Writing success

This year I have not had much of my writing published (apart from this and my other two blogs). That is because I have been concentrating on the reading and assignments for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing course.

One of the units I studied last semester was called Creative Writing in the Christian Context. We were required to write a major poem of 50 to 100 lines. I received a High Distinction for my poem.

Another assignment was due at the end of the semester and this took the form of a major short story of 2500 to 3000 words. I worked hard on this story and it went through many drafts. In the workshop after each week’s lecture we worked in small groups, reading through each other’s writing and refining our stories. While this was somewhat confronting at first, I soon realised that having a group of people critiquing my writing was an excellent method of honing my skills. Some suggestions were accepted, some rejected.

I was delighted to receive another High Distinction for my efforts. Then just this evening I received an email from a faculty member asking me to submit the story for consideration for inclusion in the university end of year anthology of poetry and short stories. It is great when that happens.

Good writing.