Elizabeth Day

What kind of stories did you love growing up?

This is quite bleak but I loved stories about the Second World War – Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian; When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier to name but a few. I also loved Roald Dahl and the way his tales fired up your imagination. Nothing was too wild for him to write about.

How has the landscape of journalism changed since you first started out? What skills did you need to do well then, versus now?

It has changed a lot. When I first started doing work experience in newsrooms as a teenager, there was only one computer connected to this new-fangled thing called ‘the internet’ and you had to take turns using it!

The explosion of online content and social media has been great in some respects – it’s easier for journalists to get on-the-ground material and connect with people they need to speak to; it’s a phenomenal resource for activists; you can research everything at the click of a button and it’s easier to get your voice heard as a new writer. But it also comes with its fair share of baggage – online comments can be vicious and the fact that everyone can now produce content means that consumers and advertisers are sadly less likely to pay to be featured in print, which in turn has meant a severe dwindling of resources for newspapers and wave after wave of redundancies.

Having said that, I firmly believe that talent is always in demand and in terms of the skills-set, I don’t think it’s that different. The ability to listen, to engage, to connect, to empathise and to communicate are the most important qualities you need – these can be deployed on any platform. And yes, shorthand is useful, but not obligatory. I suppose the key thing is to be flexible and open to diversifying. I am now not only a journalist but an author and a podcaster. We can no longer rely on the print media to be a job for life.

You’re well known for your profiles for titles like The Observer and Harpers Bazaar. What are your three tips for hosting a great interview?

Listen. Listen. Listen.

Honestly, I can’t over-state the importance of that. Many people believe the key to a great interview is having all the right questions mapped out in advance. It isn’t; it’s listening to what the person is saying and engaging with that.

You’re the author of four novels! What’s the key to creating a really strong character?

I think one of the main things is not to worry whether they’re likeable or not. Convincing characters do not need to be nice. They need to be real.

What was your motivation behind starting the How to Fail podcast and what story are you hoping to tell through it?

The motivation was [cliche alert!] a romantic break-up. At 39, I found myself single, divorced, childless and unsure where my future was headed. It wasn’t where I’d expected to be at that stage in my life. But as I got over the heartbreak, I realised that I was growing so much as a person and working out what I truly wanted. I was forced to get to know myself and to confront some dark thoughts and, in doing so, I became stronger and felt freer than I had done in ages. Looking back, I realised that all the major breakthroughs in my life had come about as a result of failure and I began to think how great it would be if, instead of pretending to be perfect all the time, there was a safe space where people could talk about what failure had taught them. I passionately believe in spreading this message: that success, strength and self-knowledge can only come from having experienced failure and from choosing how you respond to it. We are not necessarily born with courage, but we can develop it by flexing the muscle of our emotional resilience.

Any stand-out advice from your interviewees that have really stuck with you?

Yes, one is that failure is just what it is. It’s the emotion we attach to it that can make it seem overwhelming. The author James Frey taught me that. Another thing that stuck with me came from Deborah Frances-White who hosts The Guilty Feminist podcast. She said that we should treat failure as a data gathering exercise: so if you fail at a job interview or someone you went on a date with doesn’t text you back, you can choose not to take that personally and to view it instead as a necessary data gathering exercise to get you closer to the thing that’s right for you. She talked about scientists and how, if they’re doing experiments to cure a disease and one of the experiments doesn’t work, they don’t automatically think ‘I’m rubbish. I’m a failure. I’ll never be able to crack this’. Instead they think, ‘That hasn’t worked so I can discount it; now I can try a new thing and get closer to finding a cure.’

What can we expect from How to Fail the book?

Part-memoir, part-manifesto, it’s inspiring, funny, moving and packed full of personal anecdotes from my own life. I hope, anyway!

How did you go about deciding what to write for Comfort Zones the book?

I’m often asked for my views on failure, but I thought it would be interesting to look at its’ flip-side: success. Particularly because I think that women and, even more specifically, British women, struggle to lay claim to success for fear of being thought arrogant. It’s not arrogant, it’s confident!