Ask the Author: David Belisle
Answered Questions (7)
David Belisle
Nope. I was sitting there in the summer of 2017, about 160 days into Trump's presidency and by then I couldn't concentrate on my other writing because I was so busy pulling my hair out at The Orange One's shenanigans. So I asked myself why not roll with it and have fun with it? I decided to satirize the daily news from the capitol. The idea of using dinosaurs came pretty quickly. I then settled into a routine of cranking out a column every Monday and Friday -- I'm closing in on 300 columns. For the past year I've been reading them in my Saturday podcast and for the past 6 months, been building a song into each column, rewriting the lyrics and then singing it in the podcast with the music bed. Yes, I'm having w-a-a-y too much fun! Thanks for the question, Henry. My site at davidmbelisle.com will steer you to the podcast on podbean: The T-Rump Dig podcast. Thanks again.
David Belisle
Not necessary. Nobody forced a fish to swim upstream. Since I predominantly write humor, I'm basically writing to laugh. And to remove wrinkles. The kernel of a sports or historical fiction idea will pop. It always does, right into my big bowl of satire.
David Belisle
Keep at it. Find your passion. If it's a slog, wrong passion. Write every day. Write what you know. Know your ending. Pay close attention to real dialogue. Research. Revise. Repeat. The new 3 R's.
David Belisle
The best thing is living it. Writers write. It's our life blood. You can train for exposition but not to be in "the zone." Inspiration hits when you least expect it. That's the thrill that teases me. People always cringe when I say this, but I could live in a box as long as I could write.
David Belisle
A detailed outline kills writer's block dead. And it's not really writer's block when I'm creating the outline. It's simply whacking the idea tree again and again, waiting for the right idea to fall.
It's your story. You know the ending and how to get there. Plotting wouldn't be so difficult if it wasn't so rewarding. Research is vital.
Create the characters you need and stay true to them. Give them a setting, sit back and watch them react. The scene will write itself. The key is to get all those ideas -- good and bad -- down on the screen, because that's where your story will grow from. Writing is revising.
I must have considered 18 ways to tackle "Bushwhacked!" before I decided to focus on 1876 and weave my story through that year's historical events in Forrest Gump manner.
It's your story. You know the ending and how to get there. Plotting wouldn't be so difficult if it wasn't so rewarding. Research is vital.
Create the characters you need and stay true to them. Give them a setting, sit back and watch them react. The scene will write itself. The key is to get all those ideas -- good and bad -- down on the screen, because that's where your story will grow from. Writing is revising.
I must have considered 18 ways to tackle "Bushwhacked!" before I decided to focus on 1876 and weave my story through that year's historical events in Forrest Gump manner.
David Belisle
I have two projects on the go. I'm adapting my screenplay "Screwball" to novel form. I will then combine it with my baseball-as-religion novel "Forever We Play" (adapted from my screenplay "Soul Takers") ... as two short baseball novels under the title "Double Header." ... The other novel I'm working on is a Canadian political satire. At page 25 now ... and keeping details under wraps for now. Look for a Christmas release.
David Belisle
I moved back to Calgary 5 years ago. I'd lived here previously in the early 80s. I was looking for a project to work on and ... since I was back in Cowtown ... why not go for the Great (former) American Epic ... with a story about the wild west?
"Bushwhacked!" was born ... I did my homework, which involved rereading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to get the Americana surging back through my bones. ... I also read Zane Grey's "Riders of the Purple Sage" and the first four books of Louis L'Amour's "Sackett Series" to get my western writing 'chaps' up to speed. ... I found that 1876 was a very wild year for the west. ... Finally, I paid tribute to L'Amour by naming my lead character Giovanni Sacchettini. That's right, it's a type of pasta.
"Bushwhacked!" was born ... I did my homework, which involved rereading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to get the Americana surging back through my bones. ... I also read Zane Grey's "Riders of the Purple Sage" and the first four books of Louis L'Amour's "Sackett Series" to get my western writing 'chaps' up to speed. ... I found that 1876 was a very wild year for the west. ... Finally, I paid tribute to L'Amour by naming my lead character Giovanni Sacchettini. That's right, it's a type of pasta.
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