Imaginary Connections

Ever had this happen? You're working on a project, or thinking about a project, or you've just sent something off to a publisher. And it's so distinctive. It's an idea that's specific to you, emerging from your own personal history, and you've attached to it all the other little bits and pieces that accumulate during the writing process, bits and pieces which, again, are idiosyncratic, part of your own subjective experience.

And then all of a sudden you see something similar in Bookseller+Publisher, or at the library. Or you tell a writing friend, hey, I'm working on this thing and they look at you oddly and say but *I'm* working on that thing or oh, you mean like that book by suchandsuch.

It happens all the time. More than you would believe. Sometimes the reasons can be traced easily enough. Maybe there was a quirky story in the news last year. We all heard it. It lodged somewhere in our imaginations. It grew into a story, multiple stories, about the same topic. Or maybe, as was the case for Julia Lawrinson and me, your daughters are at the same school, on the same chess team and you both at some point go hmmm, chess? Chess vs sport? Sporty kids who end up playing chess? and you start fiddling around with ideas. Then one day you realise you're both doing the same thing and the person who isn't actually married to the chess coach from whom she was stealing many useful anecdotes decides that perhaps she'd better bow out and find herself a new project. And the other one goes on to write a fabulous book.

But sometimes the reasons are less obvious. Sometimes they're downright inexplicable. Sometimes you write a picture book called There are No Ducks in this Story! You write it because you've found yourself obsessed with ducks and they keep insisting their way into everything and one day you find yourself typing that very sentence just to make them back off.

You send the manuscript to your publisher and then a few days later you're idly thumbing through picture books at your local library and you come across Barbara Kanninen's A Story With Pictures, which contains the line There are no ducks in this story. And you freak out, and wonder if quickly marrying a duck would somehow give you a stronger claim to the story. But Kanninen's book is already published, and in any case, when you stop freaking out long enough to read it, it's thankfully quite different.

This is the party line, always, when writers worry about this kind of thing. We say Oh, write your book. You'll make it your own. There are no new ideas, anyway.

And yes, this is true, to some extent, and it certainly applied in this case, where, as odd as it was, the similarity really was just that one line. But there are limits, too. When I was working on a picture book entitled Let Me Sleep, Sheep! about a boy counting sheep who is faced with their inconvenient appearance in his bedroom, and The 108th Sheep came out, I shelved the project. When, the next year, The Eleventh Sheep came out, I thought, hmm, maybe there's room for more materialising sheep books after all, and picked it up again. When the following month, I saw a review of It's Time To Sleep, You Crazy Sheep, I put my head down very firmly on the desk. I suspect we've reached critical mass for "materialising sheep" books in our rather small picture book market, at least for now.

Reading members of the public might wonder why all these writers are copying each other. But people who know how publishing works know that each of these projects has been in the pipeline, in the various stages of production, for several years. And sometimes there's no good explanation for why so many people should hit upon the same thing at more or less the same time.

It's mysterious. And a little crazy-making. And it's happened to me many, many times, to greater or lesser degrees, sometimes in ways so specific that I've felt compelled to abandon an idea or a character trait or a sub-plot simply out of anxiety that it would have the appearance of copying. I'd love to know if it's happened to you.

You might be wondering why I've titled this post Imaginary Connections. There's a reason for it and it has to do with my latest novel, Surface Tension. But as usual, I've overwritten already, finding my way towards the point. So consider this a prologue. And tomorrow I'll tell you about Surface Tension and the recent moment when I stopped in my tracks and said oh, no - not again!

Duck FAQ

Since the CBCA shortlisting of Duck for a Day, people have been emailing to ask me things.

They have been asking things like:

• Why did you write Duck for a Day? Where did you get the idea?

• Where are the teaching notes for Duck for a Day?

• Is there a book trailer for Duck for a Day?

• Has it been published overseas?
  

• Where is this sequel to Duck for a Day you have been promising us?

And I have been sending answers. But now I'm going to post the answers here, and then maybe I'll get fewer emails.

• The very beginnings of Duck for a Day formed when I saw an interview with the cartoonist Michael Leunig, who draws lots of ducks. He was talking about how people are sometimes confused by his ducks, wanting to know what they're about, and he said, "I thought everybody would understand what a duck is about, and it's just ... there is the duck". That line stayed with me and one day the line "The duck was different. The duck had demands" came to me and I knew I was going to write a story with that line in it. I had no idea what it was going to be about, other than that there would be a rather glorious and stubborn duck in it, but eventually other ideas came along and attached themselves to it and slowly, the story began to form.
  

• The teaching notes are currently in production and should be available very soon. When they are, they'll be posted here and also here.

• The book trailer is in my head and that may be where it will stay. Book trailers are fun but they take a long time to make and that's time I have to take away from writing. I'm not sure that's a wise thing to do at this point. If I find myself between projects later, I may make one then. A couple of people have told me I should 'strike while the iron is hot' but I think that applies to writing too. And a trailer may still be useful later, given my answer to the next question.

• No, Duck hasn't been published anywhere but Australia/New Zealand, but that is going to change. In January, I learned that Candlewick have picked it up for US publication in February 2012. Exciting!

• I'm working on the sequel at the moment. I think I'll have it done in a week or so, subject to the many demands of email and book trailers. I don't have a title yet, which worries me a little. I usually have a title before I start - not by design but just in the way of things - and feel a little rudderless without one.
  

And to reply to a few repeating comments I've also been receiving:

• There are some broken images on your website.

I know, but it's not something I can deal with at the moment. I do it all myself and have so far been unsuccessful in working out why these few buttons aren't reproducing properly. This suggests it's the kind of fiddly thing that's going to take me hours to track down and you know, I'd rather be writing.

• You should update your blog more regularly. That's how you get more readers.
  

Sorry, but I'm not going to do that. Or at least, I'm not going to commit to doing it, although there might be accidental regularity from time to time. I update the blog when I have both something to say and time to say it. It's just that simple.

Having said that, there are many pieces of news to be posted, and that will happen soon. Here's a question no one has asked me yet, but which may be answered shortly, and surprisingly:

• is there a music theatre production of Duck for a Day?

Stay tuned!