Anybody here literally on the path to becoming a great writer?

I write when I'm at work. Terrible habit, but I don't see myself in this field forever. The ideas are all there, I just have no formal background in writing. Things are picking up, though. I was unhappy with my writing this weekend due to me not knowing an appropriate level of description. I was anxious because I was trying to paint a picture for the reader, but now I suppose I just need to be detailed enough that the readers can paint their own.

My worst habit is inappropriate commas, since I write like how I think the sentence flow should go.

I like it when writers use grammar to cater for their own style. Formulaic writers are cucks.

I realize this thread is bait, but while it's possible to get by on literary wankery if you're a truly first-rate talent, it's a hell of a lot easier (and more fun) to be a second-rate writer who has interesting things to write about.

>I'm talking MFAs, comfy jobs in Academia
Christ, that's funny. Whenever I wonder how our department finds new suckers for the grad program each year, something like this reminds me. I didn't believe there weren't any good jobs left either. I figured it was all bitter third-rate failures giving me exaggerated sob stories. Now I'm playing the Cassandra role, and nobody will ever believe me.

To be a great writer is to live a miserable life.

How much do you write a day?

I have gotten several short stories published in the last year, so I may be on my way.

I also may have ONE contact in the industry. We'll see. I'm not even sure if he remembers me. I'm hoping to get at least one more short story published before reaching out to him.

My plan was to do an MFA because they basically pay for you to live and study (no debt) for two years and prepare you somewhat for getting a lit-ish job, even if it is teaching mongs at a crappy place, I'd still prefer that to marketing or something. I'm a britfag whose going to come to the US to do an MFA then re-brit and hope some middle tier MA course in England will be impressed by my big Yankee dick credentials, and will let me teach.

> Plan?
>Please don't crush my meagre dreams
> I write 5 hours a day and am basically great

g-guys?

I've published a few short stories. One is coming out this fall in a fairly big magazine which has landed people book deals before.

So yeah, you're damn right I'm on my way. I'm gonna be huge, kid.

Mazel tov.

Has any MFA program ever produced a good writer?

No.

>MFA
Opinion discarded.

>work blue collar job
>live alone
>write every night
>don't give a fuck if anyone reads it
>some cleaning guy will dumpster all of it when I die
>life will continue

What is wrong with getting a degree and surrounding yourself with people that are focused on writing instead of occupying your time with something unconnected.

Congrats, user. I'm still trying to get published in a BIG magazine.

How many of history's great writers took the path of "getting a degree and surrounding yourself with people that are focused on writing"? How many utter mediocrities have spent their whole lives in universities?

Fucking retard.
It's like when people get together and try to write a song. As if it's some sort of group task, or a """creative writing""" course in which they'll be rewarded a little star or sticker for afterwards.

IF YOU HAVE TO GO TO CLASSES AND SURROUND YOURSELF WITH OTHER """""WRITERS"""""" OR PEOPLE WHO CALL THEMSELVES CREATIVES, AND PEOPLE WHO HAVE BLOGS, ETC... THEN YOU HAVE NOTHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT

No degree in the world will make you a good writer.
No group of friends in the world will make you a good writer.

You truly don't know how naive and stupid you are, do you?

Before the internet existed and acted as your own personal yes man, you would have been working in your marketing job, happy to get a day off to spend with your miserable fat, ugly fucking wife, who is just as much of a sap as you.

You will never create a great work. Rest assured.

It's just comfy internet lying my dude. Just pretend. It feels good

Your bitterness is hilarious. Meanwhile major publishers are routinely checking MFA classes for new writers to sign and publish. Enjoy toiling away in lonely obscurity while other people your age are partying, having sex, writing and discussing literature with interesting and socially well-adjusted individuals.

You make it out as if you're set because you have a circle of people in academia with similar interests, but are you implying you're the special snowflake ultimate and true unique of the bunch or that you're all so great you will become the greatest of our generation? Both sound hard to swallow.

>implying i want to be an author
>implying i'm not having sex regularly,
>implying i don't do pretty much whatever i like already

Fifty shades of grey got published. As did Harry potter and the book of nothing. Who gives a fuck about a publisher, you dumb fuck? You literally don't even know what being a great writer means.

Enjoy lifelong mediocrity.

Don't worry anyway, next year, when it's cool again... you'll want to start a band eh? Or maybe become some other """creative""" eh?

Besides the getting published part, which anyone can do, that's the path of writing tv shows and other hack shit. Nothing great about it.

Your anger is amusing.

>he thinks swear words indicate anger
>he is a genuine retard
Jesus christ mate, how limp wristed are you?
Are you transitioning by any chance?

Also: the truth hurts

Jesus, you're a cunt, okay so he wants to go to university good the fuck on him, he enjoys it, what the fuck are you doing angry internet man?

Read the thread before you insult random people jackass, you are completely ignoring the context of the reply chain if you boil it down to, "he wants to go to uni".

lmfao jesus

MFA drop-out here.
There are no job prospects for you in the field. You more than likely will adjunct forever. More CW PhDs graduate each year than there are tenure track jobs, and much higher numbers of MFAs graduate.
If you decide to adjunct, in most places you will teach comp. Even if you don't teach comp, you will work for barely above poverty line wages, normally bouncing between a few schools so nobody has to give you benefits.
You can get all the contacts you need by going to AWP and Breadloaf or Sewanee.

he's a fucking faggot that's why
angry? again, naughty swear words don't mean angry, you imbecile.

First off, I'mIt isn't a bad plan if you are fully funded. Time to write is great. But, a lot of stipends are barely livable. Don't fall for the shit some programs will feed you about "you can make it work." Others (like my program) will lie, fund you for a year, and then drop your funding. I won't say where exactly, just avoid applying anywhere in Florida.
The issue of the whole MFA voice/echo chamber thing is very really. Research your programs in great depth first. Don't just talk to profs, but also see if you can contact any current students and get a feel for your cohort. If you don't like your cohort, workshops will be fucking awful.
Anything else you would like to know?

oh wow... what's it for you that someone tries to become a writer from an academic background?

I feel like you're aimed in the right direction but you fall flat when you say an artist shouldnt engage with others in the field, pretty much every great author did exactly that. Only it wasnt so much of a circlejerk as them actually helping each other improve.

That's where a lot of MFAs go in the trash. Many of them circlejerk, or at least "help" each other to writing the same style. The circlejerk isn't just about style, of course, but about other beliefs. I found myself in a stylistically diverse, but ideologically single-minded program, which can be just as harmful if you're easily influenced.
For Brit user, check out LSU. There's some tumblr of some SJWs who went there and got btfo'd by their profs for being entitled pains in the ass.

>MFA

Literally no reason to do this unless you really don't know how to study on your own.

>Literally
>no
How about money?

Get an actual education t b h

I don't mean money down the line as in the non-existent teaching jobs, but I mean 2-3 years with a stipend to live off, so you don't have to work?

where are you from, i'm also a stand up comedian

Thanks man. I'm always unsure about how to tell if the program is the right fit and if it's a good program in general. Been using pw.org/files/topfifty_secured.pdf
And looking at places in the top ten, excluding Iowa. Would you say this is roughly accurate? All the funding seems liveable if a bit drastic. I'm not too confident about my calculations re living costs in the US though.

samesies

feels honestly pretty fucking great

BA in physics and philosophy and jumping from manual labor jobs every 6 months to live in a new city and state in america. Most actual writing gets done on greyhound buses.

>aren't drifting in life working jobs that have nothing to do with literature
>being this delusional

This is what actual writers think. Outside of people that write merely for the academics, this is the spirit.

>great writer
>academia

Pick one

Do what I did.
>be sad lawyer
>buy many lottery tickets to have dumb fantasies and forget
>win minor state lottery
>quit job
>buy house in the Keys
>acquire my 6/10 secretary as fiance
>write the book always wanted to write
>actually gets published by pretty small press
>reviews are all good
>but now i know book is shit, more shit than the shit i used to hate reading
>confused why the reviewers can't even see this
>realize only shit reviewers read the book
>real reviewers don't give a fuck about my shit
>fiance gets in car crash while driving at night with my best friend
>she said she was at her mom's
>she is in critical condition
>best friend kind of disappears
>don't visit whore fiance in hospital
>go home and hang myself
>mymoneyisgoneanyway.jpg
>rope snaps, but neck is now fucked
>need serious medical attention
>sit in hospital room, aware that my fiance is somewhere else in this hospital doing worse than I am
>we both stay for days, never see or contact each other
>go back to ohio, get some of my clients back
>working full time
>start writing this novel, knowing this much more than I used to know
>things will be better
>things will be great
>I will be great
>

Yeah thats the whole point

Free time 2 write n get paid

Plus maybe connections if u lucky. If u lucky, connections can mean book contracts down the line. Assuming you actually wrote and got better during your free time 2 write

Cost of living can vary pretty drastically from place to place. If it's kind of metropolitan, expect it to be higher. Our rent as a rule is a lot lower than rents in the UK.
Iowa is a bit old hat when it comes to style, they are the embodiment of "MFA style." They are also pretty "SJW."
Vanderbilt probably has the best funding out of everybody, and its a good program. Don't be afraid to apply blow the top 10 or even off that list, its about what will fit you best and not the arbitrary ratings. PW actually stopped making the list because its so hard to do it accurately.
I've heard Anchorage has a good program, but a lot of people don't apply because Alaska. Butler is a pretty new one I've heard good things about.
Avoid University of New Orleans, they're offerring less and less funding each year. McNeese state is free to apply.
The NYC MFAs don't fund you well enough, and Colombia has some shady shit going on.
I'll post more if I think of anything.

Naw best funding is far and away the one at UT-Austin, the Michener Center. 28k, no teaching duties.

Oh and that doesn't even include the 6k per student for things like travel

That would make a good story

Ah thanks this is excellent. So I was thinking Syracuse as a maybe but that has a lot to do with Mary Karr teaching there and her having know DFW. I was also put off by their saying they didn't have strong links with publishers. As I'm basically confident I can grow my own writing I suppose what I'm looking for is a place with a good rep, adequate funding - though I don't mind slumming it if it'll be worth it - and a not too SJW-ish ethos. I'm not an Alt-Right nutter but obviously that kind of thing is still hugely lame. I'll take a look at Vanderbilt.

What were you doing at 20?

Does anyone else the thread where OP's pic originated? That was a long ass time ago

Law school or MFA, watta y'all think?

Surely he's greentexted the plot of his novel as an actual thing that happned

>literally on the path to becoming a great writer

Of course not, no such path literally exists.
Someone here might be figuratively on the path to becoming a great writer though.
Protip: it's probably not you, you literal cuck.

I was still in undergrad.
You could do both. Fully funded MFA first for time to write, the law school so you can have a career after. But that is a lot of schooling.
Choosing a place by faculty definitely isn't a bad way to go, but if you're choosing her because she new DFW and not because you like her work, you're making a mistake.
I stand corrected.

Another one I know is livable from a friend is Eastern Washington. Seemed like some nice people in the cohort when I stopped by their table at AWP.