Ask the Author: Gideon Burrows
Answered Questions (6)
Gideon Burrows
I'm going to be honest and admit that I get incredibly, awfully down when I don't have a project going on. I start to feel like I'm a faker, a pretend writer.
This is exactly how I was feeling once the brain tumour book was finished and I got up the next morning and said: well, what next? I had nothing. Absolutely nothing, and for me that's the worst thing.
A great friend who knows I'm into hot foods and chillies said, over lunch one day, why don't you write a book about chillies. (It was said in that... "You know what you should do, write about [insert THEIR favourite subject here]"
I dismissed it and was left to wallow in my self-doubt for a few more weeks before I just started writing something - the blurb for the back of the book, I think.
Just testing the idea. I hadn't taken it seriously, but at least I was doing something. And then I went to visit a chilli chocolate maker, and wrote up the experience. And then the book started to take shape in my mind. I was on a roll, I stopped feeling down, and off I went again.
This time, as the chilli book has come to a close, I've felt the creeping doubts again. So I'm already working on another project, hoping to be so itching to get into it, that there's no period between finishing chillies and being into the new one.
The new one is an inkling of an idea that I've been testing on myself, then writing in spare moments between chillies, and it's starting to roll out. I know it'll take all my confidence to hold it there and not give up, before it starts to really roll. I may not manage it.
This is exactly how I was feeling once the brain tumour book was finished and I got up the next morning and said: well, what next? I had nothing. Absolutely nothing, and for me that's the worst thing.
A great friend who knows I'm into hot foods and chillies said, over lunch one day, why don't you write a book about chillies. (It was said in that... "You know what you should do, write about [insert THEIR favourite subject here]"
I dismissed it and was left to wallow in my self-doubt for a few more weeks before I just started writing something - the blurb for the back of the book, I think.
Just testing the idea. I hadn't taken it seriously, but at least I was doing something. And then I went to visit a chilli chocolate maker, and wrote up the experience. And then the book started to take shape in my mind. I was on a roll, I stopped feeling down, and off I went again.
This time, as the chilli book has come to a close, I've felt the creeping doubts again. So I'm already working on another project, hoping to be so itching to get into it, that there's no period between finishing chillies and being into the new one.
The new one is an inkling of an idea that I've been testing on myself, then writing in spare moments between chillies, and it's starting to roll out. I know it'll take all my confidence to hold it there and not give up, before it starts to really roll. I may not manage it.
Gideon Burrows
A good idea can come from anywhere, or it can creep up on you over a long time. I spent two years on my bike writing Men Can Do It before I put a word down on paper. I felt so strongly about the issue, I was giving interviews on Women's Hour in my head. I HAD to write it, there was no choice.
More often, it's a little inkling of an idea - something someone says, or a little experience. I'll mull it over, let it fester and then test it out with a couple of thousand words or so.
My brain tumour book Living Low Grade came about that way. I didn't mean to write it, it just grew out of thoughts and musings I was having and which I'd heard from other brain tumour patients, and suddenly there it was.
More often, it's a little inkling of an idea - something someone says, or a little experience. I'll mull it over, let it fester and then test it out with a couple of thousand words or so.
My brain tumour book Living Low Grade came about that way. I didn't mean to write it, it just grew out of thoughts and musings I was having and which I'd heard from other brain tumour patients, and suddenly there it was.
Gideon Burrows
It's a humorous travel book called Chilli Britain: A Hot & Fruity Adventure.
I spent the first half of 2014 travelling around England, Wales and Scotland visiting people who - one way or another - were obsessed with chillies. Growing, selling, making, eating, almost worshipping them!
I ended up meeting so many characters and learning so much, the book wrote itself. I discovered there's a burgeoning community of chilli lovers out there, and I hope the book will leap onto that zeitgeist come this Christmas.
After all, I bet you there's someone in your life who loves chillies and hot foods, isn't there....
I spent the first half of 2014 travelling around England, Wales and Scotland visiting people who - one way or another - were obsessed with chillies. Growing, selling, making, eating, almost worshipping them!
I ended up meeting so many characters and learning so much, the book wrote itself. I discovered there's a burgeoning community of chilli lovers out there, and I hope the book will leap onto that zeitgeist come this Christmas.
After all, I bet you there's someone in your life who loves chillies and hot foods, isn't there....
Gideon Burrows
My most honest and true, even if painful, advice is that publishing is a lottery. Spend your time and effort writing, not chasing the dream of a publisher or even an agent.
I spent years writing to agents and publishers, mostly never getting even a reply, let alone being turned down. I slowly came to realise that getting picked up like that was essentially down to luck.
So, believing in my work, I decided to self-publish and had the simple equation in mind: self-publishing is a lottery too. I might, just might, get picked up by thousands of readers, become a sensation and all my dreams will be fulfilled.
I've got as much chance of doing that as I have being picked up by an agent or publishing house, but at least I'll get my stuff published and read by someone my way. Hey, and if I'm super lucky, a publisher may pick me up from my self-published work. And I might (though I might eat these words too) have the opportunity to send them a rejection slip of my own.
I spent years writing to agents and publishers, mostly never getting even a reply, let alone being turned down. I slowly came to realise that getting picked up like that was essentially down to luck.
So, believing in my work, I decided to self-publish and had the simple equation in mind: self-publishing is a lottery too. I might, just might, get picked up by thousands of readers, become a sensation and all my dreams will be fulfilled.
I've got as much chance of doing that as I have being picked up by an agent or publishing house, but at least I'll get my stuff published and read by someone my way. Hey, and if I'm super lucky, a publisher may pick me up from my self-published work. And I might (though I might eat these words too) have the opportunity to send them a rejection slip of my own.
Gideon Burrows
As primarily a non-fiction writer, I think it's both that you get to say something that needs to be said (as it was in my shared parenting book Men Can Do It) and having the freedom to actually do it; and it's also that you get to have some enormous fun like for my travel book Chilli Britain: A Hot & Fruity Adventure. I got to meet some amazing characters, eat some fantastic food, and mostly wrote the book on the way home on the train. That's some job!
Gideon Burrows
I think this comes with time, when you've been writing a while and see it as a job rather than a hobby, you don't tend to get so blocked.
I absolutely insist on writing 2,000 words every working day, even if it's 2,00 words I know is unlikely to be used in the book I'm writing.
And if I don't - well, I can't have my coffee, take a leisurely break to chat to my wife, do emails or anything. It's enough impetus to keep going.
I use a writing programme called Scrivener which even 'dings' when that 2,000 words is written. If it's a good day, I don't even notice the 'ding' as I'm ploughing through.
I absolutely insist on writing 2,000 words every working day, even if it's 2,00 words I know is unlikely to be used in the book I'm writing.
And if I don't - well, I can't have my coffee, take a leisurely break to chat to my wife, do emails or anything. It's enough impetus to keep going.
I use a writing programme called Scrivener which even 'dings' when that 2,000 words is written. If it's a good day, I don't even notice the 'ding' as I'm ploughing through.
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