Ask the Author: Paul DeBusschere
Answered Questions (5)
Paul DeBusschere
Keep writing! Bounce your ideas off of other people and take feedback from others seriously. Find some initial readers you can trust and listen to them, but determine for yourself if you should follow the advice you hear based on what you know you're trying to say. Edit your work meticulously (read it out loud if you have to so you can hear what it sounds like). Finally, submit your polished work to as many agents/publishers as you can until you hear a "yes." If you exhaust that list without an acceptance, self publish and move on to the next idea. Above all, keep trying!
Paul DeBusschere
I'm always finding inspiration for ideas in strange ways. It's just the way my mind works. I will take something that is perceived as normal in our society and take it to a logical extreme and see if that results in something interesting.
For example, a common thought I have is what would it be like if we took a commercial with a talking animal and put it in a real life situation. How would people really react if a stuffed teddy-bear really started talking to them when opening a bag of bathroom tissue? Well, they would probably freak out and kill it, which might have repercussions for the human race, etc. That is one, admittedly off-the-wall, example.
I also read quite a bit of non-fiction and I am always making parallels between our society and those of the past. This inspires me to write about the possible and probable consequences of where our society is heading.
For example, a common thought I have is what would it be like if we took a commercial with a talking animal and put it in a real life situation. How would people really react if a stuffed teddy-bear really started talking to them when opening a bag of bathroom tissue? Well, they would probably freak out and kill it, which might have repercussions for the human race, etc. That is one, admittedly off-the-wall, example.
I also read quite a bit of non-fiction and I am always making parallels between our society and those of the past. This inspires me to write about the possible and probable consequences of where our society is heading.
Paul DeBusschere
When I'm constructing a manuscript, my mind tends to work on it 24-7. So, I don't tend to worry very much about ironing out questions in the plot as those things seem to resolve themselves pretty easily. If I'm not in a writing mood, I might write some notes down to clarify finer details. This helps for future reference.
Usually, however, I just talk myself into writing two pages. This is a mental trick I use to get over the hump of just sitting down and starting to write. So, I tell myself I'm just going to write two pages and I tell myself anyone on the planet can write two pages.
The thing is, by the time I've written two pages, I'm in rhythm and I'm most likely going to write more than that. The day I finished the manuscript for "Sunday Night" I wrote 23 pages because I was on such a tremendous roll - and that started with just telling myself to write two pages.
On the other hand, if I only write two pages on any given day, then I'm not beating myself up about it. I wrote two pages and I met my goal - but on most days, I far exceed that, and I feel really good about my progress. So, it's really a very simple, but effective, mental trick I use.
Usually, however, I just talk myself into writing two pages. This is a mental trick I use to get over the hump of just sitting down and starting to write. So, I tell myself I'm just going to write two pages and I tell myself anyone on the planet can write two pages.
The thing is, by the time I've written two pages, I'm in rhythm and I'm most likely going to write more than that. The day I finished the manuscript for "Sunday Night" I wrote 23 pages because I was on such a tremendous roll - and that started with just telling myself to write two pages.
On the other hand, if I only write two pages on any given day, then I'm not beating myself up about it. I wrote two pages and I met my goal - but on most days, I far exceed that, and I feel really good about my progress. So, it's really a very simple, but effective, mental trick I use.
Paul DeBusschere
I was attending a parent's support group with my wife a few years back. The group was for parents of "at-risk" children, i.e. teenagers and young adults in their twenties. The group functioned by having parents gather on Sunday nights and talk about the struggles they were having with their kids. While we were attending, I had this thought of, "what would it be like if some of these people were just making this stuff up about their kids?" I wondered what that would look like, and what type of person would do that. Thus, the concept was born and I just needed to embellish it with some things I had experienced first hand and other things I had seen in things like "Breaking Bad" and "American Beauty." In the end, the story was an amalgamation of all of that material.
Paul DeBusschere
I'm editing my latest manuscript, a novel titled "Sunday Night Support Group: A Suburban Confessional." The story is about a parents' support group that really goes off the rails when one of the parents, a sociopath, starts lying about her child. Pretty soon, the other parents are trying to outdo one another, with the interactions between some of the parents spiraling out of control. This is set against a background of drug abuse and family dysfunction in suburban Atlanta, Georgia.
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