 Christopher Paolini started reading fantasy books when he was ten years old . At the age of fourteen , as a hobby , Paolini started writing the first novel in a series of four books , but he could not get beyond a few pages because he had " no idea " where he was going . He began reading everything he could about the " art of writing " , and then plotted the whole Inheritance Cycle book series . After a month of planning out the series , he started writing the draft of Eragon by hand . It was finished a year later , and Paolini began writing the " real " version of the book . After another year of editing , Paolini 's parents saw the final manuscript . They immediately saw its potential and decided to publish the book through their small , home @-@ based publishing company , Paolini International . Paolini created the cover art for this edition of Eragon , which featured Saphira 's eye on the cover . He also drew the maps inside the book . 
