Entry 2: Roofs to Cover Us

So, I'm sure you all have read on DeviantART about my little escapade with my student house roof that decided to go off flying down the road, but the news on that is that the roofer is coming on Saturday with any luck so it should be fixed by next week!

Anyway, my lectures have recently started up again which means I've had less time to write, but it's been giving me a reason to get out of bed in the morning I guess, which is always a good thing- I'm a lazy blighter at the best of times, and I do love my lectures. Except for Modernism. *shudder* Although I had a rather nice seminar about it today, and my tutor said a rather lovely and poignant thing that I decided to scribble down:

'We have all experienced immortality, for in our dreams we are immortal.'

I'm not sure if he got it from Freud or just worded it himself, but I thought it a rather lovely little phrase. There was another rather beautiful one about writing history too but I seem to have misplaced it...I'll find it again at some point.

Anyway, despite my lack of time for writing I am actually well into a fourth chapter of A Horse Named/Called Ox. I'm hoping to get it done by the weekend so I can edit it and polish it off before sending it out into the wide world for approval! I'm rather liking how it's going at the moment, although I do have more scenes in my head for later parts of the story, so I may scribble them down as drabble for now so I at least have them there to pad out the narrative later on. That's what I tend to do anyway!

Kes language: Drabble

I use the word drabble for any piece of writing that doesn't have much of a point to it; it's not part of a bigger narrative, nor is it a short story in its own right. It sort of stands alone as its own little slice of a life; I like to think of them as scenes in a film that are edited out at the last minute. Most of the time I write drabble to help develop characters and forge bonds between a few of them, so as a result a lot of it is made up on banter and conversations between characters instead of any sort of rich description. I sometimes write drabble and then allude to them in actual narratives too, just to help build a stronger sense of character.
I have a great deal of 'drabble' in my folders, and some of it even I hate, but it's all part of a learning cure and I wouldn't dream of ever getting rid of anything. I used to carry around a notebook with all of this 'drabble' in it, and I like to think of it as the equivalent of a travel sketch pad; you sketch out a scene in a few words and then write it up properly later.

So, seeing as this bog is going to become a considerably regular thing, I want to know what you all want to see from it. Would you like to see drabble? Or character bios from the stories I'm writing at the moment? Or just techniques on how I write and what I do? Let me know, either on here or alternatively on DeviantART :)

That's it for now, seeing as it's 1 in the morning over here. I'll update soon!

Kes xX

First entry and Introductions

Hello strange little world.

For those of you who don't know me (and you all probably do seeing as I'm sure you'll only find me through my links on other sites) this is Kesi Legend from DeviantART. I should put a link somewhere...I'll have to sort that out soon.

As you can tell, I'm rather new to this and it'll take some time for me to get used to the controls- I mean, it took me about 6 months to figure out how to answer asks on my Tumblr *facepalm*- but I hope you'll be patient with me. I need to learn!

Anyway, I set this blog up with an intention in mind. Though I'm an avid artist (artist being a strong word for what I do) I focus more on my writing- or at least I want to. You see, I've wanted to get published for quite some time, and I've always got a lot of writing projects on the go. I only started thinking I could seriously do it after finishing my first story Plastic Stars but at a whopping 250 pages typed with such a simple theme, I feel like I have a long way to go to getting publish-worthy!

At the moment, I've got two projects in the works:

• Stallion Song- a historical/fantasy about pirates, namely one pirate who calls himself Mercutio. With the world around him shrinking, and a ruthless pirate hunter on the tails of all remaining pirates in action, Mercutio sets out to find something, anything, that will help his and his crew's survival in a harsh new world. Obviously, magic is going to be involved, and the dark shadows of Merc's past will come back to haunt him as he realises that fighting the inevitable isn't always the best option.
• A Horse Called/Named Ox (can never get the wording right!)- a more down to earth story about a teenager named Angus who has the chance to enrol at the elite Stonechat Riding Academy on a scholarship. Not only does he have to contend with the rich students and their prejudices on a nobody like him, but he is also landed with Ox, an unsightly chestnut mare that had never had much luck in life. As the two misfits build a relationship strong enough to rival the others on the Eventing tracks, Angus has relationships of his own to forge, making friends and enemies along the way. Something similar to a 'rags to riches' story I suppose.

At the moment, Ox is the one I'm enjoying the most. I think that Song needs a bit of rework already, as the pacing is a bit patchy, and there's a lot of waiting around and not doing much I feel. Also, with 5000 words-ish a chapter, that's to be expected, so downsizing might be a good option too. I'm wanting a reader at the moment to have a look and see if the pacing really is off or if it's just me being paranoid, but at any rate it feels like it needs an overhaul. Ox is feeling simpler and easier for me to write at the moment, so that's what you'll probably see the most of here in terms of news.

I'm currently at home and not at uni, so I may not be writing too much. At the moment I'm sat here with a glass of wine (which isn't that super, probably gonna switch to tea soon) doodling up concepts for Ox characters. I find that drawing them helps me visualise them- then again, often they come out looking nothing like I imagine! Currently working on Wilde, the horse equivalent of Casanova in the story:

He's actually turning out alright! Anyway, time to sign off I think for now; I hope I keep this relatively active for you guys to enjoy!

Happy Saturday!

Kes xX