arvon writing course: the short version

[lobelia321]

I'm back!

Overall summary: it was wonderful!

On the other hand: it was a journey to hell and back.

I arrived excited and happy. I fell into a hole in the middle of it, and then struggled to write my way out of it. I went away having faced some harsh truths, with a roadmap, and with a deeper happiness than before.

Longer version to follow. And writing fragments, if anyone is interested.

:-)

Comments

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Just on my way to bed, but welcome back, and wow! Can't wait to hear all the gory details. :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, wow! Gory details will follow presently! :-)

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

would be great to hear more - but first of all, how did you get time out of teaching?

i had a lot of whinging and sniping about taking two weeks out.

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I was so proud of myself and "dead chuffed" to have got away with taking time out of teaching. Even without all the other benefits of the course: it was already fabulously fantastic to be able to skive off in the middle of the semester, HAH.

(I am so glad you asked this; you understand.)

We have 'annual leave cards'. These have to be signed off for every bit of 'annual leave' we take! I used this to my advantage. I asked my current line manager (who happens to be very nice) back in spring whether I could take a week off; it would only affect two days of teaching (as I'm only timetabled for Mon and Tues); I would design the schedule around it and give students independent study tasks.

I also said that I have been moved from the School of Art (wot closed down the History of Art department; you remember the whole sordid story) into my new department . This new dept is called (get this) 'English, Communication, Film and Media Studies', and it also includes, yes: a Creative Writing B.A.! Plus, the students do quite a bit of scriptwriting in Film Studies (my immediate area of teaching).

So I billed it almost as a 'staff development' thing, that I was aiming to get up to speed with my present department's portfolio. (I did stop myself from actually applying for funds from the department. I certainly did not want to be beholden to them and to have to write a 'report' or anything else!)

Hah.

They whinged, did they, about your two weeks? Well, turds to them.

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

*takes notes*

see, there was no way i was going to ask for two weeks of annual leave to attend my course - it wasn't a bloody holiday and my plans to attend had already been noted!

also...two scheduled days of teaching, are you full-time? i am 0.6 and i get just over two days. we are usually made to work up to our maximum, which is 18hrs pro rata. or are you on some kind of research thing as well? (there's no way i get to take any of mine during teaching, i take it in a block in the summer).

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

My new department is very, very good in not making me teach a lot. They respect research time! So even though I don't get to teach art (which I miss) I am managed much better than I was in my old art department where they liked to work people to the bone.

Fractional appointments get the bad end of the stick. Notionally, they work less than the full-timers but actually, they don't; they work just as much (in my experience) but get paid less. In the art dept, they threatened me with the 18 hours thing, and said I would get made redundant if I didn't teach 16. But some of those hours can be 'commuted' into admin, other duties, etc. I found that the culture of practitioners teaching is different from 'theoretical' subjects: they teach much more, and everybody takes it for granted.

I'm teaching two modules this semester, and I arranged to have them all timetabled on two days. I cannot complain!

If your course was staff development, why is your dept whining? Goodness.

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

yeah, i think if you teach a practice-based subject you end up doing many more hours at the coalface. but it's not like i don't get stacks of essays to mark too, and my research time isn't always respected.

the dept. dragged their heels over paying for me to go, so in the end i paid for myself. this despite the fact that it had been noted and nominally "approved".

fuck them. (i will have to delete this thread in a bit).

b.x :/

[junalele.livejournal.com]

That sounds like hard but really productive work. Awesome. And I'm definetely interrested in hearing more. :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Juna. There was a woman there who is writing a novel about Mongols!!!! She told endless fascinating stories about her visits there. :-)

[junalele.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! And it amazes me everytime how fast things went from people asking me if Mongolistik was about 'Mongoloismus' to people's reaction being "Oh, my cousin went there last year" or "I know somebody writing a novel about them". So awesome! Apparently, according to some of those medieval prophecies (it was not Nostradamus, though, I think) there should have been a second 'Mongolensturm' in 1998 - possibly he mixed up the dates a bit and meant it more in a cultural way? heh.

[msilverstar]

Wow, sounds mindblowing (yes I am showing my age). Tell us more when you can!