Contributor: Speak Coffee
I'm going to do one more grad school post -- I know, shoot me -- because I realized for all my ranting I never said why I wanted to do any of this.
Why? Because I'm desperate. I've already failed once by convincing myself I wanted to do something with my life that would have been akin to wearing leeches everyday. Now that I've figured out that it's better to live a dream than to wade through pudding (I love mixing metaphors, can you tell?) I have to actually find a way to dream and live.
It's true, very true, that you do not need a degree to write. Or to be published. Or to have the next bestseller. It's also true that you don't need a degree to be president of the United States but I'm going to bet that getting one will help.
MFAs in writing are about having the time to devote to writing (often funded though not always so) and about making connections with people in your field. Writing can be lonely and reclusive, so unless you're part of the NYC literary scene it's likely that college is the only way you'll ever meet a "community" of writers. MFA programs are also about becoming painfully aware of your writing. All the workshops and classes and discussions I've had already have been greatly helpful for peeling off the layers and letting me see what is holding up the writing. In fact, unless it's incredible writing, I'm starting to see through books to how they were put together. It's interesting - but it's also upsetting in that I almost don't enjoy the reading as much as if it had appeared effortless to me.
I've read advice from successful writers who have barely gotten through high school, and listened to them bash education and degrees as "experts" who are worthless opposed the the poor hard working "practitioners." All I can say is don't bash it til you've tried it. I never would have caught the spark or the passion or learned as much as I have if I hadn't been in school and I hadn't had someone teach me. I'm a human interaction kinda girl.
But writing is writing, and as much as I love it, it's only one of the things I want to do. I want to get the gig teaching writing. And to do that attached to any university (please let me know if there's stable teaching gigs that don't involve universities or sitting around my kitchen table) I need the credentials. Actually, I think I need the credentials even if it is around my kitchen table. I know I certainly wouldn't sign up to work with and listen to a woman who didn't have at least a masters and didn't have publication.
So I'm going to do this because I've spent the past two months writing and I've loved it. I've nearly got a crappy first novel complete (it's crappy so don't expect to see it in stores but it has taught me a lot). And I've been working on short fiction that I love (I'll let you know if you should expect to see that out in the world). And I've been happy doing it! So happy finally! Happy being me. Happy with how I spend my time. Happy with what I've produced. And my only depression had to do with the shortest month of the year never ending (grey skies at 18 degrees can suck it).
I want to keep doing this and I'm not afraid to work hard for it.
The advent of Ph.D. programs in creative writing is a relatively new thing. It's an English degree program but instead of having a focus area of literature and writing a thesis on that, the creative writing thesis is a full length publishable project, either novel or short story collection. I've wanted to be a doctor for so long! (Read: about when I was 13.) I just never knew what would study.
Paralith mentioned that there's so many of us waking down this path of craziness, and it seems like it when we're all battling for spots in programs, but when it comes down to it there's really not that many of us. n According to Wikipedia, only 3% of Americans ever earn a Ph.D. 8.7% a Master's Degree and 27% Bachelors Degrees. (2005 statistics) Obviously there's some overlap in those numbers.So I wonder how that compares to other kinds of crazy. Like I wonder what percentage of Americans make and use homemade ammunition. Because that would also count as crazy.
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2 comments:
What kind of ammunition? Rifle, shotgun or handgun? Conventional cartridges or black powder?
Umm ... I was thinking of an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a guy comes in who at first they think was shot through with a homemade round - then they realize it's still lodged in the body cavity. I think they were making some sort of cannon, and the ammo was roughly the size of a human hand. If that really happens outside of TV, I think those people are crazier than I am. :)
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