Week one of this new studio. Starting any new class is daunting, but I am especially nervous about this one, having not done any creative writing at uni yet. Getting started straight away helped, though.

The first exercise, writing whatever came to mind, was familiar and calming. The act of typing as fast as I could, getting it all down without worrying bout spelling or grammar or sentence structure helped to get me in the right mind. I am always worried that I don’t have any decent ideas. I always say that my lack of creative thinking holds me back. Writing everything that came to mind helped me see that I can write about interesting things if I just let it happen.

It always helps to have a prompt, so the next exercise was alright. No need to worry about coming up with something exciting. We shared our writing this time. I hate this part, watching how someone reacts as they view your work. I guess if I want to be a media maker I just have to get used to it. Having to share our work around the table reassured me that even if my writing is awful, the worst that can happen is I get some constructive criticism. I am not trying to make a career out of writing, so I guess I can’t really ‘fail’.

Our first class with the Creative Writing students. It’s always a strange dynamic when two courses meet. Why do I always think the students are going to be so different? I always assume they are more advanced that I am, that they understand more of what is going on, that they are more confident. I am always wrong.

We shot two scenes today, a single shot scene, and a scene shot to edit. This was a fairly simple task for the media students, we have done this before. It was interesting seeing the creative writing students work. They were confident in their ideas, but less so in how to go about getting them on camera. I suppose that the media students are the same when it comes to writing.