How do you turn your life into a book? Isabel Popple chats to Leo Hickman, author, environmental writer and editor for the Guardian.

Stripping yourself bare

Leo’s first book, A Life Stripped Bare, the tale of his year spent trying to live ethically, began existence as a fortnightly column in the Guardian, each excerpt investigating a different area of modern life, from the ethical considerations of food shopping, to rubbish, to cars. The column was such a success that he was offered a book deal. But what made it so successful?

Leo believes the answer lies in the fact that he was an average guy. Not already being an environmentalist created more jeopardy and interest in the situation. This is a common experiment in journalism, he explains. “You pluck someone out of their normal life and dump them in an alien situation.” Readers like to see people thrown out of normal situations; it often produces good writing, and it makes the writing more interesting. When writers report honestly about whether life was easy or more difficult in the new situation it’s more illuminating.”

What makes a story interesting?

Both publishers and readers look for certain elements in a story: as well as a sense of jeopardy, varying pitches of human emotion are important. A Life Stripped Bare fulfilled this by pitting Leo against both his own instincts and those of his long-suffering wife.

“You need someone to say, ‘Oh my God you’re ruining my life,' and some other person saying, 'We need to do this for the greater good,' or whatever."

The ethics of non-fiction

Unless specifically writing an opinion piece, Leo believes it’s important to present a balanced view. There is always the temptation to create heroes and villains because it works well in fiction, and so will also make a compelling news report, but as a journalist it’s important to be fair to the people who’ve been interviewed, and report the issues as they’ve been told to you. This presents one of the key challenges of journalism: to be able to step back, avoid personalisation, and not display your own opinion.

“On the one hand I’m a commentator,” Leo says. “I write opinion pieces about issues, and it’s quite obvious what I feel about certain issues – it’s on the record. But then you have to leave all that behind and suddenly park all your natural prejudices, opinions and passions, and try to be as fair as possible.”

The twist to this is that in some ways this can never be a reality. Even if a writer is superficially reporting an issue in a straight, unbiased manner, another opinion can always be inferred. Why did they choose this case study over another? Why did they mix up and present the interviews in this particular order?

“These are all tricks and ploys you can use as a writer to manipulate the emotions of the reader,” Leo explains. “But I would argue that’s an ethical consideration for journalists: do you want to play that game, or do you want to try and present the story in as fair and balanced way as you can?”

Getting published

“Perversely, it’s far easier to get published now than it was when I started in journalism,” Leo says. And the reason? Simply that everyone can write all the time using blogs. Blogs are a form of published writing. They may not be the New Scientist or OK , but they’re there, available for public scrutiny.

“I’d pretty much urge anyone in journalism now, or students of journalism, to be blogging. A, because it’s just good writing practice; B, it’s a way of mega-phoning your writing and your name; and C, because it’s a free and easy way to build a cuttings file so when you go for an interview and people ask for examples of your writing you can show them.”

Perhaps only three people will read your blog, but that doesn’t undercut its value as good writing practice. And there are now a number of people in journalism who got there through blogging: by good writing, building a personal profile, or thinking of a quirky way to approach a topic.

“Finding an angle - a way into a subject - is crucial for journalists,” affirms Leo. And if blogging becomes passé two or three years down the road, he advises new writers to embrace any new form - the best way to get published is to maintain some form of online writing.