Monthly Archives: July 2013

The joy of proofreading, part two

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Yes, I wasn’t kidding when I said it would take a lot longer than expected…  Four proofs down the line, and there are probably still a few errors in there:  evidence suggests they will be mainly capital letters which should be lower case…  To my shame, it took that many proofs to spot the error of writing ‘principle’ when it should have been ‘principal.’   But on the  positive side, I am now getting to spot errors in other authors’ work.  I’m guessing it is a rare book that makes your shelves without the odd little mistake, since I have spotted some in all of the fiction and history books I have been reading since I started copy editing and proofreading my own.  So I won’t feel bad if a few errors slip through the proverbial net…

And so if you are self publishing, I would make sure that you don’t set in concrete your book launch date until you have the final product in your hands.  I have an awful lot of lovely postcards saying that ‘Death Benefit’ is available from July.  We may yet make it for the end of the month, but it will be a close run thing…

Adrian Fayter MA… continued

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Previous posts indicated that I followed a flexible, modular course, which meant that I could actually complete faster than the usual part time pattern, yet not be a full time student either.  But this arrangement finds me getting my results in July, for a course I finished in January, with official graduation next November…

So I can now officially say I have a Masters degree, with Merit.

Now, interestingly, I mainly used my two novels for the creative work on this course, and the module that brought me lower grades was the one where I experimented with poetry.  I’m still pleased I did that, and I think it broadened my skills as a writer.  But I recently met a fellow writer whose MA in Sheffield required the completion of a whole novel in order to pass the course.  Which got me thinking that, for most students, it wouldn’t leave much room for experimentation in other forms.

So, the moral is, that if you are a prospective Creative Writing student (and always assuming you are not limited by geography), then it really is worth doing your homework about the course content and the assignment requirements before you choose where to study.  And also  to consider your own aims:  do you want to experiment and gain broad skills or do you want to focus on one specific lengthy piece of work?

I was lucky enough in a way to do both.  (Still gutted I didn’t get a Distinction, though)…