I've been told I'm a pretty good writer, but that's never been tested until I attempted to go for an MFA.
I outlined my curriculum vitae, made sure to put my best foot forward with my writing sample (excerpts of my then unfinished manuscript and other short story pieces) and exhausted my income as a high-needs undergrad applying for programs with $100 application fees. Maybe it was foolish to apply for only Fiction programs when Non-fiction will provide the same critical experience as a writer, but I did it.
The first rejection didn't upset me too much.
The second rejection troubled me.
The third shattered me.
By the fourth, I didn't want to leave my room.
And then, by the fifth, I convinced myself I didn't even want to go to anymore schooling.
I exhausted all of my money in pursuit of this future that I probably wasn't ready for, and took some months off. A lot rippled from this, including a brief period of near homelessness. My family grew so used to not having to consider my existence while I was at college that when I was suddenly out, and unable to flip my English: Creative Writing degree professionally in ... any industry despite how my resume appeared and my academics excelled. I worked at a Sex Shop briefly and as a Barista where I was hospitalized from a sudden allergic reaction to caffeine that I never knew I had.
In this rejection, I found the power to finish my manuscript, and pen some of the most successful non-fiction pieces I ever conceived. These set backs led me to finally refuse to walk the path I expected of myself (as a Spec Fic writer) and just take the paths that got me what I needed. I looked at my Curriculum Vitae again, and found out that 90% of my plentiful publications were non-fiction, a fact I neglected to inspect as reasoning in my rejections.
I wish I had a good moral for this story, but really it's just taking a glance at the realities of being a professional writer, even as an academic. There is a lot of last-minute adaptation you've gotta do. There's very little things you can plan for, and so you have to find another way to bend your talents at all times. Especially now that Copywriting and Copy editing is becoming an increasingly difficult industry to break into in some locations.
Now that I've changed my academic focus to non-fiction, I've received my first acceptance at a low residence program. I am sending out more applications (as I accrue the funds) and I'm not as optimistic as I was the first go around, but I am aware of some new realities of Writing in Academia.
I outlined my curriculum vitae, made sure to put my best foot forward with my writing sample (excerpts of my then unfinished manuscript and other short story pieces) and exhausted my income as a high-needs undergrad applying for programs with $100 application fees. Maybe it was foolish to apply for only Fiction programs when Non-fiction will provide the same critical experience as a writer, but I did it.
The first rejection didn't upset me too much.
The second rejection troubled me.
The third shattered me.
By the fourth, I didn't want to leave my room.
And then, by the fifth, I convinced myself I didn't even want to go to anymore schooling.
I exhausted all of my money in pursuit of this future that I probably wasn't ready for, and took some months off. A lot rippled from this, including a brief period of near homelessness. My family grew so used to not having to consider my existence while I was at college that when I was suddenly out, and unable to flip my English: Creative Writing degree professionally in ... any industry despite how my resume appeared and my academics excelled. I worked at a Sex Shop briefly and as a Barista where I was hospitalized from a sudden allergic reaction to caffeine that I never knew I had.
In this rejection, I found the power to finish my manuscript, and pen some of the most successful non-fiction pieces I ever conceived. These set backs led me to finally refuse to walk the path I expected of myself (as a Spec Fic writer) and just take the paths that got me what I needed. I looked at my Curriculum Vitae again, and found out that 90% of my plentiful publications were non-fiction, a fact I neglected to inspect as reasoning in my rejections.
I wish I had a good moral for this story, but really it's just taking a glance at the realities of being a professional writer, even as an academic. There is a lot of last-minute adaptation you've gotta do. There's very little things you can plan for, and so you have to find another way to bend your talents at all times. Especially now that Copywriting and Copy editing is becoming an increasingly difficult industry to break into in some locations.
Now that I've changed my academic focus to non-fiction, I've received my first acceptance at a low residence program. I am sending out more applications (as I accrue the funds) and I'm not as optimistic as I was the first go around, but I am aware of some new realities of Writing in Academia.