background| | introduction| The Power of Story

Creative Writing Online: The Fundamentals of Great Writing
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"My goal," Paul will tell you, "is to search out the heart of something. Then just tell the truth."

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Paul Belserene

Consulting Storyteller

UBC COURSES:

NNaming, Branding

     
When you work with Paul Belserene, it's worth knowing that Paul is a poet, Paul is a poet with a paradoxical background.

On one plane of meeting, you encounter Paul's quietude, his gentleness and inwardness. He is a poet of truthful essence.

On another plane you encounter him as a person of aggressive intellect. He is conversant on a staggering number of subjects. He is a demon for trivia and a magician with ideas. He is constantly piecing things together.

Raised in New York, Paul set out to be a chemist, and you can still see the scientist in him. Only there was a catch. "I think what I always wanted was to be an alchemist, to make gold out of base materials. Now, that wasn't chemistry. That was something else, something a whole lot less secure." Poetry.

He quickly won honors (including the Fiske Award, and a citation from the Academy of American Poets). But, how do you make a living?

As poet on tour, he waited tables in Palm Beach. He drove a cab in Chicago. He fished for halibut off the Queen Charlottes. He took care of juvenile delinquents. He taught high school.

By hand, he built a log cabin on secluded Okeover Inlet in the wilderness of British Columbia. And then at last he come down to Vancouver, where his poetry, his probing, his alchemy, was recast in a new light.

EXPO 86 was coming, and Vancouver was about to change. For people like Paul Belserene and Paul Smith, Expo was the ultimate opportunity to be creative.

Paul's questing way, his questioning mind, his intense writing discipline, all were harnessed to a long list of productions for the World's Fair. And in this crucible, in this grind, Paul Belserene shone.

His work, you see, has a way of reaching people on many levels.

Like his poetry, his work is listener-sensitive. It is music to the ear. It is vivid imagery, a rich pattern for the eye. It is a light for the mind, a tug of the heart. Truthful essence.

It is precisely the beauty and power of mixed media.

Today Paul Belserene's scope of work encompasses research, writing, concept development and audio production: all elements which go squarely to the end-product:

storytelling.

Today, Paul works with some of the world's leading businesses as a namer, a brander and a consulting storyteller.

But he still takes time to teach a class that he has taught for more than 35 years at the University of British Columbia: 'Creative Writing:The Fundamentals of Great Writing.'


Paul today is his own alchemical equation. He is a pragmatist: "The idea that matters is that idea that you put to work."

He is a disciplined creator: "You can't hoard ideas. The only way creativity works is to use it, and more comes to you."

And he is always a poet. "My goal," Paul will tell you, "is to search out the heart of something. Then just tell the truth. "

Paul is a poet who once lived on Okeover Inlet, and he has been listening to you.

He has an idea for telling your story. It goes like this...

© Tom Coffman,
Honolulu, Hawaii


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PAUL BELSERENE: PARTIAL LISTOF WORKS
Interactive Futures Theatre, Canada Celebration Theater, Air Canada Pavilion, BC Pavilion, EXPO 86,
ABC Interactive Theater, World Expo 88, Brisbane
Sanctuary Cove launch, Australia (AMI Gold Award)
Molson, "Cheers" for 200 Years" Book
"Outrageous Acts", Vancouver Opera
"This Is My Home", (Douglas and McIntyre)
"Heroes" national injury prevention program
"Kwakiutl House", Museum of Civilization, Ottawa
The Smithsonian's Seeds of Change exhibit at AmeriFlora '92
"Frozen in Time", Royal London Wax Museum
"Our Spirit Soars", Grouse Mountain, Vancouver
Consulting Storytelling for resorts: Intrawest, KSL, Pinehurst, Club Resorts, Mount Washington
For industry:Fletcher Challenge, MTS Advanced, Canfor
Naming, positioning: Amica Seniors Communities, Mike's Hard Lemonade, Botticelli chocolates, Iris Optical, Fletcher Challenge, Norske Skog, Catalyst Paper Company, Credential Securities, Ethical Funds

Meditation in Vancouver the Vancouver Shambhala Centre - How to Meditate

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