M-Lin

Everyday I make through the day to 6-7PM and then have a freakout - check every application portal! Of course nothing is there. I've never workshopped my short stories before (my writing and workshop experiences were mainly in screenwriting), so I signed up for Sackett Street's fiction workshop (starting Feb 15). Looking forward to that! Hopefully it will keep me productive and occupied. Has anyone here taken classes there before?

Where is the other mfa forum? Also for creative writing?

Maybe you'll like Weike Wang's Chemistry. Incorporating science into literary fiction has always been very interesting to me!

I sure hope so! The earlier the better. I'm sure the schools are doing the best they can, since they can't gather faculty in person and all that. But maybe they can also consider how uncertain our world is right now in many ways and planning a change in life for many people might take longer than usual - thus, give us earlier notifications lol.

Based on what I'm able to find on the results page, it seems like all the schools I applied to have late February notifications at the earliest. Most of them notify in March. How is it not even February yet????? ??

I wanted to use Optima because I liked the font so much but eventually decided against it... put everything in Times New Roman. I've read somewhere that faculty members, having to read so many applications, tend to dislike sans-sarif fonts, for they can be hard on the eyes when reading for a long time. And, in my case, Times New Roman allowed me to fit a couple extra lines in the SOPs and writing samples. I found it especially valuable for SOPs since most schools ask for less than 2 pages so that one or two extra lines did make a difference. I went with the safe choice because I didn't want to give the impression that I was trying hard to stand out by choosing an unusual font. But I think what matters ultimately is the quality of your writing; the style of the font won't improve or diminish it in any way. Also, many literary journals' submission guidelines state that they prefer Times New Roman.

I already deactivated my FB account after one day in Draft!(because I had only activated it for the group) I just decided to stay here for second-hand information... so thanks for staying in! ?

I've translated a lot of screenplays, which is what my background is in, and the most fun I have with is translating dialogues, because most of what people say and how they say it cannot be directly translated between languages. Do you have any established writers you can learn from? I only have very few, but it's good to read them and see how other writers made the leap from the mother tongue into English, regarding both content and style. I hope where I end up (if anywhere) will have teachers and classmates who are interested in exploring diversity in cultural background and language!

I totally get what you mean. I do a lot of translation in other fields and it's been very illuminating for my own writing process. My first language, being the language of my childhood, adolescence, and family, carries different emotions for me, yet I find myself able to articulate those emotions better in English. I think that distance between the raw emotions and the language is what makes it less "intense", in a good way. The fact that my first language is of a completely different culture and history also offers me a lot of perspective when writing in English. I've always been fascinated by languages! Since I learned English, I'm thinking I could do it again, so I'm trying to get into another language right now... maybe that's what I'll do more while waiting for application results, lol. I only write prose though. I'm guessing poetry allows a little more freedom in terms of writing in the second language... much room to play and experiment. Hope you're enjoying it!

I appreciate the advice! Even just by scrolling through last night, I was overwhelmed, partly because I haven’t been on Facebook for a few years (and not active on Twitter either) and - you’re totally right about this - the straightforwardness of real names, real photos, and the power of words (instead of pictures, say on Instagram) just hit differently. Somehow it all feels much more personal, and “real”. I feel like I really don’t need to know that much about people I don’t know...but the information is there and it’s hard to resist the guilty pleasure of voyeurism, even though what you end up knowing would only make you more anxious! anyway... just to start another topic: English is my second language. Anyone else writing in their second language?

I just did too. only checked after seeing your post, so thanks! I had been off facebook for over 5 years before I reactivated for this group ?

That does sound really helpful! Thanks for the info! Too bad I only found about this group last week, after I've sent in most of my applications... so I guess at this point it's probably just going to be mostly about the results.

It's been probably more than a week since I sent in my request for the MFA Draft Facebook group but still nothing... is anyone here in the group? What kind of information is shared/discussed there? Do you find it valuable?

Off topic question - do you have a set that you recommend for getting into tarot cards? mostly to entertain and investigate the self. thanks in advance!

I know that Fine Arts and Film programs usually have interviews. Same here - need to brush up on interview skills! Zoom interviews are not going to be the easiest thing...

Hi all, First round MFA applicant here. I am applying to 6 schools in my area because I don't plan to relocate. Done with all but one. Just curious about the application process - do programs have interview processes or all decisions are made based on written materials? Thanks and good luck to everyone applying this year!