I agree with you 1000% and this is why I started teaching classes on "concept" for writers—in my experience, the writers who have gone through MFA programs have a really hard time thinking about their book from a reader's POV after spending months (years) writing for an audience of other writers. I thought "category" would be the easiest part of the class (doesn't everyone know if they're writing a cookbook? or a memoir? or a thriller?) but it is in fact VERY CHALLENGING for students to identify the category of the book they're writing.
My pet theory is that audience is a spectrum. On the extreme “extrovert” side, readers go nuts for the book but the author gave up everything they loved to make that happen. On the “introvert” side, the author wrote exactly the book they always wanted to write, but no one can understand it.
Writing is an act of self-expression, but also of communication. So those sides of the spectrum are in tension, and that’s how it should be. I’ve been told many MFA programs focus too much on the introvert side, which is satisfying until it ruins your chances of publication. I love your version, which would encourage writers to try out the genres and come to a greater understanding of what readers expect across the board. We authors need to be forced out of self-indulgence once in a while 😂
One. Hundred. Percent. I have long said that Creative Writing programs need to prepare writers for reality as well. Including the writer-agent-editor-publisher relationship. The industry they are entering in to and the other ways to earn money in adjacent industries. My Creative Writing courses and any workshops I attended lived inside a bubble. Students need that bubble. But they are also mature enough to "handle the truth." And, frankly, everyone deserves the truth.
I love what you're saying in this. It took me TWENTY years to understand genre, and then to fathom it was important. I have an MFA, which I got over twenty years ago. I've studied writing for years. I've published a bunch of books. Seriously, for me, this genre stuff is a revelation. I started at The Novelry as a student and now work there as a writing coach, and we talk about genre all the time. It's the first time in all these years of trying to be a better writer/teacher that I feel like I've understood this key aspect. (And I agree with Sarah Copeland, you do make me laugh. Thanks ;-)
I used to give screenwriting workshops. Figuring out the genre was always one of the first pieces of advice. A bit prosaic for aspiring artists to warm to, but I'd explain it this way: "If you wanted to watch a romantic comedy but someone gets killed in the end, you'd feel pissed off or cheated, wouldn't you?"
Good points about getting ownership over a degree that, like many, I fear can be a bit of a Ponzi scheme. Yes, the complaints about MFAs' work sounding samey have been around for a while, but that doesn't make them wrong. I remember reading venerable Booker Prizewinner Penelope Lively remarking on the oddity of writers now being expected to have degrees in creative writing. Of course, she had nothing of the kind to her name. She's still around at 90, I think still writing, and still more readable than most current literary fiction (if people are to be honest....) I had assumed that one major point of doing an MFA program was to have a chance to become one of the anointed, to gain contacts. Is that so? I hadn't considered that it buys writers time, as well as guidance, or that there's room for improvement in the teaching. Thanks, Kate.
I couldn't agree more with what you've said. Not once during my graduate studies did a professor EVER bring in a publishing professional to explain how the publishing business worked. I got that information through writer's conferences. I'm a free lance developmental editor, and when I work with a writer I have them read and deconstruct a mystery even if they are writing character driven work. Because really good mysteries have strong plots, compelling characters and scenes that move from one to another keeping the reader turning the pages. A great deal can be learned from genre fiction!
Sunyi Dean talks about studying thriller structure for a YEAR before writing her urban fantasy — for exactly this reason! (Episode 4 of The Publishing Rodeo Podcast)
100% I had a wonderful undergrad experience but the #1 thing I wished I had learned in school was how to actually get published and how that process worked (that and more honest feedback on my writing but that’s beside the point). This newsletter is so incredibly helpful!
I got my MFA at The New School. One of the great strengths of that program (and what I talk up to potential students to this day!) is their focus on the writing life. There's no "write every day" mystique. We're given the opportunity to meet with editors, agents, and publishing folks to talk about the query process, how to pitch, source internships and jobs, etc.
In my second year, I even took a course on how to build a CV and design an adjunct course. It was pretty 50/50 craft and professional skills, which I didn't expect when I started, and was later shocked to learn how many of my compatriots post-grad had no idea what these professional skills were.
Many years after getting my MFA and moving straight into teaching, here I am finally trying to jumpstart a writing career and realizing there is so much to learn if you want others to read your words. I do think you need both, as you suggest. So many "book ideas" people have floated by me over the years don't come from that essential, inward place where art resides.
Thank you! This is something I've found frustrating in my own program - being completely against opening up the floor for conversations around commerce only hurts students
you're always and forever able to:
1. make me laugh.
2. make me feel better (and worse, but mostly better) about publishing
3. teach me something.
Thank you.
I agree with you 1000% and this is why I started teaching classes on "concept" for writers—in my experience, the writers who have gone through MFA programs have a really hard time thinking about their book from a reader's POV after spending months (years) writing for an audience of other writers. I thought "category" would be the easiest part of the class (doesn't everyone know if they're writing a cookbook? or a memoir? or a thriller?) but it is in fact VERY CHALLENGING for students to identify the category of the book they're writing.
My pet theory is that audience is a spectrum. On the extreme “extrovert” side, readers go nuts for the book but the author gave up everything they loved to make that happen. On the “introvert” side, the author wrote exactly the book they always wanted to write, but no one can understand it.
Writing is an act of self-expression, but also of communication. So those sides of the spectrum are in tension, and that’s how it should be. I’ve been told many MFA programs focus too much on the introvert side, which is satisfying until it ruins your chances of publication. I love your version, which would encourage writers to try out the genres and come to a greater understanding of what readers expect across the board. We authors need to be forced out of self-indulgence once in a while 😂
One. Hundred. Percent. I have long said that Creative Writing programs need to prepare writers for reality as well. Including the writer-agent-editor-publisher relationship. The industry they are entering in to and the other ways to earn money in adjacent industries. My Creative Writing courses and any workshops I attended lived inside a bubble. Students need that bubble. But they are also mature enough to "handle the truth." And, frankly, everyone deserves the truth.
I love what you're saying in this. It took me TWENTY years to understand genre, and then to fathom it was important. I have an MFA, which I got over twenty years ago. I've studied writing for years. I've published a bunch of books. Seriously, for me, this genre stuff is a revelation. I started at The Novelry as a student and now work there as a writing coach, and we talk about genre all the time. It's the first time in all these years of trying to be a better writer/teacher that I feel like I've understood this key aspect. (And I agree with Sarah Copeland, you do make me laugh. Thanks ;-)
I used to give screenwriting workshops. Figuring out the genre was always one of the first pieces of advice. A bit prosaic for aspiring artists to warm to, but I'd explain it this way: "If you wanted to watch a romantic comedy but someone gets killed in the end, you'd feel pissed off or cheated, wouldn't you?"
Good points about getting ownership over a degree that, like many, I fear can be a bit of a Ponzi scheme. Yes, the complaints about MFAs' work sounding samey have been around for a while, but that doesn't make them wrong. I remember reading venerable Booker Prizewinner Penelope Lively remarking on the oddity of writers now being expected to have degrees in creative writing. Of course, she had nothing of the kind to her name. She's still around at 90, I think still writing, and still more readable than most current literary fiction (if people are to be honest....) I had assumed that one major point of doing an MFA program was to have a chance to become one of the anointed, to gain contacts. Is that so? I hadn't considered that it buys writers time, as well as guidance, or that there's room for improvement in the teaching. Thanks, Kate.
Love this. It's exactly why we founded Genre Masters (https://www.genre-masters.com). And yes, we'd love for you to come and chat with us, Kate!
Yes yes yes and also—
“Empty Theater” by Jac Jemc
Wanted to love it but —- thin as gruel!
💖
My MFA program openly refused to discuss the publishing side of writing and I am still so mad about it.
I couldn't agree more with what you've said. Not once during my graduate studies did a professor EVER bring in a publishing professional to explain how the publishing business worked. I got that information through writer's conferences. I'm a free lance developmental editor, and when I work with a writer I have them read and deconstruct a mystery even if they are writing character driven work. Because really good mysteries have strong plots, compelling characters and scenes that move from one to another keeping the reader turning the pages. A great deal can be learned from genre fiction!
Sunyi Dean talks about studying thriller structure for a YEAR before writing her urban fantasy — for exactly this reason! (Episode 4 of The Publishing Rodeo Podcast)
100% I had a wonderful undergrad experience but the #1 thing I wished I had learned in school was how to actually get published and how that process worked (that and more honest feedback on my writing but that’s beside the point). This newsletter is so incredibly helpful!
I got my MFA at The New School. One of the great strengths of that program (and what I talk up to potential students to this day!) is their focus on the writing life. There's no "write every day" mystique. We're given the opportunity to meet with editors, agents, and publishing folks to talk about the query process, how to pitch, source internships and jobs, etc.
In my second year, I even took a course on how to build a CV and design an adjunct course. It was pretty 50/50 craft and professional skills, which I didn't expect when I started, and was later shocked to learn how many of my compatriots post-grad had no idea what these professional skills were.
Many years after getting my MFA and moving straight into teaching, here I am finally trying to jumpstart a writing career and realizing there is so much to learn if you want others to read your words. I do think you need both, as you suggest. So many "book ideas" people have floated by me over the years don't come from that essential, inward place where art resides.
Thank you! This is something I've found frustrating in my own program - being completely against opening up the floor for conversations around commerce only hurts students