earth to talia: A Day In The Life of a Creative Writing Student

Hello, everyone!

As yesterday was my last day in uni before Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a little day-in-the-life post! My inspiration was this post by Toasty — who actually does the same course as me, but is in the year above! (You should all check out her blog, btw. It's bloomin' brilliant.)

This is probably going to be a long one folks — so kick back with a cuppa and come along with me!

6:15am:

The dreaded alarm. UGH. I drag myself out of bed and put my phone on charge.

I then flick through Twitter for a while, knowing full-well that I should actually be getting ready.

6:30am:

I head downstairs to make myself some porridge. Say good morning to Dad, who says good morning back. Say good morning to my cat, who ignores me.

Make porridge — check. Pour too much sugar onto porridge — check. Eat porridge — check.

Then I open my advent calendar. The chocolates are crap (I expected better of you, Thorntons), but I still make sure that I have one every morning. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make in the name of festivity.

6:45am:

Once breakfast is finished and the dishes are washed, I head back upstairs to start getting ready.

The Radio One Breakfast Show goes straight on, naturally. I don't care what anyone says: Nick Grimshaw makes my day.

6:55am:

Nick shouts me out on the radio. Thanks, Grimmers.

There's a heated debate taking place about whether East 17's Stay Another Day is actually a Christmas song. So, go on... what do you think?

7:50am:

Makeup done. Bag packed. Hair and teeth brushed. And, most importantly, my Christmas jumper is ON.

I silently pray that I'm not forgetting anything while waiting for my mum to finish getting ready. She works at the university that I go to, so we both drive in together in the mornings. Some people would probably hate that, but I love it. No train for me, please and thank you!

8:30am:

I help my mum with some of her work bits. Then I sit and read while waiting to meet my friends before class. I'm currently reading NOS-4R2 by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son, FYI). It's a horror — naturally — but it is set in Christmasland... so, er, that's festive... right?

8:50am:

I head to class. Have a quick natter with everyone while we wait for our lecturer to arrive. (Our creative writing classes are quite small. I'd say there's less than 20 of us in total.)

Today is the day that we give out our Secret Santa gifts, so we're all getting into the Christmas spirit. For our Secret Santa, we each had to pick a name out of a hat, and then buy our chosen person a book from a charity shop. I actually picked out my lecturer's name (no pressure!), so I bought her a book of short stories by Anne Enright. I really hope she likes it!

9:00am:

Our lecturer arrives and sends a tub of Quality Street around the class. Amazing.

I nab all of the Orange Crunches. Probably not a good idea, considering how ill I am. (I'm subsequently running on just three hours sleep. Fun.)

9:05am:

We get given a hand-out sheet about the '10 Principles of Storytelling'. It's pretty useful, and a lot of the tips apply to blogging, too. I'll probably write a post about writing some time soon, actually. (Whoa. Writing-ception.)

9:20am:

Secret Santa time! We all put our gifts into a bag and Abi hands them out. (While wearing a Santa hat, of course.)

9:30am:

I'M SO HAPPY WITH MY SECRET SANTA GIFT! It's called The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty, and is about a mother-of-three who discovers an old envelope in the attic. Written in her husband's handwriting, it says: "to be opened only in the event of my death". I am SOLD!

In a way, it sounds quite similar to a piece of my own writing, which I'd read out in class a couple of weeks ago. It feels like my Secret Santa really put some thought into my gift, so I'm very impressed and grateful! I can't wait to start reading it now!

9:40am:

After going around the room and discussing what books we got, we begin workshopping.

For workshops, students submit work that they'd like to be critiqued. Our lecturer prints off copies for everyone in the class, so we can all make notes and edits. Students read their work aloud, and afterwards we give them feedback. Today I read one of my pieces out and, although I wasn't sure about it, everyone was really nice. My lecturer even told me that I should submit it to our university's publication of short stories, so that's something I've added to the To Do List!

10:30am:

Hilarity ensues when a student reads out their piece about an old, bickering couple in their 80s. The story takes an unexpected turn when Santa arrives at their door and gifts them with some sex toys to help keep their marriage alive. Amazing.

10:50am:

Before we finish, my lecturer says how happy she is with her Secret Santa gift, and asks if whoever got it for her could sign it. Win! I leave a little "Merry Christmas" message in there for her... so I guess I've officially signed my first ever book! Ha-ha.

11:00am:

...Aaaand, that's our lesson done for the term! I'm actually kind of sad because I really enjoy Tuesday's lectures. (Although, as our university decided to scrap reading week, I'm definitely glad to finally be getting a break!)

At 12pm, some of my class are headed to the pub for end-of-term drinks, but sadly, I have work. :( I volunteer with young children with learning difficulties — but in the end, I don't even end up going there because of how poorly I am.

The manager of the clinic assures me that this is fine, because most of the kids are already off for Christmas. I'm relieved, because I felt really bad!

12:30pm:

Home at last. My lack of sleep has been making me feel a bit weak, so I give myself an hour's nap to recharge. Cue the heaviest goddamn sleep of my life.

2:00pm:

Time for a spot of uni work. Not the most exciting, but I listen to Christmas songs in the background to keep myself in high spirits.

4:00pm:

Sprinkleofglitter is having trouble uploading her Vlogmas... nooooo! I've been loving her Vlogmas so far, and this video was supposed to show Darcy learning to make mince pies. PRECIOUS. Where's a Vlogmas miracle when you need one?!

(On the subject of YouTube, how amazing is Zoella's light-up Christmas jumper?! WANT.)

5:00pm:

I make a start on this blog post! Hi!

5:40pm:

INTENSE stomach pains kick in. I spend a good ten minutes convinced that I'm dying. Then I remember that it's just my period. Not cool, uterus.

6:00pm:

Dinner time. My mum was the sweetest and let me choose what we had for tea because she knows how poorly I am. Big mum-points. I took full of advantage of this opportunity and went with smiley faces... because, um, smiley faces, am I right?!

6:45pm:

Dinner eaten. Dishes washed. Paracetamol taken. Conclusion made: having a uterus bloody sucks.

7:00pm:

I try to take some photos for this blog post, and am reminded how awful I am at taking photos.

7:45pm:

Time for a YouTube binge! I'm loving all of the festive videos going up right now.