WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM A CREATIVE WRITING MA

 

Last month I wrote about what my Creative Writing MA course entailed. Now I’m on the other side of the experience, has it been worth the expense, exhaustion, and complete change in our lives? Well, the short answer is yes. But you might like a bit more detail.

I’ll divide what I’ve gained into three areas:

1.      WRITING SKILLS

There are so many specifics I could include but here are some examples:

·        The evil of adverbs: I’m not totally convinced whether eliminating all adverbs isn’t a current fashion but for prose and script writing  I certainly appreciate the concrete vividness of describing the action itself.

·        The benefit of structure: Save The Cat Writes a Novel helped me figure out the shape of a potential novel. For script writing I abandoned the traditional models and chose a chiastic structure, which I knew from Hebrew poetry (a pyramid type framework with mirroring lines, or in my case, scenes, with a pivotal line/scene in the middle). I’d written a few scenes but couldn’t see how they fitted together – this gave me an order and ideas for the missing scenes.

·        Research enriches poetry: a poem I wrote using a metaphor of sedimentation for memories was amplified in terms of language and detail by reading up on geology. Studying pictures of bone structure resulted in more original imagery and metaphors for a poem about my mother’s fall. Learning about Celtic art gave me visual motif for my dissertation collection.

·        Chop off the end: poetry is much more satisfying if the reader is left to make their own conclusion. And while you’re at it. Consider chopping off the beginning: there may be a stronger start further in, having used up lines to warm yourself up.

·        Edit, edit, edit: Reread, read out loud, revise. Chop, chop, chop.

·        The generosity of other writers: for example, Liz Berry not only gave permission for us to read her poem Bostin Fittle on our radio series but made a recording of it specially.

·        The richness of local writing talent: What a fabulous part of the country to be based in: exhibitions, open mics, studios, poetry groups, publishers, I could go on.

·        The benefit of citation websites: I cannot tell you how much stress my sons saved me by putting me onto these!

 

2.      WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF

·        I function so much better when I can sleep to my own schedule (alarm clocks are of the devil). And I have clearly been undersleeping for many years before this.

·        I do have the academic ability to work at this level and I’m even considering a PhD at my tutor’s recommendation (although I still don’t know where the line is between fascinating academic discussion and pretentious rubbish).

·        Experimenting is fun: I have tried so many new things – techniques, genres, gone into areas I would never have dreamed of without the encouragement from my tutors and colleagues. And enjoyed it, mostly. And I’m perhaps better at them than I expected.

·        Being myself, as a person and as a writer, is ok, in fact, more than ok, and people like both. My life and experiences have given me plenty of insight and material for my writing.

·        Which leads to my age. I’ve been the oldest, on the course. But I love having younger friends. I’ve embraced being the mum of the course, bringing in mince pies just before Christmas. My maturity and pragmatism have enabled me to see past problems to focus on solutions instead. Very helpful during university lecturer strikes.

·        I am a writer, a visual poet, and even an artist (I’m still getting my head around that last one but I’m getting there).

 

3.      HOW I’VE GROWN IN THE PROCESS

·        Confidence: to put my work out there, to ask for support, to try new things, but also just generally in myself. This is the biggest thing I’ve got from the course. Confidence to be me.

·        Integrating my history and faith fully into my work: it’s what makes it unique.

·        It’s OK to be nervous or scared about a piece of work; that can be a sign of it being good.

·        To throw myself into something fully and reap the rewards of that.

Some of these I expected to learn, much I didn’t. The course wasn’t perfect - I would have liked more about the business of publishing but I know where I can learn about that. And my expectations about how far along I’d be towards a publishing contract have not proved accurate – but that’s partly because of the visual poetry route I’ve specialised in.

But all in all, it’s been the best learning experience I’ve had. I’d recommend it.

Liz Manning lives in Cornwall and has recently finished a Creative Writing MA at Plymouth University. Her dissertation was a visual poetry collection, (a mixture of words and art) which explored the idea of reclaiming and reshaping difficult times through faith and making. Since finishing, she’s taken part in some local open mic poetry nights, is submitting her work to various journals and competitions, and contributed to The Jesse Tree Anthology.

She continues to blog at https://thestufflifeismadeofblog.wordpress.com/  and has a new website in development at lizmanning.me