February 8, 2021
Not reading, writing and 'rithmetic, but repair, reuse and recycle. They apply to writing just as well as they do to saving the planet.
Every writer has a problem piece of writing, one that doesn't want to be pinned down to a page, that refuses to turn out as you envisaged, or that pings back at you with a 'thanks, but no thanks' every time you send it out. Instead of giving up and consigning it to the bin, try applying the three Rs.
Can it be repaired? Make yourself a checklist of features that you would expect from a competition critique. Look at the opening, closing, characters, plot, pace, title, length, style and language as if you were a judge. Prune away any unnecessary words. Would a more active verb make an adverb redundant and liven it up? Are your sentences convoluted? Are they all the same length? How engaging and believable are your characters? A few tweaks could make a big difference.
If your repairs aren't successful, perhaps you should reuse parts of the problem work in another one. Maybe there are descriptions or metaphors that would add life to another piece. Team up the characters from one piece with the plot of another, and they could create sparks.
Recycling by changing the point of view to a different character, or altering the genre, perhaps from historical to present day, or noir thriller to science fiction, can refresh and renew an idea you have worked on so long that it's become stale. If you still believe in the story but are having trouble writing it, maybe it's the format that needs changing. Rewrite a story as a play or vice versa.
Don't throw problem pieces away. Simply set them aside for a while, so you can look at them with fresh eyes, and roll your Rs!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
January 25, 2021
Hashtag writing prompts on Twitter are great fun and a good way to find other authors. I know I'll like their work, because I've already seen lots of examples online. These fellow authors also know about the ups and downs of writing. For the most part, they are happy to give other writers their support and encouragement.
Many of the regular hashtag prompts are for tweets from or relating to works in progress. I consider
Discord's Child and
Discord's Apprentice to be parts one and two of a lar...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
January 16, 2021
Chances are that if you expected 2021 to be better than 2020 you've been disappointed so far. Even if you enjoyed a good Christmas and started the new year as full of good resolutions as ever, the reality of short dark days, dingy weather and lockdowns might have already sapped your motivation. Take heart–you are not alone!
I find it's easier when times are hard to write something factual. Doing research, planning articles and the discipline of writing pitches and presenting facts readably ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
December 27, 2020
Christmas rarely lives up to our hopes or expectations, and this year it's likely that it's been further from our wishes than ever. Christmas Day itself is usually quiet for me, but in other years I've had get-togethers with friends and colleagues to remember, and family celebrations to look forward to. In fact, there was a danger that the so-called 'festive' season would not be Christmassy at all.
My recipe for avoiding cabin fever and the seasonal blues is to share a few days with Mr. Charl...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 18, 2020
I recently enjoyed my annual reread of
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. On this occasion, I found myself strongly sympathising with one of the characters. Lucy? Mr. Emerson? Cecil? No, it was Freddy.
It was the scene where the reader meets him for the first time at the beginning of part two. He was studying a 'small manual of anatomy' and 'From time to time he bounced in his chair and puffed and groaned, for the day was hot and the print small... and his mother, who was writing a letter,...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
September 1, 2020
I think I've mentioned before how googling yourself might seem like vanity or procrastination, but that it can throw up some interesting and useful results. In the past, I've discovered that I'd been shortlisted in one competition and actually won another. I've also found a mini-story on someone's website for a hobby related to its theme (origami–'Stone,Scissors, Paper'), and positive reviews of other work.
I'll confess to a little procrastination when I looked last week, but I'm so glad I ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
August 21, 2020
At the start of the lockdown, poet and playwright Trevor Smith included me in a challenge to write something inspired by the pandemic. There has been a plethora of competitions and special submission invitations on the current situation, and I truly have had little desire to respond. I don't know why. Maybe it's too depressing, maybe it's because it's so ubiquitous that it seems every radio and TV programme or conversation has to include it at least once. But this was a friend throwing down t...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
August 6, 2020
Exercise is good for you. I'm not talking about abandoning your office chair or going for the burn, although taking a physical break regularly is undoubtedly wise. The kind of exercise I'm thinking of, is for your writing 'muscles'.
It can be anything from doing a newspaper crossword or wordsearch while enjoying a cuppa, to writing a paragraph about what you can see through your window. There's no need to be stuck for ideas. As long as you have a dictionary, all you need to do is open it at a...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
July 4, 2020
Last year, I would no doubt have been watching tennis on TV and feeling a little guilty about not writing. From the French Open to the end of Wimbledon, I find it hard to tear myself away. I tell myself the season is short, and it'll have to last me all year, but I still get twinges unless I get a morning's writing in before the matches start. Of course, in England I can usually rely on plenty of rain breaks to catch up with the things I should be doing.
Binge-watching tennis isn't all bunkin...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
June 18, 2020
I should have been in Dubrovnik now. I accepted even before the lockdown that Covid-19 would make it unlikely the holiday would take place, and for the most part it hasn't entered my thoughts. When it has, I've reminded myself that this pandemic has robbed people of far more important things than a few days away. This week, however, I have to admit it's been on my mind.
A dew days in a strange setting, trying to manage in a different language, tasting the local food and enjoying new activitie...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
