My head must be in a daze. I had to check what week it was. Week 9 just gone. Week 10 ahead. This online MA is zooming along (no pun intended).

So, it’s assignment time. The most refreshing words I heard this week were from our course leader, who said don’t worry about sounding academicky. Which, if you mistype, can come out like acamedicky. Which is probably what I sound like.

Writing an academic (reflective) essay is a strange thing for a creative writer, because, with an opportunity to write an academic paper, after messing around with fiction and screenplays for years, the desire to write academicky is very hard to resist. I have to say, I’m enjoying all the quotes and Harvard referencing. (Can I mention Harvard on my CV now?) I’ve got John Yorke to thank for 99% of quotes in my paper, all about assimilation, peripeteia and the Jungian theory of quaternity. Thanks, Signor Yorke.

Next task is my writer’s statement. I have written one already, but since the sample we were given – David Simon’s overview for The Wire – follows a 9 paragraph structure, I think I’m going to write a new one and follow the same structure.

Reflecting on my creative writing for this week, rewriting my short screenplay, was guided by a discussion we had on the BBC Writer’s Room and on formatting in one of our student led online meetings. I hadn’t realized the BBC had such a rich source of scripts. So, confused at what or what shouldn’t be capitalized in current screenwriting practice, I thought I’d dip into a Jimmy McGovern script, to see how he does it, and follow his example, imagining I am writing something that he is going to read. He is, after all, according to John Yorke, the ‘Godfather of British television.’ And so far, in the script, there are no capitals – not verbs, not sounds, not even the first time we see a name – except, in TIME, it says, in bold and capitals: SIMULTANEOUS TO THE ABOVE. But don’t quote me on that. I’m usually wrong. Check for yourself at BBC Writer’s Room.