A Conversation with Raphaëlle Giordano

What inspired you to write this novel?

I’ve been carrying Camille’s story with me for a long time. The book isn’t autobiographical, but just like Camille, I also experienced an important turning point in my life. Specifically, right after my experience working as the creative director of a communications agency in Paris, where I was having a rather difficult time. That experience drove me to leave the business world and put myself first. I decided to take the road less traveled and to throw myself into a much more artistic lifestyle. Though it was less stable, it felt like it fit who I was and my most important life aspirations. Over the past ten to fifteen years, I’ve done a lot of searching and reflecting about who I was, who I am, and who I want to be in my life. I’ve experimented and thought a lot about different techniques people can use to go about achieving their wildest dreams. It takes a lot of creativity. My life experience made it easy for me to write Camille’s story, because I understand the twists and turns that happen on the road to transformation.

While Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One is your first novel, you’ve published nonfiction books before. What was different about writing fiction?

Writing fiction feels much more fluid than writing nonfiction. I used to be a graphic designer, so I’m a very visual person. So, when I write this type of story, I have to use metaphors and I have to make my writing really visual. That’s what feels natural to me.

The title Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One is so fun! How did you come up with it?

In a lot of the creative fields, you do group brainstorming. It was actually my son’s father who came up with the title after some brainstorming and internet searches. Both of us used to work in publicity in creative fields, so we’re trained to come up with titles, slogans, and catchy phrases. We find these phrases through word associations—doing what I call a “creative sweep.” You just let your brain go in every possible direction and try to find something interesting. He came up with the title while searching for themes related to happiness, this moment where we really start living. He found a quote from Confucius that fit the book perfectly but was a little too long. Once I had the quote, the hard part was modifying and shortening it.

Camille is an utterly charming and relatable narrator. Is she inspired by anyone you know? How much do you have in common with her?

Camille was a spokeswoman for my ideas. It’s funny—I’m Camille, but I’m also Claude, and I switch between the two. Both characters helped me deliver the messages that I wanted to get across to my readers. I do have a lot in common with Camille, and so do other people I know. I’ve had periods in my life when I suffered from “routinitis”—when I felt like I needed to be living a deeper and fuller romantic and professional life. Many of us have a lot in common with Camille, myself especially, having a path that wasn’t totally straightforward. We have more than one life to live within the life we are given. It’s rare in this day and age to continue doing the same thing for your entire life. We have to ask ourselves questions when we have “Camille moments.” I’ve definitely felt the way she does in the book. I left a professional situation that wasn’t working for me. I reinvented my life. I started living the life that I wanted to live. I started writing books and, though it felt risky, I stuck with it, and it worked out.

How did you come up with the diagnosis of “routinitis?” Have you ever had a case of routinitis?

It’s true that I invented the word; it doesn’t actually exist. Making up words is something I learned to do when I worked in publicity. To answer the second part of the question, I have definitely gone through periods when I felt like I wasn’t achieving my potential or my dreams. It was awful. I hung on and did a lot of reflection. Then I spent years creating the life I have now. I wanted to share what I learned from that process with my readers, share what really helped me get on this path. The book isn’t just me babbling, this is what, in my experience, actually worked to escape an unfulfilling life and start living a life of meaning.

In your past, you ran a company that organizes events focused on stress management, team and relationship building, and finding creativity. How did you decide to do this work? How did this job and your background influence your novel?

When I decided to leave the stability of my job at the communications agency, I knew I had to find a new job that would be interesting, but also would give me the time and space to reawaken my artistic side—whether that was painting or writing. I needed a job that would give me time to create, follow my path, and figure out if I could actually pursue an artistic career. The stars aligned, as they sometimes do, leading me to discover this amazing career as a creative events planner—facilitating group teambuilding activities, making people work together creatively to strengthen motivation and creative potential, for example: forming connections among people by having them work together on a giant painted piece. It was perfect, because the work was fulfilling, but I sometimes didn’t work more than three or four days per month. The rest of the time I could work on my first books, which was where my real passion lay. So, how did that job influence the book? It allowed me to experiment and to prove that anything is possible. It’s just a question of organization, of creating structures that will help you achieve your dreams. You just have to come up with some methods, and then, little by little, you can build a dream. So, I want my success today to be a testimony to perseverance, daring, and hard work. There is no magic spell, but hard work pays off and it is possible to turn your dreams into reality.

Claude teaches Camille many useful tricks for finding happiness and improving her life. How did you come up with these strategies? Are they strategies you’ve been taught or did you invent any of them?

Claude’s advice is a mixture of advice I’ve heard and strategies I discovered when I was going through a difficult time about fourteen years ago. I really needed to reinvent my life. So, yes, Claude’s advice is based on existing techniques, but I adapted most of the real exercises somewhat, and then others I just made up, because that was the nature of my job—to mix the creative and the visual, like the imaginary camera, the positivity journal, and the goals folder. There are other true influences that show just beneath the surface: emotional intelligence and personality type, such as Process Communication or MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), in which I’m certified, transactional analysis, etc. Overall, I made up all of the events in the book, but I drew upon my true experiences. Parts of Claude are also based on my real-life “routinologist” my mother, whose name is Claude (Claude is both a man’s and a woman’s name).

Do you have a favorite challenge that Camille faces? Are you currently practicing any of her stages in your own life? Is there one challenge that you find hardest to enact for yourself?

All of Camille’s challenges are interesting. One that I like to do regularly is “Operation Blank Space.” It always does me so much good. You clean up your space and your mind at the same time. It’s so helpful to surround yourself with beauty and make your environment into an inspiring place. I find that doing this regularly has really positive results. What’s the most challenging, though it seems crazy, is letting yourself slow down—taking the time to relax. The more we have on our plates, the more important it is that we prioritize relaxation. Yes, it can be hard to make this relaxation happen, but especially when we’re feeling overwhelmed by everything we have to do, we have to remember to pause. I always try to keep that in mind. Time spent relaxing, doing nothing, simply pausing, is never wasted time. We don’t lose time, but we gain reality. It’s extremely powerful.

You’re also known as an artist and a painter. Why do you think creativity is important? What’s the first piece of advice you have for someone looking to bring more creativity into their own life?

Creativity is one of the most amazing aspects of our existence. It’s a state when we are free and connected to the child within us. It’s a state, an energy, of spontaneity and joie de vivre. I often try to access this state in my life. Honestly, it helps me time and time again in personal and professional situations. Creativity opens up the maximum amount of possibilities. When we feel like we are stuck in a box, creativity can help us find a way out, and there is always a way out. To develop your creativity, there are thousands of little things that you can do in your everyday life. You just have to train yourself. You should open up your spirit and always stay curious. You can keep a notebook and write about what you see, movies, art, plays—all the things that nourish your creativity. Training yourself to be creative means breaking out of your routines, taking new paths, and trying things for the first time. Creativity is like a muscle and over time, it will get stronger. We have to let go of our desire to always be perfect and to control everything. This stretches our minds and souls and gives us more and more access to that creative state.

You live in Paris, France, but it’s clear the novel has hit a nerve with readers all over the world. Why do you think Camille’s story is so universally important?

I think Camille’s story is relevant to so many people because we all carry our childhood dreams with us, but sometimes we feel like we will never achieve them, and that can be heartbreaking. I think we all have a desire to make our lives as beautiful and impressive as they can be. So many people are caught in a kind of rat race and they don’t take the time to think—who am I? What is the meaning of my existence? We place so much value on material things, but if that is all we are working for, it becomes demoralizing, an existential crisis. It’s so important to take the time to find ourselves. Why? Because what gives life meaning, as Socrates said, is knowing oneself. We have to look inside ourselves to know who we really are, because that’s what will help us find ways of spending time that will allow us to give the best versions of ourselves to the world. We have to create our own definitions of success and happiness. You can’t use your neighbor’s definition. It is not egotistical to think this way. When we have the best possible energy, we can contribute the most beautiful parts of ourselves to the world, and that’s an admirable goal. The idea of success is so subjective. It has nothing to do with who makes the most money or who has the most impressive career. Some of the greatest heroes are seemingly ordinary people who really touch the lives of others—people in need, people who they are close to, their children. That’s what’s important. To have goals that are less material and more spiritual. That’s what really counts as a beautiful life, a life full of achievements, a life full of happiness.