“As the author of a book about writ­ing myself (WRITING IN FLOW), I really appre­ci­ated author Maisel’s com­bi­na­tion of the prac­ti­cal with the pas­sion­ate. When he talks about com­bin­ing writ­ing what you love and mak­ing a liv­ing doing so, it cer­tainly rings true. How much com­pro­mise can you make with the real world and still be con­gru­ent with your deep­est self? In DEEP WRITING, we learn the value of get­ting and stay­ing engaged with our writ­ing (get­ting into ‘flow,’ in other words). Maisel is unusu­ally frank, too, about his own suc­cesses, fail­ures, and learn­ing expe­ri­ences (not that you can or should even try to sep­a­rate those three things!). This book feels like an inspir­ing chat with a com­pas­sion­ate ther­a­pist who under­stands the chal­lenges of being a writer (which Maisel hap­pens to be).”—Susan K. Perry, Writ­ing in Flow

“As writer Rick Bass observed in The Rac­coons of Yaak (Orion, Spring 1999) ‘Art (is) the desire to make order and mean­ing out of oth­er­wise ran­dom ele­ments.’ This def­i­n­i­tion fits neatly into Eric Maisel’s keen expli­ca­tion of writ­ers and the forces that move them. Maisel calls writ­ers ‘meaning-makers,’ and while rec­og­niz­ing that every­one seeks some level of mean­ing in life, he posits that those called to write have a stronger urge to seek and explain the world’s ways.

“Writer’s for­mal­ize the thoughts that oth­ers are con­tent to qui­etly mull. Fur­ther, it is Maisel’s posi­tion that deep writ­ing is an imper­a­tive goal for writ­ers and would-be writ­ers, what­ever their interim aspi­ra­tions. To tap the truest feel­ings, the pro­found­est thoughts, the well­spring of per­sonal under­stand­ing, and com­mu­ni­cate as clearly as pos­si­ble requires depth. It doesn’t mat­ter if the project is a train­ing man­ual, a sales brochure, a pop­u­lar novel or an intel­lec­tu­ally tur­bid mas­ter­piece, a screen­play, a mem­oir, a doc­toral the­sis or … a book review.

“If you cur­rently write or have ever had the notion, or in the broader con­text have ever been drawn to express mean­ing through art, you will find sage coun­sel and some clever tricks in DEEP WRITING. Eric Maisel works with artists as a psy­chother­a­pist and cre­ativ­ity coun­selor both in pri­vate prac­tice and writ­ing work­shops, and has writ­ten numer­ous fic­tion and non-fiction books. He clearly under­stands that the dif­fer­ences between want­ing to write and writ­ing (and ‘only’ writ­ing ver­sus deep writ­ing) are not cre­ative but psychological.

“His obser­va­tions res­onate with my own cre­ative expe­ri­ence: twenty years of good inten­tions and spo­radic jabs that finally crossed an invis­i­ble bor­der ten years ago from intent to imper­a­tive, from ‘some­day’ to NOW. Two days past read­ing Maisel’s slim, insight­ful book, his clar­ity has already changed my work and my rela­tion­ship to my work in deeply sat­is­fy­ing ways. In short, DEEP WRITING is the best writer’s road atlas I have stum­bled into — ever — a Fodor’s guide to the cre­ative inte­rior land of high art.”—Cecil Both­well, Whale Falls and The Icarus Glitch

“Many poten­tial writ­ers want to write but are stuck on the blank first page. Oth­ers write an end­less array of words whose con­tent (if there is any) means noth­ing and leaves one dry. Enter Eric Maisel, a writer’s ana­lyst, coach, and encour­ager who shares with us seven prin­ci­ples of becom­ing a deep writer.

“What does he mean by writ­ing deeply? He means for us to be able to write pas­sion­ately and well about those things that really mat­ter to us. Using case stud­ies of five indi­vid­ual writ­ers, he shows us how to work through the prin­ci­ples of hush­ing the mind, hold­ing the inten­tion, mak­ing choices, hon­or­ing the process, befriend­ing the work, eval­u­at­ing the work and doing what is required. Each prin­ci­ple builds on the other to a point where writ­ing becomes a spir­i­tual exercise.

“I love this book because it enabled me to reflect and pay atten­tion to my own writ­ing. Its var­ied prin­ci­ples and quirky exer­cises stim­u­lated my mind and fos­tered new ideas for the printed page. Pur­chas­ing Deep Writ­ing was almost like hav­ing my own per­sonal coach to help me become more inten­tional in what I do as a writer. Maisel is inten­tional as to what he wants a writer to do and keeps one to the grind­stone. He deals with the real­ity of what encom­passes the writ­ing busi­ness and how we must make choices in deal­ing with those real­i­ties. I highly rec­om­mend this work to all writ­ers who wish to write with integrity and pas­sion­ately.”—Bonita Davis

“This is per­haps one of the best books on writ­ing I have ever read. Maisel offers writ­ers exer­cises to help them tune into their own unique voice while offer­ing encour­age­ment all along the way. Not just a book about tech­nique or ‘tricks of the trade’ this book will address the com­pli­cated aspects of liv­ing life as a writer and remain­ing sane at the same time! This book needs to be on the shelf of every writer regard­less of where they are in their career. A mov­ing and ‘deeply writ­ten’ work.”—David Oliv­eras

 

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