Panic Setting In

Assignments are due in now. Students are emailing like mad with what are, after all, pretty valid questions. I’m tied up today and although tomorrow I’m technically free all day, I’m expecting a steady stream at my door. Two added complications, though. The assignments are due in tomorrow. And the snow is also supposed to come.
At least this amount of panic shows that they care. They are really trying to give their best shot with the current assignments.
Impressively, most of my students are already very clear that a text is never really complete – merely abandoned at the point where they run out of time or talent. Welcome to my world. And at least the marking should be very pleasant. I’m looking forward to reading some impressive scripts.

Final Portfolio Groups

I had my two Final Portfolio groups today. Each group has just six students. They are a joy to teach. Half of them submit work in advance of our meeting. We all look at it, give feedback, discuss generally and then look forward to the next week when the other half of each group submit work.
We often notice same items. Sometimes though there are disagreements. Sometimes the writer may disagree with everyone else. This is actually an important point for new writers: they have to take responsibility for the decisions they ultimately make about their work.
We learnt a trick today: if the reader understands what we want them to understand we have written well. It is often hard for us to judge these things ourselves. This is a really effective way we can gain useful feedback on our work. Ask open-ended questions about the impression the reader has gained.
Often more general topics come up in these sessions. What should we do after we’ve finished this course? I offer my five suggestions, go on to post grad work, write your bestseller, go into a job that uses the same skills (advertising, teaching), become a jobbing writer or pick an uncreative job to allow space for creative activity. Then there are discussions about how to clearly mark changing points of view, how we often have to get rid of the first parts that we have written for that is how we ourselves get into the story and how it can be useful to get the story down quickly and then go back and worry about the details. We are using an art with a little craft. Writing is not an exact science even though we may look at it scientifically.
Yes, it’s great working with these lively minds. Again I say I have a fantastic day job.

First Creative Writing Lecture of the Semester

Yes, that’s right. We lecture on creative writing. Thirty-eight students turned out to an introductory lecture. We were expecting 41. But five did not show who were on our lists.
What does one lecture about in creative writing?
Well, this week there was a lot of housekeeping. The programme leader came and talked about the programme. I talked about some specific module details. The other two tutors were introduced. We chose student reps. Six people volunteered. Usually it’s a struggle to find one.
Then there was the real content.
Usually, only a handful of our students have a portfolio of writing. This time, most of the room put their hands up to say they had. The secondary and tertiary education systems do not normally allow much space for creative writing.
I emphasized the need to write every day. They should set themselves a goal of two minutes – that’s right – just two minutes. Chances are, they’ll get started and end up doing two hours. I also pointed out how important it was to take part every week in the workshop and how this will actually make the completion of the assignment easier. I encouraged them too to keep a writer’s journal.
I pointed out how gradually the way they read will become different. They will become quicker and more critical. They’ll find they can’t read without critiquing but it does mean that they can enjoy texts in a different way.
And then there are all those activities that are to do with writing that don’t seem like work – people-watching, reading and watching films. Absorbing story in all sorts of different ways.
The biggest shock may have been, I suspect, that I told them they should be spending 200 hours on each module they’re on. They have, of course, already done some of the work. They’ve probably been doing it all their lives.

Dan Brown as Benchmark

“I couldn’t get out of MA marking mode,” said my colleague form Australia. “I was trying to read The Da Vinci Code on the plane. I was so disappointed. I would have failed it.”
Just sour grapes, I thought. She’s jealous. Because with the sort of money that book brings in she could afford to do what the heck she liked the rest of the time. It can’t be that bad, can it?
A couple of years later I read it.
What a disappointment indeed. Where was all that promising intrigue about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene producing a family? All exposed in a short fast-paced episode when unbelievably the detective involved in the case is one of the “sang royal”. Oh come on, if my undergraduates constructed something like that they’d get exclamation marks all over their scripts. Never mind failing an MA.
“It gets worse,” said another colleague. “The first one’s not so bad.”
“Isn’t it?” I say.
“The first is bearable,” she says. “But after that, it’s the same old story over and over. When you’ve read one, you’ve read them all.”
But he must be doing something right, mustn’t he?
Well, yes, he is and actually I wouldn’t fail him on a BA assignment. I’d give him 58. A strong 2.2. His plots are well worked out even if they’re infuriatingly formulaic and improbable. He handles dialogue well even if it’s often trite. His characters are consistent even if not well drawn and believable. He has control over his writing – or he’s well edited - because he doesn’t have the lack of consistency and lack of grammatical accuracy that so often spoils the work of our otherwise talented students. But oh my, their work is so much more exciting, so much more convincing most of the time.
So when it comes to assessing my students’ work I ask myself –“Better or worse than Dan Brown?” Of course, there are other components to mark than just the wonderfully innovative but often quite raw piece of creative writing, so sometimes our students arrive at even less that Dan by another route.
Nevertheless, he’s a useful benchmark

The Joy of Working at a Univeristy

I had a strangely mixed day yesterday. I spent form 8.30 until about 2.00 shuffling coursework around. We had already marked them and entered the marks into our grade-processing software. This was just making sure all the copies were ready for the external examiner and that the office and our examinations officer had all that they needed. There were one or two odd situations to address – two students had submitted the work wrongly and so I found assignments buried within others and then one student looked as if she had submitted two pieces of work. There was one number different in the middle of the student number of the one who had made the mistake.  

I’d already told the students they could come and collect work. There was a tap at my door. My second best student form this module, and one I’m encouraging to do a Ph D. Bizarrely, I had her paper in front of me and I had just finished processing it. She stayed for a chat which was delightful. She’s thinking of doing an undergrad dissertation and wants me to supervise. Of course I’d be happy to.  

After she went, I managed to finish most of the admin – there’s a little I can’t do until I’ve checked a few things. Then there was another knock at the door. This time my best student. Also wanting to do a dissertation.  Also wanting me to supervise. She wants to go on to an MA and also to a Ph D. I was only too pleased to talk to her as well.

I then did some moderation of other modules as a steady stream of students came to collect work. Delightful. I was spending my time editing other people’s writing, in a way, and in talking to some about their work.  

The day got better as we went along. In the evening, twenty of us went out to a restaurant to celebrate one of our colleague’s promotions. We met at 6.30 and we left at 11.30. Good food, good wine, good company. I talked of how little in life pleases me more than my work – yes family and friends, of course, and nice holidays, but I don’t dread going back to work and I certainly don’t need retail therapy.

“It’s because you’re an academic,” commented a colleague. “You work to your joy.”

He’s right. There’s even some satisfaction about getting all the admin done.      

Keen Creative Writing Students

I met the new students for the first time in a lecture yesterday. They are absolutely clued up and raring to go. They are going to be a delight to work with. It really is good to talk to students about writing and have them so attentive. They are bursting with ideas. At the end of the session, I had a real job getting away form them.
They are proactive:
There are more people willing to be student reps than there are vacancies.
They are forming their own critique group.
All good stuff.

New Semester

They say that everywhere student numbers are up. It is to do with the recession, the credit crunch, call it what you may. Young people are putting off the evil day by going into Higher Education. Yesterday we met with our MA students. We could hardly fit in the room. This time last year we all managed to fit around a table.
As we move about the campus at the moment – well we can’t actually move – there are queues everywhere. It is really the busiest time of the year. But I don’t remember it being quite this hectic last year. I presume it will die down a little. However, next week we get our other students back.
Another couple of signs:
- I had to arrive late on Monday and although we only have one year group in, the car park was full.
- The mail room, usually full of boxes of reams of paper is down to two boxes.
We have 69 students enrolled for English and Creative Writing. The numbers are still swelling. Good recruitment, but what will happen when it comes to retention?

A New University Year Apporaches

It’s that time of year again. We have Induction Week next week. All the new students come along. We have all sorts of different contexts in which we meet – once over bacon butties and once more formally. And in preparation for that we have all sorts of meetings and panics before that happens. We’ve been in meetings from 10.00 until 2.00 today, though admittedly the last hour was informal and over lunch.
We have a new GTA this year. She is doing a Ph D and will be teaching on a couple of modules I’m convening this year. It’s so good to have fresh blood. One of my meetings was with her, so quite pleasurable.
In many ways, though, it will be a relief to teach. While you’re teaching, you can’t be doing anything else.
And with my new module, Introduction to Children’s Literature, there is something to look forward to.

David Morley – An Introduction to Creative Writing

“An Introduction to Creative Writing” is probably a misnomer for this book. I actually find it quite advanced and it is, in fact, suitable for teachers of Creative Writing at university level. The exercises in it are certainly very tantalising and I think maybe they would renew the creative juices and get the ideas flowing again. Maybe they’re something to be tackled whilst on holiday. I may just try that.
David Morley is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Warwick Writing Programme at the University of Warwick. Interestingly, he has a background in science.
The book goes deep and one could be fooled by looking at the headings and the title into thinking this was just yet another “how to” manual: chapters include those on writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, performing writing. Fortunately, others on creative writing in the world, the challenges of creative writing, composition and creative writing, processes of creative writing and writing in the community and academy show us that this is not the case.
This book has certainly provided me with food for thought. The writing exercises are really imaginative and the body of the chapters offer some thought-provoking ideas.

Teaching Creative Writing at University Level

Teaching Creative Writing at University Level
I’ve just been talking to a colleague who teaches English in a tertiary college. We were giving her some pointers about what she might do on some creative writing enrichment courses at her college.
We talked for two hours. There is so much that she could do. I almost I wish I had that opportunity.
There is such a contrast between teaching at university level and teaching at school level. I actually love my work and never dread Monday mornings, but I do miss the contrast. There is a feeling that things never end here. I guess that was also true at school. But there was the feeling that you were less on call. That doesn’t ever seem to go away form this job.
However, the big plus about working here is that it does fit quite well with my writing. It’s almost impossible to write and teach at school level. You use up so much of your creative energy as you go along there. There, the days don’t end but do run into one another. At least the years end. Here the years don’t end but the days do.

Revisiting Translation Work

I’ve all but given up my involvement with language work apart form my Creative Writing in Other Languages and the fact that I read the literature printed in other countries. Then out of the blue last night, I get a phone call from an ex-client of mine wanting some help with the translation of a tenancy agreement. I used to teach their son French and he is now at university studying Spanish and about to do a year abroad in Spain. They are renting a flat for him.

Well, I haven’t done translation for a long time, but I always did enjoy working with this particular student, so I guess I felt I could do this, especially as I have come to a full stop with the tidying up the house etc. We can’t really do a lot more until we have a definite moving time.

And actually, I quite enjoyed doing the translation. I wouldn’t want too many – it would be too much like jobbing writing, but in terms of a bit of variety, it was good. I am a landlord. Too, and I’m trying to get myself out of that. Now that I’ve made that decision, anything to do with landlordism seems easy.

I guess it’s just one advantage of having a freelance life. Of course that all stops for me next week, when my university post becomes full time. The downside of that is being answerable to a hierarchy of line-managers again. The upside is the regular monthly salary. Also, when you’re employed as an academic at a university, there is plenty of variety in your work – which is all about writing anyway, if you’re teaching Creative Writing.

Meeting new Students

I was the only Creative Writer in the university yesterday. Our Head of School was away on vacation, and the second-in-command s the one who would normally greet these students, in the absence of other Admissions Tutors. It’s a funny month, August, yet for prospective students it’s a potentially exciting time of the year. They’ll be coming here soon. They’re trying to sort out what they need to do.

They were very quiet, which surprised me. I would never have been so quiet in those circumstances, I don’t think, even when I was that young. And yet I don’t consider myself to be a particularly extrovert person. I guess some of my writing friends would think I was, but compared to many others ….

They stayed for about an hour. I asked them questions and they asked me a few. All but one of the six – four English and Creative Writing, one English Literature and Language and one History – are starting this year. As often is the case with Creative Writing, several are coming in through access courses. Two were transferring from another university. So, in all but one case, it was not a matter of waiting for A-Level results.

Towards the end of the hour, the questions came. I was able to answer most of them and point them in the right direction for others. I’d be happy to work with any of them.

Workign with Students

I have my marking load in from the university now. I’ve done the first two scripts – one creative project and one “Writer’s Reflection”. They both seemed good. I’ve started looking at a second creative piece. I do like to mark as near as possible in one go so that I keep to the same standard throughout. We have mark descriptors, which helps greatly, though I often find that gut reaction is as accurate, if not more so.

It was gratifying to read that a student values keeping a journal, that they understand the power of the workshop and that they have benefited from it. Others have noticed things about their work that they had not noticed. Do they realise that I learn too? I see what they have noticed and ask the same questions about my own work. If anything recommends doing creative writing at university that does: having the chance, on a weekly basis, to workshop with a group of people who are equally serious about their work.

I do come across some incredibly tight writing from my students. Many have found a voice already. Some are also aware of a need for a change of voice and that the narrator is also fictionalised. I often come across texts which are stronger than those which are already published.

A general weakness I have found, however, is lack of structure or unconvincing plot. It seems then that writing well is not the problem. That can be learnt. Finding a really good plot is more difficult.