Hello from the stranger!

I blush with embarrassment as to how long it's been since I last posted!

My only excuse, is that I have, firstly, been too busy getting into the start of my course and, secondly, am just getting over a strain of the swine flu currently swathing itself through the rank and file of my family and friends :(

Apart from the health aspects, which have affected already ongoing health problems, I also had to deal with writing my first TMA of the course, which came at least two weeks earlier from the start of the course than any first TMA I've ever done. So there was a very short period of learning between the beginning of the course, and having to write it. But I managed it - which is a minor miracle in itself, believe me! :)

I'll know exactly how well I did within a few weeks, so I'm going to be very anxious about my results until then! I just hope my illness didn't affect my creative ability too much. I know the first TMA isn't as important as later ones, but it's still worth 15% of the overall course marks, so I'll just have to hope I did okay.:/

As for the course so far - well I've enjoyed the first two weeks enormously, as I was dealing with things familiar to me from my level 2 Creative Writing course. Unfortunately the third week is a blur, as that's when I was going through the worst of the flu symptoms - I'll have to go over that part of the course again once I've got a bit of time spare - and the week we are given to prepare and write our TMA was a mad rush of trying to get better, and writing what I hope will be at least a creditable attempt at a story!

What I am looking forward to - with a heavy dose of trepidation - is the next section, as this is where I learn, and attempt to write for myself, about script writing. I'm going to be learning how to change the story I've written for my first TMA into a script on this second part, and I beleive it's now we have to decide which type of script we're going to be pursuing throughout the course. With the story I've written, it's very probable that I'll be changing it into either a script for film or TV - I won't know really, until I learn more about the subject. But I'm looking forward to learning about it anyway!

I'll let you know how I got on when I get my TMA results - and I'll also be letting you know how the learning about script-writing comes along! :)

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Due to start on the 10th . . .

Well, everyone who wants to has introduced themselves in my tutorial group. There are a few familiar names from my previous course, which is great, and everyone else seems to be freindly, and willing to share who they are. :)

Our tutor seems very nice, and has already set us a few Ice-breakers, so that we can get to know each other and, presumably, she will have a sense of what we are capable of before the course starts.

I've just sent off my dummy TMA, so now it really feels as if I am actually starting! Lol

I've actually done the first week's activities - more to break myself back into study-mode really - but I don't want to get any more ahead of myself, and have stopped there until the course catches up with me, so-to-speak. Lol.

Just from the short Ice-breaker exercises, I can see that most of the group are going to be excellent writers, so I'm feeling a bit nervous that I'll be able to keep up with them, or even be in the same league as them, come to that! I guess I'll have to look on it as a spur to excell myself . . .

It's actually my 26th wedding anniversary today, although we're not celebrating it as such until saturday - which happens to be the start of the course! Yet another reason I'm glad I've got slightly ahead of myself. {g}
Mind you, I think that is one of the best advantages of this distance learning - if I need to, I can catch up with what's being posted at any time convenient to myself, so at least we can celebrate on saturday without me feeling guilty of neglecting the course! :)


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Promises, promises . . .

I had promised myself that I would start on the Big Blue Book (BBB), the course book for A363, which arrived last week but, as in all plans of mice and men, there seems to have been one thing after another stopping me this week!

Between illness and unexpected trips and visitors, I feel as if I've barely had a moment to think, let alone look in any depth at the book, but I'm determined to do better next week, as I feel I need to make a head start, just in case ill health puts me behind with the course which, if this last few weeks is an example, will probably happen.

I've managed a brief look-through and, from the small amount read, I really feel I'm going to enjoy this course, even if it is a giant step up from my usual studies so far. To prepare ahead of myself a little, I've already started an embryonic support group of friends and fellow-students who will be doing the same course, albeit in different tutor groups, and I think this will be of great help to all of us, especially as we're all feeling a little apprehensive over learning about script-writing for the first time.

But, whatever faces us once the course starts, I'm sure we'll be able to cope with anything thrown at us, with the support of each other!


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A Big Disappointment . . .

I guess you could call the following a warning - to any publishing virgins out there, be very careful how you go about having your work published . . .


When the postman knocked on my door this morning, and handed me a large envelope, I was fairly sure it contained the copies of the poetry anthology that my poem had been published in, so it was with great excitement that I opened it - to discover that's exactly what it held!


In a matter of moments, I'd looked through the index to find which page it was on, and then hurried to look at my pride and joy.


It was with horror, that I saw what was supposed to be my poem, and I sat there open-mouthed with shock at what I was reading. I could have cried, and couldn't believe that this had been done. I was on the phone within minutes to the publisher, to see what had happened.



Now, to explain all of this, I need to go back to when my final proof copy was sent to me. I had read, then, with horror, the hash that had been made of my poem, and had immediately tried to correct things before sending it back but, with very little space to do so, I found it impossible, as there were just too many things wrong for me to do it in the small space provided.
And so I decided that the only thing I could do, was to re-write the whole thing - the proof copy, and my poem, which I then did so.

I sent it all off assuming, in my printing innocence, that the proof reader would check this final proof against the one they had sent me.


And now, to my despair I saw that they, in fact, hadn't!


After speaking to a nice young lad at the main office, I was given the choice to send the copies back but, as I told him, it didn't stop the hundreds of copies already out there - and with my name attached!


I had resigned myself to returning the copies, powerless to change it all, and to the embarrassment of having this . . . thing with my name attached to it - and then, an hour or so later, I had a phone call from the managing director of the firm, who informed me that it was all my fault, as I hadn't sent a letter with the corrected copy telling of my changes - something that hadn't even occured to me was needed.

I acknowledged that I hadn't done this, as I had assumed that both the original copy they had sent me, and the final proof, would be checked against each other and, on saying this, was swiftly disabused of the idea, and told in no uncertain terms that they didn't do this, and it was all my fault, especially as I had sent a copy of the final proof, and not the original proof they had sent me which, as I told him, would have been impossisble after trying to fit every change in, and making an unreadable mess of it in the trying.

And so the conversation ended with an abrupt, 'Do you want to send the books back or not?', to which I replied a resounding 'Yes!' and then had the phone slammed down on me!


I sit here, totally baffled as to how a publishing firm doesn't even check it's final proofs against the originals. I acknowledge that my ignorance in how things are done contributed to this farce, but I'm also bl**dy angry at the way in which they dealt with both the issue, and with myself in my upset.


I will definitely not be using this firm again, and will be very wary as to how things are dealt with, if I ever have the chance of anything of mine being published again - not that I see it happening, especially with that abomination out there with my name on it!



I figured that I might as well show everyone the two different versions of my poem (which is a Villanelle, by the way). The one I had been proud to call my own, and the version it turned into - I leave it to you, the reader, to decide which one is best . . .



My Final Proof:

On The Trapeze

I fly up here, above the roaring crowd,
my thoughts so hard upon my high-strung deeds -
soaring; my heart lifts with my utter glee.

I never thought that I would be allowed
to do the one thing I would always need,
I fly up here, above the roaring crowd.

I paused aloft and then, with grace, I bowed
to crowds who came, and let me take the lead -
soaring; my heart lifts with my utter glee.

At first it was so high that I felt cowed,
as though I were a lost and floating reed -
I fly up here, above the roaring crowd.

I loved it so much, that I nearly howled,
and those who tried to stop me had to cede.
Soaring; my heart lifts with my utter glee.

So now I spend my life as I had vowed -
above the people, who I have to heed,
I fly up here, above the roaring crowd -
soaring; my heart lifts with my utter glee.




And their version:


On The Trapeze
I fly up here, above the roaring crowd,
my thoughts so high on my high-strung deeds -
My heart never lifts with my utter glee.
I never thought that I could be allowed,
to do something that I would always need -
I fly up here, above the roaring crowd.
I soar above, and then with grace I bow
To crowds who watch, as I take the lead -
My heart lifts with utter glee.
At first it was so high, that I felt cowed,
as though I were a lost, floating reed -
I fly up here above the roaring crowd.
I love it so much, and I am so proud
Of soaring on my high-flying steeds,
My heart lifts with utter glee.
And now I spend my life as I had vowed -
above the people who I must heed,
I fly up here above the roaring crowd -
my heart lifts with my utter glee.



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It's getting nearer . . .

Just a few days after the spiral-bound version of my course book arrived, another parcel was delivered with the usual copy of the book, so I now have 2 - one I can underline, write notes in, and generally make a mess of, if needs be, and the other I can keep as clean as I would wish. I find this really helpful, as I really hate to deface a book in any way, so I can make use of the spiral-bound copy as a true work-horse while appeasing my conscience that the 'true' copy stays pristine.

I don't know where this need to keep a book as perfect as possible began. It may have been when I was very young as, with a large household, and not much money, my mother treated our possessions as treasures hard to replace. Whatever did it, I find it desperately hard to mar a book, unless it's made expressly for that, of course! :)

It's becoming a lot more real to me now, that the course will be starting in less than a month, and I am desperately trying to get myself well enough to be able to concentrate on the work involved. It will help that I've already got a small support group together - fellow students that have been with me on other courses, and who are doing this one with me as well. We may live in separate parts of the country but, thanks to the Internet, we are barely a second apart, figuratively. I've been involved with groups like this on my other courses, and it helps tremendously to be able to show others my work, and for them to show me theirs, so we can comment, and suggest anything that may need changing. The fact that we're in different tutorials helps as well, as different tutors give a different view on the work we do, so there's always some new way of looking at things! :)

I've not done as much writing as I would like this break - I've been concentrating more on the refining of work already done - practicing all I learnt on my last course and, although there's a different slant going on with the new course, I'm hoping the revising will help with the new things I'll be learning. I am so looking forward to learning how to write scripts! This is something that interested me when at school but, unfortunately, life got in the way of me pursuing it, so this is a chance for me I never thought I'd have again.

I've also sent another poem off. I'm getting used to waiting for a response to them, and any critique is always useful! Lol

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