How the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Can benefit You
September 20, 2010 By
Many of the readers of this site are interested in finding out more about creative writing programs. While not all writers are looking for traditional classroom instruction in writing, or for advanced degrees such as the MFA in Creative Wiring, or a Ph.D. in Writing, some are. One great source of information is The Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
Here is an explanation of what AWP is about, taken from their own website:
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is a national, nonprofit literary organization for teachers and writers. Founded in 1967, AWP is dedicated to serving writers, teachers, and writing programs. Our core services include publication of The Writer’s Chronicle, the AWP Job List, and the AWP Official Guide to Creative Writing Programs. Our Career Services, are available for members only. AWP also sponsors an annual conference & a number of annual writing competitions.
While a formal writing program is not for every writer, for some it is exactly the right path for development. If you think you might be interested in finding out more about writing programs around the country, AWP is a good resource for initial exploration. If you visit their website, be sure to check out their “Looking for a Writing Program” tab. Once there, you can search by type of writing program and location. In addition to the resources and links found there, you can also click through to some of the sponsor sites found here for more information on writing programs and training.
Remember, becoming a writer is about finding the path that is right for you. One size does not fit all when it comes to development as a writer. Look around and explore your options for development, but always return to the writing desk and write.
Becoming the Writer You Were Meant to Be
September 17, 2010 By
Becoming the Writer You Were Meant to Be
There has been a debate in the literary world for a long time about whether writing is something that can be taught or if it is a subject beyond teaching and that “real writers” are just born. To my way of thinking this is a silly argument. Just as any other art can be taught, writing can be taught. That said, there is such a thing as innate talent, and that is perhaps a little harder to define and in some ways is perhaps not teachable. What I mean is this – painters like Picasso and writers like Hemingway, had a certain measure of innate talent that would have been there without formal training, but, through training and development their talents flourished. Picasso did have formal instruction in art before he left his native Spain, and Hemingway, while not studying at what one would term a traditional writing college, chose to develop his skill a s a writer by working as a newspaper reporter and war correspondent.
This brings me to the point about training to be a writer. Is it necessary to obtain an MFA in creative writing in order to become a writer? Of course not. MFAs are not for everyone, and some writers would be set back or stifled by the rigid structure within an MFA program. Hemingway’s style of writing is not one that an MFA program would likely produce. In fact, there has been criticism of late that MFA programs produce bland, tepid writing where all the angst filled stories of contemporary life sound alike. In other words, in order to succeed in an MFA program, writers learn to write stories that sound like MFA program stories.
Jack Kerouac is another example of a writer who found his own way to learn his chosen craft of writing. When he was still in high school, Kerouac decided that he wanted to be a writer above all else. The story goes that he got a copy of a story collection by William Saroyan and had the epiphany that one could write about everyday life and make it interesting art. Saroyan wrote about starving in San Francisco and living poor and on the edge in Fresno. Kerouac’s “ah-ha” moment was that he could write about Lowell, Massachusetts and about the people he knew there. His fist book, one that is not read enough, was an exploration of a family’s life in a fictionalized Lowell and New York City, called “The Town and the City”.
Kerouac, like Hemingway, had some innate talent, but both worked hard to develop what they had. Neither attended an MFA program nor graduated from college, but both worked hard to learn their craft and how to write effectively. Kerouac wrote for several hours daily. One summer, Kerouac set himself the goal of writing a story a day no matter what. The book, “From Atop an Underwood” includes many of the short pieces he wrote during this period of intense writing-study. Hemingway, in similar fashion, went to Paris and filled notebook after notebook with stories and notes, all in the quest to become a writer. So, do you need to attend an MFA program to become a good writer? No, but you do have to decide on what will develop you into the type of writer you want to be, and then find the discipline to carry out your plan. For many of us it is writing every day and taking each piece of writing seriously. Look for models around you in the writers you love to read. What did they do? How did they develop as writers? Who were their mentors and models?
In the end, becoming a writer is an individual path and each of us has to find what works for us. It may be that an MFA is what you need in order to develop as a writer, and it may be that you need to establish a serious writing discipline and a particular method unique to you as a writer. In the end it is about desire and commitment. If you really want to be a writer commit to learning what you need to learn and then start off on your path with the will to stay the course no matter what.
Book Review and Author Interview: After The Workshop by John McNally
March 29, 2010 By
After The Workshop by John McNally
I was a media escort.
With those five words, John McNally begins his fictional biography of Jack Hercules Sheahan, a once promising graduate of “The famous Iowa Writers Workshop”. Jack, is suffering one of the greatest bouts of writers-block and underachievement to come out of The Workshop since its founding in 1939. For those blessed (or cursed) with the need to write, the travails of Jack Hercules Sheahan will be, if not memories, nightmares and fears that keep one up at night. Jack, who had his story, “The Self-Adhesive Postage Stamp”, published in The New Yorker and selected for The Best American Short Stories prior to graduation from “The Workshop” has not written one word on his post-MFA novel in ten years. (Now that is an impressive block by any writer’s standards.) Jack, remains in Iowa City in a small Victorian apartment near the campus, barely surviving by escorting authors around Iowa on book tours. The media escort, as Jack describes it, is the lowest rung of the publishing industry. Through Jack we get a glimpse of the quirky and often barely sane beings commonly called “writers”.
John McNally knows his subject well, having been a media escort and holding an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. But McNally, unlike his fictional protagonist, has several critically acclaimed works to his credit, including, America’s Report Card (2006) and The Book of Ralph (2004).
The travails of Jack Sheahan will resonate with anyone compelled to write or in love with books. This novel is a peek behind the curtain to see how writers create (or don’t create) art. McNally’s tale of Jack’s adventures in trying to locate a missing writer he is escorting who may have gone over the edge, his encounter with a best-selling author who has been hiding out for ten years and may have caused Jack’s writers-block, are as humorous and engaging as his dealings with his perpetually nude neighbor, M. Cat during a raging Iowa blizzard.
John McNally broke away from his current writing long enough to answer a few questions about After The Workshop, and talk about what he is currently working on.
Rocky Cole: What has been the initial response to After The Workshop, and did writing this book alter your approach to writing or to book tours?
John McNally: The initial response from pre-pub reviews (PW, Booklist, Kirkus) and readers has been very positive so far. I couldn’t be happier about it. It took a while for the book to get picked up by a publisher for fear that it was “too insidery,” but to me the book has always been about a guy with a crappy job who wonders if it’s too late to do something with his life, which almost everyone I’ve ever known, in every walk of life, has dealt with and wondered at some point. There’s definitely some “insider” stuff in the book, but my hope has always been that a reader who isn’t a writer can still appreciate the book. I was happy to see (today, in fact) a non-writer Amazon reviewer say just that.
I had a great time writing this book. It’s the first time a novel of mine has fallen into place. What you read is pretty close to what the first draft looked like, with a few exceptions. The actual writing of the book reminded me of why I wanted to be a writer in the first place — because it’s something I enjoy doing. It’s easy to forget that and to focus all your attentions on publication, but I’ve always had better experiences when I don’t think about publication and take pleasure in the act of writing itself.
And it has changed my approach to writing. I’ve returned to writing fiction long-hand, which I’d quit doing about twelve years ago, and I just bought a refurbished IBM Selectric typewriter, so that I can type up my handwritten drafts and revise them in that form before transferring everything onto a computer. In other words, I’m getting back to those things that attracted me to writing in the first place, and I’m trying to be more patient about it all.
RC: How have your peers from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop responded to the book?
JM: I haven’t heard anything yet.
RC: This book seems to be very different than what you have written before (The Book of Ralph) – have you already started on a new work and can you say anything in general about where your next project is headed?
JM: I’ve taken a break from a long historical novel to write a short novel that’s very different from anything I’ve written before. All I can really say about it is that it’s from the points-of-view of several women, and I’ve used a classic book as a springboard, not unlike how my character Tate Rinehart writes novels, much to the irritation of my novel’s narrator, Jack. The new one is a twisted little novel, and I’m having a great time with it. The novel is set in L.A., where I lived for a year not too long ago.
RC: And I understand that you have a new book on the craft of writing that is forthcoming?
JM: Yes…I have a book coming out in September that seems right up the alley of your website. It’s titled THE CREATIVE WRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE: ADVICE FROM AN UNREPENTANT NOVELIST, and will be published by the University of Iowa Press.
RC: Since reading “After The Workshop”, I am eager to get my hands on your next book, Good luck with the book tour and don’t be too tough on your media escorts.