Managing Work on the MA: One Week

Managing work on the MA: One Week

We’ve reached the end of our coursework and have more freedom to structure our work. The three big deadlines coming up now are:

• TMA 05: an extract from our EMA, the big project. This isn’t marked, but it’s an opportunity to get feedback from the tutor.
• TMA 06: a commentary on our development as writers and our work towards the EMA. This is marked.
• The EMA itself: a 15,000 word piece which can be an extract from a novel or a collection of short stories.

I’ve kept a diary to show what kind of work we’re doing at this stage in the course. Everyone will be approaching this differently, depending on how much time they have and how they’re prioritising things. This is mine.

Saturday 25^th May: We got our TMA 04 grades back yesterday, and there’s been controversy around the very subjective marking. This morning I’m reflecting on the purpose of the MA. As students we’re supposed to analyse our progress regularly—what we’ve learned and how we can improve.

In the afternoon I comment on three Workshop pieces. The idea is that we submit work-in-progress for three randomly-chosen students to review. Three people will review ours in return. There are five questions—for me, the easiest is about plot. The others deal with character, setting, narrative voice, dialogue, style, genre, comments on the piece as a whole and any general feedback for the author. Two of the pieces I’m looking at are the opening chapters of novels that I’ve already seen on the fiction forum. Maybe this means fewer people are sharing their work! One of the pieces is about literary rivalry, one about abuse within a Christian marriage, and the third is about soldiers returning from the Second World War.

I’m also reading A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins as research for my EMA. One of my main characters is a teacher and History is central to the story.

Sunday 26^th May: I have much less time today, but when I have chance, I begin Stealing Hollywood by Alexandra Sokoloff, which was recommended by someone on the course. It’s a guide to how novelists can learn from screenwriting techniques. The first step is figuring out what kind of story you want to write. Sokoloff is a fan of making lists and looking for patterns—your favourite films, heroes, villains etc. She also suggests writing a premise for a story every day. The premise should include protagonist, antagonist, setting, goals and obstacles.

Monday 27^th May: A Bank Holiday, which is a big bonus as far as studying goes. The first thing I do today is look through the requirements for TMA 06, due in July. It’s a commentary about the process of writing our EMA, bringing in what we’ve learnt from the Masters. I spent over an hour breaking down the requirements and brainstorming ideas. Then I’m back to the screenwriting book, where I learn about the Three Act, Eight Sequence structure. It’s fascinating stuff, and very useful. My EMA will represent the first 15,000 words of a novel, which seems to be about three-quarters of Act One, ‘the set-up’, breaking halfway through Sequence Two.

Today isn’t completely free. I have to go into Nottingham, and I end up at the Broadway, a cinema that runs courses and attracts writers. In fact, the person at the next table is also making notes in a book, and the group who come after her get into a discussion about writing. Personally, I’m reading The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Getting home, I go through more of the history book.

Tuesday 28^th May: Back at work, which has a major impact on the time and motivation needed to study. I manage some before work, at lunch and in the evening. Following advice from the screenwriting book, I create a table of Acts, Sequences and Climaxes to test my plot against. By lucky chance, the story fits almost exactly. Sokoloff did say that we’re all subconsciously aware of story structure, from a lifetime of reading novels and watching films.

Also today I spend an hour on the final Excursion Chapter, this one on Creative Nonfiction: ‘blending genres’.

Wednesday 29^th May: Before work, I write a review of last night’s Years and Years, a BBC drama set in the near future that I’m using for comparison because its themes are similar to my EMA. What does it predict will happen? How does it sustain interest? How are multiple characters and plotlines handled? Who or what is the antagonist?

Thursday 30^th May: I begin the day with more from Stealing Hollywood, this time reading up on characters, the conflict between external and internal desires, how this informs the character arc, and how characters are introduced to the reader through others (antagonists, mentors, allies etc.) There’s more about how to form a character, including the use of archetypes, and the importance of a climactic scene where the character faces his or her worst nightmare. After that it’s onto antagonists.

Friday 31^st May: I have a list of things I want to do, such as character descriptions and structural analysis for my EMA, but (paid) work is draining and all I end up doing is reading more of the book on history. Still, at least the weekend is coming up!