My weekend in Paris was enough to sweep me up in a week of flurried creative energy, but it has died back down now. Sad, becuase I was really enjoying it. But even before I went to Paris I was thinking that I might enjoy some kind of career in creative non-fiction writing. Problem being that what I write doesn´t fit into a genre: it´s somewhere between diary and memoir and prose poetry.
I went so far as to look into MFA in Nonfiction programs. There aren't many. Northwestern offers one in Chicago, but then I'd have to be away from Portland for a few more years and that's unappealing. PSU offers an M.A. in Creative Non-fiction, but then I´ve already gotten an M.A. from PSU and I wonder whether that would be a barrier to being admitted there again. I could just take a few writing classes at PSU while temping or working some other job, but then I would have to depend on night class offerings and it costs almost $1500 just to take 4 credits in one term. Blech.
Or I could just write an not take classes. One of the downsides to that plan is that I don´t have reliable readers to help me revise my work. Also, I know myself well enough to know that I have a hard time making myself sit down and write and revise on a regular basis unless there are external motivators, such as due dates for a class.
The last part of this formula is location. Madrid is not as inspiring as Paris, but I don´t remember feeling very inspired when I was in Portland either. Potential problem. Part of me wonders whether it's just a matter of getting into the habit of writing...I know that some places are easier to write in than others, but maybe it's possible to write in all places if you're dedicated to it.
Ideas and suggestions welcome.
P.S. Happy Birthday, Stacey!!! =*)
Thanks for the birthday wishes, Sione! I suspect my growing "wisdom" (ha!) allows me to pontificate then?
ReplyDeletePseudoguy has a good point (he must also be a saggitarius---constantly seeking "imperishable bliss" as Wallace Stevens once wrote)....
You are writing right now. That's what the blog is: keep writing. An MFA can provide contacts, and "tricks" of the trade, as well as enforced discipline--and maybe a class or two may be enough to get you started-- but only you can come up with the ideas and the words, the motivation and the time.
Keep writing;-)