October 19, 2014
Woohoo! At last I've started the next stage of the rewrites of Discord's Apprentice. This novel's turning into a real marathon. I thought it would take six months at most, but fate has a way of making your plans look silly. Setting myself unrealistic goals doesn't help. I inevitably think I can get more done than I can. The result is, I miss the targets I've set myself and if I'm not careful, I feel a failure. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Before I go further, I'd like to say that I have never, ever missed a deadline for commissioned work. Even if I had to work through the night and prop my eyes open with matchsticks, I wouldn't let an editor or a client down. It's a question of priorities. When I write for other people, that work goes to the top of my list.
Why do I set myself deadlines at all? I'd feel just as bad if I let things drag on indefinitely with no finish point in sight. Having a deadline helps me to focus, and even if I don't get as must done as I hoped, I get more done than if I had no deadline at all.
The trick is to work out how much time I think I'll need and double it (okay, treble it). It helps if I break tasks down into more manageable chunks. For instance, instead of trying to guess how long it would take to write Discord's Apprentice, I would have done better to calculate one chapter at a time. All the little bits add up and eventually, you find you've finished.
So, now I'm trying to figure out when I'll be able to complete the next stage of the rewrites, proofing, editing and uploading. When I've got a date in mind, I'm going to keep it to myself–I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone except me. The nearest I'll say is that it won't take me anywhere near as long to finish as it has done already–no way!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 6, 2014
Sometimes life is strange. I've had the privilege of being interviewed several times lately. They've all been internet interviews. Okay, so the Alfie Dog ones were questionnaires and by no means exclusive to me, but it's the same principle. The questions were emailed to me, so I had time to consider my replies. Not only did I have a chance to try to come up with interesting answers, but I had the opportunity to review what I put. Hopefully, I haven't said anything that might come back to haun...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
September 14, 2014
This has been one of those weeks when it's been time to catch up with a few bits and bobs.
I was given the opportunity to have a poem ('Bare the Body and Hide the Soul') on
Songs of Eretz Review, which required a short bio and 'poet's notes'. I'd no sooner sent them off than Steve Gordon put them online for the Poem of the Day on 9th September.
There were proofs to go through for my feature in
Thresholds about Samuel Beckett's story, 'Ping'. That should be online tomorrow (Monday 15th S...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
September 8, 2014
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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
September 2, 2014
The good news this week, is that my entry was a runner-up in the Haynet and Lavender & White Equestrian Short Story competition. 'Horse Sense' is about a man who tries to reignite the spark in his marriage by taking his wife on holiday in a horse-drawn caravan. When things go wrong, it takes horse sense to save the day. All the runners-up will be published on the organiser's site at
http://www.hay-net.co.uk in the near future, and you can already enjoy the winner, 'Be Careful What you Wish Fo...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
August 25, 2014
One of the drawbacks of the school holidays is that the choice of films in the cinemas is restricted to blockbuster action movies targeted at teenagers, or animations aimed at children. There's little depth or humour, and when these are used, there's a tendency to batter the audience over the head with them.
On the face of it, Guardians of the Galaxy is no different, and my expectations of it were low. I looked forward to 90 minutes of fairly mindless action and noise with caricatures inst...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
August 18, 2014
I've had one of those weeks where I feel I've been rushing around without really getting anywhere. I think everyone has them from time to time. They're frustrating because you think you've achieved nothing, but is that really true? I've made a list of what I've been doing since last Monday.
I've written: blogs - 3
tweets - 6
notes for features - 3
doggy diary (the things my bichons get up to) - 2 A4 sheets
Discord's Appren...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
August 11, 2014
Twiction Addiction has accepted another two of my tweets in response to its regular prompts. The most recent one went online on 9th August. So far, I've submitted tweets on paper, custard, collar and congregation. Not only has the man behind Twiction Addiction, Mark Connors, invited me to be its featured author for October, he's also introduced me as "the fabulous Karla Dearsley". I'm dead chuffed. Now, all I have to do is live up to it.
Check out @TwictionAddict to read lots of twiction fro...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
August 4, 2014
Having recently been to Florence, I took the opportunity on a sunny afternoon to sit in the garden and read E. M. Forster's
A Room with a View. I watched the film again the night before I went away, and I'm glad to say that it's very faithful to the book. That's quite remarkable, especially for a novel of that period (early 1900s).
Usually, novels have to be pared down for the screen, but Merchant-Ivory's adaptation has kept every character and scene. Practically every line of dialogue in ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
July 28, 2014
It's been almost too hot to think. It's hard to plot stories or craft beautiful sentences when you're wilting. Not that I'm complaining. Who knows how long the lovely weather will last? I would encourage everyone to avoid spending all day at their computer, if they can. Slap on the suncreen, don your sunglasses and possibly a hat, and set your chair up in a shady spot outside.
You can write just as well with paper and a pencil. Should the piece you intended to work on become a sluggish tri...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
