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My Writing Life: Mike Gayle

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After working as a journalist for magazines including Bliss, Just Seventeen and writing for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Cosmopolitan, he became a full time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend. To date Mike is the author of twelve novels including Mr Commitment, Turning Thirty and Wish You Were Here. His books have been translated into over thirty languages.

1. What book should every writer read?

I don’t have just one book to recommend really because I passionately believe that all writers and aspiring writers should read A LOT! Read books that make you laugh, make you cry, irritate or inspire you, enrapture or confuse you. You learn so much by reading the work of other writers, about structure, pacing, characterisation, a sense of time and place and so much more and it’s a lot more enjoyable than trying to plough your way through some potentially dry old textbook!

2. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started your writing career?

I’m actually quite grateful that no one gave me any advice before I started, partly because it’s been thrilling to find out a lot of things on my own but mostly because writing a book is such an intimidating thing to do that I think rather than encouraging me it might have put me off. What I enjoyed most about the process of writing my first book was working things out bit by bit, making mistakes and then correcting them, all safe in the knowledge that no one, other than myself, was expecting anything from me.

3. Who has been an influential figure in your writing career?

I can’t think of just one person but every single editor I’ve had has definitely improved my writing and storytelling skills. As a writer there’s something heartening about having someone whose job it is to bring out the best in you.

4. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your writing?

The best advice I ever received was not to hold onto anything too tightly. That great scene you wrote, the one you think is the key to the whole book, may actually be the thing that’s holding you back and cutting it might be the key to fixing everything. So when writing, you have to be able to hold lots of different possible paths in your head and not, in the beginning at least, be over invested in any one of them.

5. What was the proudest moment of your writing career?

Getting my first proof all those years ago. It was the first time I’d seen my writing in book form. It was such an early proof that it didn’t even have a proper cover, it was plain white with just my name and the title on it but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that it looked like a real book and could go on an actual bookshelf.

6. What is your typical writing day like?

I wake up and head straight to the gym for half an hour because if I don’t do it first thing, I know I’ll never make it there! Then I’ll come back, shower and try to be sitting at my desk by 8.00am. I’ve learned over the past twenty six years of being a full time writer that at best, I’ve got five good hours of writing in me, after which I’m completely spent. After that, I’ll try and do anything that doesn’t involve looking at a screen which usually means going for a walk or a visit to a cafe with my wife during which I’ll often think or talk about my day’s work in preparation for the following morning.

7. What are you reading right now?

Erasure by Percival Everett. I recently saw the film adaptation American Fiction and loved it, so I’m excited to read the book for myself.

8. Bookmarker or page-folder?

Bookmarker definitely! But I’m not proud. I’m happy to use anything from a receipt to a train ticket as a bookmark, none of your fancy gold embossed, leather tasseled jobs for me!

This article originally appeared on our Substack.

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