February 15, 2016
Editing your own work is one of the hardest parts of writing. The trouble is, you know the story, so it's hard to tell whether you've given the reader insufficient detail or too much. Asking someone else to read it is always a good idea–preferably more than one person. Failing that, put it aside for a few weeks, if possible, so you can come back to it fresh.
There are various 'rules' to stop your work being slow, which is usually taken to mean 'boring'. Generally, writers are told to cut descriptive passages to a minimum and avoid adjectives and adverbs, but there are plenty of exceptions. E. M. Forster starts A Passage to India with a description of the landscape. Readers who have bought the book or already heard of Forster would no doubt keep reading, even if the opening was slow (I'm not saying that it is. In fact, it's totally apt), but these days, if it arrived on a publisher's slushpile by an unknown author, would it have been dismissed after the first paragraph? Whether to cut descriptions or pare down sentences depends on what they add to the whole piece. Do they create an atmosphere e.g. foreboding, suppressed passion etc.?
One way I've stumbled upon to delete unnecessary words is to apply the Tweet principle. I was looking through a manuscript to find Tweet length extracts. I discovered sub-clauses that could go, two similes where one was enough–you get the picture. Of course, there's a danger of cutting off too much flesh, so I recommend keeping your original manuscript until you've had a cooling off period, so you can restore any edits that have gone too far. At the end of all this, if you're still unsure, you could to worse than to remember: if in doubt, leave it out. Unless you happen to be E. M. Forster, less is likely to be more.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
February 7, 2016
I'm not celebrating anyone's birthday (best wishes if it's yours), but those books, films and television programmes you can read or watch time and time again.
There are now TV channels that repeat series on a rolling basis. As soon as they come to the end, they begin again. I suppose people find them comforting in a way, much as the shipping forecast is. They offer a kind of stability. It's comforting to know that somewhere on the television there'll always be an episode of Midsomer Murder...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
January 25, 2016
I don't want to worry anyone, but there are only another 11 months until Christmas. That means I've already had one twelfth of the available time to achieve what I want to in 2016. As ever, time's going faster and things are taking longer than I anticipated.
One thing that has been frustratingly slow is keying in a TV screenplay. I was using a template from the BBC's Writers' Room website and had expected to zip through it. Using a template or setting up styles are well worth the small ini...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
January 18, 2016
One of my friends is on an extended stay in New Zealand at the moment. Usually, she's only on the other side of the country, but even then we write letters to each other. Thanks to modern technology it's possible to have instant communication with people on the other side of the globe. If she had Skype where she's staying, we could even see each other. That's great but it's ephemeral.
There's something about receiving a letter that's special. You have a real physical connection to the send...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
January 12, 2016
I treated myself yesterday. I showed no self-restraint at all. I binged on mini-stories in the Binnacle 12th Annual Ultra-short Edition 2015. My intention was to eke them out, to save them as a little pick-me-up whenever I needed something more substantial than a tweet but not demanding the time commitment of a short story.
Of course, I was curious to read the winning entries and find out how 'Harvest-time', my Editor's Pick entry, measured up, but I already knew from previous years that t...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
January 3, 2016
Happy New Year! Welcome to my first blog of 2016.
One of my favourite television dramas in the run-up to Christmas was series three of The Bridge. Everything about it was excellent–the performances, the lighting, and particularly the script, which was full of twists and turns that kept the viewers guessing, and taut dialogue. No doubt the writing was top notch in this and other Scandinavian crime novels and series, but does this alone account for the explosion in their popularity? Do all...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
December 20, 2015
It's been a while since I took a look around the new markets and free competitions, so it's high time I did a round-up. What follows is a mixed bag of creative non-fiction, travel writing, plays, novels and themed science fiction. Check out all of them, because even if a genre isn't normally your thing, you might just find something that sparks your creative instincts and gives your brain a work-out while you're digesting the Christmas dinner. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
* If you'...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
December 14, 2015
Following the excitement of last week's performance of my one-act play, Antarctica, I have some more good news to report: I have a feature in the January issue of Writing Magazine. It covers ways in which you can break the accepted rules of writing successfully.
Anyone who knows my attitude to misplaced apostrophes and similar slips might think this makes me a hypocrite, but I assure you I'm not advocating sloppiness or turning into a grammar rebel. For proof, I'm afraid you'll have to get...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
December 6, 2015
On Friday (4th December), the premiere performance of Antarctica took place. It was on a terrific programme of Walter Swan Trust Playwriting Award winners and runners-up at Ilkley Playhouse. Sadly, I wasn't able to attend, nor will I be able to get to the Courtyard Stage at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds for the second performance tomorrow. I know if I'd been there I would have gained far more than an evening's entertainment.
Scripts, whether for stage, screen or radio, are never a comp...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
November 19, 2015
Have you ever heard the saying: 'May you live in interesting times'? It's often understood to be as much a curse as a blessing. This week has been an 'interesting' time for many, if not downright tragic. Thankfully, my week hasn't included any tragedies, but it has been interesting in ways that haven't always been comfortable, and it's included some fun and good news too.
My entry in the On the Premises mini competition on a theme of amnesia was placed second. The boost to my ego was far ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
