Reviewed January 2, 2006.
Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio,
2005. 214 pages.
Sonderbooks
Stand-out 2005 (#1, Writing)
When I saw
this book in my
Writer’s Digest Book Club magazine just before my wonderful trip to a
children’s writer’s conference near Paris, I didn’t hesitate a moment
to order
it. The book arrived soon after I
returned home, and the fantastic and inspiring trip I had just finished
made me
enjoy the book all the more.
Eric Maisel
sets out to tell
you why you should go and spend six months in Paris and write.
He says, “One of the main challenges you face
as a writer is writing regularly. Willing
yourself to go to Paris—to
write—is one way to meet this challenge. Just
willing yourself to go isn’t enough—that would be a
trip, an
adventure, a vacation, but not what I have in mind.
Going for the express purpose of writing and
then writing when you get there are the kind of brave acts that can
help turn
your writing life around. . . . To
travel to Paris
for two weeks or six months and to
actually write during that time is to
change your relationship to your writing. It
is to put your writing first.”
“I hope that
you will go to Paris
and write. I want to tell you about what
writing in Paris has been like for me,
what ideas Paris
has provoked, and what associations it
has evoked.” That’s what this book is
about. It’s full of essays that range
from whimsical to practical. It talks
about how to get yourself writing, where to go to write, and where you
should
go to take a break and sightsee.”
The essays go
through topics
like strolling down a Parisian street. He
explores what it is like to write in Paris,
how you keep yourself writing, and talks about the inspiration that Paris provides.
I like the
author’s
digressions. For example, when talking
about the perfect little parks of Paris,
he says, “The reason a perfect park pierces the heart:
Everyday life just isn’t beautiful
enough. A picture-postcard park of this
sort speaks to that lack. The mind
instantly analogizes to other lacks: the
gorgeous novel you may never write, the joyous love you may never find,
the
excellent writing career you may never have. This
beautiful park is an earthly delight and also a slap
in the face.”
With essays
inserted on the
logistics of getting to Paris
and staying for awhile, the author convinces you that this dream is
actually
doable. He does have an essay titled,
“If Not Paris, If Not Six Months.” This
essay begins, “If getting away for an extended period of time is out of
the
question, here’s a different plan. Every
six months, take a one-week writing jaunt instead.
These one-week excursions will serve, just as
a year in Paris
would, as pillars upon which to build your writing life.
These working holidays will be sacred breaks
from secular life, the times you set aside for dreaming and intense
writing,
for strolling and round-the-clock creativity. Maybe
they will include some sights, a few choice meals,
and a side trip
or two, but all of that will be secondary. Their
primary purpose will be to reconnect you to your
writing dreams
and your writing reality.” You can
modify everything here for a shorter period of time or a different
place, if
mention of Paris
doesn’t make stars shine in your eyes.
You will
enjoy this book if,
like the author, and like me, you feel that “A mere glimpse of a photo
of a
Parisian street causes us to feel both uplifted and bereft, thrilled by
what
Paris implies and saddened not to be living there right now. We do not have to list the reasons for the
allure to get to the bottom line: Paris is the place to
write. Since it is the perfect place to
write, it is the perfect place to commit to writing.”
I know that my own
trip to Paris,
though not the
same sort of trip Eric Maisel envisions, did help me take my own
writing
seriously and increased my commitment to my writing.
I’m going to see if I can work in a writing
trip like the one he mentions before I leave Europe
next summer.
Copyright © 2006 Sondra
Eklund. All rights reserved.
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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund 
