‘I decided the book should taste like a lime’: DBC Pierre on writing Vernon God Little | The Guardian

Out of work in London with nothing to lose, the author wrote 100,000 words in a few weeks – and then mined the ‘gibberish’ for his debut novelWriting Vernon God Little made me a crash test dummy for metaphors: bull by the horns, taking the plunge, going for broke. The job was a deliberate dive into an abyss before I could come to my senses. But if you’re teetering on the edge of writing a first book, take note: I recommend it. Leap before you look. The tools do appear.I was out of work in London at the time, due not only to a mystifying arts CV but the wrong hair and a shortfall of buzzwords. I hadn’t much to lose, which removed some excess pressure, and my cultural life stretched to a chat with the fruiterer on Streatham High Road – so there was time. More crucially I was soaked in feelings, 20 years of them, maybe the kind a writer secretes until the lid blows off and he writes something. Then a trigger came in the form of a TV news clip, which gave the feelings a voice. Continue reading…

Out of work in London with nothing to lose, the author wrote 100,000 words in a few weeks – and then mined the ‘gibberish’ for his debut novel

Writing Vernon God Little made me a crash test dummy for metaphors: bull by the horns, taking the plunge, going for broke. The job was a deliberate dive into an abyss before I could come to my senses. But if you’re teetering on the edge of writing a first book, take note: I recommend it. Leap before you look. The tools do appear.

I was out of work in London at the time, due not only to a mystifying arts CV but the wrong hair and a shortfall of buzzwords. I hadn’t much to lose, which removed some excess pressure, and my cultural life stretched to a chat with the fruiterer on Streatham High Road – so there was time. More crucially I was soaked in feelings, 20 years of them, maybe the kind a writer secretes until the lid blows off and he writes something. Then a trigger came in the form of a TV news clip, which gave the feelings a voice.

Continue reading…