What to Do Next
May. 10th, 2012 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI have been trying to think on what to do after I actually get this BA(Hons) English with Cultural Studies degree.
I have to actually finish my assignments, and then my dissertation, and the ten credit Life Writing module I expect nobody will turn up for again, but after that I will be done.
It was pretty easy to decide where and what to study when I was getting my BA because (a) I couldn't move house, so I could study in daily transport range, (b) that meant City College or the UEA and (c) the UEA told me they didn't have part time degrees in my subject areas. Which I'm pretty sure wasn't true, but it's hard to apply when the admissions place says things don't exist. So my options were City College or City College.
And getting in was easy, because I'd been doing the Access course there, so it was teachers I already knew, and they knew I turned up and did work, and basically I just had to have a chat with an English teacher because I hadn't done English on Access just Cultural Studies. After proving I could indeed read English and write about it, I was in.
And deciding what modules to do was easy too, because there's only precisely as many as you need to get a degree. In fact, with the rejuggling that happened about which courses were level 1 or 2 or 3, many part time students found there were not in fact precisely enough, but about 10 credits too few or at the wrong level. Luckily I had studied Doctor Who at the UEA in their Continuing Education (evening) classes, so I had 10 credits extra, or, as it turned out, precisely enough again. Yaay Doctor Who, saving my degree.
When the UEA did continuing education classes, back when I was planning my degree, I had the heady feeling of choice and possibility and thought I could do modules just because I liked the look of them and wanted to.
... then they all got cancelled. I could, at this point, do Creative Writing (Prose), if and only if I applied really early and waited in line. And I've already got all the credits I need at the levels available. So, no choices. Which is fine, it makes things easy, I can just trundle along doing the course set out before me.
Once I finish my degree, I no longer study at City College.
I could study somewhere else.
I could study anywhere else.
... *blinks* ...
Combine it with the thing where Norwich City Council will no longer let me even pretend to stand in line and wait to move to Norwich, and it's kind of tempting to just go :-p to Norwich and choose somewhere else entirely. Maybe somewhere I've never been before. You never know, it might be interesting.
... my first thought is to start by looking up places with (a) science fiction clubs and (b) conventions.
... well they're the good bits of Norwich already.
The thing is though, I think if I move to somewhere else, I will spend all my spoons on learning the new place, and not so many on studying. I know Norwich. And I also know the UEA is one of the best universities in my subject area, so really, why even try to move?
So then the decision is, what to study at the UEA?
... there are choices. Like, plural. Several, even.
... I really don't know where to start choosing.
Good thing I've given myself a year's run up then.
I'm having to learn what all them other letters like MA and PhDs are. Other than things Daniel Jackson has a ton of.
There are part time postgraduate taught degrees at the UEA in the school of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing and the school of Film and Television Studies.
MA Creative Writing - Prose
MA Creative Writing - Scriptwriting
MA Film Studies
All those links have a Course Profile section and in that section there's a bazillion more options, modules about all sorts.
I like the look of the module on Science Fiction Film and Television. I suspect I could do that one quite well.
And for the Creative Writing ones as well as the options that are actually particularly for that MA there's a list of other course codes you could pick your credits from, if you felt like it, which makes it look like whichever of them I start I could study the cool looking bits from Film Studies anyway.
Most of the bits for Scriptwriting mention theatre. Not movies or television or radio. I've been to the theatre twice, and it was to watch people off the TV do Shakespeare both times. I don't think I grok theatre. I don't know why.
The compulsory bit for MA Scriptwriting says
Advanced level... so, possibly I should know what dramaturgy actually is? And prior experience of dramatic writing probably doesn't mean either the fanfic scripts or the thing I sent to the BBC writers room and then realised was dire. Maybe.
This bit does mention all the sorts of scripts though, so it's for things I want to do, too.
... the thing is, while I have a bunch of ideas I'd quite like an audience of millions to quite like, I'm not so much sure I am any good at all at scriptwriting. Nor do I think that I'm good at the stuff I'd have to do to get a job doing scriptwriting. So do I want to study scriptwriting, to get good at it, or do I want to give up and decide I'm a hermit and therefore at heart more of a novel writing person?
Decisions.
And do I want to do film studies? I don't know, my degree is sideways of it. Is it going to be like cultural studies? I don't want to actually film things myself so that's a bunch of courses I know I don't want to do. But from the 40 credits of optional stuff in the first year I'd quite like to do, er, 100 credits, so possibly just maybe I'm interested enough in the topic to turn up for a semester or four. Ah! The second year options list has the same options, so I could in fact do 80 optional credits. Rock.
And then there's another 20 to pick from other course codes... or the same options list. So my 100 credits of options are their 100 credits of options. Well that looks simples, I could do all the things that got my attention already. Or I could do 20 credits of also looks interesting from another school. Including all the ones from the creative writing courses, as far as I can see. Hmmm, no, if you open many of them they say they're reserved for Scriptwriting students or something, so whoever put them on the Film list was being daft. Also they've listed all the 90 and 60 credit modules for a 20 credit option. Must be done by computer.
Still, so many choices!
So I look at all the options and it is not exactly easy to pick.
I mean, I'm mostly planning to stay in education because even the government agrees me and work are not mixy, and staying at home on my comfy chair drives me nuts every summer, so does not appeal as a plan for the next few years.
Is that really a good reason to go?
... well it's a good reason not to stay here, so, good enough to be going on with.
College drives me nuts with the students not turning up, not doing work, not talking about their topic, not seeming to care about their topic, and generally spending more time talking about their offspring. In 90 minute long lessons that cost really a lot of money each. (Would it help if they had to pay lesson by lesson instead of once a year? Would they notice how much they were throwing away?) And some teachers drive me nuts by not actually teaching me anything. Well, two. One of them left I think and got replaced with someone else who everyone complained about too. The other teachers are good. I like learning and they have plenty to teach, and that works out great.
... I think I like learning. Sometimes. Although I haven't necessarily liked the specific texts or bits of learning we've been meant to do thus far.
... if college drives me nuts and staying home drives me nuts perhaps I need an option that isn't college or home?
... as soon as I think of one I'll try it.
ANYway! I have to make plans and choices, and there's a bazillion options, even after taking out the evaporating ones, and I don't know what I want to study. Do I want to go study creative writing? What would that actually be like? We've done creative writing at college this semester. Nobody turned up, nobody posted their work, nobody read each others work, and when I put my work under their noses until they read it they just said it was good and that was all they said. What's the use of that? Why pay to go do that?
Is an MA going to be full of people that actually want to be there?
Well it costs a bunch of money and you need at least a 2:1 to get in.
This year's bunch of money is about £5000 but they say it will go up next year.
It would be nice if they said how much by but I guess they don't know yet.
That's quite a large bunch.
There's also scholarships and prizes and stuff to pay it.
I'd have to be quite good for that.
Also to get in the Creative Writing ones you need a sample of your work.
I have quite a lot of work I've done, but since I do big work every summer, it's all years old by now.
So whatever I do this summer is going to be my sample for getting in.
So I have to decide before my summer writing project what sort of Creative Writing I might want to do.
or
I can decide last year's novel in progress was not dire, and do a sample script to hopefully be also not dire.
Plus I can use a bunch of short stories as a prose writing sample too. I have quite recent ones of them.
Summer writing project must be a script then.
That's the Rhodri thing I've got in progress.
... oh dear. That's not really designed for showing off. That's more designed for amusing a very select group of fanpersons. Or, more realistically, me. I mean, it might not even make sense if you haven't watched all the SF ever.
Do I need a new project for showing off?
I can write the Rhodri one until I think of a new project.
ooooh, I could also do the superhero one, with the crashing spaceship. cool.
I have bunnies. I can always find bunnies.
... they're always slightly insane bunnies...
What kind of thing does one need, if one is showing off to people who might let you in to a really shiny MA course?
oh great, now I've pondered my way into a panic.
I haven't finished this year's essays yet! I should panic about one thing at a time!
Right then, I'm done for the evening.
Anyone got any ideas what I could do forthe rest of my life the year after next?
I have to actually finish my assignments, and then my dissertation, and the ten credit Life Writing module I expect nobody will turn up for again, but after that I will be done.
It was pretty easy to decide where and what to study when I was getting my BA because (a) I couldn't move house, so I could study in daily transport range, (b) that meant City College or the UEA and (c) the UEA told me they didn't have part time degrees in my subject areas. Which I'm pretty sure wasn't true, but it's hard to apply when the admissions place says things don't exist. So my options were City College or City College.
And getting in was easy, because I'd been doing the Access course there, so it was teachers I already knew, and they knew I turned up and did work, and basically I just had to have a chat with an English teacher because I hadn't done English on Access just Cultural Studies. After proving I could indeed read English and write about it, I was in.
And deciding what modules to do was easy too, because there's only precisely as many as you need to get a degree. In fact, with the rejuggling that happened about which courses were level 1 or 2 or 3, many part time students found there were not in fact precisely enough, but about 10 credits too few or at the wrong level. Luckily I had studied Doctor Who at the UEA in their Continuing Education (evening) classes, so I had 10 credits extra, or, as it turned out, precisely enough again. Yaay Doctor Who, saving my degree.
When the UEA did continuing education classes, back when I was planning my degree, I had the heady feeling of choice and possibility and thought I could do modules just because I liked the look of them and wanted to.
... then they all got cancelled. I could, at this point, do Creative Writing (Prose), if and only if I applied really early and waited in line. And I've already got all the credits I need at the levels available. So, no choices. Which is fine, it makes things easy, I can just trundle along doing the course set out before me.
Once I finish my degree, I no longer study at City College.
I could study somewhere else.
I could study anywhere else.
... *blinks* ...
Combine it with the thing where Norwich City Council will no longer let me even pretend to stand in line and wait to move to Norwich, and it's kind of tempting to just go :-p to Norwich and choose somewhere else entirely. Maybe somewhere I've never been before. You never know, it might be interesting.
... my first thought is to start by looking up places with (a) science fiction clubs and (b) conventions.
... well they're the good bits of Norwich already.
The thing is though, I think if I move to somewhere else, I will spend all my spoons on learning the new place, and not so many on studying. I know Norwich. And I also know the UEA is one of the best universities in my subject area, so really, why even try to move?
So then the decision is, what to study at the UEA?
... there are choices. Like, plural. Several, even.
... I really don't know where to start choosing.
Good thing I've given myself a year's run up then.
I'm having to learn what all them other letters like MA and PhDs are. Other than things Daniel Jackson has a ton of.
There are part time postgraduate taught degrees at the UEA in the school of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing and the school of Film and Television Studies.
MA Creative Writing - Prose
MA Creative Writing - Scriptwriting
MA Film Studies
All those links have a Course Profile section and in that section there's a bazillion more options, modules about all sorts.
I like the look of the module on Science Fiction Film and Television. I suspect I could do that one quite well.
And for the Creative Writing ones as well as the options that are actually particularly for that MA there's a list of other course codes you could pick your credits from, if you felt like it, which makes it look like whichever of them I start I could study the cool looking bits from Film Studies anyway.
Most of the bits for Scriptwriting mention theatre. Not movies or television or radio. I've been to the theatre twice, and it was to watch people off the TV do Shakespeare both times. I don't think I grok theatre. I don't know why.
The compulsory bit for MA Scriptwriting says
Creative Writing: Scriptwriting: Dramaturgy
This module is compulsory for all scriptwriting MA students, and is a co-requisite with Scriptwriting: Workshop 1 for full time students (part-time students must take Dramaturgy in the autumn of year 1, Workshop 1 in autumn of year 2, Scriptwriting: Process in spring of year 2). It may be taken as an option by non-Scriptwriting students, subject to a maximum enrolment of 16 students. Students should note that this is an advanced level study of dramatic theory in the four major performance media (theatre, film, television, radio); non-Scriptwriting students must have some prior experience of dramatic writing.
Advanced level... so, possibly I should know what dramaturgy actually is? And prior experience of dramatic writing probably doesn't mean either the fanfic scripts or the thing I sent to the BBC writers room and then realised was dire. Maybe.
This bit does mention all the sorts of scripts though, so it's for things I want to do, too.
... the thing is, while I have a bunch of ideas I'd quite like an audience of millions to quite like, I'm not so much sure I am any good at all at scriptwriting. Nor do I think that I'm good at the stuff I'd have to do to get a job doing scriptwriting. So do I want to study scriptwriting, to get good at it, or do I want to give up and decide I'm a hermit and therefore at heart more of a novel writing person?
Decisions.
And do I want to do film studies? I don't know, my degree is sideways of it. Is it going to be like cultural studies? I don't want to actually film things myself so that's a bunch of courses I know I don't want to do. But from the 40 credits of optional stuff in the first year I'd quite like to do, er, 100 credits, so possibly just maybe I'm interested enough in the topic to turn up for a semester or four. Ah! The second year options list has the same options, so I could in fact do 80 optional credits. Rock.
And then there's another 20 to pick from other course codes... or the same options list. So my 100 credits of options are their 100 credits of options. Well that looks simples, I could do all the things that got my attention already. Or I could do 20 credits of also looks interesting from another school. Including all the ones from the creative writing courses, as far as I can see. Hmmm, no, if you open many of them they say they're reserved for Scriptwriting students or something, so whoever put them on the Film list was being daft. Also they've listed all the 90 and 60 credit modules for a 20 credit option. Must be done by computer.
Still, so many choices!
So I look at all the options and it is not exactly easy to pick.
I mean, I'm mostly planning to stay in education because even the government agrees me and work are not mixy, and staying at home on my comfy chair drives me nuts every summer, so does not appeal as a plan for the next few years.
Is that really a good reason to go?
... well it's a good reason not to stay here, so, good enough to be going on with.
College drives me nuts with the students not turning up, not doing work, not talking about their topic, not seeming to care about their topic, and generally spending more time talking about their offspring. In 90 minute long lessons that cost really a lot of money each. (Would it help if they had to pay lesson by lesson instead of once a year? Would they notice how much they were throwing away?) And some teachers drive me nuts by not actually teaching me anything. Well, two. One of them left I think and got replaced with someone else who everyone complained about too. The other teachers are good. I like learning and they have plenty to teach, and that works out great.
... I think I like learning. Sometimes. Although I haven't necessarily liked the specific texts or bits of learning we've been meant to do thus far.
... if college drives me nuts and staying home drives me nuts perhaps I need an option that isn't college or home?
... as soon as I think of one I'll try it.
ANYway! I have to make plans and choices, and there's a bazillion options, even after taking out the evaporating ones, and I don't know what I want to study. Do I want to go study creative writing? What would that actually be like? We've done creative writing at college this semester. Nobody turned up, nobody posted their work, nobody read each others work, and when I put my work under their noses until they read it they just said it was good and that was all they said. What's the use of that? Why pay to go do that?
Is an MA going to be full of people that actually want to be there?
Well it costs a bunch of money and you need at least a 2:1 to get in.
This year's bunch of money is about £5000 but they say it will go up next year.
It would be nice if they said how much by but I guess they don't know yet.
That's quite a large bunch.
There's also scholarships and prizes and stuff to pay it.
I'd have to be quite good for that.
Also to get in the Creative Writing ones you need a sample of your work.
I have quite a lot of work I've done, but since I do big work every summer, it's all years old by now.
So whatever I do this summer is going to be my sample for getting in.
So I have to decide before my summer writing project what sort of Creative Writing I might want to do.
or
I can decide last year's novel in progress was not dire, and do a sample script to hopefully be also not dire.
Plus I can use a bunch of short stories as a prose writing sample too. I have quite recent ones of them.
Summer writing project must be a script then.
That's the Rhodri thing I've got in progress.
... oh dear. That's not really designed for showing off. That's more designed for amusing a very select group of fanpersons. Or, more realistically, me. I mean, it might not even make sense if you haven't watched all the SF ever.
Do I need a new project for showing off?
I can write the Rhodri one until I think of a new project.
ooooh, I could also do the superhero one, with the crashing spaceship. cool.
I have bunnies. I can always find bunnies.
... they're always slightly insane bunnies...
What kind of thing does one need, if one is showing off to people who might let you in to a really shiny MA course?
oh great, now I've pondered my way into a panic.
I haven't finished this year's essays yet! I should panic about one thing at a time!
Right then, I'm done for the evening.
Anyone got any ideas what I could do for