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.

Books and Book Launches

I attended two book launches on Friday evening, one as part of the great Writing Conference and one as part of my Creative Café Project and as part my own publishing venture. I’ve also arranged another one over at the Angel Café for later this month.
It’s interesting that outcomes can be so different.
At the Great Writing launch of the three book launched one had already sold out, one sold out that evening and the other moved just one copy.
About a third of the books sold at the Café launch. With the same two people and a third launching a similar book six months ago, we had twice as many books and sold out.
I wonder how I will do on 15th July.

Great Writing 2009

Another great Great Writing behind us. Another chance to meet with like-minded colleagues and writers and a chance to go back to my university. Interesting, that as a little girl, I always wanted to live in North Wales, I always wanted to be a writer and I always wanted to go to college in Colwyn Bay and learn to be a teacher.
Well, I got my wish eventually:
I am a writer.
I did live in North Wales for a time - too short a time probably.
And I am teaching – I’m teaching creative writing now.
But it’s even better, I guess, than I wished for: Bangor is even more attractive than Colwyn Bay, I have a PhD now as well as the teaching certificate I thought I was going to get. The writing is even more interesting than I thought it was going to be.
It was my first chance to see the new NIECI building. It was a little disconcerting. I couldn’t quite recognise the space. Still, I guess the view of the Straits was reassuring – and the Ladies’ loo hadn’t changed much. Otherwise, I had to keep asking myself where I was. Nice space, though.
The conference was the usual mix and there were some truly amazing papers, some interesting exchanges of ideas and competently chaired sessions, though there were some disappointments as well. I think my session went well and was certainly finely chaired by my good friend Nessa O’ Mahoney. My two colleagues were interesting and articulate on their panel, so Salford accounted well for itself. The session I chaired was unproblematic.
The most exciting for me were sessions about European networking of creative writing departments, digital stories, a session about creative process, some more definition of what children’s literature is about and Graeme Harper’s very full account of the state of play at the moment.
An added bonus has to be being invited to contribute a paper to a new journal about writing for children and young adults that the good folk at Winchester are putting together.
And of course, not least, being able again to touch base with my former Ph D supervisor. I rather like the German expression “Doktorvater”. It would be a little odd in our case, though, – I’m quite a bit older than him. Still, it was good to see him again and also some of my other former colleagues and fellow students from my time there.

Aspects of writing-related working lives: attending a module board at the university where I teach (Salford)

It is a strange process. We sit around a large table and ponder the marks our students achieved. We concentrate mainly on the fails and the oddities, but then we discuss the overall outcome of the marks and what we are pleased about and what we are less pleased about and how we might effect change.
I was very pleased with my students. They attended well. They were either there or let me know why they weren’t. They were engaged. All of them worked hard and all of them learnt a lot. They all eventually came up with a plot that worked. Most of them managed to condense this into an industry standard synopsis. Most of them already wrote an extract form a novel which was almost publishable.
How can I not be pleased?

A Strange Commission

My daughter has actually commissioned me to write a story for her wedding. I’ve done this now. It fits the three to four minutes she said she wanted it to fit. I’ve called it “Five Phone Calls.” It’s the story of that day when Stoo phoned to ask for Martin’s numbers and it went through my mind that he was going to do something incredibly old-fashioned. Well, he did. It was a slightly tense time, and tension is always a good theme for a story.
Is that the height of success and should I be proud? Being commissioned to write for a wedding – being commissioned, in fact, by my harshest critic.
Would Adorno call it committed art?

Still editing

I have now completed my third edit of Babel. This is where I check that the time is right. This is where I guard against ten-month pregnancies, protagonists who don’t have time to eat or sleep or the setting in which there is perpetual spring.
I pre-empt this edit a little by planning the time in anyway. As I writer my chapter outline, I decide the time at which and within which the action takes place and any time gaps there are between chapters.
I still need to check, though. I have to check that nothing happens which couldn’t possibly happen in that time. Also I have to ascertain that any significant passage of time is properly signalled.
It wasn’t too onerous a job and there was in fact little that I had to change, possibly because of earlier planning. However, I did find one or two characters referring to events at other times and I had to check that these worked. I did have to make one or two alterations despite my careful planning.
As always, also, there are other things you notice as you go through.
One thing I was delighted to notice: Babel is beginning to look like a novel.

A Suitcase Full of Stories

What an exciting evening. Sitting outside in a summer garden in Sydenham was delightful.
We have it now, our fine green-covered book. Very smart it looks too.
I popped into Lightning Source on the way to see if I could intercept my order. They’d both just gone. I’d paid for one of them to be rushed. It didn’t actually go out any quicker than the others. In fact, my “slow” ones were signed off before the fast one was yesterday. Could it be that the “fast” order was the trigger to get the title printing and as they had several orders for the same title ….
It was good to visit their new offices. I’d been to their old one. Not that they were all that old, actually. I was given tea, anyway. Very nice. It is in a lovely spot. Semirural with Milton Keynes a dream in the distance and a pleasant lake a short drive away. It’s good to see all those books moving about.
All the excitement at the moment is about the expresso machine. I’d like to see one in action. All outlets of Blackwells have them so that means there is actually one on the campus here.
Say what you like about print-on-demand – it’s a very nice way of getting books out, I think.
I notice that both of our new books – this one and In the Shadow of the Red Queen have sales rankings on Amazon.
Back to the book launch.
Yes, a very pleasant evening.