littled.net

I’m about halfway through my OU creative writing course (Start Writing Fiction) which I signed up for kind of by accident a few months back. So, here are some things that I’ve now learned you should do and what you should not do when doing this kind of distance learning thing.

Do:

• Make sure you have some idea of the course timetable and especially when your assessments are due in. I got loads of bumpf from the OU when starting the course, some of it useful, a lot of it less so. Amongst the piles of paper I didn’t notice a timetable.
• Email your tutor and beg for an extension when you realise that the deadline for your assessment is totally unrealistic even if you didn’t sleep / work /eat / blink for the next few days.

Don’t:

• Be surprised by the tutor’s post to the forum on Wednesday that starts, “I’m sure you don’t need any reminding but the first assessment is due in on Friday”.
• Don’t try and write an amazing piece of fiction in the library after work. It will be rubbish and you will need to rewrite it again the next day.
• Don’t drink pints of strong German beer the evening before you are planning to dedicate yourself to getting your assignment done. The next day you will be lucky to be able to write your own name