Cherry Gilchrist
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June 27th, 2012

27/6/2012

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Thinking about doing an online writing course?
Well - why not?
It’s not quite time for the summer holidays yet, but we online creative writing tutors are already thinking about the courses we’ll be teaching in the autumn and beyond. I teach a variety of creative writing courses for the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter, all short online courses of ten to twelve weeks in length. There’s ‘The Art of the Short Story,’ ‘The Craft of Creative Writing’, ‘Writing Memoir and Family History’, ‘Getting Started with Creative Writing’, and ‘Writing Lives’.  The new runs of these will be starting in Sep, Oct and Nov – see my Courses page for details. And if you're interested, do sign up in plenty of time - many of these courses fill up quickly.

Each time one of these courses begins, I wait eagerly to ‘meet’ the new intake of students (usually between 10 and 25 in number) and to hear where each person comes from, and what they do. And when the final week comes and we all sign off, it feels like saying goodbye to a bunch of friends!

Students come from all over the world – we’ve had Argentina, Laos, India, USA, Australia, Germany, Dubai as place of residence, to name but a few. As you can work at your own pace within the weekly unit, time zones aren’t a problem, and posting can be tailored to your own schedule. But through the discussion forums, students and tutor can debate, discuss and even chat – we’ve been known to veer from post-modernism to football, from synchronicity to recipes for chocolate cakes. (Even though, strictly speaking, most discussions will be channelled around the week’s topics!) It’s a friendly learning environment, and people are often surprised at how much camaraderie and mutual support develops. As a tutor, it’s my job to foster this interchange, and to encourage students to offer feedback to each other.

The courses are open to everyone, and all you need is the desire to write and the willingness to tackle the course exercises. If you take one of these online courses, you’ll work through a number of units in succession, each one generally lasting a week. During that week, there will be one or more activities where you’re asked to write creatively, summarise, discuss or even take part in quizzes, listen to audio clips, and generally get inventive with all the relevant material. Some tasks may be very short – 100-200 words on a particular theme, for example – whereas for others, you might be asked to write a narrative of 500-1000 words. Not everyone manages to complete every task, as busy lives and unexpected events tend to intervene, but for most it’s possible to finish the course with a good number of activities written and posted.

You’ll see the ones I’m teaching on my Courses and Consultations page on this website, but do also take a look at the whole range of courses on offer at http://education.exeter.ac.uk/dll/list_courses.php?code=dlc and http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/.

Come and join us online!

I’ll aim to follow this blog post with a couple of others about online study, with some tips for writing students.

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Writing about your family history can be a fascinating challenge
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Jubilee Jollity in the Church (2)

3/6/2012

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‘Parents, would you now take your children to the graveyard?’ 
Mirth from assembled company. Flustered, the announcer continued: ‘For the treasure hunt. And would you please ensure that they avoid the Garden of Remembrance. The square rectangular.’
More laughter.

We know how to have a good time in this village. Early rain provoked the sombre shaking of heads and the decision to scrap the celebration on the green. The church would have to do instead. And so it did, swiftly transformed into a scene of revelry, and something cunning done with the pews so that we could sit facing each other. Heralded by Morris men (mostly Morris women) a-dancing down the green,  with our Pimms and beers in hand, we all entered the portals where Robert and I stepped up to get married three years ago, picking up our disposable packs of red or blue plate, ditto cutlery, and Union Jack napkin on the way. Flags to wave were already on the tables. You could say that it was the perfect lunch club venue – I can see the write-up now: ‘gracious interior with lofty ceiling, elegant stained glass windows and raised area for live music.’

With 300 tickets sold, overspill guests had to go downstairs in the Parish Rooms. But we got the better deal, with the amazing Gloucestershire Constabulary Band, playing up above. Who’d a thought it? All those policemen making the most incredible, harmonious sound together, everything from the Dr Who theme to the – wait for it, you’ll never guess – Land of Hope and Glory. They got about three standing ovations. If I see one of you on the beat, dear coppers, I will go straight up and kiss you!

Char ladies aka chaps from the choir dressed up conducted the band as the mood took them, drew the raffle and played merry pranks all afternoon, including stealing my flag when I wasn’t looking. Formerly reserved neighbours swung, danced, waved and sang with abandon. The children were having fun, too, till they were despatched to the graveyard.


Indeed, I didn’t think it would be so much fun. Oh, and the Coronation Chicken was pretty good too.


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Jubilee Post 1 - 8am

3/6/2012

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Jubilee cows ready for the big day
6.30am Wake up to find that awning has been erected outside our front gate. Does this mean that the Queen is coming to visit us? Excitement mounts. No, it turns out that the local pub are setting up their beer tent here. Well, they can’t.

‘Did you want to get out, then?’ the publican asks innocently. Knock at next door and awaken sleepy neighbours to ask if their car can be moved so that beer tent can go in its rightful place, 10 metres further down. Mission accomplished. No more awning though for the Queen, though I think she’s meant to be at the River Thames anyway.


Meanwhile, Tiger cow (my favourite: see The Cows are Out blog) has strolled down to the pub and is surveying not only garden gate left open there but pub door too. He is contemplating an early morning swift half but husband heads him off in time.

Yesterday we had tea with one of the stalwart band of volunteers who are making Coronation Chicken for the Jubilee lunch. 300 tickets sold, and everyone who was too late must bring picnic instead. Onto the sopping wet village green. Ah, if they hadn’t messed with the Bank Holidays it would have been last weekend and the weather would have been fabulous. The chicken breasts were distributed and each person given batch of sauce, told to roast chicken and whack on the sauce, spooning in more curry powder if needs be. Hmm.  I’ll let you know later. And there’s the trifle to come, too.


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    Cherry Gilchrist

    Author of books on family history, relationships, alchemy, myths & legends. Life writing tutor teaching for Universities of Oxford & Exeter. Keen on quirky, ancient and mysterious things.

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