My homemade MFA in creative writing

[darkemeralds]

Happy New Year to the few, the strong, the loyal who are still here at Dreamwidth.

2016, like 2015, has been about my homemade MFA program in creative writing. My "thesis"--which was due on December 31st and should be done this week--is a publishable final draft of Restraint. I expect 2017 to be about writing, too.

My program of study has revolved primarily around story structure and editing. As I approach the finish line, here's a roundup of the changes my studies have wrought:

• Word count: Fanfic 230,000, Profic 145,000.
• Character names changed: 15
• Characters cut: 2
• Subplots cut: also 2
• Subplots added: 1
• Scenes cut: I've lost track. A lot.
• Scenes added: about 10
• Average sentence length: Fanfic 16 words, Profic 14 words
• Reading ease score: Fanfic 69, Profic 72 (higher is easier)
• Number of drafts to get here: 8

Here's a rough and improvised heat map of the restructured novel, scene by scene. Green bars are scenes that end positive; red, negative. Height of bar approximates scene intensity:



Three fellow writers have volunteered to read and comment on the final draft. Assuming they find no major failings, I'll polish it up and start sending it out in March.

In other writing news, I'm taking Shawn Coyne's Story Grid Workshop in New York City in February. It'll be three days with the story structure master and 25 other writers who are ready to go pro. Since Restraint will be finished by then, I'll be applying what I learn there--and everything I've learned in my Homemade MFA Program--to my next novel, which is currently in the proto-outline stage.

Comments

[linaerys]

This is awesome! I did an MFA at NYU a few years ago, and found that one of the best things about it was just committing to being serious about writing for two years. And now I'm committed for life. Congratulations on all of this.

[darkemeralds]

It's really about the commitment, isn't it? I have no basis for comparison with a real MFA program, but the intense learning curve I've subjected myself to, in both theory and practice, has been among the most rewarding and interesting things I've ever done.

"Committed for life" is a very big statement! I feel like I can make it now, but I'm getting pretty old, and that term isn't so very long from here.

[greghatcher]

I think those of us that do this would do it in any situation. Even when I was drinking I WROTE. Letters, fragments, story ideas, diary stuff, there was always, ALWAYS wordage.

The part that's commitment is learning the disciplines that go with it and sticking to it... things like FINISHING stuff, which hangs up an awful lot of us. Another is actually sending it off to a real editor or otherwise trying for actual publication, and that's another hurdle not very many people clear. Especially now with the internet providing so many inviting, non-critical substitutes that scratch a nearly-identical itch. Blogs, fanfic sites, everything else. Those certainly are great things and many folks serve apprenticeships there-- hell, I did-- but sooner or later, if you are in it for real, you have to dig in and set professional standards for yourself. Eventually if you are ANY good at ALL, it pays off. And once you cash your first writing check, you never go back, it spoils you for half-measures forever.

I've known you were one of the good once since we were in our twenties, so it delights me to see you going back to it.

[darkemeralds]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I have yet to cash a writing check--and may never do so--but this feeling of digging in and setting professional standards really is a Rubicon. I can't imagine going back.

[cookiemom6067]

Congratulations! What an achievement!

Here's to a wonderful, creative 2017 for you

[darkemeralds]

Thank you! And the same to you.

[thishobbitslife]

Yay, you're back!!!!

[darkemeralds]

Well, I've at least peeked in through the door. Your tweets about LJ's servers moving to Russia got me to wander back. Still thinking about what to do with my own LiveJournal.

[thishobbitslife]

I moved all of mine here, and then deleted the account. Seemed the best thing to do for me. :)

[bluemeridian]

Congratulations on your accomplishment!!

[darkemeralds]

Thanks!

[jesse_the_k]

That's a ton of hard work.

(Also, what tech creates that remarkable heat-map?)

[darkemeralds]

Heh. It's just a spreadsheet in Google Drive, with a list of scenes and some blank columns that I fill in by hand, based on my best guesstimate of emotional intensity. Then crop, save as an image, turn it 90 degrees...

I mean, really low tech. :D I did think about coding something that would render the colored bars by valence and intensity based on some numerical value above and below zero, but I felt like that might be carrying obsession and analysis a bit too far!

Still, viewing a novel as a big data set has some merit, as unglamorous and left-brained as that sounds. Early takes on this heat map showed me just where my pacing was off. If an existing graphing tool were out there, I'd definitely find a way to use it!

[lyr]

Happy New Year! It's great that you're so close to the sending-out stage; that's pretty exciting.

[darkemeralds]

Hold that positive thought for me! The drudgery of eight drafts seems like nothing to me compared to the dread of sending the final product out.

[lyr]

I look forward to buying you in print soon.

Hey, also, I am going to be in Portland in March. I'd love to have lunch if you have some time.

[darkemeralds]

I'm so sorry I neglected to reply to your comment! Things have been slipping away from me these past weeks as I've focused on finishing the novel (and have had so much brain space taken up with politics, whether I want it to be or not).

But yes! Let me know when you'll be in town and what part you'll be staying in. I would love to see you. PM me for contact info etc.