Don’t Wait Until You’re Ready
21 Questions with Eva zu Beck on finding her own path
Millions of people know Eva zu Beck as a YouTube adventurer and National Geographic TV host who documents life far beyond the beaten path. But seven years ago, she was living a very different life, one that looked successful from the outside but felt increasingly wrong on the inside.
Her new memoir, The Wilder Way, traces the journey that followed. From solo horseback riding in Mongolia to getting stuck on an island in Yemen during the COVID lockdown, the book chronicles a decade of adventures, and the personal transformation that accompanied them.
In this edition of 21 Questions, Eva reflects on freedom, focus, and why waiting until you’re ready may be the worst advice of all.
21 Questions with Eva zu Beck
1. I couldn’t have written my last book without…
Running off to the Arctic Circle in the winter to tear myself away from all distractions, human and otherwise. I needed total silence and singular focus (and little reason to go outside) in order to actually write this book.
2. What’s your most common form of procrastination?
Playing with my dog. Scrolling. Reading other people’s books.
3. Do you read your reviews?
Absolutely not. I’m at peace with the fact that not everyone will like me or my work, but I also don’t want to spend my precious mental resources obsessing over what people think of me. Besides… even the absolute best books ever written have one-star reviews!
4. What’s the first thing you do after you finish a draft?
Go for a very, very long run.
5. What’s a writing habit you’re embarrassingly superstitious about?
I never write in blue ink. If I’m writing something—anything—by hand, it needs to be in black ink. Always. Blue ink makes me feel like I’m writing a draft, while black ink makes me feel like I’m writing something of substance.
6. What’s something you wish you’d started doing five years ago?
Dedicating more time every day to being bored and letting my thoughts wander.
7. Where do you find new ideas, and how do you keep track of them?
I love going for long nature walks and trail runs. Good ideas tend to pop into my head whenever I’m outside, and I’ll capture them via long, rambling voice notes.
8. What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?
Once upon a time, I was very concerned with what people on the internet thought about me, and a single negative comment could send me into a spiral of self-doubt. That’s when a friend told me that I need to actively choose to focus on the creative energy I put out into the world, as opposed to absorbing the negativity.
9. And the worst?
“Wait until you’re ready.” This is terrible advice, because you may never feel ready, and you may always feel like an impostor. Some of my biggest achievements have come from saying “yes” to projects that I did not feel ready for in the slightest. The beauty of life is, whenever you take on something new, you learn and grow as you go along.
10. What’s on your nightstand right now?
About ten books, my phone (sadly), and all kinds of natural oil concoctions for my body, face, and hair. Living in a shepherd’s hut in the mountains, you need to find little ways to take care of yourself!
11. How did you find your agent?
They noticed my work on social media and reached out to me, suggesting I should write a book about my adventures!
12. What’s a writing rule you’ve happily broken?
I always thought that books should be written in a linear way: you start at the beginning. When I sat down to write my memoir, starting at the beginning felt too overwhelming, so I simply started in the middle and eventually returned to write the first chapters later on.
13. What tech tools (AI included) do you actually use—and which ones do you actively ignore?
Most of my first book took shape in Google Docs, which made reviewing and commenting quite easy for my editor and me. I also used online tools to transcribe my voice note into actual written content. As for tools I would not use—that would have to be AI tools like ChatGPT. I just believe that Large Language Models do not have a place in human writing.
14. What’s the best non-writing skill that’s helped your writing career?
My delusional optimism: a skill I’ve been cultivating for years, like a muscle. It helps me believe that what I write about matters.
15. How many drafts before you show your editor?
Probably two.
16. Can you describe your ideal workday?
Sit down to write with a big cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Write for a few hours. Then, shut down the laptop and head out for a long walk or run with my dog. In the afternoon, work on my social media, read, recalibrate.
17. How does that compare to your actual workday?
My “main” job as a travel and adventure filmmaker means I’m often on the road, without any semblance of a routine. Every day looks different, and it’s hard to focus on any one thing for more than an hour at a time. This is why, when I wrote my first book, I escaped to the Arctic Circle for three months to get away from all those distractions. It worked well, so I’ll be doing something similar for my next book(s)!
18. If you could write one book in a totally different genre than you usually do, which would it be?
I feel like I would first need to run out of real-world stories in order to even consider fiction writing.
19. What’s something about the writing life that still surprises you?
Just how difficult it can be for the human brain to focus for a few hours at a time, and just how good it feels when you manage to achieve this state.
20. Fill in the blank: In five years, successful authors will all be _____.
…able to prove somehow that their book was not written with the use of AI.
21. What is your new book about?
The Wilder Way is a book about freedom and living authentically, told through the prism of my travels and adventures over the last decade. From solo horseback riding in Mongolia to getting stuck on an island in Yemen during the COVID lockdown, this is a real journey into some of the world’s most remote cultures and places… And the story of how I became a more feral, free, true version of myself along the way.
If you enjoyed Eva’s Q&A, you can learn more about her new book here: The Wilder Way
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Until next time,
Panio
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