1st week

Well, first week has been and gone, and I have nearly finished the second week's work. I've done most of the exercises, but only first drafts and nothing very polished. I just don't want to fall behind. Nothing I've done so far grabs me as worth developing, so I'll just leave it all in my A363 folder for future perusal. I did, however, quite like the following poem.

It’s hard here waiting on letters.
Lonely, longing for phone calls.
No trace of a place of our own yet.
Are you really trying?
I almost forget how to be with you.
I’m a mother now, more than a wife.
Aileen wakes me at six,
And the bed is wet with her,
Not warm with you.
When will we be together?
When will we be a family?
I am longing for it.
But I warn you. I shall be shy.

We had to find an old letter or something, and search it for signs of contrast, conflict or tension. I found a letter that mum wrote to dad in 1946. She was stuck in Sedbergh while he went to London to find work and somewhere to live. The bit that says, 'Are you really trying?' is not evident in the letter, but I used poetic license to add tension.

A Month Later!

Here I am. A month later and nothing written. I'm not sure what to post, to be honest, as I intended to post my OU work here, but we've been advised not to. Oh well! Here's the latest news.
The course started on Saturday, and for some strange reason we had our first tutorial that day too. It was good to meet everyone. I think we're going to have a really active group. Ten turned up, one poor soul gave up as she couldn't find us, and there were two apologies. That means only five that haven't made any contact yet. We're hoping to have informal meetings too, if we can agree on a time and place. Everyone seems really busy. I feel guilty that I've retired and have no responsibilities, but John pointed out that I have had my share of being busy in the past. I got the OU Reading Diploma when I was teaching full time and had two kids.

STUDY
I completed Chapter One when I first got the material, so have just revised that today, and started on Chapter Two. We have to take a letter, which may have unpromising material in it, and look for ideas for contrast and conflict. Then we must list the potential for writing that it has.
I've picked up a letter from my mother to my father, written in 1946. I have (literally) hundreds of their letters, cos whenever they were apart (war etc) they wrote daily. I don't know what the letter contains. I'll let you know. Anyway. Off to work on it now! Bye.