The Adventures of Pongo & Stink by Lisa Nicol, illustrated by Karen Blair
(Penguin)
Thanks to the inimitable Lisa Nicol who has written the funny, honest and beautifully composed origin story of her new junior fiction novel, The Adventures of Pongo and Stink for Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog.
The Adventures of Pongo & Stink – Origin Story
By Lisa Nicol
I was in a funk. I was struggling with my writing. Every day was like trying to pull a small hatchback up a mountain. Nothing absolutely nothing was coming easy. I was beginning to dread writing.
Absolutely dread it.
Day in, day out, I would drag myself to the library and push myself to produce a thousand words.
This is not good.
Not good at all if you’re a writer.
Not good at all if a fair whack of your self-esteem is tangled up with this idea that you’re a writer.
Even worse if foolishly, you’re trying to make a living out of it.
And catastrophic when you’re newly single and not-newly prone to rumination.
But I kept pushing. And pushing. Trying to push through.
Then one day I made the unusual decision to give myself some small respite. It was around midday, I was at Marrickville library (the grandest library) and I said to myself, ‘hey why not have a crack at writing that ‘pig dog’ idea, just for the afternoon. And if nothing comes, you can go straight back to hauling the hatch up the mountain.’
Woop. I bought it. It would only be for an afternoon after all – a measly few hours – and then I could get straight back to all that dragging and dreading. What did I have to lose?
So I opened my ‘New Works’ folder – which is an optimistic expression for a pile of ideas left to gestate that I sometimes equate to the egg chamber Sigourney Weaver stumbles into in that Aliens movie. But these eggs are laid by my imagination so they’re not nearly as spooky. (In fact they’re not spooky at all, I think I just like imagining myself as Sigourney Weaver.)
The file told me the then entitled ‘Pig Dog’ entered this world in July 2021. It was now February 2023. Whenever I had mentioned this story idea to people, they had always responded enthusiastically. It was also easy to explain – ‘it’s about these two pigs who decide it’s a dog’s world so they go get themselves some dog suits and try and pull off being dogs.’
I have a lot of ideas in my ‘New Works’ folder. Ideas are something I’m never short on. But knowing which idea to expend an enormous amount of time and energy on, in the hope it’ll become a publishable book is not so easy. Looking back, those were 2 green flags I’d missed –
- People’s response to an idea is a good indicator whether or not it is likely to fly. It’s not foolproof but it’s certainly a good indicator.
- If a story is easy to encapsulate in one sentence – you’re probably onto a good thing.
So I put down the hatchback and opened up the ‘Pig Dog’ file. I’m always amazed when revisiting original files how much of the idea is actually there from the beginning. This held true for Pongo and Stink. Although, sadly, those pigs never did make it to New York.
The idea for what would become The Adventures of Pongo & Stink had actually sprung from real life. I had made a new friend. He had two ‘dogs’. Supposedly they were the posh if not slightly pompous-named breed known as ‘Cavalier King Charles Spaniels’ — who, according to Wikipedia, have royal origins and connections to Kings and Queens and Baronesses and other such folk who favour hounds who can keep up with a trotting horse (for hunting I’m supposing). They should have a silky coat of moderate length… free from curl, although a slight wave is permitted.’ My new friend’s dogs didn’t strike me as posh. And they definitely had more than a slight wave – I’d say ‘loose afro’ was a more accurate description of their coats – and not to put too finer point on it they were fat! And looked like they’d definitely struggle to keep up with a trotting horse. Or fit down a fox hole!
So, I was suspicious of these so called ‘dogs’. Then one night I slept over, only to be awoken from my slumber by a loud snorting noise. It was not a snore I can assure you. It was an unmistakable snort. The sort of snort that could only belong to a pig. Not wanting to wake my new friend, (in case he never invited me for a sleepover again) I went to investigate. And that was when I uncovered the ruse. There they were, asleep on the cosy soft carpet, their porky bellies full of leftovers, no doubt dreaming of their morning cuddles and mooching about in the sun. I felt stupid for ever falling for it really. I mean their dog suits were so ill-fitted! Their snorting so swiney!
Immediately, I woke them up and confronted them. I told them that while their owner might be a great big softy and extremely gullible, I was not and the game was up. They begged me not to give them up of course … they were living the absolute high life, as modern dogs are want to do. So after getting them to sign away their story rights for next to nix, I agreed to keep schtum and the rest is publishing history.
But back to that afternoon in the library when I put down the hatchback. From the very first sentence of what would become The Adventures of Pongo and Stink, the words flew onto the page. Instead of pushing to crack seven hundred I was writing sometimes up to three thousand words a day. The characters of Pongo and Stink arrived almost fully formed and they were full of audacious ideas. Each day I couldn’t wait to join them. They were such kind pigs. So funny. And such good friends; They knew each other inside out and rejoiced in the other, flaws and all. In a joyful struggle to keep up with the adventurous swine, I finished a rollicking first draft in about six weeks. No pushing, no pulling, more like catching a wave. Such writing experiences are extremely rare for me and I wanted to shout with joy but I was in the library so I had to keep my joy to myself. And that is why I am forever grateful to those two little pigs. They saved my bacon in more ways than one.
Lisa Nicol is an internationally published children’s author and sometimes documentary-maker. Her feature Wide Open Sky won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival. Her first novel, Dr Boogaloo and The Girl Who Lost Her Laughter was a CBCA Notable, Shenzhen Reading Month, Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year 2021 and is currently being adapted for the stage and screen. Her other works include the hugely popular Vincent and The Grandest Hotel on Earth, and The What on Earth Institute of Wonder. Lisa lives in Sydney with two out of her three children and a dusty old dog who smells worse than an elephant fart.
paperbarkwords.blog 