I'm a (very) mature student who has gone back into the academic world after 35 years out. Two and a half years ago, I was made redundant from a full-time, full-on job with an hours commute at either end of the day. I decided to take a part-time job and do something I had thought about doing for years - creative writing.
I didn't really know where to start. I knew that just buying some books or listening to podcasts wouldn't work for me. I needed (and still need) the structure of deadlines and the companionship of other people on the same journey. So I applied to do a part-time MA in Creative Writing at the University of Plymouth and, having submitted my first attempts at writing creatively, I was accepted.
The last two years have been a huge joy. I have loved every minute of the workshops attended, the fellow students I worked with and befriended, and the inspiration and support of the academics at the University. I came away with a small body of poetry about family and history, a script for a short film about disabled access (which includes blowing up a building I found particularly inaccessible) and a novella about loneliness as it impacts on five people who live in close proximity.
During my two years I also performed some of my work with a Plymouth-based arts community organisation called WonderZoo; I spent a wonderful few days on a writer's retreat at the poet Charles Causeley's house in Launceston, Cornwall, and I attended a Life Writing course run by that amazing organisation, The Arvon Foundation with Cathy Rentzenbrink (Dear Reader, A Manual for Heartache, The Last Act of Love) and Marina Benjamin (Insomnia, The Middlepause, Last Days in Babylon)
It was at The Hurst (the Arvon Centre in Shropshire) that I realised I was writing about the wrong parts of my life and what I needed to do was address the elephant in the room and write about my experiences of domestic abuse. I considered developing this into my Master's dissertation but was encouraged by my tutor, Ben Smith (of Doggerland fame) to consider developing it as a PhD proposal as the potential scope was too large for a Masters.
I have always been a voracious reader and yet, when I experienced domestic abuse I didn't recognise it as such because what I had read didn't reflect my own experiences. What I want to do is to write so that people (readers at least) experiencing abusive relationships recognise them as such and maybe extricate themselves at an earlier stage. So, that is part of my research.
I am studying part-time and distance learning with the University of Bristol. The University has a well-renowned English Department where my Creative Writing supervisor - Mimi Thebo (Hospital High, Dreaming the Bear, Coyote Summer etc) - "lives" and houses the excellent Centre for Gender and Violence Research where my second supervisor - Emma Williamson - is a Reader. I feel very blessed to have both of them.
Part-time means that this will be a long journey. I plan to finish in six years, but my registration with the University allows me a little longer than this. I plan to write a blog regularly but without fixed intervals. I'd rather write when I have something to say. I do plan to include my reading on the subjects I'm researching and document my journey as a mature student. I hope you will join me and enjoy.
This blog may well extend over the next six or seven years of my life.
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