Browsing Archive: April, 2012

Rain and More Rain

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 29, 2012, In : Inspiration 
England is currently in the middle of its monsoon season–the ideal time to get some writing done.  You can't do the gardening, or go for a picnic, so there's no excuse not to concentrate.  Actually, there is.  Letting your mind wander as you listen to the rain beating on the windows can be far more creative.
You could start by writing a description of the weather.  How fast is the rain falling?  What does it sound and feel like? How do people react to it?  How do they move?  What are their ...
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Theatre Magic

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 22, 2012,
This week I was fortunate enough to see Ladies in Lavender at Royal & Derngate, Northampton.  For anyone who's never seen the film, it's a gentle story set in Cornwall in the 1930s, which follows what happens when two ageing spinster sisters find and take in a young violinist who's washed up on the beach.  There's no sex or violence and no bad language.
It would have been easy to overwrite the play, but it was beautifully understated.  This can only work on stage or film if you have actors ca...
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More Rejects

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 15, 2012, In : Inspiration 
One of life's more annoying facts is that it's usually the phrase/sentence/paragraph that you're most pleased with that you end up having to cut from your final draft.  In fact, always be suspicious of your finest lines.  What makes them memorable is usually that they are different from the rest of the piece and indicate a change of style that creates an (often inappropriate) jolt.  They're often descriptive so they could slow down the pace as well.  Hardening your heart and killing your 'bab...
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Cover Contest

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, In : Competitions 
The first entries in my contest to find a new cover for Discord's Child are beginning to come in.  For those of you creative people who haven't started work on it yet, there's still time.  The closing date is 30th April and the full details are here.  You could win £20, so get designing! 
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Don't Call Us...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 8, 2012,
I never thought I'd say this, but I miss old-fashioned rejection slips.  Most of the time they would be nothing more than an impersonal compliments slip, but at least I could put they to some other use.  I could scribble ideas for my next great work on the back of them, or shopping lists, or I could fold them into wads to stop cupboard doors swinging open, or to prop up table legs.  I could do origami with them, make paper planes, scribble doodles....  If they arrived on a bad day at least I ...
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How to Win

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 1, 2012, In : Inspiration 
Writing is supposed to have therapeutic qualities.  Setting things down on paper is meant to help get them out of your system. I'm not sure how true that is.  Reading through what you've written afterwards might make you see how ridiculous you or your worries were, on the other hand it might keep old grievances alive.
For writers, there's always the benefit of being able to use your outpourings on paper in future work.  Writing about arguments can be particularly satisfying.  You can make you...
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About Me


My writing career began as a freelance feature writer for the local press, businesses and organisations. Now a prize-winning playwright and short story writer, my work has appeared in numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic. I write as K. S. Dearsley because it saves having to keep repeating my forename, and specialise in fantasy and other speculative genres.

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