Video transcript
2019 NSW PRC author interview – Gabrielle Tozer

TAMARA RODGERS: Hi. I'm Tamara Rodgers from the Premier's Reading Challenge. We're here at Riverside Theatre Parramatta for the Sydney Writers Festival All Day YA, a celebration of everything that's amazing about YA literature. We've been joined by some fantastic Australian and overseas authors. We're really excited to bring you these chats. We'd really like to thank the Sydney Writers Festival for having us along and also thank our programme sponsors, our media partner NewsLocal, and our supporting partner Dymocks Children's Charities. Thank you so much for your support.

Hey. We're at Parramatta Riverside Theatre for All Day YA for the Sydney Writers Festival, joined backstage by Gabby Tozer. How are you?

GABRIELLE TOZER: I'm good. How are you?

TAMARA RODGERS: I'm good. How has your festival been?

GABRIELLE TOZER: It's been great so far. It's been catching up with other authors and watching the panels. It's been wonderful.

TAMARA RODGERS: It's really the best opportunity to just kind of get your book geek on, to come and hang out with lots of people who like to read books, people who've written books. So it's a really great way to remind yourself what a great community the book community is, huh?

GABRIELLE TOZER: The book community is amazing. I've been word-nerding all over the place.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah. And so you're one of those really interesting people who, for the Premier's Reading Challenge, who's got books all across the whole spectrum-- so picture book, middle-grade fiction, YA. You started writing YA fiction, yeah?

GABRIELLE TOZER: Yeah, so I started with the young adult fiction, and I had a few novels in that demographic. And then I thought, hmm, I might follow some of these other wacky ideas I've been having and dabbled with a picture book. And I then had another niggling creative idea which turned out to be a middle-grade novel. And now I'm going to be dabbling in young adults again. So I just seem to follow the ideas.

TAMARA RODGERS: Just follow the place?

GABRIELLE TOZER: Yeah.

TAMARA RODGERS: So what kind of stuff did you read when you were growing up? What were the books that kind of caught you?

GABRIELLE TOZER: Look, short answer-- everything. More specific answer-- oh, look, I devoured anything by John Marsden. I loved the kind of comedy, but stories full of heart, like by Margaret Clark as well. She kind of touched on tougher issues, but there was always a funny spin on them. I loved Paul Jennings, your Morris Gleitzman, Melina Marchetta, of course. For my demographic, she was so pivotal for so many of us.

But I just loved your classics, like 'Baby-Sitters Club' as well and 'Sweet Valley High.' So I kind of had everything, and even like your 'Goosebumps,' your RL Stine. And so I would do the Read-a-thon challenges at school, in primary school, where I would just literally read anything. And if I finished my bookshelf, then I'd work my way through my parents' as well. They're both big readers. So I credit them with my love of reading.

TAMARA RODGERS: Nice. And so reading kind of really widely, how do you think that's influenced what it is that you write yourself.

GABRIELLE TOZER: It may be why I do jump around all over the place. Yeah, I suppose I've never attempted to pigeonhole myself as a writer. And it may not be the savviest move to be jumping between different age groups. I'm not sure.

But for me, I got into the industry because I loved exploring my creativity. And I suppose that is what is the thing that's at the forefront of my mind every time is, is this an idea I'm passionate about? Do I love this idea enough to spend a year or two or three working on this book so long? So I have to care about it if I want to make sure that my readers are going to care about it. So I can't just churn something out just because I should be writing a certain thing.

I feel cheeky that I jump between the age groups, but I love it, because one minute I'll be writing, an angsty young adult novel-- and that can get a bit heavy after a while as the writer. So then having a picture book or a middle-grade is just a nice way to take the edge off.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah. So how's your writing process different depending on what you're writing?

GABRIELLE TOZER: To be honest, my writing process is different depending on the book, as the years go on. So I've now written seven projects, I think-- yeah-- within the range of ages. And every single process has changed.

So the earlier books, I was waking up at 5:30, writing for two hours, and then going to a full-time job, and then doing work on the weekends. That resulted in me completely burning out-- not ideal. Don't try that at home. It got the work done, but I wasn't happy. It wasn't a nice balance.

And then so I've experimented. I've gone on writing retreats where I do big chunks of writing and then have breaks. I now have a little daughter, so now I'm having to work out how to juggle her and my creative work as well. And so now I'm becoming pretty good at writing in the cracks.

So I've become a really big planner, which I never used to be with my earlier work. Well, now I plan as much as I can. And it's a really good antidote to avoiding writer's block, because now what happens is, if someone says to me, hey, I can watch her for a couple of hours, all of a sudden, I can check my plan. I've already got a scene or two I've got ready to go. Great. I'm going to write that scene.

Well, in the past, what would happen if someone would say, hey, you've suddenly got some time to write. I'd sit there and stare at the blank page, thinking, what? What am I going to write? So planning is helping me to keep my stress and anxiety under control. But who knows? That process is consistently changing.

And when I was younger I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to try to have this perfect process. Well, now I understand it's so personal. I've met so many authors, and we all do it so differently. Another example is I used to write-- I tend to overwrite my first draughts. But I've met people who literally write a novel that is twice the length that it's going to be. Then they cut it down. And then some authors will only write a novel half what it's meant to be, and then they'll fill in the gaps.

So it's kind of just like-- I think we all worry so much about doing things perfectly. There's no perfect way. It's what's perfect for you on this one particular book. And then it might not even be perfect for you the following week. So it's being comfortable letting the process evolve as you evolve as a person.

TAMARA RODGERS: Is there something that you've written or worked on that you're especially proud of? I know we're not supposed to have favourites in those kind of things, but is there something that you kind of look at and go, wow, that actually really means something?

GABRIELLE TOZER: I do. I genuinely am proud of all of them. I feel like I've gone through quite a lot of growth as a writer with the last three books that have come out for very different reasons. With my most recent young adult novel, 'Remind Me How This Ends,' I'm really proud of it because I thought I was going to give up writing while I was writing that book. It was extremely challenging to write. And so to see and hold a finished copy of that book felt huge because I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it. And then to see it be recognised with nice reviews, and it resonated with some people. It just felt beautiful.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah.

GABRIELLE TOZER: But then, say, like, 'Melody Trumpet'-- that was just a joy to write from start to--

TAMARA RODGERS: It's so adorable, 'Melody Trumpet.'

GABRIELLE TOZER: Thank you.

TAMARA RODGERS: From just the really cute, catchy cover to just this beautiful story about a girl finding herself was so cool.

GABRIELLE TOZER: Thank you. There was this something really joyous about that book. And I didn't experience any of my usual crazy riotous spirals which I usually do. So I'm proud of it because it was just like a really beautiful creative process that even when I'm old I'll look back and go, how do I make every writing experience more like that?

And look, 'Peas and Quiet' was really fun to write. That felt like it was such a step outside of my comfort zone. But it felt kind of natural as well. Yeah, so they're probably the three. Not to be mean to my first two books, obviously-- that's where it all began. But I just feel like the last few years I've just been jumping around, pushing myself, and trying to learn as much, because this is it. We're learning publicly in front of people.

TAMARA RODGERS: There's nowhere to hide--

GABRIELLE TOZER: There's nowhere to hide.

TAMARA RODGERS: --when you're promising or you're producing.

GABRIELLE TOZER: Yeah. So we're learning how to be better writers in front of a national or international audience, which is quite funny-- and terrifying.

TAMARA RODGERS: So 'Peas and Quiet,' this totally adorable picture book-- what was that like to the process of writing a book that's someone else is then going to illustrate? What's that process like for you? I know it's different for everyone who writes a picture book, but that kind of interaction between you and the Illustrator.

GABRIELLE TOZER: Again, similar to a 'Melody Trumpet,' I had the most joyous experience working on 'Peas and Quiet,' which I know isn't the case for everyone. So I feel really lucky to say that that happened for me. A lot of authors and illustrators don't even get to meet, which is really common. I didn't know that.

And I was lucky enough to meet my Illustrator only once, but we had a lovely catch-up. And she got me to read her-- we're in a little cafe, and I had to read the manuscript. I was terrified. My voice was shaking. And she kind of went away, and I didn't hear from her for months. I was thinking, oh, my goodness.

And then all of a sudden one day, in my email these draft illustrations arrived, and I'm a very visual person in the sense of I know if I like something immediately if I see it. And I just knew straight away she'd nailed it. It wasn't what matched in my mind because I didn't have a firm idea of what these little peas and their pea pod should look like. She just brought it to light. She kind of just nailed the charming and whimsical mood I was going for. And she was just a dream to work with.

TAMARA RODGERS: How nice.

GABRIELLE TOZER: We're very, I suppose, flexible and accommodating with each other. There were times when she would tweak things to kind of better suit what me or the publisher was feeling. And then there was times when I tweaked the copy for her because it better suited a direction she wanted to take one of the illustrations, for example. So it was lovely.

I just wish we had the opportunity to work more together, tour it or whatever, but we live in different states. So yeah, it was lovely. I loved that.

TAMARA RODGERS: How nice.

GABRIELLE TOZER: And it was nice because it's a very solitary experience, being an author.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yes.

GABRIELLE TOZER: So to have someone to share it with was so nice and coming at it from such different experiences. It was similar to working on the 'Love Oz YA Anthology.' That was lovely too, because again, you're not completely alone when you're working on it. You're in this beautiful team of people. It just felt so much more collaborative.

TAMARA RODGERS: Nice. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come and chat. I know you've got another panel coming this afternoon with TeenCon, which is going to be pretty exciting.

GABRIELLE TOZER: That'll be fun, yeah.

TAMARA RODGERS: Getting to hang out with Will, who's one of our PRC ambassadors and giving away lots of books. Anyone who's at TeenCon will know you're getting the piles of boxes and boxes of books outside.

GABRIELLE TOZER: There is so much swag.

TAMARA RODGERS: Looking at them going, oh, my goodness. There's so much to read. I don't know where you would start.

GABRIELLE TOZER: I know. Everyone's TBR, their to-be-read piles, are going to be exploding, towering off their bookshelves.

TAMARA RODGERS: It's a nice problem to have.

GABRIELLE TOZER: It'll be a good problem, yeah. They'll have sore muscles lugging home their bags tonight. So thank you so much for having me.

TAMARA RODGERS: Oh, pleasure. Thanks, Gabby.

GABRIELLE TOZER: Thank you.

TAMARA RODGERS: Bye, [inaudible]

GABRIELLE TOZER: Bye.