Things I Wish I Knew Before I Did a Creative Writing Masters
I can’t remember exactly what Kurt Vonnegut said, but the quote goes something like, “You can’t teach people to write well”. It took me one-and-a-half writing degrees before I realized he was right.
I don’t know how I feel about teaching creative writing degrees. You can’t just say to somebody, “Right, here’s this prescriptive way to write. No matter who’s writing it, this is great writing. So do it like this. Are you using these words in this order, are your sentences this number of words long; do they avoid adverbs and use at least one adjective, is there at least a single three syllable word; have you either asked or answered a question? Fantastic, now you are writing well.” Vonnegut said the classes don’t matter, and for the most part I agree with him. You don’t learn as much in the workshops as you do writing feedback after reading a piece, or in one-on-one meetings sitting down with a lecturer or professor and getting elbow deep in the nitty-gritty aspects of a piece.
There’s a lot of things I wish I knew before I went into my first degree. I hope these help those of you out who are considering going for an MFA/PhD.
- I wish I knew that no matter how prestigious the programme, some of the writers weren’t just writing outside your element or expertise, they were writing dredge. And I wish that I realized earlier that there’s something in each piece that you can learn from; that sometimes reading something piss poor is just as important as reading something phenomenal.
- I wish I knew voice wasn’t just your vernacular or typing out dialogue in phonetics. That it, like narration itself, entails how much you alternate your sentence structures and syntax, how often you switch between long and short sentences. Or how many one or two-syllable words you use back-to-back. Vocabulary is important, and so is what you’re saying, but how you say it might be the most important of all — imagine some of our modern classics, like almost anything by Zadie Smith. Try to imagine it written in a different voice to hers. It’d be utter shite.
- I wish I knew most programmes hate experimental fiction and experimental writing. I mean I kent it, but it didn’t properly hit home until the lecturer reading an experimental story I enjoyed blew up because there weren’t enough commas, and said it was tripe, that underneath the experimental aspect, the story was generic and boneless. Now, the lecturer wasn’t wrong, but there’s a way to point out the story’s overall lack of imagination by building up and building on the experimental.
I have a few more things I wish I knew before doing these degrees, but I think it’s more important for me to share proper advice at this point:
If you’re pursuing an MFA or any writing degree in general, here are a few pointers:
1. Remember to research your professors. READ THEIR WORK! If you don’t enjoy the way they write, they may not be the best people to teach you.
2. Glean from the books you enjoy. For example, if you enjoy the way a story unfurled, analyze how the author laid the groundwork. If you enjoyed an author’s tone or voice, look at how they utilized vocabulary, diction, syntax, and the rhythm of their sentences.
Great prose has a fluidity and a rhythm as you read, and it changes depending on the action’s context. Think about how and why the author has chosen to write this way; what does it accomplish?
3. Write what you know. We’ve all heard it, but not enough of us have taken it to heart. If you want to write something you don’t know — unless you’re some white American kid who grew up in a mansion outside NYC and you’re trying to write a family saga about a, let’s say, magic Native Americans or First Nations family (basically, like some shite Bret Easton Ellis or basically every Eton-esque white kid would pull) — research it!
I.e. You want to write about how much of a fuckup Shackleton was, but don’t know anything about the bastard. Read some biographies, get ahold of a collection of his letters, read contemporary newspaper articles about him, especially ones from outside the U.K. and U.S. What did his peers think of him? How did he write, are there any recordings? Take notes, write outside the story—as in, write a bunch of things that will never make it into the final product so you know more about the character or situation to give them extra depth. This goes for just about anything you don’t know. If you can’t find it on a google search, try google scholar, or your local (or virtual) library!
Basically, you can write about anything outside your experience — so long as you aren’t trying to write about oppressed peoples when you aren’t part of that group, or you weren’t embedded in the group — with enough research. (Tangentially: Y’all wouldn’t believe the amount of under-researched dredge I’ve had to read written with a magical [insert BIPOC] protagonist. You’ll never guess what links all the folks that wrote them). But you have to put in at least a little bit of work. The absolute worst stories are the ones that fall apart because simple pieces haven’t been looked into, like a novel about a criminal trial that doesn’t understand how a criminal trial functions (or a story about…riding a wild Bison…dreck…)
N.B. If you’re writing a magical/shaman/voodoo/pagan character from a race, ethnicity, or religion other than your own, and you don’t have lived experience with that group, STOP!!! LOOKING AT YOU WHITE BRITISH AND AMERICAN WRITERS.
4. Have fun! I think this is by far the most important to learn before doing a degree. Writing can be a tedious, grueling experience, especially when you’re suddenly taking classes and writing tens of thousands of words every week or two. Find a way to enjoy it even when you’re writing about difficult topics. Find a happy space —by which I mean, a physical space that makes you happy —and build up an atmosphere you enjoy, whether that’s writing while listening to third-wave ska, having potluck reading parties, or doing something purely ludic. Do whatever you need to to bring out the joy of writing.
5. Playing off number 4, Share your work! Send it to your friends and family and/or put drafts up on something like Simily. Non-writers are sometimes the best editors! Not to mention the people you care about, and other writers, will be your biggest champions, and will rep your work!
Anyway, that’s all the advice I can think of for the moment. If anything comes to me, I’ll write a follow-up. Hope this is helpful!
