Sixth Assignment

Okay so I am here - just over a year has passed since I opened the coursebook.

The Fifth Assignment is back with the good advice, observations and recommendations from Nina Milton and has been put aside to work on later.

I started the Creative Reading Commentary and decided to write only about Skellig by David Almond. It was the book that stopped me from giving up, made me think I could write a little and that I really wanted to explore writing for children. I think it's a wonderful book, full of the mundane family life, the danger of death hanging over a new born child and the finding of a man-angel-bird collapsed and wasting away in a derelict garage. The magical realism gripped me from the very first page - a real hook into any reader.

The struggle with this part of the assignment was breaking down my assignments and relating them back to Skellig. My objective was to echo the magical realism without making it appear like copying. I think I have achieved this by keeping the idea of it in the back of my mind while working through each exercise and assignment. The first draft is written and now has been put aside; it's sitting brooding on my desk and as always at this stage I wonder if it's anywhere good enough.

Two nights ago I started the Reflective Course Commentary. This I approached in a similar way - breaking each experience into the sixth assignments, detailing how each part of the course affected me, stretched me and looking through this blog and my notes to see the repeated observations and notes.

It comes down to one thing. Aside from the ideas (of which there are many, mostly half written on post-its in my note books) the recurring point is the plotting - being told by Nina Milton in a non judgmental way that I am a characterphile and therefore I need to concentrate on plotting as this was my weakness (my words) and would focus my mind and process.

I feel I have achieved what I set out to do - I have stretched again but more than this I feel empowered to think about writing a longer piece of writing for YA. The plotting has allowed me to focus and build the confidence to write and dream.

So now I wait, just a few days, allowing the two essays to languish and drift. When I am ready I will look over them again with fresh eyes and then re-draft them both.

A year has gone so quickly. I have learned to strengthen more of my muscles. Gained more weapons in the pursuit of the discipline of the writing habit.