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| One of the very pretty note books I bought for night classes |
It has been a busy couple of days here in the house of Bruce. If you were reading my blog back in March you will be aware that I was considering a return to college to take up some kind of academic class. Well, on Wednesday I enrolled in night school at the local city college and I start in September.
I've always been a pro-active kind of person. Whereas lots of people might simply sigh and dream of doing something, I always take steps to make the dream a reality. That is how I got published after all - by taking the necessary steps to make myself a published writer, rather than just making excuses as to why I didn't have time to write. So rather than bemoaning the high cost of the college fees, I decided to use some of my savings to pay for a short taster course and see how I like it.
I wanted to do something that would be interesting and that would ultimately make me a better writer. I toyed with courses on creative writing (it didn't teach anything I haven't already succeeded in), journalism (as a freelance I am already a journalist and I don't plan on being a staff writer, so this was no good to me) and editing ( I've been editing for years, so again, it wasn't what I needed). It soon became obvious that I needed to think outside the box.
What I really needed was a way to enrich the connection with readers through my work, rather than a course that teaches the nuts and bolts of actually being a writer as this is akin to teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs. I thought about my main genre of Mind, Body, Spirit; I thought about what the traditional role of a Wise Woman was and how I could incorporate that into my writing a bit more. I decided to enroll on a therapy course that deals in emotional well-being, mental health and personal development. I think that this will make my work more insightful and problem solving for my readers. I am quite an empathic writer anyway so I'm hoping that the course will build on what I already do naturally.
The course is just one evening a week and the rest is self-study at home, so as I work from home anyway this really suits my usual working pattern and I can fit the study time around the deadlines of being a working writer. I am strangely looking forward to being back in the classroom again, and of course I cannot wait to get acquainted with the student library! I am a little nervous - but I was nervous before my first ice-skating class and piano lesson, so I know the nerves will fade once I am learning something new again. Mostly I am excited to be adding another new string to my bow.
Yesterday I went shopping for new college supplies and I bought some lovely blush pink note books with Art Deco ladies on the covers as pictured above. They will make my studies much more fun and feminine. They are currently sat in a pile on my second desk in my study and I smile whenever I see them. I am so glad that I bit the bullet and enrolled. It will be a new phase in my learning experiences and also in my writing too. Surely the worst thing has to be to stop learning; to give up on one's ability to learn something new, master a new skill and to just stagnate into a mundane routine? I'm too much of a Bruce for that - I feel the drive to press ahead, onwards, upwards, forwards into a new destiny.
Meanwhile my copy of Philippa Gregory's The White Princess arrived today, so I plan to clear the decks and read all weekend. It is such a pretty book and I can't wait to fall into it.
BB Marie
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