Showing Tag: "block" (Show all posts)

Up the Garden Path

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, September 23, 2019, In : Inspiration

I'm amazed there aren't cobwebs and half an inch of dust over everything. Two weeks away from home and I find the spiders have taken over when I get back, and it's been longer than that since my last blog. I apologise. You've often been in my thoughts, even if I haven't been sitting with my fingers poised over my keyboard.
The fact is that when daily life hasn't muscled its way in to what I laughingly call my writing routine, I've succeeded in tripping myself up. With the only deadline for th...
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Whoopee!

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 15, 2018, In : Coming Soon

In fact, triple whoopee! I can at last put an end to Ro going around in circles, and get her on the road again in The Exiles of Ondd III. I know, I've said this before–more than once–but this time she's actually broken free. That won't mean a lot to anyone who hasn't read Discord's Child or Discord's Apprentice, but for anyone who has, and is beginning to get tired of waiting to find out what happens next, this is good news. I'm so relieved I could dance around the room, but I won't–pro...
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Going with the Flow

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Thursday, June 1, 2017, In : Inspiration

I've been trying something completely different. Usually, I know I want to write about a subject, or I've had an idea, and I plan as much as I can before I start writing, but for the past few days I've simply written whatever comes into my head. I haven't had any characters or story in mind, nor have I attempted to shape my thoughts. I've simply daydreamed on paper. In fact, as far as possible, I've avoided censoring or editing what I've written. If I try to think of what might happen or deli...
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Keep On Keeping On

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, April 10, 2017, In : Inspiration

It took a couple of days longer than I'd planned, but Discord's Child and Discord's Apprentice were finally unleashed as paperbacks from CreateSpace and Amazon last Monday (3rd April). There was a last minute hitch–the discovery that moving one little hyphen had had a knock-on effect throughout a whole chapter. I could have left it, I've seen other novels with words hyphenated across pages, but once I'd spotted it, I would never have been happy knowing it was there. Anyway, the paperbacks a...
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Yippee!

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, In : Inspiration

It took more hours than I care to admit and my jaw still aches from gritting my teeth, but I've done it! I've fought my way through a first draft of the story that didn't want to be written. It isn't fit for anyone else to read at present, but at least I have something I can work on and shape. If I had given up, I'd have nothing. Sometimes all you can do is plod on.
When you're struggling through a patch when it's tough to find the right words–or any words, for that matter–it's all too...
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Avoidance Tactics

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, February 22, 2016, In : Inspiration

There's a story I want to write. I know the plot, I know the main sequence of events and necessary scenes, I know the characters and I have a deadline. I want to write it, really I do. So why do I have this urge to turn on the television? It will only irritate me and I know I won't write if it's on. Perhaps I should make another cup of coffee or check my emails again or do the ironing first, so the knowledge that a pile of crumpled laundry is waiting for me won't put me off. I even started wr...
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One Little Word

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, September 8, 2014, In : Inspiration

People who don't write usually don't understand how those who do can agonise over a word. Would it be better to use a name or a pronoun? Is 'indicate' a better choice than 'show'? It isn't only a matter of getting the grammar right, or even of making sense, but a need to convey a mood, capture character or to be beautiful or striking. Does a word have the right rhythm? Will it maintain the pace and flow?
A single word might have to fulfil several functions, such as showing a character's at...
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Awkward Characters

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 27, 2014, In : FantasyFiction

Discord's Apprentice was steaming along nicely this week, but then it got hijacked by one of the characters. I don't know where she came from and I'm not at all sure she should be allowed to stay. What's more, I'm not even sure whose side she's on. Now, she's painted herself into a corner, and I can't see yet how to get her out.
No doubt, I shall have to backtrack. It could be that if I try thinking myself into another character, I'll find a more logical way for the story to progress. It c...
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The View Outside

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, March 16, 2014, In : Inspiration

Sometimes a subject for a blog presents itself without having to think about it; something happens or a thought arrives in your brain and the words almost write themselves. At other times, the search seems impossible. You can trawl through old notes, leaf through the newspapers, go for a walk and nothing hits the right note. There's nothing for it, but to tie yourself to the desk (metaphorically or not, depending on whether the latter provides the kernel for a story about hostages or a magic ...
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Stuck in the Mud

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, November 3, 2013,

Mud, mud, glorious mud... whatever Flanders and Swann sang about mud, it isn't all that glorious when your characters have been ankle deep in it for days only to get even more seriously bogged down in a city full of potential enemies. The trouble is, I thought I knew exactly how they were going to get out of this fix until I came to write it and realised that it simply wouldn't work. So much for plotting in advance! It looks as if I might have to backtrack, and get them all wading through the...
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Tomorrow Never Comes

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, October 21, 2013,

Why do writers procrastinate? Presumably we're all writers because we enjoy writing or derive some satisfaction from it (if not an income). Why is it, then, that most of us would rather bath the dog than settle down and get on with it?
My own delaying tactics include everything from sharpening the pencil, making coffee, remembering that the veggies for dinner need peeling and discovering that an essential piece of information requires an hour of research on the internet, to sorting out the co...
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Crossing Borders

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, September 30, 2013, In : Inspiration

Fiction that crosses genre boundaries is increasingly popular, so much so that many sub-genres are popping up, such as steampunk, paranormal romance and Western science fiction. Reading Map of Bones by James Rollins recently, I was struck by how easily the plot could have been adapted for a fantasy novel. Map of Bones is a fast-paced action-packed thriller involving secret societies, undercover agents with special abilities and a race to stop an evil sect from gaining ancient knowledge that w...
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In Other Words

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 14, 2013, In : Linguistics

I intended this blog to be about cohesion and coherence, but what I wrote didn't have much of either. Then I tried to make it about writing about subjects that don't interest you (again) and, frankly, it was boring. While searching for a solution, I found myself doing the linguistic equivalent of doodling, and coming up with alternative definitions for linguistic terms. 'Oxymoron' could be 'stupid air', if that wouldn't be a contradiction in terms. 'Tautology' might be what a science teacher ...
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Umm...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, July 22, 2012, In : Inspiration

Here I sit, fingers on keyboard wondering what to write about. The sad fact is that I can't think of anything, except what to do when you can't think of anything to write. Some people hold that you should keep plugging away, writing anything that comes into your head even if it's rubbish, and eventually something usable will occur to you. It can work, but today it hasn't, so I'm going to put the other theory to the test. Instead of trying to force the words to come, I'm going to walk away ...
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Problems? Opportunities!

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, June 17, 2012, In : Inspiration

This week I went to see Royal & Derngate's production of Euripides' The Bacchae, which is part of the theatre's Festival of Chaos. It was an innovative production, not least because of the way it made use of the venue–the former print rooms of the Chronicle & Echo, by setting the play in an underground car park. I don't know whether the adaptation was written to suit the venue or whether the venue was chosen to suit the adaptation, but it proved that it's possible to perform drama anywhere....
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A Bolt from the Blue

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, March 19, 2012, In : Inspiration

Tell someone you write and one of the first things they'll probably ask is where you get your ideas. My usual answer is, "I only wish I knew." This week I'd be able to tell them something more definite, if not more useful.

1. A television programme about moving house visited the river side in Bedford and sparked a memory of playing in a samba band at the festival, and the basis for a short story.

2. In another television programme, a soprano spontaneously bursting into an aria in a town squ...
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Excuses, Excuses

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, March 6, 2011, In : Inspiration

I've spent a lot of time this week staring at a blank page. There can be little more frustrating than knowing what you want to write but not finding the right way to put it on paper. It doesn't happen when I'm writing non-fiction. Then, I simply make a start and keep going until it's done. Luckily, the April issue of Writing and Writers' News dropped through my letterbox, so I had an excuse to procrastinate - until I read the interview with R. J. Ellroy and the article about Robert Louis ...
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About Me

K S Dearsley

Northampton, England

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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