Activity 2.10

This is the consequence of Activity 2.10 which I posted on my tutor forum. Apart from the tutor who's paid to look and comment,  it's been met with a stony silence from everyone else. Can't say I blame them, I've yet to comment on anyone else's  work - surely this is that hardest part of this course: peer critiquing . That said it is a  part of the course and you won't pass it without getting involved in one another's work. Activity... 

Two voices one agitated and pissed off the other a model of calm reasonableness. The idea behind this activity is to practice putting together two opposing viewpoints. This is my first go.  Any resemblance that might be detected from within my own life is purely coincidental.  

'The mother in law has threatened to come and visit next Sunday. Christ, she must realise that's the only day Jane and I have to catch up with our busy lives. Sunday is our day, in my mind at least, and I wish I could protect the day from the unwanted interference of others.

I include the whole bloody lot of them. All the kids have left home. About time too. Now it's me time, or rather 'us' time. It sounds insufferably selfish I know, but I'm fed up with sharing Jane with everyone else. They'll all be bringing their problems with them on their week-end visits between now and Christmas and expect us to spend time solving them, talking through their problems with them, spending quality time with them. But what about me I say. Us, Jane and me. When do we get good quality time? I work all week in north Wales and watch telly or read a book in the evenings sometimes ending up climbing the walls with boredom. She's in Aberdeen all week staying in a hotel. The week-ends should be our opportunity to rekindle our friendship and try to reignite the fire in our relationship. How the hell can we do that when we have the cast of Ben Hur (figuratively speaking) waiting in the wings for our attention every bloody week end.

The dog goes mad every time people come into the house, jumping on the furniture, and given his advanced age for a springer spaniel he's now taken to relieving himself on the hall carpet or even in the lounge with the utter excitement of it all. Dirty bloody thing! And as for the mother in law, how long before she gets to that stage? Already I have to help her up the stairs and have to carry her bags to her room like a bloody Sherpa . And she's going deaf which means the TV has to be turned up to an unfeasible volume whilst we sit watching crap like the Antiques Road Show because 'mother never misses it!' Give me strength!

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It is nice to have an extended family. It's such a cozy affair when everyone rallies around at the week-ends and we get to catch up on each other’s lives. This is what family life is all about. Jane and I understand that we have to take the adult lead and sacrifice some weekends to help support the others who are still finding their way in life, in the case of the children, and the mother in law, who has recently been widowed and doesn't enjoy the best of health really likes to see us and, to be fair, when else can she other than on the odd week-end bless her. 

Apparently she’s ordered hearing aids; I've told her people will think she’s in the secret service if she wanders around ear-wigging people’s conversations in supermarkets which she’s said she’ll do once she has her new ears attached. She’ll probably be furnishing me with story plots before we know it.  Quite a character the MIL. Frank next door will be relieved, he’s no fan of the Antiques Road show, but pretty much hears most of it through the walls when she stays. He says he doesn't mind, his own mothers addicted to Deal or No Deal which he says is far worse as you don’t get to see Fiona Bruce.  Have to agree with him there.  

She never comes empty handed either. Always fully loaded with cakes for us and biscuits for Rufus who adores her so much sometimes he can barely contain himself. He's not long for this world now so we all take it in turns should he have the occasional accident. All part of being a pet owner. All part of the buy in as they say. Jane and I don't see as much of one another during the week due to professional commitments and getting stuck in different and awkward geographical locations, but we compensate for those absences by having at least three holidays a year and dedicate all the time when on holiday to each other.  This is called being a responsible adult and we often laugh about it together knowing that our time will come.  Frankly at the moment I don’t think we’d have it any other way.  

TMA01 is almost finished. An inspired pieced culled from my memory and imagination, the result of which is part life writing part fictional story. Like all stories I guess. I shall demur from describing it too much on the basis that it's just too early.  But I'm happier with it  than I thought possible. I seriously couldn't think of a damn thing to write at the start.

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The question I have to ask myself as I progress with it is, can this be dramatized?  If so how would I go about it?  And how will I refer to this and other developmental ideas and means of progression? perhaps i should have asked myself these thing prior to writing it, but that's not really how I roll. On a positive note i put together a little piece on commentaries in answer to someones query about why they should be done, and what a commentary actually hoping to show and achieve.  This is my response.  Not too pompous I hope.

'I think for me I see the commentary as something that provides an opportunity for the OU to see students showing an element of academic proficiency (as it is a component for certain suitable academic degrees,) how the learned techniques of successful writers as discussed in the (degree level) course book and other material, and how your own individual inspirations and creations can all come together to help you  create a ‘what works for you and how’  writer’s mind-set,  with the creative work submitted as a demonstration of this.

The commentary then is a series of parts synthesised into a whole which would include the likes of:  I had an idea from this; I thought I would try that.  I tried this technique (on page?) but didn't like it. I tried this idea from my notebook and thought it better, then realised it was similar to a technique discussed (on page?) so really went with it.  I liked the technique used by this writer (on page ?) which made me think of a dream I had or line I read I which prompted me to write this sentence, paragraph, poem,  or about that theme or in this manner.  Etc.  etc.

To that end, for the commentary to be valid as an integral part of a university course in creativity, it has to focus on the process rather than the work. You could say that it puts an academic spin on the fictional nonsense we write. Which sounds unkind, but I guess that’s the way students of physics, geology and mathematics might put it. The commentary pulls us back closer to their world by actually suggesting that there is an academic drive behind the creative arts and if you can’t always see it in the creative work itself, it’s because its primary focus is probably one of entertainment. 

So, here is the explanation of the work, also known as the commentary, which shows the inspiration, the research, the experiments, the successes, the theories, the highs, the lows, the laughs, (and particularly for me!),  the sweat, and the tears behind its creation.  Having to write the commentary and then looking at what it should include shows that being creative on a creative writing course is no picnic.'  

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Well it got me thinking at least. I didn't post it as a reply though because it seemed a little bit too swottish and  made me sound like an agent working for the OU, rather than someone who probably should be seen and heard taking an adversarial view point more often. But I think I can see the point of commentaries. 

Ideas

I groan audibly when I hear or read that a fellow student has an idea for a TMA. I never have an idea.  Yes you read that correctly. Never.  I have to do that Ian McEwan thing every time and just write until ideas emerge whilst on the page and then develop and grow, or not, as I progress. I can honestly say I have never felt that sense of fizzy anticipation as I sit down to write having hatched in my sleep or down the gym or whilst watching telly a really good  idea. How dies this eureka thing work?   Why don't I have it?

My latest offering for a TMA involves a little bit of developed life writing.  I just thought about describing a work place, put myself in it, sort of remember how I felt about being there then started thinking about how I might have acted if I'd been a little more impressive than I actually was. At the moment it's crap with a capital T like this C not this T.  Not a great eureka moment is it?

Another way I've heard is successful for some is to invent characters first then let them ask you to be placed in a story line. It all sounds a bit deep and psychological and perhaps a little overly decorous in the case of the characters - 'we're here, how would you like us to disport our duties kind sir?'  Could it work?  I don't know.

Free Write

I think I can say now that I have formally started A363 having introduced myself on the student forum page. Introductions are always a struggle for me for some reason, whether orally or in writing. There always seems to be something po-faced about it. I would like to avoid it completely, but perhaps it's a necessary evil.

I think it's time for another free write about another of those stated prompts as I see this month as a lead into the first TMA rather than anything else (aside from re-finding the writing muse that is)  A free write can only help put a metaphorical fire-cracker up my arse and maybe when I come back down to Earth I just might be where I was at the end of 215.  

So, we've had a look at knots and clean sheets what's next? A cloister. Defined by Chambers as a covered arcade forming part of a monastic or collegiate establishment, a place of religious retirement,  a monastery or nunnery, an enclosed place. to confine within walls.  To confine within walls suggests prison and prison life provides potentially rich sources of imaginative ideas when writing stories.  A prisoner could be contemplating something in his cell.  The enormity of his crimes. Or feelings of penitence. Does he repent for the things he has done now that he has so much time on his hands to think? Or is he in prison due to a miscarriage of justice.  How about thoughts that he is a victim?  

The man sat in the middle of his cell, his feet fettered, his clothing torn. The cell was small, no bigger than the room he called his bedroom in his lodgings.  But this was now his whole world of private pain and desperate delirium 

'How many years did the Judge say? 5? 10?  I cut the heads as best I could.  Not my fault that the blade was blunt. How did I know. They said I was complicit. The Duke? he suffered bad! Had to finish him with me knife. Snap those strands like I was finishing off me latest fish gutting. Stripping a Rabbit. Stringy little bastards.  They say I made the Execution painful  for a pay off. Pah! I was a professional - professional to the last that's me. Never. Bungled? What a word to use for a Craftsman. One who takes pride in his work!  One slice is all I ever needed. Someone else s hand is behind this - switched blades behind my back. blunt one - lacking weight. Told the Judge I hit him square - that line between back and neck hair-taper - takes years to get to get that right. Target. Aim. Sniper-style. Steady hands. Pride in me work. now here I am sat cold and innocent in this cell.'

FREE WRITE

If I were to write a blog about knots I might go some way towards getting an idea for this initial TMA.The word 'Knots' is one of the provided prompts - like charity shop was for the last course TMA01. That one worked well, so maybe will this one will too. Knots is just one word, but think of all the associations that might start me going: knots in wood - whirls in wood that are weaknesses,  flaws perhaps, in  what would otherwise be firm and solid material.  Perhaps we could extend this into a metaphor - move the word from its arboreal roots so to speak and develop it into the figurative - the knot in their relationship was certainly the consequence of Peter's affair.

True it was six years ago, but the solidity of what was once a partnership cast in solid substance, unwavering, fixed, redoubtable - had never look much more than frenulum-fragile and slivering-shaky since Peter strayed whilst he was on that electronics course down in Newcastle Under Lyme.

A knotty problem is a tricky problem.  Something that might require a great deal of guile and thought to find a solution. But knots are nearly always evocative. 'Tie a knot in it' used to be an old saying said by men when giving advice to boys about contraception - a love knot might be a symbol for undying love - such as the Algerian love knot worn by a bond girl and identified by Bond on his realization that this particular Bond girl may not be an easy conquest. Balloons require knots to seal in the air. Shoes, boots, hoods, and waist cords require knots to secure a fastening. Lorry Drivers and sailors receive tuition in tying knots as it is vital to their profession that they understand which knot is appropriate for which task. Mountaineers rely on knots to scale mountains and rocks and at the same time to save their lives. If you want to be rude to someone you may chose to invite them to get knotted (which at least is more polite than telling them to get fucked).  What is meant by the former as an expression, indicating that the object person needs to find themselves in a position from which they cannot bother the subject person, in a literal sense, is not entirely clear.

Slip, hitch, half-hitch and sheep shank. Noose.  Some one once tried to teach me how to do a half-hitch.  I thought that he'd lost his mind. What an absolute boggle of a procedure. Plenty of people have half-learnt how to make a noose before making it one of their last acts. Others have failed and paid the price of their incompetence with unwanted survival and recrimination. The granny-knot is one that's close to my heart. A rag-tag and bobtail, semi-abortion of a tangle that's guaranteed to stay knotted for all eternity simply because its configuration defies logic, physics, and everything else in between.   It's a bundle of mess, the extrication of which could take centuries to work out because it doesn't conform with any rationale - it's a bugger's muddle of plaited nightmares that could be tossed out and left twisting in the wind like one of Hardy's heroines. Why is it called a granny knot?  Why knot. I'm reminded of that other unconquerable knot, the accidental hitch. Throw a hose or an electric cable round a building and see how long it takes to snag on something. Pull at it with the strength of eleven elephants and it's going nowhere. It's a fucking good knot and no-one thought to tie it there. 

And I've got this far without straying into fable and myth - the fabulous Gordian Knot from which everything that might kill you is becoming steadily unravelled before finally its release and your demise is assured. 

Back to Study and A363

I have finally started to look through the course material for A363. I suppose that means that technically I have started the course, though this is really early days and I need to do a few things before I feel right about things  For the last course I had a nice big desktop and printer at my place of work which I comfortably worked on throughout the day when I had nothing much else to do which was pretty much all the time towards the end as I stumbled my way towards an early retirement. But here's the thing, I no longer have access to those resources within that environment  and I don't feel ready to attack the course in the same way as I tackled A215 partly because of these changes.  I'm now on a lap top now which sits on a cramped table with it and me squeezed into a smallish bedroom study. Somehow I feel less able to be expansive with my writing because of these apparent physical constraints.  I guess the only cure to these concerns and  misgivings is that I write a lot more from now on and get used to the new systems as quickly as possible. I really need to become familiar with the smaller screen and the slightly less natural feeling this change of venue and equipment seems to be having on me. I don't need to have any other impediments to writing on this course as it looks to be challenging enough.