In order to kickstart a writing habit again, I have signed up for a short creative writing course, studying online with Strathclyde University.
I’ve been looking for something to provide a bit of motivation in these early stages of getting back to writing. I found the Strathclyde course through an advert in Mslexia magazine and everything seemed to fit. The price, the length of time, the mode of study – all just right.
Kindling the spark
It’s still fairly early days and this course, called Kindling, is aimed at beginners and while I guess I’m not in that ballpark, I have struggled to carve out time for writing in the past few years. Other parts of my life have taken over, in particularly my young children, who often need undivided attention. And that’s not to mention housework and our family business. Sometimes writing has felt like a luxury at the bottom of the to do list.
I think I am also the kind of person who needs a deadline or regular task to get started sometimes. As a journalist, sometimes I didn’t start writing until 3pm if I spent the day in a Highland Council meeting or out on the road somewhere. Having the 6pm deadline was a motivator for me and everyone in the office.
The rush of the trying to complete all those stories as fast as possible was exciting and I think it helped the words flow easier sometimes. Even when I had everything I needed in your notebook, sometimes I wouldn’t get started until late afternoon – the motivation just wasn’t there before lunchtime!
Reflection
Turning back to the Strathclyde course, we are given different tasks each week and asked to write up to 300 words to post in an online forum. There’s also an assignment of 800 words, and we have to submit a kind of diary detailing our thoughts about each week.
This reflective task is something that appears to be a significant part of university courses I have done since my actual degree when I was younger. The Open University always included this element in their modules, asking students to think about what they studied and how they could improve.
More scary is posting work in online forums for everyone to see and comment on! I have never been very good at sharing my work with people I know (the absolute horror!). But sometimes you have to throw yourself in. Everyone is very encouraging and it’s all about improvement and development at this stage.
Writing prompts
A couple of weeks in and everything is going well. The first week was a gentle introduction, with a list of prompts to choose from.
I have even managed to write something – a page of A4 in my notebook – most days! Hurrah! I don’t know if any of it is a useful start to something more expansive but it is just nice to put pen to paper at a regular time of day. I hope I can continue to do this.
Finally, here is what I wrote for the first week, from the prompt: A small boy with an open pot of Dulux.
Blue
It was boring waiting for Mummy to come back. She was still talking at the front door. Luckily, he had climbed out of the child pen so now he was free. From the kitchen, behind another gate, Goldie had barked as he landed onto the sheets but Mummy hadn’t come at her warning.
He had noticed the silver tin earlier, and the way Mummy spread something from it onto the walls with a hairy stick. It was the colour of the sky or maybe water, but it didn’t feel like water when he put his hand in. No, it was squelchy, like mud. It also dripped when he pulled his hand out. The blobs fell to the floor around him, making puddles.
He knew what to do. He had watched her spread this stuff on the walls, bringing the sky inside. The hairy stick was just lying beside the tin. He picked it up and looked around. On the television, a new cartoon was starting. There was cheery music with the dancing dog family – he liked this one, Bluey. Bluey always had fun. And Bluey was the colour of the sky and the squelchy stuff.
He looked at the hairy stick and then at Goldie. The dog wagged her tail.
Mummy was still talking as he stumbled to the gate, stretching out the hand that held the hairy stick.
Jane Candlish 