Learning how to keep a blog alive!

Today we had a slight change on the classes that take place on Wednesdays. Instead of having a lecture, followed by a seminar, first years have spent most of the day in the library getting valuable advice on how to keep our blogs going!

It is true that most of the times I don’t feel motivated enough to write a blog post even though I actually enjoy it while doing it.

Some of the tips I found helpful included writing every day, even if it is a few words.  Something to keep the writing going.

Set time targets. Decide how long will I spend doing a piece of work and meet the target. After that I can relax and get distracted. Also, put deadlines to projects so I can finish it before the uni deadline.

The rest of the session concentrated on how to get started on a post and I found it quite boring as I find it easy to pick topics to write about, structure my argument and show my points in a clear and organised way.

My next session though, it was more interesting. The main theme was how to use words creatively. We were given range of pictures and in groups of four we had to pick one and talk about it in an artistic way.

I do struggle to talk about art. I just started taking part in art courses about two and a half years ago. No one ever taught me technical aspects of art. On my A-levels I remember they just gave me a sketch book and a paint brush and I was told to produce art work.

This year I need to learn it all and fast but I still find it hard to evaluate an art piece. Working as a team was very helpful as I was able to listen to my team mates opinions and feel more confident about my own thoughts. I realised that art can convey all sorts of thoughts and emotions and that everyone experiences it in a different way and that whatever my opinion on a piece of art is, it is the right answer because that’s the way I perceive it.

Last but not least, “tools of visual practise and using them in your critical writing”

This session was by far my favourite one, perhaps because I was familiar with the lecturers but mainly because it was about expressing my creativity into words.

First, they had us doing an exercise on analysing screenshots from movies and games. We were meant to be able to understand what was the story behind the scene by looking at the colours used, composition, characters, clothing, environment etc.

In the end we did a creative writing exercise. We had  to write a scene for a horror/action game, that will fit into the “Last of us” universe. We only had five minutes but in that time we had to describe, when, where and why the scene was taking place. How was the sky like? Ground texture, how did it smell? Taste? Temperature, ambient and characters.

I love writing stories so I found that task very enjoyable. I can’t wait to turn my little narrative into a picture.

I believe today was a very productive day. I learned many things about how to make my blog better as well as knowing myself a little bit more. I am very grateful our tutors decided to organise this conference day and I am sure I am not the only one who found it very helpful.

Thank you for reading,

Carla. 

References:

1. Writing Lives. Norah Brain (1907-1987): Life writing, class & identitiy [Online picture]. Available from: http://www.writinglives.org/norah-brain/norah-brain-1907-1987life-writing-class-identity

2. NCCATA. [Online picture] Available from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=art&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Mh48U6iFN4PKhAfyrYCoCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=936#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=PRoU4LFPum0j2M%253A%3B8YONDKM2Z0u58M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fstatic.wixstatic.com%252Fmedia%252F58c7c6_93081902eb2b8915e41cf28b9f401699.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.nccata.org%252F%3B680%3B453