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Tuesday 3 May 2016

Back to School: Week 1

After various workshops and online writing courses I finally built up the courage to book onto a writing class which I would attend in the flesh.  It's always been a desire and a fear of mine to sit in a class room again.  I didn't have the best time at school - it was always What did Shakespeare mean when he said this and what is algebra exactly??

So my first day finally arrived last Thursday and I was pretty nervous.  Lots of questions entered my head:

1. What if no one likes me
2. What if I say something silly
3. What if I'm not smart enough for the class

... and the list goes on.

The one thing I didn't anticipate was getting lost.  After driving about two miles in the wrong direction of the school (I'm new around these parts!) I finally get parked up.  The adult education centre is tucked away nicely and again I am lost.  I finally find a group of equally lost people and luckily they accept me as one of their own.  We find the teacher and he takes us to the classroom.  Now I need to pee.  I am told the toilets are downstairs - two minutes later I am lost again.  All the school corridors look the same much to my horror and I wonder around aimlessly for five minutes until a student takes pity on me and directs me back to my classroom.  Thankfully it was smooth sailing from then on.

My teacher is Marketer and Creative Writing lecturer Mike Wilman.  He has many credits to his name and even bought us all a coffee at break time.

There are only 6 of us in the class which was a nice size.  We had enough time to introduce ourselves and discuss what we wanted from the course.  Therefore Mike can tailor to course more to our needs from novel and short story writing to poetry, writing for children, comedy to horror.  The list is not exhaustive and we can be flexible here.

Mike's recommendations:
On Writing - Stephen King
CSI - watching the actors discuss how the script is constructed
Writing festivals
The Durrells - for depicting family life
Needful Things - Stephen King (recommended to me by my classmate)
Far from the Madding Crowd
Arvon hints and tips (also classmate recommended)
Hodder and Stoughton

Various books and magazines:


Tips
Blog Blog and Blog  - this brings me back here.  I haven't blogged in such a long time but its a great tool for attracting publishers.  I'm not saying this is ground breaking stuff right here but it's certainly better than nothing.

Homework
Bring in a favourite book to read from and explain why you like it.


My next class is tomorrow and I cannot wait!

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Internal GPS? Sadly not installed on this model.

      Sat Nav - not compatible with me at all. I was using it in the car so naturally I am placing all the blame on that.

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