and answer any and all questions - it's usually fun and inspiring and always utterly exhausting.

My aim is to get children enthused and excited about books and stories, reading and writing - and also to try and demystify the process of writing and being an author - and of course to promote myself and my books at the same time. To make each session personal and unique to the groups I'm working with I encourage lots of questions and interaction as the sessions progress, and barring a few exceptions, the questions posed are generally of the same type - Where do you get your ideas? How much do you earn? What's your favourite animal? I've got a cat!!! and Are you famous? (always a little deflating that one - but no... I'm not famous). With this final question, however, I like to play a little game...

I always tell the audience (children and adults alike) that there are lots of brilliant authors that write books for children but there aren't many really famous ones. People involved with children's books - be it authors, publishers, librarians etc can make a long list of authors, but sadly, it's not as easy for others.

I'm a little naughty with this game as I tell the audience that they should name an author that is still alive (and they should also try and name a different one from the person next to them) but to compensate for this I do give the group three lives...

There are some exceptions but sadly, most groups do not progress very far before losing all of their lives. Some children can't name any authors at all and look completely blank - I'm a nice guy and tell them not to worry (no need to embarrass an individual child) - so quickly move on to the next.

I've made a note of the answers that have been bounced back over the last few months and here they are (in no particular order);

J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Dav Pilky, Jeff Kinney, Julia Donaldson, You (raised eyebrow and smile here), Jacqueline Wilson, David Walliams, Francesca Simon, Michael Morpurgo, Dick King Smith and a few more (but not many).

In a couple of schools other authors have been named too - Malorie Blackman, Steve Cole, Adam Blade, Daisy Meadows and William Shakespeare to name a few.

The point of the game is to show that fame isn't everything and that few writers write to become famous - there's more to life than that (keep telling yourself this and I'm sure it'll be fine) - just why writers, or me in particular, write, will be the subject of a later post...

Teachers often pop their hands up so they can join in the game, but occasionally not - and for some reason or other the devil inside can't help encouraging them to join in whether they want to or not. At a recent bout of sessions held in a library, children from a school that had been targeted as being reluctant readers were brought in. During the session the Fame Game was played and teachers were encouraged to join in. I, and the librarians were dismayed when the two teachers only managed to name one author between them and then declared that they weren't really book people !!! And they wonder why the children are reluctant readers...

Finding time to read out loud to children in a class isn't always easy - there are lots of things in a school day that can eat up the time and reading and sharing books and stories can easily get pushed to the back... but it's such an important thing to do and it's something that continues to be important even when children can read for themselves.

So no... being famous isn't important. There are far more important things than that... though the money that can go with fame would be most welcome.

Damian Harvey
www.damianharvey.co.uk

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“Why don’t you write a book that’s a bestseller like Harry Potter?”
This question was asked in all innocence by a 10 year old boy – at least I hope it was all innocence – and it got me thinking about just what it is that makes a book successful. Why do people buy one book rather than another? I’m not about to contemplate that here as I don’t really think I’ll come to any definite conclusions, but the question did lead me to think more about my own writing - what I was trying to do and who I was writing for?

As well as writing I have another (part-time) job that just about pays the bills each month. Ideally, I’d like to give up the other job and try and make a living writing but it’s not easy. Of course, if I wrote a bestseller that wouldn’t be as much of a problem.

Many writers say they only write to please themselves, but I definitely have readers in mind and always have. When I first started writing, I wrote picture book stories that would be of interest to both myself and our three daughters (my readers) then gradually expanded my writing into educational reader books, early readers and other books for young children – again, this was to interest both myself, young readers and a commissioning editor. Visiting schools and libraries I soon found myself talking to older children, and though they were entertained by my presentation of books for younger readers they were keen to read something of mine that was aimed more at their age.

After finding myself this group of keen readers I got to work - still writing to please myself, but now with these new older readers in mind. It wasn’t long before I realised that what I was writing could be of interest to boys… Now this realisation brought on a brief panic attack, after all, I’ve heard that boys don’t read, and writing books for an audience that doesn’t read is probably not good if you’d like to make a living.

My Robo-runners series is currently only available in hardback (paperback in the new year) but I’ve talked about the books to groups of boys and girls and have been delighted, and a little relieved, to find that they appeal to both – in fact there’s been lots of excitement - of course this doesn’t mean the books are going to be bestsellers and it doesn’t mean I’m going to be able to make a living out of it but it does make me feel that I still know what I’m trying to do and who I’m writing for… it might not be much of a career plan but it’s the best I’ve got at the moment.

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A while ago I mentioned that writers need time write - time away from other activities so they can really get on with something (we also need understanding families and friends who will allow them this time – that’s the subject of another post in itself…)

The other thing that’s needed is space. A little place in your house, garden or wherever, where you can settle down to write. I’ve heard writers tell of how they started off writing in a cupboard, under the stairs, in lofts and attics – even in garden sheds.

I’ve recently heard garden shed writers referred to as “the garden shed brigade” which I think makes it all sound delightfully subversive.

I started off writing at the dining room table and gradually moved up to the loft where I had a nice big desk and reference books close at hand. But as our three girls have grown older – now in their teens - they have begun to monopolise the home computer and have slowly but surely taken over the loft. I’ve found myself back at the dining room table. I miss my desk in the loft but at least downstairs I can open the doors and let in some fresh air.

Things never stay the same in our house though and it’s been decided that the girls need a room of their own. One of these rooms being the loft - so my desk and books need to come out to make room for a bed, wardrobe and one of our girls belongings.

I’m going to be moving into a shed – not the old one, but a nice new one where I’ll be able to put my desk and everything else. Until about a week ago I never dreamed that I’d be joining the garden shed brigade, but now that I am, I’m quite excited about it. A little space of my own to work. Will it improve my writing? Probably not, but it’s worth a try.

The only problem is that there is a lot of shifting, moving and decorating to be done inside the house to accommodate all the changes. And then there’s the garden to start on.

Cynics might think the whole “a place of your own to work” offer was just a dangling carrot intended to get me to redecorate the house from top to bottom – but not I.

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