I Don't Care What Your College Creative Writing Instructor Said - They Were Wrong

This last weekend, I answered over 100 submissions. A lot of them were from people who were clearly at the end of the semester for the year in their MFA programs and starting to fire off those projects they had been working on. And, unfortunately, they were all making many of the same mistakes. I get really frustrated because I know that they students really do have their hopes of being great authors. I also know that these professors really are trying, but there is also a huge disconnect. Let me explain.

First, let's start with the professors in the MFA programs. These people are writing and are often publishing, but many are doing so, not in a commercial industry. Some are publishing with college presses. Some are publishing with small independent magazines. What they are teaching the students is often the sterile craft of writing proses and poetry. They teach "workshopping stories." Yes, these are certainly important, but when it comes to writing in the professional world, they are often missing the fact that this is a business and not simply a "creative writing process."

As for the submissions, I do not believe they are actually teaching them how submit to editors and agents. So many are simply attaching their document to an email, writing a quick letter and firing it off. But hear me out, this is often what you do when you are submitting to a small press, or to a magazine for a contest. But when submitting to editors and agents, there are different procedural steps to take and if you don't follow those steps, it will be a rejection. 

Finally, these programs are not truly teaching the ideas of commercial genres. They are simply teaching them to "write something that means something to the author." Again, we want you to write something that is important to you, but it has to be something that is marketable. Let me give you some examples. I had 10,000 word short stories. I had projects that were still in the the rough draft phases. I had people reaching out to me, after I rejected to say that they wanted to work with me to edit the story to make it worthwhile to sign me (um that is what I would do IF I had signed them). I had projects that weren't even in any category that you would find on Amazon or any other online platform.

My big word of advise for all of you in these programs is very simple. Go ahead and enjoy your time in these programs, BUT, learn the business of writing as well. This is not simply creative writing.