Tom Moffatt
Author of Mind Swapping Madness Illustrated by Paul Beavis Published by Write Laugh |
About the author
Once upon a time Tom E. Moffatt was an international primary school teacher surrounded by creative minds and interesting characters. He was bombarded with potential story ideas on a daily basis, yet there were never enough hours in the day to get anything down on paper. Now that he has left teaching Tom E. can focus his attention on his writing. He is currently juggling a number of projects, including a follow-up collection of Bonkers Short Stories and a joke book. Tom E. loves visiting schools as an author because he gets to tell tales, crack jokes and generally misbehave, something he could rarely do as a teacher. Tom E. Moffatt is originally from Uxbridge, the kind of suburban London town that makes you want to travel. As a result, Japan, Italy, the UAE and Colombia have all featured on the bottom line of his mailing address over the years. Since meeting a like-minded Kiwi girl in an airport eight years ago Tom E. has traded his backpack for three delightful daughters and a 1940s character-home with lawns that need mowing. From now on, please send all Tom E’s fan mail to Rotorua, New Zealand; a town he very happily calls home. Bibliography Barking Mad, 2016 – Scholastic NZ Mind-Swapping Madness, 2018 – Write Laugh Body-Hopping Hysterics, 2019 – Write Laugh Bonkers Short Stories – a free ebook, 2019 – Write Laugh Synopses of Mind Swapping Madness Mind Swatting – A boy trapped in a fly’s body. Croak! – A toad waiting to be kissed. Cyberspace Invader – Aliens who hijack children’s bodies. Soul Beneficiary – A wannabe immortal Horse Code – A horse that knows Morse code. Flea Trouble – Swapping with a flea instead of a cat. Bless You – Simultaneous sneezes that swap sisters’ bodies. How the idea for the book came about I originally decided to write a collection of short stories to give away as a free ebook in order to lead readers to my other books. I’d thoroughly enjoyed writing Barking Mad’s mind-swapping muddle and decided that this would be a great theme for a short story collection. The problem was that when I brainstormed every possible way someone might swap bodies I came up with a total of 19 ideas, which was way too much for one book. Also, the feedback that I received from my editor and early readers was so positive that I decided to write a series of Bonkers Short Stories instead. Mind-Swapping Madness is the first book in this series. |
The writing process
Call it madness, but most of my writing process did not involve any writing at all. First, I spent a couple of months thinking about all the possible ways you could swap bodies. Then, when I had so many ideas I was afraid I might forget them, I jotted them down on scraps of paper. I then took them one at a time and turned them around inside my head, usually while driving my car or doing the dishes, trying to shape the ideas into stories. I poked and prodded the characters and plots until they were desperate to escape my vindictive mind. At that point I sat down at my computer at 5am (that’s the quietest time of day in my house) and churned out 1000 words. I then let the story marinate in my mind for the rest of the day, giving it the occasional poke and prod, until my alarm went off and I pumped out another 1000 words. Once I’d finished the first draft – usually after a week or so – I moved onto the next story.
After all the first drafts were complete I began the editing process. This involved more poking and prodding, of course, but also adding some details. At this point you might find me standing on the back of the couch trying to see what the living room looks like from a fly’s perspective. Or lying on the floor with my nose touching the carpet, imagining what it would feel like being a flea. Each morning was spent tweaking and polishing, and perhaps rolling round on the carpet some more.
Once I couldn’t stand the sight of a story any longer I moved onto the next one. Then, when I was sick of all of them I passed them on to my wife. She’d give each story a read, roll her eyes, then tell me that this time I’d taken it too far. I then needed to do one final edit, removing a few bits of poo and some over-the-top silliness. At that point, rather thankfully, I sent the stories to my editor in the UK for a month or two so that someone else could poke and prod them.
As always, Anna Bowles did a fantastic job of finding holes in the stories and suggesting possible ways to fill them. She also did a good job of filling my mornings for the next couple of months. By this point I was absolutely, positively, completely sick of the entire collection and never wanted to see it again in my life, so I sent it back to my editor for a copy edit. David Walliams was late handing in his Bad Dad manuscript so, rather annoyingly, our editor was able to squeeze me in right away. Within two days it was back in my inbox, begging to be tweaked and polished.
At this stage I sent the stories to Paul Beavis, my incredible illustrator. He worked his magic on them, one at a time. First he’d send me rough sketches for each story, followed by finished line drawings and finally fully-coloured illustrations. It took him two months to get all the stories finished, with more than 120 illustrations in total. Once they were complete he was able to work on the front cover, combining all the stories into one swirling vision of awesomeness.
Meanwhile, I was busy shepherding the words across the finish line. Once the copy-editing suggestions had been accepted/ignored I sent the stories off to my proofreader. Also, after months of writing, rewriting, rerewriting and rererewriting the blurb, I decided to employ the services of a professional, who smashed it out in two days.
Words and illustrations were then sent to my book design team, who put it all together for both print and ebook. Files were uploaded. Copies were ordered. Promotional activities planned. And then I started the sequel.
Call it madness, but most of my writing process did not involve any writing at all. First, I spent a couple of months thinking about all the possible ways you could swap bodies. Then, when I had so many ideas I was afraid I might forget them, I jotted them down on scraps of paper. I then took them one at a time and turned them around inside my head, usually while driving my car or doing the dishes, trying to shape the ideas into stories. I poked and prodded the characters and plots until they were desperate to escape my vindictive mind. At that point I sat down at my computer at 5am (that’s the quietest time of day in my house) and churned out 1000 words. I then let the story marinate in my mind for the rest of the day, giving it the occasional poke and prod, until my alarm went off and I pumped out another 1000 words. Once I’d finished the first draft – usually after a week or so – I moved onto the next story.
After all the first drafts were complete I began the editing process. This involved more poking and prodding, of course, but also adding some details. At this point you might find me standing on the back of the couch trying to see what the living room looks like from a fly’s perspective. Or lying on the floor with my nose touching the carpet, imagining what it would feel like being a flea. Each morning was spent tweaking and polishing, and perhaps rolling round on the carpet some more.
Once I couldn’t stand the sight of a story any longer I moved onto the next one. Then, when I was sick of all of them I passed them on to my wife. She’d give each story a read, roll her eyes, then tell me that this time I’d taken it too far. I then needed to do one final edit, removing a few bits of poo and some over-the-top silliness. At that point, rather thankfully, I sent the stories to my editor in the UK for a month or two so that someone else could poke and prod them.
As always, Anna Bowles did a fantastic job of finding holes in the stories and suggesting possible ways to fill them. She also did a good job of filling my mornings for the next couple of months. By this point I was absolutely, positively, completely sick of the entire collection and never wanted to see it again in my life, so I sent it back to my editor for a copy edit. David Walliams was late handing in his Bad Dad manuscript so, rather annoyingly, our editor was able to squeeze me in right away. Within two days it was back in my inbox, begging to be tweaked and polished.
At this stage I sent the stories to Paul Beavis, my incredible illustrator. He worked his magic on them, one at a time. First he’d send me rough sketches for each story, followed by finished line drawings and finally fully-coloured illustrations. It took him two months to get all the stories finished, with more than 120 illustrations in total. Once they were complete he was able to work on the front cover, combining all the stories into one swirling vision of awesomeness.
Meanwhile, I was busy shepherding the words across the finish line. Once the copy-editing suggestions had been accepted/ignored I sent the stories off to my proofreader. Also, after months of writing, rewriting, rerewriting and rererewriting the blurb, I decided to employ the services of a professional, who smashed it out in two days.
Words and illustrations were then sent to my book design team, who put it all together for both print and ebook. Files were uploaded. Copies were ordered. Promotional activities planned. And then I started the sequel.