Video transcript
2019 NSW PRC author interview – R. A. Spratt

TAMARA RODGERS: Hi. I'm Tamara Rodgers from the Premier's Reading Challenge. We're here at the Riverside Theatre at Parramatta for the Sydney Writers Festival Primary Schools Day. We're really excited to be bringing you some author interviews where we'll have the authors from the Primary Schools programme in conversation with some students from Galston High School.

We really hope you enjoy hearing them have a chat about what they love about their work. Thank you so much to the Sydney Writers Festival for having us along. We'd also like to thank the PRC programme sponsors, our media partner-- News Local, and Dymocks Children's Charities, who are out supporting partner. We really appreciate all of their support for the programme.

ASHLEY: Hi. I'm Ashley [inaudible] from Galston High School. And today, I am joined today by the incredible R.A. Spratt, who is the author of Friday Barnes, Nanny Piggins, and also The Peski Kids. How are you today?

R.A. SPRATT: I'm so good.

ASHLEY: OK. Was reading a big part of your childhood, and if so, what were your favourite books?

R.A. SPRATT: I was a reluctant reader. It's hard to believe, isn't it? Because I'm obviously such a great literary figure. No, when I started out, I was really into comics. So when I was-- like Garfield and Beano, because my family's from England, so they tried to inculcate me with as much British culture as possible, but not high culture, like Shakespeare-- low culture, like the Beano comic.

And when I was older I got into more-- like I love Hating Alison Ashley. Robin Klein is a brilliant Australian author based in Melbourne. And then when I got a bit older still, I loved things like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I love books with lots of ideas jammed in.

ASHLEY: Are there any authors that inspired your writing and motivated you to become an author yourself?

R.A. SPRATT: Oh, yes. Lots of authors inspire me. I get inspired by lots of things. People always say, oh, are you inspired by authors? But I get inspired by authors, and TV shows, and movies. So authors who've inspired me-- obviously, Roald Dahl. And you know why he inspires me? It's not just that he writes brilliant books and they're funny. That's obviously good. And also, his books hate teachers, which is so funny, and librarians-- no, he actually doesn't hate librarians. He's nice about librarians. It's teachers he hates.

But anyway, Roald Dahl, he's my role model, because in life-- in real life-- he married a Hollywood movie star. But apart from that, he used to eat a chocolate bar after every single meal. And you just think-- you think of life goals, you think that's just an epic one. That's really a good one. Because most people think about career and having children, but I actually think to have as a life goal eating a chocolate bar after every meal, that's really good.

And also-- who else inspired me? Richmal Crompton. She wrote the series a book called William. And TV shows that inspired me are things like Alias, where they have big cliffhanger endings and things like that. And-- yeah. I think so.

ASHLEY: I know you write a lot of TV shows as well as books. What is it like, compared to writing TV shows and books?

R.A. SPRATT: TV shows, you get paid a lot more money, which is really nice, because then you can eat food and not worry about your credit card debt. But the problem is everyone is horrible in television-- like really, really evil horrible. You've got like sociopaths, and serial killers, and then television executives. They're just horrible people. And so, I worked for them up until just a couple of years ago. And the money is so good you put up with the horrible people.

But you have no creative control. You have a brilliant idea, and someone's like, no, you can't do that. You can't do that. And they take all your good ideas out of these scripts, and you're left with this just like, ugh, blancmange of a show. And it goes on air, and people say, I saw you on such and such. And I'm like, yes. I'm sorry.

I'm not naming any names, but some of those shows-- goodness me. But anyway, when you write books, you can write whatever you want. And publishers, they have so little money. They don't pay very much. But that means that the editors don't have much time to edit your work, and there's a limit to how much they can cut out of what you do. So by the time they fix all the spelling mistakes and all the grammar mistakes, they're too exhausted to take out the weird things you've put in your book, so you can get away with way more. So that's why writing books is awesome.

ASHLEY: Interesting. How do you approach the process of getting the stories out of your brain and into actual physical books?

R.A. SPRATT: Well, mercifully, I type incredibly fast. These fingers move like lightning. So I think the thought, and the thought goes through my neurons to my fingers, and goes [makes noise] and it comes on my screen. I do actually plot. I mean, I seem like a kind of a vague disorganised mind, but actually, I have got quite a sort of mathematical process of plotting. And so I do have like a-- I put a-- I get a sheet of cardboard, and I plot things out properly.

But then once that's done-- because, basically, all the characters voices are in my head. So once I've worked out the plot, I just have the scene. And then, they just tell me what they're going to say, and it goes down.

ASHLEY: What genre do you enjoy writing the most?

R.A. SPRATT: I'm really enjoying writing The Peski Kids at the moment. You probably know about it, because it's not on the Premier's Reading Challenge. No, because they just argue all the time. I really enjoy writing for people arguing. It's so much fun. So much more fun than writing people having a nice conversation, because they insult each other constantly. But the mystery genre is really good for me, in terms of people love mysteries. But yeah, I just love-- whatever I write, I enjoy it, really, because it's the same sort of characters saying strange things. That's the fun part.

ASHLEY: Are any of your characters inspired by anyone you know?

R.A. SPRATT: Oh, gosh. Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. But I'm not really meant to tell people, because I would tell people-- I'd tell the audience in a live presentation who I based the characters on, because they're never going to tell them. But this is going to go on the interweb. And so, if I said, oh, this character is based on such and such, someone out there would tell that person. But so, yeah. The main characters are often based on me. Like, April's really angry all the time for no reason, and I was like that when I was younger. And Nanny Piggins just wants to eat lots of chocolate, and I'm like that. And Friday Barnes is a nerd who has no social skills, and I'm like that.

But then again, other characters, like Nanny Anne, who don't seem like me, but they're really, really particular about something-- I can be like that, too. So they sort of-- I draw them out of myself. But then, sometimes you just hear someone say something incredibly rude. And I find that fascinating, and I think, what motivates someone to behave like that? And then I steal that personality, and I put it in a book.

So I love meeting deeply unpleasant people. That's why training in television was so good, because I got to meet so many unpleasant people and now make them book characters. The trick is you have to remember to change the names before the books print, because I often write it with their real names. And then at the end, I'll do a search and replace. But a couple of times, I've forgotten to do that. That was bad.

ASHLEY: Within these series, do each of these books stand on their own, or are you trying to build up until a big conclusion at the end?

R.A. SPRATT: Well, fortunately, I'm so good at writing that any of my books you can just pick up and enjoy from page one. There is a series. There is a plot. I always have like a plot, but it's like a television show. I always-- because I'm a television writer, I write books the way I'd write television shows. So if you imagine a sitcom, like the Big Bang Theory or something, there's a plot that runs through the whole series. But you can watch any episode out of the series in it. So yes and yes, basically, I think is the answer to the question.

ASHLEY: What helps when you-- with inspiration? Do you listen to music or does it seem to come naturally?

R.A. SPRATT: No. My brain can not multitask. If I put on music, I have to sing and dance to the music, and then no work gets done. So what I do-- this is my daily routine as a writer. I get up. I fight with my children. I take them to school. And then, I go to the gym. And then, I have a bath. And then, I drink my body weight in coffee. And then, I check all my messages and all the internet. And then, maybe I'll go to the bathroom and have another coffee.

And then, it might be lunchtime, so I have lunch. And then I look at my watch, and it's like, I've got to pick up the kids in 40 minutes. So I quickly type for 40 minutes. And that's how I prepare myself for work.

ASHLEY: And this question is a bit random, but Friday Barnes has a favourite dessert. What's yours?

R.A. SPRATT: What's her favourite-- No, don't tell me. So Friday Barnes has a favourite dessert. I can't remember what it is. I'm going to guess banoffee pudding. Is that correct? Do you know why that is? Because-- no. Because in Nanny Piggins, I had to cut banoffee pudding out of a book, and it made me angry-- for the US audience, because my US editor said in America, people don't eat bananas. And I just did not believe that, but I was a new author. I'm like fine, cut out. But banoffee is so fun to say.

I like tiramisu. I live in Bowral, right? And if you ever come to Bowral, we have a bakery called the Gumnut Patisserie. What I like, I like to get the party box. That's got 12 of their best cakes in miniature. So instead of having to commit to a full cake and then thinking, oh, this is good, but that looks really good, I think I made a bad decision, you can commit to 12 little cakes and try them all. So my answer is in the party box.

ASHLEY: Is there going to be any more Friday Barnes books?

R.A. SPRATT: Well, it's funny you should ask that, actually. I was talking to my publisher the other day, and until just two days ago the answer would be, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Isn't eight enough? I actually wrote a song, which was Isn't Eight Enough For You People, because I just got so fed up with people asking for more books. I wrote eight. I gave you four years of my life. Is that not enough?

And you think how much time I neglected my children to write those books. And I just tore them out of my soul, and I put them on a paper. I travel the world promoting them. And it's like, when's the next one coming? And I'm like, oh, dear goodness. And then my publisher, I was talking to the other day, and she said, oh, and about Friday Barnes. And I said, of course there'll never be any more Friday Barnes.

She said oh, no, no, no. There'll never be any more Friday Barnes, unless maybe you could write another Friday Barnes, Rachel. And I'm like, ugh. So now they're talking maybe when Peski Kids is finished, maybe there'll be a collection of short stories, and that will have some sort of conclusion that makes people stop writing me emails complaining. Because people, they want Friday and Ian to get married and kiss a lot.

And it's just like, I don't want to write that. That's disgusting and unhygienic. And she's 12. She's too young to get married. So anyway, that's your scoop for you, Ashley. There may be another Friday Barnes in about a year or two.

ASHLEY: I look forward to reading it.

R.A. SPRATT: You'll be like 25 and sophisticated by then. You'll be like, ugh. You'll be reading Catcher in the Rye.

ASHLEY: It'll be a guilty pleasure.

R.A. SPRATT: It'll be a guilty pleasure. But don't get it from the library. Go to a bookshop and pay full recommended retail price, OK? It helps me more. I get like $1.50.

ASHLEY: Well, thank you for joining us.

R.A. SPRATT: Thank you.

ASHLEY: It was really great talking to you.

R.A. SPRATT: I know.

ASHLEY: Well, happy reading, everyone.