Where does a book start?
It starts with an idea.

Where does the idea come from?
Anywhere! Sometimes you just have to look around you and the ordinary bits of your life can suddenly seem interesting or funny or surprising when you turn them into a story.

What comes first, the words or the pictures?
It can be either. Often they seem to come at the same time.

Here are the first sketches Lynn made for her Pickle and the Blanket board book. The first drawing is little more than a scribble. The next one is a bit more detailed. Both these drawings are called pencil roughs... because they are quite rough and in pencil! At the third stage you can see that the final shape of the picture has been decided, and Lynn has drawn over the pencil marks with a fine pen. When that is finished, the pencil can be rubbed out leaving only the pen drawing. (Click to see the full-size images.)

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