August 19, 2016
Searching for an Olympics-free zone? Perhaps you've sought refuge in music and found inspiration for the Proms contest I mentioned in my last blog. If you're a television fan, the likelihood is that some of your favourite programmes have been replaced by sport. It's also the time of year when many series come to an end too, so you could be feeling withdrawal symptoms. In my case, it's missing The Musketeers and Versailles. But you know what they say: 'If you can't beat them, join them.'
There are plenty of sport-themed films and novels, such as Rocky or Dick Francis's thrillers set in the horse-racing world, and they aren't limited to 'real' life–fantasy and sci fi are also full of 'sport' such as The Hunger Games or Rollerball. However, writing inspired by sport needn't actually feature sport at all.
Sport encompasses every shade of human drama, strength and frailty. How do the participants cope with winning or losing? Look at their determination, expectation, doubt, rivalry, jealousy etc. What about the back-up teams around them and the fans' reactions? If you want to know how people behave under pressure, or how they show emotion, watching sport will show you. Put some of these characters and/or situations in a different setting and you could come up with all sorts of new twists on old plots. You could have your characters trying to win the girl/boy of their dreams, or be the first to make a million, rather than winning a race.
Then there are the commentators? How do they generate excitement? There are the presenters and pundits to consider too. Look at the way they dissect the participants and how they performed both before and after the event. Combine features from two or three and you'll come up with something new.
Study the Olympics and you could set your writing on a winning track.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
August 12, 2016
There's still just time to enter the BBC's contest for a poem of up to 25 lines inspired by your response to a piece of music included in this year's Proms concerts. The closing date is 14th August. There's no cash prize, but the winning poem will be read on air and the winner will be invited to one of the concerts. Details are on the BBC's website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/features/poetry-competition.
There should be plenty of food for ideas in the concerts. Music calms or excites, com...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
July 27, 2016
With the centenary of the birth of Roald Dahl, what better time to celebrate twist-in-the-tail tales? These days most praise is heaped on Dahl for his delicious, wickedly funny children's books, but in the 1970s he was equally famous for his Tales of the Unexpected, the TV series of his short stories that was prime-time viewing.
There's still a thriving market for stories with twist endings. Many women's magazines have a special slot for them, but they can belong to any genre or none. Desp...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
July 14, 2016
'No man or woman have' or 'no man or woman has'? The first didn't sound right to me, but you know how it is, once you question something, you're no longer sure of the answer. I had to look it up to be certain.
If I hadn't had access to a copy of The Oxford Manual of Style, what could I have done to avoid making an embarrassing mistake? There are numerous grammar and spelling websites, of course, but you need to be careful that you use the right country's English e.g. not US English when yo...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
July 4, 2016
What are the similarities between them? Sometimes you can go ages without one and then several arrive at once. I seem to have hit a plentiful patch.
My feature on taglines: how to write them and why you need them, is now online at
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com. I also have a story, retitled 'Ready, Steady, Chop!' in the July issue of Take a Break's Fiction Feast. There's news of two other publications I can look forward to. 'The Enchantress's Pets; has been accepted for Horrified Pres...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
June 10, 2016
Alfie Dog Fiction is no longer taking short story submissions.
This is sad news. The site, which carries six of my pieces, has stories and books to download in every genre. Readers can pick and mix as the mood takes them, buy one story or dozens. If you just want something to read that will while away the time as you wait for a bus or eat your lunch, you can download a story for a few pence, assured that the standard of writing is high. Until now, writers could find a home for previously publ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
May 17, 2016
Last time, I wrote that I would celebrate the anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth and death by writing a sonnet inspired in some way by the Bard. Rash promise! Once again, real life intervened, and I've spent much of the last few weeks sitting beside my elderly mother's hospital bed. She's slept through most of it and she isn't in any imminent danger, apart from being old, so I found myself with nothing to do.
The time wasn't wasted, however. I don't feel able to concentrate properly o...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
April 20, 2016
You might have heard this already: on 23rd April it will be 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare, arguably England's or even the world's greatest playwright and poet. It seems everyone in the arts world or who is interested in it will be doing something to celebrate. I don't want to be the exception, so what am I going to do?
The most obvious and easiest thing would be to go and see one of Shakespeare's plays or read some of his poetry but, let's face it, I can do that at any ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
April 5, 2016
Do you like Science Fiction and other speculative genres? Yes? Then put 16th May in your diary. That's the day when Third Flatiron Anthologies' Hyperpowers issue goes live at
http://www.thirdflatiron.com. My story, 'Alien Dreams' will be in it alongside 15 other stories chosen by guest editor Bascomb James, a respected author, lecturer and editor of Far Orbit anthologies. The hyperpowers theme covers space opera and military science fiction, so readers can look forward to tales that push the ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
March 28, 2016
Research has once again show what writers have instinctively known for years–letting your mind wander and spending a few minutes skiving can make you more productive.
One of the latest surveys to hit the headlines is that for the National Bureau of Economic Research. It confirms previous studies, such as that by the University of Melbourne in 2011, that workers who mentally play truant to surf the web or daydream for up to 20 per cent of the time, become up to nine per cent more product...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
