July 14, 2014
When you go on holiday, it isn't unusual to see people taking photo after photo, barely taking the time to focus. In fact, they're so intent on getting the shot that they don't even really look at the things they're taking photos of. When they look at them afterwards they probably have trouble remembering that they were there.
Writers are always told to carry a notebook with them, and I second that, but there's a danger of becoming like those photographers. Somehow a balance needs to be found between observing and recording. Be too quick to write things down and you'll miss much of what's around you, but leave it too long and each new experience will push out the one before.
I've just returned from Florence. It was beautiful and I don't want to forget any of it, but if I'd tried to write down everything as it happened, I would only have done half as much. Instead, I tried to jot down keywords to jog my memory when I got back to the hotel later, and so far it appears to have worked. I have virtually a whole notepad full of sensations, places of interest, trattoria, people, art and all the ideas they provoked, and I'm still adding to it now that I'm home. Not only do I have a useful reference for features and fiction, but I have a better reminder of a great holiday than I would have by taking any number of snaps.
One other tip: if you think you might be writing features on your trip, don't only take notes and photos, keep any tickets and receipts as they'll have dates, names, locations, prices etc. that you can be sure are accurate.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
July 5, 2014
There'll be no blog next week. I shall be hard at it carrying out research, interviewing people, trudging around the heart of the city... okay, I'll come clean, I shall actually be eating ice-cream and sampling the local vino. Who could pretend that visiting Florence will be anything other than a joy? However, I shall be taking my notebook and camera and hope to return inspired by acres of art, wonderful architecture and glimpses of characters who could people any number of works of fiction, ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
July 1, 2014
I have a few publication dates coming up for various bits and pieces, so at the risk of jinxing things and causing delays, here they are.
TwictionAddict has four tweets of mine. Two are on the prompt 'collar', due online on 6th and 29th July, and two are on the prompt 'custard' (a subject close to my heart), due online on 9th and 31st August. Read them as they come out, or save them all up for a commercial break or the next time you're waiting at a bus stop.
Alfie Dog Fiction is running...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
June 23, 2014
In my search for free to enter competitions, I came across The World's Best Birthday Ideas competition for humorous birthday verses. The closing date isn't until 30th June 2014, so there's still time to enter. I did, and you can read my effort at
http://www.great-happy-birthday-ideas.com/made-it.html.
On another subject, my efforts to write in another language have gone off at a tangent. One language doesn't translate exactly to another. If language is an extension of the way people think,...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
June 15, 2014
Strange how those little jobs that you thought would only take a minute or two have a habit of eating up half your day. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, can be a great help to writers as a means of publishing their work and of keeping up with what else is going on in the 'literary' world, but if you aren't careful, you could find that there's no time left for anything else. Coming up with a strategy to keep them within bounds makes sense.
Be clear what it is that you want to ach...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
June 10, 2014
What makes someone buy a particular book? That's a question I've been asking myself.
Unless I'm looking for a particular author, or a book that's been recommended to me, the first thing I usually look for is the genre. If your book doesn't fit one genre exactly or crosses genres, that could be a problem unless you can persuade the bookseller to display it in both. My novel, Discord's Child, is epic fantasy and although it was written with adults in mind, it's also suitable for young adult...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
June 3, 2014
Struggling to write a letter in German this weekend made me think of Joseph Conrad. The Polish author wrote masterpeices such as Heart of Darkness in English. How wonderful to be able to write so stylishly in a language other than your native one. He is not the only author with extraordinary linguistic ability. Samuel Beckett originally wrote many of his works in French, including the incredible short story, 'Ping'. Viggo Mortensen, probably best known as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, is ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Linguistics
May 26, 2014
Recently, I gave links to a few free competitions, but there was one I forgot to mention: Spinetinglers. I was reminded of this in the nicest way possible–by winning! My SF story, 'No Good Deed', is already on their website at
http://www.spinetinglers.co.uk and is due to appear in their print anthology. Don't worry that my omission means that you've missed your chance to enter, as Spintinglers runs a short story competition every month with prizes of £100 for first, £50 for second and thr...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
May 18, 2014
Sonnets have 14 lines, tweets are allowed up to 140 characters, most story contests have a maximum and sometimes a minimum word count. What they all have in common is that they offer the writer a certain amount of leeway as to exactly how many words to use. An exception is the drabble. This must have exactly 100 words excluding the title. Easy to get spot on, even if you have to count them manually–at least that's what I thought until I tried submitting some this week and discovered that my...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
May 12, 2014
There are many writing competitions around and it would be great to enter them all, but apart from the difficulty of coming up with work of a high enough standard, all those entry fees add up. Sadly, not all prizes reflect the amount of the entry fee either. Sometimes the only prize offered is publication, which is great if all you want is the exposure, but most writers need to earn to eat. Entrants are also, in effect, paying to be published. They might be better off self-publishing on Kindl...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
