The Start of my 1000 Days MFA Program
Almost a month back, I came across Shaunta Grimes’s DIY version of a 1000 Day MFA program. If you want to become a serious writer, you might take a degree in MFA where you read, discuss and write with continuous feedback for 3 years.
She is currently pursuing her own degree and came up with a simple but aggressive routine for those lacking the sources or time to go get a degree in Fine Arts. This is the routine to be followed for 1000 days :
I found it an effective but difficult commitment. So I did a casual 2 weeks trial. I missed more than 7 of the 15 days in the trial. But I ended up reading gems that made me realise once again how much there is to learn and read.
(I have skipped the movies for now because I haven’t found the willpower to give up watching mindless sitcoms and youtube videos. Sigh!)
A list of the readings I managed during those 2 weeks:
Essays
History, Self Reliance by Ralph W. Emerson
Politics and the English language by George Orwell
Poetry
She walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
Good Bye, Each and All, The Problem, To Rhea, The Visit, Uriel by Ralph W. Emerson
Started reading the modernized version of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Quite a few poems on poetryfoundation.org by largely unknown poets
Short Stories
First 5 of the short stories in The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
I even published a short story that was accepted by the publication The Coffeelicious and it became my most recommended and read short story so far. (Yay me!)
Nevertheless, this is not anywhere close to the reading and writing I should have done in the 2 weeks. It’s important for me to understand the reasons behind this if I want to read and write everyday for 1000 days.
I think there were two things that kept me from reading and writing more:
1. Lack of a pre-decided reading material
Since this is my foray into serious literature, I wanted to read the best material. I did not want to pick up easy reads that did not challenge my thinking. But I did not want to demotivate myself with difficult topics and dense writing that I currently find difficult to understand.
So every morning, I spent over an hour sifting through goodreads reviews, listicles and articles about the best written literature in English and Hindi. There happens to be more literature that I want to read than I can possibly read in my lifetime.
So I spent another hour choosing what to read first.
My time and the decision fatigue could easily have been solved had I decided the reading material for a week or month beforehand. (That is a difficult task itself. But better than doing this exercise everyday.)
2. I did not allot a fix time for reading and writing
I read on my kindle while commuting, waiting for anything or anyone and whenever I can squeeze in any time. I try to read a physical book everyday before I go to bed. And I write when inspiration strikes.
So if I had a busy day at work, or was caught up in a phone call on my commute or simply found some interesting content on instagram, I miss my reading goals. And inspiration almost never strikes, so I miss my writing goals too.
I hope to solve this problem by alloting myself 2 hours every morning to just read and write.
There is also a certain lack of external motivation. I am going to tackle it by publishing my reading lists every week and my completed readings a week later with reviews on One Life Lived.
I start my 1000 Day MFA on 15th May, 2017. Gratitude to Shaunta Grimes for creating this program and inspiring me to take it up on my own.
