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Home > English > Standard > Module C: Texts and Society > Elective 1: The Institution and Individual Experience > Interview with Scott Monk, author of Raw
An interview with Scott Monk, author of Raw
This photo of Scott Monk was taken by Tricia Johnson
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Maree Arrow, Birrong Girls High School, conducted this interview in early May, 2001
What did you start with when you began to write Raw?
Being a heavy media "junkie" as a teenager, I used to scour newspapers, movies, radio and television for the "germ" of an idea. The best stories are usually real ones - a reason why I love being a journalist. My novel, Raw, came about from watching A Current Affair of all places. It featured a story about a detention centre for young offenders in far north Queensland. It focused on a program run by a husband and wife team who took young offenders under their wings. They would go on stock rides, wake the young people at the crack of dawn and muck around under waterfalls. It was the last chance the offenders had before being sent to prison.
I wrote down everything I saw straight away. The characters of Sam the stockman, Josh and Mary were all created right there and then. They look in real life like they do in Raw. I knew there was a novel in this but I locked it away in my head. I wrote another manuscript instead, which stank and I binned it after 200 pages. After weeks of writer's block, I sat down in front of a computer screen and refused to budge until I wrote something. At 2am, I wrote the prologue to Raw. That inspired the rest of the novel. It took an agonising 18 months to write - the longest time I've ever spent on one manuscript. It also went through several rewrites on my publisher's request. It was definitely the hardest story but the most rewarding. It's the first novel of mine I recommend for people to read.
Did you know how it was going to end when you started writing it?
Yes. I always plot in my head the first chapter and last chapter. Brett was going to be arrested again. That was concrete. I can't just meander through a story guessing what's going to happen next. Out of interest, the epilogue was changed in one of the last rewrites. Brett and Caitlyn were originally going to be reunited in the last chapter. She would drive along the river, honk a horn, push through the police and give Brett a huge kiss. It sounded too Hollywood-ish. It didn't sound realistic and made me feel squeamish. I'm very happy I had the guts to write the ending I did for Raw. I knew it would be unpopular. It's also the thing most people comment about - mainly in favour of it.
Who do you find the most interesting character?
I find Josh the most interesting character. He willingly wants to stay at a detention centre. Like I said before, he was based on a real character. This guy wanted to stay at a real detention centre even after he'd served his term. That I found depressing.
Why this title?
I'm hopeless with titles. For my first novel, Boyz'R'Us, I submitted 86 title suggestions! Raw was different. I refused to give the story a name at first and dwelled on it. I heard the word used in conversation one day and thought I could use it as a title. I looked it up in a dictionary and it gave several meanings. To me, “raw” means exposed, raw meat, raw recruit, sunburnt raw, the truth, and stripped back of all pretensions. All these things happen to Brett. One three-letter word sums all so many themes in the book.
Did you have a target audience in mind for Raw? If so, who and why?
I write for young people who don't particularly like reading. Between the ages of 8 and 14 I was a reluctant reader. I hated it actually. All the novels I was given at my Sydney high school were quite boring. They had no concept of what it was like to be a teenage guy in Australia as most were written by Americans or Brits. So all my novels - Boyz'R'Us, Raw and The Crush - are written for Australian teenagers, particularly those who don't enjoy reading. The language is simple and engaging. The books can be read just as a story or picked apart for class discussion. It's a good balancing act. I'm known as a writer for guys, so I guess that's who I write for mainly. I'm a guy so I know what goes on in guys' minds - and what crazy worlds they are sometimes! However, a lot of girls like my stuff too, which is excellent.
Your main character, Brett, comes from Mt Druitt, and is sent to The Farm which is somewhere near the northern NSW border. Why did you choose these particular locations?
It was a tough decision. I knew I wanted a city and country location to start with. I had to decide what kind of social background Brett had – western suburbs, affluent eastern or northern suburbs, or southern suburbs. I chose Mt Druitt in the western suburbs because I didn't want Brett to come from a rich background. Traditionally, the west has higher unemployment factors and is far removed from the city proper. There are several mentions of Brett unable to get a job. Also, I was trying to subtly trying to convey the feeling of isolation young people in the west sometimes have.
The country location was a hard one. I needed a country town that was remote. The kind of place a young offender would find hard to run away from. From my box of clippings over the years, I found a four-page liftout some of the students from Mungindi had produced about their area for one of the Sydney metropolitan papers. It detailed the cotton industry, farmers and a young Aboriginal football player (who would later become Josh). Reading it, I knew I'd found my town. A year later, I travelled to the town and found it remote but with all the features I needed for the story. It would be hard for a young person without any cash or transport to run away from. It is a nice traditional town.
What do you most like about Brett?
His ability to admit he's wrong. Not everyone can do that. And Brett does it the hard way.
Why did you choose to write Raw in the third person?
I didn't choose to! I was asked to by my publisher. Originally, Raw was written in first person. However, my publisher believed the writing was too poetic and colourful for someone like Brett. So during one of the rewrites I had to change all the “I'' references into “he'' and “Brett''. It was quite painful. But it was the right decision. It would have been unbelievable to ask the reader to accept Brett using terms like “the bush buzzed''. Brett wouldn't have cared less.
Would you comment on other techniques you have used in the writing of this novel e.g. symbolism...?
Yes, there are a number of techniques. I've used the old Shakespearean cliche of having the weather change with the main character's emotions. Think of the storm at the end of the book and the flood. The flood is almost a refreshing feel. The storm is a tempest of feelings.
Imagery is also strongly used. Look at the prologue. There are lots of words that portray one animal (the police) hunting down another (Brett). The name Frog also portrays a small helpless creature, which Robbie Scully is. I originally had Frog called that because he was a bed-wetter. “He always wakes up in the morning in a puddle!'' But because of the story's length that had to be chopped out.
I use onomatopoeia - sound words - quite a lot in my writing. Raw has less of it than the other books but the horse ride has cicadas, the bush and birds making noise.
I love short sentences. It's one thing that's always stuck in my mind from high school. I also use the journalist principle KISS when writing - Keep It Simple Stupid. There's no use in writing big long descriptive pieces in novels. They're boring. And rain is rain! It's not: “Long silvery sheets of cold refreshness filled the air from the heavens.''
I like oxymorons - such as harsh happiness - but very few are used in Raw. But my basic two secrets for writing are scenery and conflict. Paint interesting scenes that are easy for the reader to picture and try never to return to exactly the same scene. Also, conflict creates pace and pace keeps readers interested. Conflict can come as character versus character, character versus the system, or even character versus nature.
Would you like to make some comments on how you think your novel "fits in" with the elective “The Institution and Personal Experience”?
Raw explores many issues related to the Institution and Personal Experience. My personal interpretations are:
Although detention centres (the institution) attempt to reform prisoners (the individual), they don't always succeed. In Raw, the Farm succeeds in reforming Josh but fails with Tyson. It changes Brett but the jury's (no pun intended) out on him. He has to go to another prison, which will really test his resolve learnt at the Farm.
In institutions, there are always power structures. Individuals either use power (Tyson) or are victims to it (Frog). Brett swaggers into the Farm thinking it will be a pushover. He's always been the big fish in a small pond. However, the new pond he's thrown in is run by sharks. Brett realises he is at the bottom of the power structure when he arrives.
Josh is an important minor character. He is a sad figure in the fact that he can't escape the institution of the Farm. He has nowhere else to go. This seems to happen to some young people. I was recently at a juvenile detention centre in Adelaide for work. One young boy was released but reoffended so he could return to the detention centre. He had no people to “love'' outside its barbed wire walls.
The institution of the family is lightly touched on. Brett dismisses his family early in the novel, wanting to be his own man. However, as the novel progresses, he starts to miss his parents and sisters. Brett threatens the values of Caitlyn's family. Her father doesn't want his institution to be wrecked by a criminal.
Brett himself tries to buck the system on many an occasion. He blames the institution of society for his lack of employment, opportunities and general grief. He fails to blame himself and his attitude for his lack of opportunities.
The law is also an institution. It is not always favourable to the individual. The cops in the first chapter don't give Brett a chance of reform. They are hardened in their views of what will happen to him.
When you were writing Raw is this one of the themes you were trying to explore, or were other concerns more important?
Definitely this was a major theme I was thinking about. The other was law and order.
When you found out that Raw was on the NSW HSC as a set text how did you feel and why?
I found out by reading a Sydney tabloid. I saw the name Raw and was ecstatic. The problem was the reporter had spelt my name completely wrong! That annoyed me. Being selected was definitely a fantastic honour. It has really boosted my confidence in my writing and Raw. It made all the work worthwhile.
The only downside is all those Year 12 students who have to suffer now in dissecting it for themes and imagery. Sorry guys! I was in your spot studying the HSC 10 years ago.
If students or teachers would like to email Scott, his address is boyz_r_us@hotmail.com
Read another interview with Scott where he talks about his early writing experiences and how he goes about the process of writing
Back to The Institution and Personal Experience