Reflections on my MA
Spoiler alert: lots of shit, with some positives
I completed my MA in Creative Writing just over 12 months ago now. And I’ve written very little since then. Maybe it’s because of Miss Rona and her shenanigans, maybe it’s being back in teaching, maybe it’s just that I haven’t bothered. However, it’s the summer break now, and I’m doing my annual reflection on the past year. And writing is top of the list. Writing, and that MA. So was it worth it? Did I actually gain anything from it? Or was it a very expensive waste of time?
Firstly, my situation changed massively while I was on the course
So I started my MA working full time in a job I hated, that didn’t stretch me and certainly didn’t fulfill me. Probably the main reason I even applied for the MA. I wanted something that used my brain while my job was there to just bring in easy money.
Except I quit the job two months into the course. And went back into teaching. Yeah. I started off doing supply work — no prep, no marking, just rocking up at schools I knew and had relationships with already, doing the day, and heading home. So that was easy.
Then I got a maternity cover. Long term. Planning. Marking. Prepping. Long days and all of the responsibility. Fine, I’m an experienced teacher, shouldn’t have been too difficult.
Then COVID, round 1. Teaching online. With no reliable online tools or systems and everyone making it up as we went along. My partner furloughed, gardening and gaming all day long. It was hard to focus on everything. So that didn’t help either.
Ina nutshell, shit went down and I was not ready for it. Writing suffered. Doesn’t it always?
Aside from that, the university screwed us over (by screwing over our lecturer)
It was the first year of the MA in Creative Writing at The University of Cumbria when I signed up. We had an amazing course tutor who specialised in poetry and hybrid writing who had planned and proposed the course, and was ready to deliver it. Then she decided she wanted to focus on her freelance career. She offered to continue teaching the course for the first year on a freelance salary.
Except that’s more than a university lecturer would get paid. So the university said no. Not gonna do that. We’ll get someone else in. A CRIME WRITER!
Ok, I admit it, I judged. I chose the course to focus on my poetry and, as such, a crime writer was really not what I was looking for.
Turns out she was amazing, very straightforward and gave very useful and constructive feedback on all work. Brutal, but useful. Some people didn’t like that. Some people didn’t like that we were grown adults, doing a MASTERS LEVEL COURSE, and were being critiqued.
I loved it. Kudos to the crime writer.
Turns out I had little patience for some writers…
I was very lucky on my undergrad course to be with a bunch of very like-minded people who had a similar work ethic and were also very chill and easy to be around. Might have had something to do with the fact they were mostly in their early 20s…
Not so this time around! The vast majority of the people on my MA were very chill, very cool people. But there’s always one…
One who monopolises the conversation. One who has to disagree. One who doesn’t like X, Y, Z. One who wants the sessions changed because they don’t fit for their lifestyle. So I struggled with that person.
Professional writers are the BOMB (mostly)
We had masterclasses from a number of working writers who taught us about their genre, but also about what it’s like to get published and work as a writer full time. Absolute highlight of the course. Getting relevant, up to the minute advice on how publishing works, what it’s really like to be a writer now, today.
I mean, again, there are some who aren’t so great. But you can’t win ’em all.
Overall, it was a valuable experience
Forgetting the COVID and the university f**k ups and the horrid people, I learn a lot about my process and how I work under pressure. (Either great, or not at all. No middle ground for me.) I got some awesome feedback, and above all some validation that I am a good writer, that I could go far if I only got my ass in gear and finished a project. Which I haven’t done yet. But I will.
Would I recommend a Masters to other writers? Yes, but with a caveat. Do your research — into the university, the course, the tutors — be prepared to be torn to shreds, and know what you want out of it. If you want a finished piece of work and a publishing contract, then just get on and do that. But if you want to grow, to get feedback from other writers, to develop your craft, then yeah. Go for it.
Now get back to work.
