Ask the Author: Greg Paul
Answered Questions (7)
Greg Paul
The first couple that came to mind was Owen Meany and Hester the Molester, from John Irving's great book A Prayer for Owen Meany. They're both such strange but compelling individuals, and their relationship is even stranger - it shouldn't work, but it does; it sometimes doesn't look much like love, but it really is. I think they may be the two most interesting characters this terrific novelist has ever created.
Greg Paul
I don't really believe in it, at least not as a big deal that will keep you from writing for days or weeks at a time. If you have something to say - and you won't, always; at least, I won't - then it's just a matter of figuring out how to say it. I do sometimes find I get momentarily stalled - usually at least once in any given day of writing. Then I get up and go for a walk while trying to work out the problem that has me stumped. Doesn't usually take very long.
Greg Paul
Having written. Much more fun than the actual process of writing. And seriously, when someone lets me know that a book I've written has been helpful to them in some way, that's pretty great. That's when it feels like a God-thing instead of an ego-thing.
Greg Paul
Write. Write some more. Don't worry at first about what you're writing about. Find that one idea that lights you up - an idea you can express clearly in a short sentence or two - and write some more. Write until you know you're done writing about that subject. Don't wait for inspiration: do the work. Put what you've done aside for several months, then come back to it and edit out everything that doesn't absolutely have to be there. Re-write it all. Then you can start thinking about finding a publisher.
Greg Paul
A couple of things. I have a secular novel for which I'm trying to find a publisher. And I've been working on a book about really living what we say we believe, prompted by the long slow shift from communal faith (often tagged as "religion") to spirituality that is individualized and private, and therefore often without much impact in the world around us.
Greg Paul
The core of each book I've written has started as an idea or problem I've been wrestling with in my own life. As somebody who works among homeless and street-involved people, I encounter lots of challenges to my faith - working out those challenges and expressing them in writing helps me personally, and I hope can help others who read the books.
Greg Paul
For years, I've heard many friends who are followers of Jesus (including business people, homemakers and ministers) complain about the business in their lives that keeps them from investing in deeper relationship with God. I don't think it's just an excuse! So I began thinking about a contemplative path - a way of paying attention to God - that could be used by even the busiest person through his or her busiest day. I didn't know it at the time, but the answer began to come as I was on a spiritual retreat a few years ago. I took a simple prayer, direct from the day's Scripture reading: "Lord, open my eyes." And it grew from there...
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