The Writer's MFA Alternative: Do It Yourself
We recently caught up with Gabriela Pereira, sounder and instigator of DIY MFA, an online alternative to the traditional Creative Writing MFA. Elizabeth Solar asks a few questions about the program, and Pereira’s own writing journey.
Acts of Revision: What’s your own writing experience? Did you attend a traditional MFA program in Creative Writing?
Gabriela: I did an M.F.A. because I didn't know how to go about building a career as a writer. I had careers in other fields and was always good at writing. Given where I was at that point in my life, I had the privilege to be able to go back to school. I was newly married, but not with kids, so I had flexibility. We also had money saved. It's certainly a decision I recognize not everyone will be able to make.
Acts of Revision: Tell me what inspired you to instigate DIYMFA.
Around graduation I began to think about my friends and colleagues who hadn't had this opportunity. And it felt very unfair. Like, yes, I did the work, and did what I needed to do. But a part of me felt ‘why can't anybody do this?’.
On one hand, I was very grateful. But on the other hand, I was like, well, why did I need to do this? I was basically already doing this while I had a blog. So, I blogged about it. At the time, my blog had about twelve followers, one of whom was my mother. I put up a post and I wrote, hey, if there was a DIY version of the MFA, would you do it. I expected it to go off into the ether, and never hear about it again.
Instead, I woke up the next morning to an inbox full of messages and a bunch of comments on that post. People saying, hey, if you build it, we will come. That never happens. But in this case, people said, build up this thing. So that's where it started.
Acts of Revision: How does DIYMFA distinguish itself from a traditional MFA in Writing?
A lot of people go into the MFA thinking they want more community, collaboration. I think it serves a very specific group of writers incredibly well. MFA programs have literary magazines attached to them and all of that. It’s a good system, but it was the only option. DIYMFA is a very Democratic way to have a writers community and learn more about writing.
I have a background in psychology and design, and did a lot of teaching. So, I combined those experiences, researched actual [MFA] programs and drew inspiration from the program I attended.
You know, the emphasis on the [MFA] workshop element is on learning the craft of writing literature. Almost every single program had some study of literature attached to it, going to readings or literary events -- things of that nature. When I first started developing the curriculum, it wasn't organized the way it is now. And it took a while for me to start to realize that there were three main threads that pretty much every MFA program has: the workshop element, the study of literature and community aspects - writing, reading, community. There are also parts relating to motivate actually getting the work done, how to do the work when you don’t have a professor hovering over you. So I built DIY MFA to mirror and create a do-it-yourself, or independent learning alternative to all three elements.
Acts of Revision: Walk us through the DIY format.
For folks who want more support and more structure, there’s our flagship course, DIY 101 program boils down the entire two-year MFA experience into a ten-week period. That's where our courses come in.
The idea isn't that we track everything you learn into 10 weeks because you can't condense years of knowledge and experience into 10 weeks. But in those 10 weeks we deliver the tools, systems, and the structure so people can use to motivate their writing life. Those tools are available to students for as long as they want. Our goal is to give people access to what they need.
We have a webinar that basically is similar to the free video series but allows for real time interaction, so they get to know me as well. We also have a Facebook page where students can post and interact.
A lot of our stuff is out there on our Web site for free. People can do it on their own. That is literally the DIY version.
Acts of Revision: You have some strong opinions on educating the writer. What’s your core philosophy?
At DIY, MFA, it's about democratizing. We treat everybody's work like literary, scholarly work that merits a high level of discussion because we believe that all writing is important. We want our word nerds to feel at home in our programs. And what I notice is that often, even if writing is no longer their main passion, the skills that they've learned in DIY MFA translate to whatever they're doing next.
You have to evaluate best practices for yourself, and the only best practice is what works for you. At DIYMFA we give tools to try. if it doesn't work, it is the writer’s job to not use it. It is a decision that they not only are allowed to make, but they're supposed to make. There's this idea that one person might have all the answers, you know, these experts with specific way of doing things. ‘It's my way or the highway.’
I'd rather give people a smorgasbord of options based on their experiences, and then say, you know, you can make your own plate, like here's your buffet.
Acts of Revision: Who is your typical student? Is there a general profile of who participates in DIYMFA?
Gabriela: I wouldn’t say it’s a specific profile. There are a few different populations who resonate with this type of study. One group really wants to write but doesn’t have time to go back to school. If you have a full-time job, find some time to squeeze in some writing and want to dive in on a deeper level and study the craft more, you can acquire 10 weeks of study for less than one percent of the cost of a traditional MFA.
I also include in this group stay at home moms or other caregivers who have a really full plate and don't have time. They can't just up and move to another place to go to school.
The second group includes people who suddenly have time on their hands and don't know what to do with it, people who have reached retirement or a stay-at-home mom whose youngest is off to school.
The third group are writers who are underserved by the traditional system. They’re often writers who either want to self-publish or who write genre work. They want to write good stuff, but they know that if they go to a traditional MFA program, sign up for a traditional course, or a writing class with their local community center, they're probably going to be the one person writing horror or romance or sci-fi or children's books. And this is a group that I relate to because I was in that group.
And by the way, these groups can span college students all the way into their people in their eighties. We’ve had students of all ages. This is why I don't like to think of profiles for the typical word nerd in terms of demographics, because it's really not a demographic thing. It’s about giving people the space and support to do the work. It's about how writing fits into your life.
Acts of Revision: How do you handle writer’s block, or a creative dry spell?
One of the first mantras our students learn is ‘honor your reality.’ As writers we often punish ourselves way too hard for things we can't necessarily change. We might beat ourselves up for not writing on a given day because our kid was sick, and we had to run errands and got stuck in traffic -- all these things outside of our control. I'm not saying that we should just say, oh, ‘I'm honoring my reality’ and put our feet up and eat bonbons and watch TV all day. That's not an excuse to be lazy. It's about recognizing it's okay to have other things going on in our lives.
Too many of us think in terms of all or nothing. If you’re not writing every day, you’re not a writer. If it's all about sort of slogging the words out -- I don't know about you but slogging myself does not magically make words appear on the page. We make this front and center, it's literally part of the very first module: motivation and how to build that toolbox so you can come back to the page when you do have to take time away. A lot of people, even when they feel like they have to step back, know that they can come back. And that, I think, makes it less hard.
Acts of Revision: What’s your advice to the aspiring writer? Or those who have been writing, but have not yet been published?
Gabriela: Funny you use the word aspiring because that actually is inspiring my tip: Stop calling yourself an aspiring writer. There's this thing about the word aspiring that creatives seem to tack on their careers. People call themselves aspiring actors or aspiring musicians or aspiring writers. But nobody would ever call themselves an aspiring plumber or an aspiring neuroscientist. You just call it the job.
You don't aspire to do with the thing. You just do the thing. Part of the reason that we tack that word on, I think is because we're afraid to really own that role as a writer. Somehow saying that we're aspiring and not really doing the thing, it gives us permission to not have to succeed. But at the same time, it also makes you feel like it's not a real job. And so, then you don't treat it with the respect and the importance that it actually has in your life. And all of a sudden, writing gets shot to the side.
We need to obliterate that word from our vocabularies as writers and as artists. If your goal is to write, whether it's to write a journal or to write an article or to write a book or to write an entire mountain of books, you are already a writer, so own it.
Note: Find free resources to start writing at https://members.diymfa.com/sdsd/
To learn more about DIY MFA 101 classes visit https://members.diymfa.com/waiting-list-101/
