Five Things I Learned in My MFA Program

View of Arbor Lodge from Lied Lodge

I am just back from ten days in Nebraska City completing my last residency towards earning an MFA in writing. And I want to use this opportunity to talk about the experience and share with you how helpful it’s been.

The program is a two year “Low-Residency” program—meaning that rather than taking a number of classes on campus, each semester begins with an intense ten days of “Residency.” In the UNO program, this takes place at the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City—where participants share in workshops of student writing, attend writing seminars, take in faculty and student readings, and (this is important!) participate in “mentor interviews” to determine the faculty mentor you will work with for the next four months.

The high caliber of mentors made for difficult choices. Over and over people said to me that whether I had my first, second or third choice, “you can’t go wrong,” and I found this to be true. During each of the four semesters, the mentor I was paired with was absolutely excellent; and seemed to be just the person I needed to work with at that particular time in my writing career. How does this happen? A little bit of the magic that takes place in the writer’s life, I believe, and also, the care the program directors take with each student.

During each semester I wrote and wrote, and as I was concentrating on fiction, each month, I was required to send my mentor a packet of 40 pages of new and/or revised writing. There were critical papers to write, a big 35-40 page “craft paper” the third semester, but the focus was on creative writing. Which I loved.

With fellow graduates, playwright Michael Weems and fiction writer, Diane Kenyon

What an opportunity for me! I went into the program with a rough draft of a novel, and throughout the two years, worked on that, wrote short stories, and started another novel. Currently, I am still working on the first novel. Revising—working out problems of emphasis and character development, deepening and enriching each chapter. Making the whole better. And now that I’ve completed the program, I’ll continue with the novel revisions with a goal of completing them in six months.

One of the great strengths of a low-residency program is that it allows for personalization—each student beginning from their particular level of development as a writer—and during the two years working to continue with present strengths and make steps towards areas of weakness. The program works, and I am a better writer than I was two years ago.

And now, some thoughts to leave with you…..

Five Things I Learned in My MFA Program

• You can get a lot of writing done in a month.
• Concentrated effort yields results.
• Don’t be afraid to emulate the style of the writers you admire.
• Take a step towards what you want, and the wheels of the universe begin to turn for you.
• Writers have power. With words, you can take steps to change the world.

Happy New Year everyone! –Lucy