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A review by xterminal
Deep Writing by Eric Maisel
4.0
Eric Maisel, Deep Writing: 7 Principles that Bring Ideas to Life (Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1999)
There's not a great deal of the new to be found in Deep Writing, Eric Maisel's little how-to-get-off-your-ass-and-finally-write-your-book guide. But Maisel, who combines the actual “get off your ass and write” advice with pop psychology, a touch of New Age mysticism, and some fictional (one wonders just how fictional they are) case studies of five writers with basic, common blocking problems, writes his book in an accessible, engaging enough fashion that the average reader of how-to-write tomes should have no problems reading it again. Maisel has a passion for his subject, which is always a help when writing a how-to guide, and he comes at some of his topics so as to really get that point across; it's most easily seen in the case-study bits (though I did find myself snorting at some of the more improbable one-eighties made by at least one of those characters).
Those with a distaste for new-age spiritualism might want to avoid this, but the rest of you will at least find it enjoyable, if not overly instructive. *** ½
There's not a great deal of the new to be found in Deep Writing, Eric Maisel's little how-to-get-off-your-ass-and-finally-write-your-book guide. But Maisel, who combines the actual “get off your ass and write” advice with pop psychology, a touch of New Age mysticism, and some fictional (one wonders just how fictional they are) case studies of five writers with basic, common blocking problems, writes his book in an accessible, engaging enough fashion that the average reader of how-to-write tomes should have no problems reading it again. Maisel has a passion for his subject, which is always a help when writing a how-to guide, and he comes at some of his topics so as to really get that point across; it's most easily seen in the case-study bits (though I did find myself snorting at some of the more improbable one-eighties made by at least one of those characters).
Those with a distaste for new-age spiritualism might want to avoid this, but the rest of you will at least find it enjoyable, if not overly instructive. *** ½