Writing success – well, sort of

Today is the last day of the first term of my time back at university. To refresh your memory, I’m doing my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. It has been 33 years since I’ve studied at this intensive level.

We have a two week mid-semester break from lectures. It might be just enough time to catch my breath – and to catch up on a little reading, not to mention starting on that essential planning for assignments due at the end of the semester. Whoever called it holiday has to be kidding.

Several weeks ago I presented my first tutorial paper. I was a little apprehensive about whether I had addressed the question adequately. I need not have worried. A Distinction was a little higher than I had expected. It is very encouraging and gives me the courage to keep on studying hard. This week I handed up two more major assignments.

The first was a major work in poetry. Normally I write little more than 15 to 30 lines for most of my poems; many are shorter than that. This poem had to be between 50 and 100 lines, the longest poem I had ever attempted. I even managed to write it in iambic pentameter. I also wrote it in blank verse; I didn’t have the mental capacity to make it all rhyme. I was very happy with the result.

The second assignment handed up this week was the text of a picture book for children. At about 700 words it may seem easy. Wrong. It went through six intensive drafts over quite a period of time. Every word has to count. It is a very delicate and demanding art. Again, I was quite pleased with the result.