Congratulations?

Hello!

How has your week been? I can happily report that I have not once written the date ending in 2022 so far 😊 But that’s not what you should be congratulating me for (unless you want to, of course. In which case – thanks!). No. What I wanted to share with you is that I unexpectedly received my grade back for my MA last Monday. Unexpected because I thought the grades wouldn’t be released until much later in the month. Unexpected also because I didn’t get the grade I wanted. Yeah. Booo.

I spent much of Monday doing my whole ‘Woe is me’ bit. I was actually surprised by how emotional I was about it all. I mean, it was 12,000 words of my novel plus 3,500 words for the commentary which I’d worked on for about three months. I’d put a lot into it and I really hoped the result would reflect that.

The thing is, the result did reflect that. I’m finishing my MA with a 2:1 which is not to be sniffed at. I completed my studies while looking after three children, intermittently working temp roles, keeping everything clean and all the other stuff mum’s do – why on earth wasn’t I giving myself a round of applause?!

I guess it’s hard to have people critique your work. It’s hard to look at the comments and see things like ‘This didn’t work as well’ or ‘Not enough of the character’s interior thoughts’ especially when I thought I was all about ‘interior thoughts’…

It was also hard to receive a higher grade for my commentary than my creative piece. The commentary isn’t worth much in the grand scheme of things so I wasn’t expecting that. It made me doubt myself in terms of can I really write this novel? Stupid question. Of course I can. And I will.

Now that I’ve taken a breath and given myself a pat on the back I can better appreciate the comments from my tutor – good and bad because it’s all there to make my work better.

So, raise your beverage of choice to me and say ‘Congratulations!’ I will in turn raise my own glass and say a wholehearted ‘THANK YOU!’

What are you celebrating this week that I can congratulate you for? 😊

Speak soon x