Do You Need a MFA to Write?

Many writers hear this from teachers or other writing professionals: if you want to be a writer, you need an MFA in creative writing. As someone with an MFA in Creative and Professional Writing, I am here to say you absolutely do not need one with some caveats and things to consider.

My first question to you is, do you want to teach creative writing? One of the most useful things to me that I got out of my MFA program was the pedagogy aspect. I think I took 2 or 3 classes on teaching as a discipline and had at least one creative writing class where creating lesson plans was a larger component of the class. Teaching writing and literature classes was a major thing I wanted to do, so getting an MFA in creative writing gives me more legitimacy in academia. I would also say if you started a Youtube channel or wanted to teach a course or do book doctoring/coaching, having an MFA does add a layer of authority. If you don’t plan to teach writing in some form, you don’t need it. Everything else can be learned through other avenues, many of which are free.

My next question would be do you want to write literary fiction? The reason I ask this is because a lot of programs only focus on literary fiction or delineate that they don’t accept genre fiction. I was in a rather lit fic-focused program, but I was lucky enough to have a professor who writes crime fiction as my first teacher at this program who was incredibly affirming and loved my work. If I had gotten a different professor first, I may not have had as solid of an ego foundation as I did, and being forced to write only lit fic would have upset me as would the patronizing tone of some of the teachers when discussing genre fiction elements. If you are thinking about going into an MFA program as a genre fiction writer, you need to take a long, hard look at the programs you’re applying to and if you can handle people wrongly ragging on your genre of choice. It can shake your confidence and derail the progress you have made.

My experience with my MFA program was a mixed bag. I had a handful of professors who were absolutely fantastic (one was a poet and the other a crime fiction writer especially were amazing) while a few others were horrible (a different poet and the head of the program who was supposedly a fiction writer). The things I really didn’t enjoy about it and that are fairly common with these programs is that there is a heavy emphasis on literary fiction and traditional publishing. This can shut out genre fiction writers or self-publishing writers who don’t feel like they are part of this world or that no matter what they do, it isn’t enough. Truthfully, I don’t like to send my shorter works to literary magazines because there’s little eyeball traffic and no money, and I need to feed my dogs. A lot of what MFA programs promote are prestige-based, so writing for the love of it rather than being paid fairly. Privilege is rife in these programs, and unless you can get into a fully paid program, I don’t recommend dropping tens of thousands of dollars to learn things you could easily find on the internet or in craft books. Also, keep in mind that many MFA programs are also literature focused, so you may be required to take master’s degree level literature classes. If you aren’t an English major or have a literature background, you might struggle. At the same time, there are a few things MFA programs do well that you can replicate on your own with a group.

The two strong suits that I found with my program (besides the teaching portion) were editing and critique groups. These sort of feed off of each other. As a writer, I highly recommend finding a structured critique group to help you get good feedback on your work. I have a blog about this already, which will help you know what to look for with a critique group. These groups should be of people who are at your level or slightly above to help you learn what works and what doesn’t with your work, and it should be consistent in order for you to get the most out of it. Because you get so much feedback in an MFA program as most classes have workshop portions, you end up focusing a lot on editing. The biggest takeaway from these programs is that writing is a process. The process, not the end product, is important. You need to learn your craft, write, edit, write more, edit more, etc. That is something I 100% stand by and agree with. After getting feedback from your workshop group, you need to learn to filter out feedback and figure out what works best for you, what fits with your story, and when you are being oversensitive when it comes to feedback. I haven’t necessarily found a good resource for this online, but I think you need to have thick skin but, more importantly, a clear picture of what you want your story to look like in the end. If you don’t have a vision, you will get led around by the feedback others give you, and they may not be your intended audience.

Once you’ve gotten some feedback from others, I highly recommend doing craft work in the areas that you struggle with, like dialogue, grammar, making things sound natural, writing descriptions, creating mood, etc. There are a lot of great thesaurus style books online that you can buy that help you with conflict, setting, emotional threads, etc. that I highly recommend if you need a reference book to aid you in developing those aspects. I would also suggest checking out Sarra Cannon’s Youtube channel HeartBreathings as she talks a lot about writing as a business and as a writer. She makes some fantastic worksheets and videos to aid in structuring your book and writing your characters’ journeys. These are actually things my MFA program didn’t cover at all, so I ended up relying on Sarra’s videos during my time in grad school. I also have a Pinterest board that has a ton of helpful goodies about writing.

The most important thing I would like you to focus on is figuring out what works best for you and your process. Becoming a writer is a marathon, not a sprint, so finding sustainable habits is key to not burning out. I want you all to succeed and go on to having fulfilling writing careers, no matter what that looks like, and to do that, you need to care for your body and mind first. Take care of your hands (stretch, think ergonomics, don’t keep writing if they hurt). Don’t shrimp (get an ergonomic chair or sit in a comfortable position, straight and stretch once in a while or get a walking desk). And most importantly, you can push back a deadline far easier than you can push off burnout. The key to a long career isn’t an MFA, it’s figuring out the best path for you, whether it’s traditional or self-publishing, being true to your vision, taking feedback, and continually growing as an author while still making sure to care for your body and mind.