OK, I almost went the way of every other blog or website done strictly for the love and none of the money. I almost let the damn thing atrophy.
Toward the end of 2007, daily life was completely taking over all sides of my brain and I wasn’t thinking much about After the MFA. Thankfully, Armand stepped in to open his heart about his own misgivings of the writing life.
Now, a couple of months from my last post, it’s time for me to open up and figure out how to get back to business. Is there a business to get back to? While I’ve been toiling away at personal and professional pursuits, I’ve noticed that the academic aspects of the post-MFA life are slowly dissipating from my consciousness. Is it relevant to call this collection of words on the web “After the MFA” anymore?
I don’t want to misrepresent what I’m trying to do here, but I don’t necessarily want to change the focus or turn it into a vanity website that no one cares about except friends and family. When I started this site, I was actively trying to sort out my life after my MFA. At the time my thoughts were very much like this:
“I want to teach. Why can’t I teach? I need to get published. I want to get published. How do I get published? Are my former classmates getting book deals? Why can’t I revise this stupid story?” And so on.
Now, I feel like I’m more consumed with earning a living at what I’m doing, finding small and consistent moments to write, and continuing to learn about different genres, styles, and modes of communication. I won’t go so far as saying that the short story or literary fiction is dead. Plenty of other people are generating good click-throughs making bold (and ultimately irrelevant, as something always comes along to prove such pontifications wrong) statements like that. But I will go so far as to say that the general format of short-story writing that I learned in my MFA program has proven to be unsatisfying for me in recent times. This article in Wired, claims science fiction is the “last bastion” of writing that really makes you think, and it spoke for a lot of what’s been going through my critical mind lately–not that I think science fiction is the answer, necessarily.
For now, I think getting back to business will be keeping the discussion flowing about the so-called writing life–learning from people who read and comment here. I have some interviews I should do with some post-MFAers who are doing unique things (if you think that describes you, please get in touch). And as my interest and eligibility to teach writing starts to wane, I imagine I’ll be talking about that less frequently. But there’s still plenty learn and earn.
Favorite thing about 2007: starting and finishing a one-hour television pilot script.
Least favorite thing about 2007: getting bed bugs (goddamn you, New York City)
Comments 6
Fiction isn’t dead, and science fiction isn’t the only hope for pumping life into its corpse. Tastes, though, fluctuate, and the taste seems diminished for realistic short stories, which seems the model form for creative writing schools. That taste probably will return at some point. It sounds as if you’re on the right track, learning new forms. Genre-crossing is how art is produced, as John Gardner notes in the Art of Fiction. Philip Roth, Michael Chabon, Margaret Atwood, and Cormac McCarthy blend genres and forms — satire, history, comic books, post apocalyptic adventure stories — to create their fiction, as the Wired article points out. So, don’t give up. Keep writing. Keep discovering new forms, applying them to your writing. Develop reader’s tastes instead of bowing to a tired genre.
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 12:38 pm ¶Funny, EW contributor Mark Harris was arguing the opposite about Sci-fi, asserting its staleness (found here).
Of course, he’s talking 24 frames per second, not words on a page, but there’s always been a solid line relationship between celluloid and paper. It is significant that Gibson is setting his fiction in Today, not Tomorrow. And it is significant that many of the blended works — the tweak genres — lean heavily on past works, iideas, and even cliches. The Road is great, but it’s not a new form, it’s another story of the apocalypse, and the movie (there will surely be a movie) would be a great on a bill with A Boy and His Dog, Soylent Green, and Logan’s Run. Many of the tweak genres — books and movies — really are just retreads.
Anyway, I don’t see New and Old as particularly valid metrics in their own right, and neither is as important as Fun or Provoking.
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 5:42 pm ¶@Todd, you just happened to name the writers who have engaged me the most over the last 5 years or so — guess that’s no coincidence.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 8:22 pm ¶@JDW — that’s really it for me, too: fun and provoking, really do help set the stage for everything else to follow, including moving, challenging, perplexing, inspirational, etc.
I read that EW article, too, and didn’t feel it’s argument was as strong. It is talking about Hollywood, after all. The last place we should be looking for “new” ideas.
Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 8:26 pm ¶Gordon- this fragment of your post … ‘finding small and consistent moments to write…’ really struck a chord with me. It does feel like, between family obligations, paying the bills and keeping our lives in some sort of order, we’re all trying to find tiny spaces in our lives for writing.
By strange association, I think you should consider adding this site to the afterthemfa blog roll: http://unclutterer.com/ I’ve lately come to the realization that I tend to allow clutter (mental, physical and temporal clutter) take up valuable space that y I could be using for writing instead.
Keep on working on that screenplay –
Armand
Posted 28 Jan 2008 at 5:17 pm ¶Hey Armand,
I’ve been reading Unclutterer for a few months, off and on.
It could be just a case of getting older and less flexible, but I definitely need an uncluttered mind and space to be productive these days. I see we may be on the same track there.
I’ll take your advice and add that on. Any other good links to share?
Posted 05 Feb 2008 at 11:15 am ¶Speak Your Mind