(no subject)

[owlectomy]

Since almost everything I've read advises against getting an MFA in fiction writing, I was pretty surprised to read The Real World vs. the MFA:

No, I do not advise waiting as long as I did to get an MFA, if you are sure that what you want to do, what you are cut out to do, is to write. What I do advise is gaining some awareness of the world, and of the people in it who are not like you, before you go into a program. And I recommend practicing your craft until your fingers bleed (metaphorically of course). And being your own toughest critic, because people—especially people who love you, and those who don’t want you to get better—will lie to you.

Sometimes I desperately want the degree and sometimes I desperately do not want to be competing for a very small number of jobs teaching creative writing and sometimes I think I do not need an MFA program to give me either writing instruction or time and space to write and sometimes I think that I could be a lot better with a little help. Even if I wanted to get an MFA it would have to be the right program, that would let me write genre stuff but push it to be really strong in terms of literary value.

Why do I have to make life decisions.

Comments

[writerjenn.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen "Don't get an MFA" as much as "Make sure you know what you're getting from an MFA." They say that if you want to be a writer and not teach, you don't *need* an MFA. The downsides are: some programs seem to pressure students' work toward homogenization; and of course the expense. The upsides are: an ability to focus on writing, to receive intense critique, to inhabit a world where writing matters.

Good luck!