Skype 30th September 8pm

On Friday we had our first Skype session and I think we all left the session feeling a little more equipped to start module 3, it was clear from the off that everyone was feeling the same sort of apprehension at the amount of work that is ahead of us.  Paula had some pictures on a slide of representations of how we might be feeling, such as a big pile of books, a tall building with a view looking up at the top floor...which seems very far away!!  There were others but those two stood out for me, the picture with all the books is not too dissimilar to how my desk currently looks!

I found the above picture and it made me smile... fortunately my desk isn't this bad!

Whilst looking through the notes I took through this session I have underlined one sentence which I know Paula has said before but it was nice to hear it again as I think it is something I should remind myself of...I need to remember that this is a piece of creative writing as well as academic.  This whole process is creative. Sometime i become frustrated with  myself as I put pressure on my writing to be perfect the first time around, but when I am learning new musical material or a new song I would never expect this of myself!I would take my time and practice, making sure I was exploring the material and constantly assessing how my performance could be improved.   I need to apply the same rules and remember this whole process is creative.  When I say it like that, it doesn't seem so terrifying, being creative is something I am comfortable with, a process that I understand, and I thoroughly enjoy creative tasks. This is no different! I shouldn't let the word academic take away the creativity from the process by paralysing me with fear!  Just because something is defined as academic, makes it no less creative.  

We finished the session by each stating what our next actions will be, what are we physically going to do next, what do we need to do. I think this helped a lot of us in making the next step seem reachable and doable, breaking the work down and just thinking... what is the next action I take.  For me I need to carry on transcribing my interviews so far so I can get them ready for analysis. I also need to be carrying on with my literature review and focusing on one book at a time to allow myself to fully focus on that one theory and be thorough in my critical review of it.