T. writes:
I love the Kate Daniel series, and I’m looking forward to your next book. I know you get this a lot, but I thought I’d take a shot at writing you some fan mail and ask for a little writing advice. I’ll try my best to keep my foot as far from my mouth as possible.
About me: I spent most of my teenage years nose-deep in novels about women with swords and/or magic powers intent on saving the world. Now that I’m a little more grown up (on the outside anyway), I have to start thinking about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. I’m a senior in college, and I’m about to apply to a bunch of MFA programs for creative writing.
I’m curious about your own background as a writer. Did you go to school for writing? Did Andrew? How did you figure out that’s what you wanted to do with your life?
I’m fortunate in that I’m surrounded by family and friends who tell me to do whatever makes me happy. I know that counts for a lot. But when I think about dedicating my life to penning all the stories my mind can spin, I have to wonder if that’s a sustainable lifestyle. For some talented, creative, hardworking people, it is. But me? I don’t know. What kept you going through the trials and tribulations of getting your first book published? What sort of stuff did you have to do in the meantime to keep the rest of your life afloat?
If any of those questions are too personal, I apologize, and I understand if you choose not to answer. Any general advice you have for me would be much appreciated.
Dear T,
This is a bit of a controversial subject. What follows below is my personal advice and it may not work for you.
My advice in regard to MFA is this:
If you’re interested in general theory of writing as a discipline and if your aim is to teach writing theory, by all means, you should get an MFA.
If you want to be a writer, don’t get it.
MFA doesn’t guarantee publication or success. MFA doesn’t even guarantee that you’ll be a better writer by the end of it. It guarantees certification that will permit you to teach creative writing to other people. That’s it. It also guarantees that you will be in a hole paying off the student loans for years and years and years and face extremely stiff competition for the few teaching slots that are available.
The most common first novel advance for the genre fiction writer in SF/F is $5,000. No, there are no zeroes missing.
Our advance for the first two books was $5,000 each, for the third and fourth book $15,000 each.
Unless you’re independently wealthy, you need a fall back plan, a day job. Most people work their day job and write on the side until their work sells well enough to keep them afloat. I wouldn’t count on that day job being teaching Creative Writing – the odds are severely against you, simply because there isn’t a high demand for these sort of instructors and most positions are filled.
I’m a college drop out. I’ve gone to college twice, the first time to be a mad scientist, the second because I became interested in politics, but I dropped out due to external circumstances. Gordon has a degree in history and a minor in Political Science. Neither of us had any formal creative writing training.
If you surveyed working, professional writers today, very few of them have an MFA. Stephen King and Dean Koontz have a Bachelors in English. Danielle Steel studied fashion design and worked in PR. Julia Quinn has a degree in Art History and planned to go to medical school. Charlaine Harris majored in English and Communications.
A lot of working writers don’t have college degrees. Off the top of my head, Nora Roberts. Jeaniene Frost and Jill Myles don’t have one. On the flip side of the coin, how many of MFA instructors have robust writing careers? Not that many. I know this because a robust writing career will eat most of your time. Teaching is not a nine to five job either. It consumes a great deal of the teacher’s time. Balancing the two would be exceptionally difficult.
What good writers have in common are a keen power of observation, ability to self-educate and explain what they’ve learned, and a variety of experiences to draw on. They read voraciously and they go out into the world and live in it. Ask yourself, if you spend six years in a classroom, what will you write about when you emerge? Who is more interesting, an academic or a person who spent a couple of years in Peace Corps? Who would you rather talk to at a party?
Which isn’t to say that a degree in creative writing precludes you from having a writing career – Cherie Priest has one and she is very successful. But you don’t need one to become a writer. You need perseverance, discipline, and good work ethic. You need a thick skin and enough courage to put your stuff out there, for all to see. You will know you’re a writer, when you write despite being tired from the day job and being rejected, because you’re compelled to do it and you have hard time making yourself stop. Nobody can teach you that.
My advice is, do something else. Get a different degree, volunteer, travel, experience what life has to offer. Then write about that.
If you want to read in more detail how we got there, the story is right here: Climbing uphill both ways…
Thank you for your advice and the history. It was very interesting!!
I wanted to be a writer when I was a little kid, and am now a social scientist. I’d say learning how to publish in academic journals sounds remarkably like your initial experience trying to get your work published – you submit, and quickly learn to be prepared for tons of criticism (and rejection!) before you improve your work, find the right journal fit (i suspect that’s like finding the right publisher and agent), and get accepted somewhere. so if you had gone the mad scientist route, maybe you would have had that experience too anyway!
except then the general public wouldn’t get to enjoy the kate books.
Those figures are scary. You must have to have nerves of steel to commit to this life. Respect to all writers and artists etc.
yikes, that’s scary.
I’ve just signed myself for a Bachelor of Science. My mom is an English teacher and we both love to read, but I didn’t think pursuing English was smart. I am not sure what I want to be, but am hoping to find something I truly want to be in university.
I really admire you for your perseverence. I couldn’t do what you are doing. I hope you love your career? Or are you still holding out the hope of being something else?
I love it. It’s very rare when you get to make a living out of your obsession.
“I love it. It’s very rare when you get to make a living out of your obsession.”
Amen!!! So true.
I’m another author who doesn’t have an MFA. I don’t have my BA, either, though I do have an associates degree in nursing and am only a few courses short of a history major. Want to know about sucking chest wounds, I’m your lady. Want me to diagram a sentence or discuss the finer points of Faulkner and I’m not. The lack of an MFA hasn’t slowed me down one bit.
For writing inspired by life experience, Mark Twain and Jack London immediately came to mind.
On the other hand, none of the people I’ve known who both write and teach writing do both well. Not being mean, just stating an observation.
Very brave advice. It’s rare people get to do something with their lives they love. I’ve been lucky that way and I know it.
On the writers/education front. I’m pretty sure Neil Gaiman only has a high school degree which is amusing since he seems to speak at universities all the time..,
and crazy. did you forget the five buckets of crazy? :::grins:::
No, we don’t start out crazy. the job makes us crazy.
For me, it’s the opposite. I came from a crazy job so this gig is fairly sane albeit with occasional “you’ve just freakin’ gotta be kiddin’ me” hissy fits. I do throw those every now and then. Luckily only my friends hear those rants. it’s best the rest of the world does not.
@wedschilde – the crazy is a given. Five buckets is higher than the normal author requirement, but just about what it takes to write Urban Fantasy, that or an overactive imagination on serious, Olympic-level steroids. Mix the two and voila! You’ve got magic. And vamps piloted by necromancers (etc.)
Is the dog in Magic Bleeds the same one that got cut from Magic Bites?
I am so glad that you perservered in spite of the mountain you faced at the beginning!
thanks for sharing – great advice. the best i read was “if you’re a writer, then write”
Thanks for the info – love your writing posts – and am very glad this had a happy ending.
I’m actually in an MFA program (YAY for just finishing my first year!) and I have to agree with almost everything you’ve said. An MFA degree doesn’t guarantee anything but a certification to teach writing and a slight pay raise, though a monetary increase depends on an individual’s career. (I don’t think a writer gets a pay raise for having their Masters, but teachers do.)
A writer doesn’t need an MFA to write.
That being said, if an individual is crazy (like myself) and willing to go deeper into the school loan hole so they can have a Masters degree, I would recommend the MFA program. As a writer seeking higher education, it wouldn’t make sense to try to get an MBA.
“You will know you’re a writer, when you write despite being tired from the day job and being rejected, because you’re compelled to do it and you have hard time making yourself stop. Nobody can teach you that.”
Oh, I am so quoting you on this, because that’s it in a nutshell.
I love when you get down to the nitty gritty of writing. I have a two year degree (lame I know) in journalism– it took me three years because I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to go on to teaching. The first year I wrote and edited on newspapers then found out I hated hard news. It’s sleazy. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to do it over again, but it wouldn’t be journalism. Then again, it probably made me who I am today, so who knows. Thanks for always being so blunt with your advice. I love it.