Alina Tysoe: On Writing About Unlikely Friendships

From the moment she was able to hold a pencil, Alina Tysoe was scribbling away and filling notebooks with doodles of dogs and comics about her family. Today, Alina is an illustrator, 2D animator, and author of What’s Up Beanie: Acutely Relatable Comics, a collection based on her popular webcomic by the same name, the picture book Emi Isn’t Scared of Monsters, and the graphic novel chapter book The Great Puptective. She lives in New Zealand with her husband, Mike, who makes regular appearances in her webcomic, and, infuriatingly, no dogs. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Alina Tysoe (illustration)

In this interview, Alina discusses the benefit of honest reactions from readers during the writing process of her new early reader graphic novel, The Great Puptective, her advice for writers, and more!

Name: Alina Tysoe
Literary agent: Maile Beal (Arc Literary)
Book title: The Great Puptective
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release date: March 19, 2024
Genre/category: Humorous adventure/Early Reader Graphic Novel
Elevator pitch: Poppy, a precocious puppy with a penchant for solving mysteries is newly adopted into a family, causing havoc for the set-in-his-ways house cat Truffles.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I wrote down the word “puptective” during a brainstorming session one day and a character of a silly puppy detective immediately appeared in my mind. At first, I was considering a cat villain for the story, but I really love unlikely friendships, so this evolved into an intense but earnest puppy befriending a grouchy housecat despite the latter doing everything to prevent it. This particular dynamic was also inspired by my own childhood cat and dog becoming best friends after initially not getting along.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I wrote down the initial idea for the graphic novel and drew the first sketches of the characters in January 2020, but it sat in the ideas drawer until mid-2022 when I felt it was finally time to try and pitch it. So, it’s been four years since the first idea (how time flies!) and two years from starting to work on it with the wonderful folks at Simon & Schuster. In terms of changes during the process—I feel like the idea and the characters naturally developed and grew which led to adjustments to make the story better, but there wasn’t anything too big and drastic.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

This is my first time planning out a book in a series, and it’s been very interesting to work on the first one while keeping the next ones in mind. I found that as the characters developed throughout the first book, the way they act in the next books in the series changes slightly to what I originally envisioned. I think the way stories and characters organically develop that way is very interesting.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Part of the process of making this book was getting the kids in my family to read the early draft. What’s great about that is that you can trust a kid’s honest reaction, but it can also be nerve-wrecking because they don’t hold back. I think I’ve learnt a lot about what makes a comic book an enjoyable and fun read based on their reactions, and it was incredibly rewarding to see them laugh and point at the little details in the illustrations. While I knew this would be helpful, I was surprised by just how helpful their feedback was for my writing.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I wanted to write a humorous comic book that encourages kindness and curiosity, dealing with different personalities and being open to new ideas. I also wanted to have a main girl character who is silly and intense in a way that I would have related to as a kid and I know a lot of kids in my life would as well. I also just want to make readers laugh with my drawings!

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Your creativity doesn’t have to follow anyone’s exact step-by-step process! Some people write detailed outlines before writing, others write straight ahead. I found out after a lot of trial and error that I have to draw my first draft of a graphic novel in really rough sketches rather than writing it in words as a script because that’s just how my brain works—I am apparently very visual. If it works and you get a story out of it – it works!

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