Ollie and Will were a summer fling; now they’re classmates. But only one of them is out…SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA meets a modern-day, queer re-imagining of GREASE.
We had the pleasure of chatting to Australian author Sophie Gonzales about her debut YA rom-com, Only Mostly Devastated. She chats about her favourite scene she wrote, challenges, and more!
Hi Sophie! Thanks for joining us here on The Nerd Daily. To begin with, tell us a bit about yourself!
Thanks for having me! Well, I’m 27 (I think. . . I’ve noticed it’s hard to keep track after 25 or so. Death from old age is surely nigh), I’ve been writing since I was about 11, when I started writing Harry Potter fanfiction. I’m Australian, I speak next-to-no Spanish, but I can sing in it! I sing a lot of things, in fact. Once, in year 12, I memorised a 2000 word speech by singing it, and I can still recite the first few paragraphs!
Your novel, Only Mostly Devastated, hit shelves worldwide last month. What inspired you to write a brilliantly queer Grease retelling?
My agent and I were speaking back in 2017 about how little queer representation there was as recently as the ‘90s and early 2000s, and how some of those classic rom-coms might look different through a modern, queer lens—and Grease was one of the movies that came up. My agent latched onto the idea of a book using that premise as a jumping-off point, and wouldn’t let me forget it until I sat down and wrote it!
Without giving too much away, what was your favourite scene to write, and why?
The Big Argument. I love writing arguments for some reason. It’s like both characters come to life in my head and start yelling at each other, and I’m frantically writing it down, going “oh, good point”, “OOHHH no, he’s got you there”.
What was one idea or theme you really wanted to express within this novel?
The main idea I kept coming back to in Only Mostly Devastated was the idea of sacrifice: how much should you be willing to give for the people you love, how much should you expect in return, and the fair balance of give-and-take that should be present in all relationships. I think when I was a teenager, that was one lesson I learned the hard way a few times. It was all well and good for me to say “Well they did such and such to me, they did this wrong”, but I had to become comfortable at some point with facing that, sometimes, I expected to be given time, or respect, without giving it myself. For me, learning that I wasn’t always in the right in relationships, and learning to see my actions through another person’s eyes, was my coming-of-age transition.
We’re predicting that your main character Ollie is going to be a huge fan favourite – who doesn’t love a slightly awkward, irresistibly cute and totally genuine protagonist! Did anyone in particular, real life or fictional, inspire you when creating such a lovable character?
Well, I love him, so I certainly hope others do too! The main two things that influenced my characterisation of Ollie was Save The Cat (a craft book that advises you give your character a generous moment early on to make readers root for them) and, in a lot of ways, my own upbringing. In my family, family is the absolute priority, and it’s not a question of “if” you’ll help. I was raised to never backchat my parents, or whine—if you were asked to do something important for a family member, whining would be reprehensible in my family. Because of this, I could never relate to the many teenagers represented in fiction who would argue with their parents, and complain, and talk back, and all that drama! Of course, that’s real life for a lot of people, but it wasn’t real life for me. I really enjoyed being able to create a character who didn’t throw tantrums, and was polite and respectful at home. That feels real to me.
Speaking of characters, which character was the most challenging to write, and why?
Niamh was definitely the most challenging for me, because I used her to explore some of my own struggles with body image and fatphobia, but it was scary to do that, because it’s such a touchy subject. I rewrote her scenes so, so many times in an effort to make sure I was staying true to what I wanted to say with her character while not doing harm. I hope I succeeded.
After finishing Only Mostly Devastated, I was surprised to learn you’re from country South Australia (me too!). What type of research did you do to make your setting – the ultimate American high school experience – feel so authentic?
Oh, now I want to know where you’re from! I think it comes from a few areas: one, as Australians we’re raised on American media. I don’t know about you, but easily 90%+ of what I watched as a kid was American, so we’re already familiar with a lot of the cultural differences. I also went to America during edits and used that as a research trip. Outside of that, I did everything I could: internet research, seeking edits from American friends, long talks on the phone with my agent about how a certain event would play out in America, reading forums, exploring local areas with Google street view to get a sense of what someone might see if they walked down a street in a small town in x state, and even twitter keyword searches to see what real people had to say about their own upbringing in a similar setting.
You’re an author, a performer, a psychologist, an avid ice skater, and more. How do you find time to fit everything in?
Honestly, I wish I could say I didn’t make sacrifices, but it’s not true. Musical theatre and ice skating have always been a huge part of my identity, but it’s been a couple of years now since I’ve been able to devote much time to either. Psychology is my day job, and when I’m not there, I’m writing. I have hopes that one day there will be time in my days again to go back to musical theatre and ice skating—time will tell!
Could you describe your current work in progress in five words!
Tension-to-love rom-com.
What are you currently loving (be it a book, a TV show, a new hobby, or something else entirely)?
Currently, when I’m not writing I’m playing Subnautica. It’s an open world survival game where you’re stranded on an alien planet made up of mostly water and you have to collect resources, create a base, and go deeper and deeper into the ocean to hopefully find a way to escape the planet. It’s kind of epic.
And finally, if you could share one bit of advice to your twelve-year-old self, what would it be?
Stop listening to people who tell you things aren’t possible. The only person who gets to decide your limits is you.
