Again, I’m thinking about grad school. It isn’t an idea that I focused too much on, until a copywriter explained to me the benefits of the MFA Creative Writing program she attended at UBC.

After searching online, I uncovered a few relevant articles related to this subject. Let’s start with one entitled, Who Wears Short Shorts? Micro Stories and MFA Disgust by Jason Sanford at storySouth. He argues that a writing program cannot enhance anything less than a rough diamond, “You can teach writing techniques and skills at a university but you can’t teach how to find a writer’s true voice. And the writers who seek true voice are also the writers who usually run the other way from little writing trends (especially those spelled with an ‘M,’ an ‘F,’ and an ‘A’).”

Not only that, but Sanford also makes it a point to criticize the mediocre writers who create average manuscripts. He insists that this makes it that much more difficult for the truly talented to shine through.

Next up is an informative and educational blog called After the MFA that consists of posts by Armand and Gordon. They appear to be MFA grads with a wealth of opinions on what their respective programs provided. There are great tips on which publications will publish their work, interviews with successful authors, and many other resources.

While their approach is informal, it does give you insight into one of the major opportunities of a MFA: teaching! With certain programs, you can even teach courses at the University and College level. A downside can be found in this entry, A Small List of Things I Wish I Had Known Ten Years Ago; it states that teaching might not be as lucrative or easy to get as one might expect, “Here’s a short list of the type of job for which an MFA gives you favored status: teaching creative writing.” So much for easy answers, I suppose.

Finally, we have a lovely article called So You Want an MFA? by Sarah Gold on Salon.com. In this piece, she comes across as honest and straight-forward in her tips to would-be applicants. Her first piece of advice is gold, “Graduate programs attract all kinds of writers, from people who’ve yet to send their first story out for submission to people who already have agents and are negotiating book contracts.” You should never worry about what the other guy or gal is doing. Don’t look over your shoulder– just do your own thing, and get at a destination of your own choosing.

There’s more advice there on winning the little tactical battles for attention and respect that always flare up between professionals. Every writer has ego, and understanding the rivalries that exist between people makes navigation through a program that much easier.

Gold’s final piece of advice brings me back to square one, “Remember, no guarantees…Try to convince yourself that, no matter what happens or doesn’t happen after you graduate, time spent pursuing something you love is never wasted.” This might be a solid life lesson, but it also sounds like a consolation. Still, no one gets in this game expecting to be comforted and have someone hold our hand the entire way through.

Writing is a school of hard knocks, and if you can’t hold your own against the rising tides, you’ll never see your true potential. I know what I hope to gain from going down this road. And that suits me just fine.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 7:40 am and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.