A363 Advanced Creative Writing with the Open University

I was asked by a fellow blogger yesterday what I thought of the Open University’s Advanced Creative Course A363. And my response was,

‘It’s Blumin’ BRILLIANT.’

I’ve been lucky. I’ve had the same fab tutor for both A215 and A363. He’s a writer of successful plays that are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio. He’s very critical, and not one for lavishing praise, which, I have to say, took a bit of getting used to – As, quite frankly, I love praise – don’t we all?! But once I saw EVERYTHING he said was 100% valid – I took everything on board.

I’ve learnt SO much from both courses. And I'm sure I wouldn’t have sold two stories if I hadn’t done A215.

And A363 has taught me how to write plays for screen, film and stage – which I may just try one day! Oh, and how to splice the strands of a novel – which has helped me greatly with novel 1.

Yes, I would 100% recommend both courses, especially as, if you do both you get a ‘Creative Writing and Literature Diploma.’ YAY!

Although, it has to be said, both courses are blinking HARD WORK! Or is that just me?!

Oh, and you can find out a bit more about A363 here!

Guilty as Charged

I need to smack myself about a bit. Yes, I’ve been procrastinating - just a little!

I’ve been dreaming how my book cover will look, should I ever get that far - HA! Although there's nothing wrong with dreaming is there? If you don't have a dream - how you gonna have a dream come true?

Right, back to writing.

Writing, Writing and More Writing

I’ve been such a busy girlie. I’ve been working so hard on novel 1. Poor novel 2 has now faded into the background. For now anyway.

I’ve written 60,000 words + and I’m actually pleased with how it’s going – that’s a first! I’ve even written a prologue – which I’ve never tried before. And I’m taking a leaf out of the lovely Karen’s book and setting myself a deadline. I want it finished and ready to send to agents by August 2009. Gawd, did I really just say that?

I’ve also sent a short story to the Frome Festival competition, which I saw advertised on Sally’s brilliant competition calendar.

Plus, I’ve now written the first draft of my final assignment for my Open University.

So I’ve been busy then - So busy in fact that I’ve now got a muzzy head, which is so annoying because that means I’ll have to stay away from the computer for a bit. RATS!

In other news, I went to see a great murder mystery play at our local theatre. We were all given little pads and pens and had to guess who did it. Cool. I didn’t win. In fact, I’m not sure I know who did it even now! ;-)

Show Don't Tell

Ooh, I’ve had a light-bulb moment. It came to me last night! Just like that! Well not exactly just like that. But I realised despite being told emphatically by my tutor and every ‘how to write ‘ book I’ve ever read, that I should SHOW not TELL. I’m STILL guilty of TELLING far too much, ma Lord.

At the moment, my story is set in the present and the protagonist TELLS the reader what happened in the past. But last night, I thought why not set some chapters in the past and SHOW the reader what happened there. I’m also tempted to change the whole thing into a third person viewpoint (it is presently in the first).

So, massive re-write coming on me thinks! Crumbs! Better get on with my final OU assignment first though, which is like a scary phantom haunting my dreams! I know, I need to work on my metaphors too!

And here's a great post over at Blood Red Pencil about Show vs Tell.