Reading in a fog

I'm marking. The pile that has lurked in the corner all through the Easter break has now moved to the desk and awaits my pencil. I hate marking. In fact I would venture to guess that I hate marking almost as much as my students hate writing the assignments in the first place. One of the reasons I hate marking is because it is putting a value on someone's creativity (I'm marking creative work here) and none of us like that. I feel as if I'm saying to someone, well yes, you may be a creative genius, but your spelling is atrocious and you have no concept of punctuation, so forget it. Which is NOT what I want to do at all. The sad thing is that the things like spelling, punctuation, structure - the stuff I teach -is important. If you get it right, the creativity can shine through, if you don't, then it is really hard to see, in fact sometimes it is downright impossible. It is a bit like reading in a fog.

Apart from marking, this week has been fun. My fab daughters came over for a very girly night in, movies, popcorn and taking the piss out of the local Pizza delivery guy who insisted on calling doughnuts, duffnuts. One sister visited and another one is coming to London in a couple of weeks. They are all getting to meet the bloke, who is remarkably calm about all this familial attention. There is even the threat of a big family get together later this year to introduce him to the olds - blimus!
Meanwhile I am waiting with baited breath for him to finish the latest draft of his movie so I can read it. I love that we can exchange work - no pencils, red pens or grades involved - just chat and the usual 'just get rid of the damn pizza scene! I don't care how funny it is, it isn't working.' He has been really helpful listening to me find my way into the new book, asking the right questions, pushing me into really thinking about the characters, their motivation and the story, always the story. I think we all need an ideal reader, someone sympathetic but focused, who won't let you get away with crap and knows your weakness and your strengths and who is always trying to help you be better than the last draft.

So back to the marking and the fog. Some of these students will find their ideal readers over the next couple of years - it might be a colleague, a lecturer or a friend. If you've already found yours, treasure them, make them tea and bring them cake sometimes. Even if they say you need to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. They will lead you out of the fog and the view will be fab, I promise.