Formal Education and Writing

Here’s Churchill in my writing corner, wondering what the heck I think I’m doing. Need I admit I’m playing with the camera when I should be working? LOL!

Lydia’s question for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog:

“What formal writing experience do you have? (classes, degrees, major/minors). Did it shape your writing? Have you ever considered getting an MFA?”

I have a BA in English, earned mumble years ago.  Did my education shape my writing?

Maybe.  I read many brilliant books for those classes, and a few clunkers, which might not have been so awful if I’d understood them.  I’ve always been a painfully literal person, and sarcasm and satire often go right over my head.  Novels like Babbitt were excruciatingly boring because I missed the point altogether.

The “bad” novels were painful, but in many ways the great novels were worse.  How could I write to that standard?  How could I make my characters live and breath?  How could I entice readers to see and hear and smell my settings?  I knew it would take practice.  A lot of practice.

Yet the MFA programs have never tempted me, probably because I’m a genre reader and writer.  Literary and mainstream don’t interest me, and all the MFA programs I’ve noticed emphasize literary writing.  The extra years of effort didn’t seem worth the possible results.

How do you feel about MFA programs?  What formal writing training have you had?

I hope y’all had a happy holiday week, and I’m wishing you a prosperous New Year!