Video transcript
2018 NSW PRC author interview - Morris Gleitzman

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Hi, and welcome to the Premier's Reading Challenge Day at the Sydney Writers Festival. We're here at the primary school's day. I'm Yvette Poshoglian. And with me is Morris Gleitzman.

Morris, thank you so much for joining us. You've just come off stage, and we're really thrilled that you are here with us today. And we've got some questions for you about your reading habits, your writing days, and maybe can you tell us a little bit about your role as a children's laureate this year?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: Well, it's a continuation I think, of a lot of the sort of stuff I've been doing, which is to go around Australia and other countries talking about reading, writing. And talking also-- kids don't need to be told that much about how great it is to lose yourself in a story. Often, kids need a bit of permission or a bit of space from adults, whether it be their parents or teachers, and on a broader scale, the decision makers, politicians, policymakers who have the money that gets spent on libraries and other opportunities that kids have to read. Sometimes they need a bit of talking to, to be reminded that there are few things in kids' lives that are more important or more valuable and more helpful than a constant access to a rich diet, a rich varied diet of good stories.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: A day like today, where you are seeing kids and readers, does it help motivate you to go back and keep writing and to keep working on the kinds of stories that you want to tell?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: It does, yeah. My stories and my characters come partly from things I see and hear and read about in the outside world, but a lot from inside me. But I think as a writer, you've got to meet the people who actually read your stories, because not only is it hugely enjoyable to hear back from readers their thoughts and feelings about what you've written, to see that those characters that you've become friends with through the writing process, that you care so much about, have entered their hearts as well and that they become friends. That's just great fun and very satisfying.

But I think more and more-- and this is partly why I took on the role of laureate-- that all those young people I have just spent a wonderful hour with in the theatre in Paramita are-- they're going to be running the world. It's their world in only a few years. And it's a pretty daunting and challenging world with some big problems. And they deserve just as much happiness and fulfilment and opportunity in their lives as us older folk have had in ours. And to get those things, they're going to have to develop the ability to deal with some tricky problems in the world.

Well, it just so happens, fortunately, that stories are the perfect problem solving practise arena. The more stories we read, the better we get at solving and the more braver we are at facing problems. And that's, I think, sadly what is going to serve those kids best in the world to come. So when I stand out and look at all those young faces and hear the questions and hear their thoughts, it reminds me just how important is the role that all of us who are involved with kids reading, not just writers, but all the people who make it possible, teachers, librarians, parents, people who run, for example, State Premier's Reading Challenges are contributing to this really, really important aspect of the lives of young people.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Well, the Premier's Reading Challenge is kicked off now for 2018 in New South Wales. And all your books are just completely beloved on the challenge. So they're deep in the process now of reading and logging the books that they're reading. Your books, as you say, does cover the gamut from really funny stories that we know and love, to more serious topics that you've covered. Sometimes your books even have both of those elements in them.

Do you often start out with one idea, with one your book, and then travel down that path and the story finds you? Or do you really go in planning a story? For example, with your 'Once' series, are you able to tell us anything further about what's happening in that series?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: Well, I can tell you that there will be one more book. It will be called 'Always,' and I'll write it next year. And I can reveal that Felix, the main character in that story will be going back to the place that we first met him, Poland, but quite a long time after.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: I'm glad you answered that. Because a lot of people have been hanging out for that answer. So thank you for letting us know.

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: But generally, I start each story in the same place. And I think I haven't come across a better starting point for anybody who wants to write stories, which is to find the biggest problem in the life of your main character. Because every story is built around the problem or problems that the characters are facing. And it's a weird thing. Because in our lives we would like to have as few problems as possible.

But when it comes to being readers or writers, we love problems, because those are the things that make stories exciting and unexpected, gripping, dramatic, et cetera. And with that starting point, it doesn't really matter what the story is about, who the characters are, where the story is set. I've got that same starting point, and everything builds on from that. The story is really just characters trying to solve and survive problems.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Do you have a regular day of writing? Is every day the same? Because you'll be busy on the road as a laureate, will you be able to fit the writing in between everything that you do?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: Well normally, my writing days very anyway, because it depends where I am. I always start of planning a story do 8 or 10 draughts of just maybe 2 or 3 pages of just brief ideas about where the character is going physically and emotionally in the story. And I do a lot of draughts, because that means when I start writing the chapters, I know where the story is going.

The character sometimes has other ideas and takes me off in slightly different directions. But that's OK, because my plan is a map. And I never get lost, even if I'm up a side road somewhere having a great time, because that's where the character wants to go.

The laureate-- this year and next year's laureate will be-- my schedule normally is that I spend a total of about eight months each year writing, planning, researching, doing the writing part of the job, and about four months travelling, talking. Not in two big lumps, but in several smaller lumps. The laureate people here in Australia-- the people who organised the laureateship are very understanding. They know writers have to write. So they said we understand Maurice, that you'll need a certain amount of time each year to write.

So we sat down a couple months ago and worked out a schedule for the next two years, which was personally terrifying, because I prefer not to be committed to anything more than beyond next Thursday. And I've put in some chunks of writing time. I usually write three books every two years. But this year and next year, I'll just write one book in each year.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: And when you are at home, do you have a special space that you write in?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: I do, yeah. I have an office at home. I've been writing books for 30 years. And I've always worked at home. I've had quite a few different homes during that time, except for one year when I got a proper office in the city.

And that was lots of fun, but it just took up so much time. Because when you're in the city, you have to go shopping, you have to go to a nice little Chinese cafe for lunch. Then you have to travel to and from-- At home, my journey to work is 11 seconds, which is how long it takes me to walk down the hallway. And lunch is only 11 seconds away, because that's how far the fridge is, et cetera. So I've probably written an extra three or four books just from working at home.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: OK. that's really interesting. With the style of books that you write, I mean, you write comedies, there are some tragedies there as well, do you find it harder to write one style or genre of story than the other? Or do you find that all your stories have a balance of both sort of comic and tragic elements?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: Well, I hope that each of my stories-- I try to show, explore both sides of the coin, if you like, the humorous side of a person's experiences, and the feelings of hope and optimism and those sort of positive, creative feelings and thoughts that are so much an important part of trying to come to grips with big problems. But because I do like to write about big problems, I like to write about some of the tough aspects of all of our lives, inevitably there are going to be some sad and painful and angry feelings that go along with that. I think we sort of owe it to young people that we don't try and hide any sides of life from them. We all know from a very young age that there are days when the world looks a bit gloomy, and we feel like we'd like to smash everything to pieces.

And there are other days when the world is full of infinite possibilities, and we want to help build on those possibilities. And our hearts are full of joy. And that's how life is. And so that's how stories should be.

And I guess the one way that I want to make my stories, different from life, is that although sadly, there are many children around the world who have such huge problems in their lives that they never really solve or survive them. And their lives are spoiled and sometimes even ruined by them. And that is one of the tragic sad aspects of human existence.

I never want to write a story where a young character is worse off, either physically or in their thoughts and feelings about their life at the end of the story than they are than they were in the beginning. Not every problem I write about can be solved. Because if you're writing about war, you can't solve a war once it's started. Even if you could miraculously end it, there would still be some terrible things that couldn't be reversed. And there were many big problems.

Some of us are born into families that have problems that are beyond our ability to solve. Surviving is perhaps our best hope. And the best hope is to survive still feeling capable of optimism and love, and to find a different sort of life for ourselves. So stories have a really important opportunity to reflect, not just our hope for a happy endings, but the fact that if we struggle with big difficult problems, almost always, even if we don't solve the problem, we'll be a bit better off. Because that struggle helps to do amazing things inside us, and to turn us into different and more capable and sometimes happier people.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Wow. It just makes me want to go out and keep reading because there's so much power in stories in there.

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: You should be curate laureate. That's exactly the sort of thing that I'm going to be saying.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: We've got it on tape, which is great. Maurice, what about some of the books that really influenced you growing up? Obviously, you obviously read a lot as a kid. Would that be right?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: I did, yeah.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Are these stories that stayed with you, that really still shape you today?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: I grew up in England. So at school, we tended to have some of the more traditional sort of English authors, Enid Blyton and lots of the people who were writing in the first half of the 20th century. My personal favourite-- and readers of my 'Once' series will know this because I gave this offer to young Felix, the main character, as his favourite author is Richmal Crompton, who was a fascinating remarkable woman. She was the principal of a very posh and rather stuffy private girls' school in South London.

But at evenings and weekends, she used to go home. And she turned herself into the scruffiest, most disruptive, out of control, golden hearted, creative thinking, 10-year-old boy that's ever been written called William Brown. And she did it so successfully that after a few years, she was able to give up her day job and just become a full time writer.

And she became one of the most popular and loved authors in Britain. She died in the 1950s. But the great thing about stories is that even if the language they're written it is a little bit old fashioned-- and possibly true of Richmal Crompton's book-- when they have really brilliant characters, and they are full of excitement and things that move you and things that make you laugh, they never really get old and die, like we humans do, like the old stories.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Do you ever meet people on your travels-- and perhaps you meet some along the way as laureate-- that you just think, oh, what a character? This person has something about them. I'm going make notes on this person. Or just a little bit and pieces from your travels?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: Yeah, I do often. And I'll observe that person even more closely. I'll try to have a bit of a conversation with them, find out if they get a lawyer.

[giggle]

And I tend not to take individuals that I've met or that I know, and put them sort of a hundred percent in a book. But often, bits of all sorts of people I know or have met will turn up as parts of characters, which to me is a little-- well, it's more interesting. And it often suits the story better. And it keeps me out of court. So it's win-win, really.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Do you ever listen to snippets of conversation and make notes? Some writers do that.

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: I certainly listen to snippets of conversation all the time. I've discovered that I very rarely make notes actually, about things that I'm planning to write about, because I've discovered that if those are the things that I should be writing about, I don't need to make notes. Once I've heard them or read them, seen them, they'll stay with me.

Sometimes I'll have an experience. Or I'll see something or hear something and I'll think that would make a great story. But I didn't write anything down about it. And two days later, I've forgotten it.

And that is because that idea was not destined for me. It was travelling. It might have rested on my shoulder briefly. But it was on its way to 'Andy Griffith,' or [inaudible], or whoever.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: That's so interesting. One last question, which you can choose to answer or not. You are working on the final 'Felix' story. Are there any other stories or books you can tell us about that you may be working on at the moment?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: Well at the moment, I'm writing a story called 'Help Around the House' about a boy-- a year six boy who moves to Cambra with his father, who has just been elected a brand new independent member of Parliament-- member of Federal Parliament. And the boy has grown up having many opportunities to help other people and has discovered what a satisfying and fun thing that is to do. And his dad is of a similar frame of mind. So they go to Cambra thinking that they can have the opportunity to help so many people. And they discover that politics in Cambra is a little bit more complicated than that.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: OK. Intriguing, funny, can't wait. When's that coming out?

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: I think it's coming out in September.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: Oh, timing.

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: And I say that with far more confidence than somebody who hasn't actually finished the book should use. I finished-- lest your readers become too concerned-- or your listeners, or your viewers become too concerned on my behalf. I've finished it in one sense, but we still do lots of editing and rewriting.

YVETTE POSHOGLIAN: OK. Fantastic. Maurice, thank you so much for joining us backstage here at Sydney Writers Festival. It's been a pleasure talking to you.

MORRIS GLEITZMAN: My pleasure too. Thank you.