Showing Tag: "ideas" (Show all posts)

Resolving to Think Lateral

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, December 31, 2018, In : Inspiration 
Where did this tradition of making resolutions at the new year come from? Frankly, I haven't a clue, other than the link with new beginnings, but it's very hard to escape it. Perhaps the reason so many resolutions are broken before the end of January is because they are half-hearted to begin with, made for form's sake rather than a true desire for change.
I'm not going to suggest what promises anyone should make themselves, and if you're heartily sick of being asked what your New Year's resol...
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A is for Alphabet

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, February 22, 2015, In : Inspiration 
Sometimes subjects to blog about are obvious, for instance, when there's news of a publication or event. At other times, it isn't as easy. The trouble isn't that I can't think of anything, but that there are so many subjects, it's hard to pick one. Today, I have come up with a solution. Starting next week, I shall choose a subject to blog about according to the alphabet. I've already made a list, and I have enough ideas to keep me going for at least the next five years! They are the usual mix...
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Waste Not, Want Not

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, July 20, 2014, In : Inspiration 
Researching a novel can be fun or frustrating, but it's always time consuming and, all too often, the facts that you find the most fascinating never make it into the finished work. That doesn't mean that the hours spent checking websites, hunting out books and talking to experts are wasted.
    The more background information you have, the more confidently you can write. You'll know your characters better and won't have to waste time rewriting because you've placed them in impossible situatio...
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Bowled Over at Tate Britain

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, December 16, 2012, In : Reviews 
I've always been a fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. They aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I've always loved the stories/poems that inspired them and the inspiration the paintings provide, their stained glass colours and the way they capture the moment. For me, the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain was unmissable.
Even though I had seen many of the paintings before at exhibitions, on television or in books, I found the exhibition dazzling. Reproductions certainly do...
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Beautiful Cornwall

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, In : Inspiration 
I'll soon be off to beautiful Cornwall again. As well as pasties and clotted cream teas, I'm looking forward to rambles down narrow lanes gathering blackberries, going for a hack over the downs and the exhilaration of walking the coastal path. When I get back to the car or the holiday cottage, I'll make notes. In the past, these have come in handy for all kinds of things–characters, descriptions, plots–even poems. One Cornwall-inspired sonnet, won me second prize in Northampton Literature...
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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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Puppy Diary

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, In : Inspiration 
Yesterday was Harry and Sophie, our bichons', fifth birthday. They are such a huge part in my life, that now seems like the ideal time to look back at when they first came to live with my husband and me. (Before anyone coming to this blog looking for writing tips turns away in disgust, there is a writing angle to my reminiscences.)
From the first moment that we brought Harry and Sophie home, I decided to keep a puppy diary of all their funny ways, their personalities, the mischief they get up...
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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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Sound Advice

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Saturday, March 24, 2012, In : Inspiration 
In An Essay on Criticism Alexander Pope writes: 'The sound must seem an echo to the sense.'  He continues:
'When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow:
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.'
It's still great advice, and I endeavour to follow it.  More than that, I find that it isn't only the words that change tempo, but the speed at which I write them.  If I'm writing somethin...
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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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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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