First year finales

My first year in the MFA Creative Writing program is over. The last class was actually May 11th, but I've been so bad about updating my blog that I'm over a month behind.

What did I learn from my first year? Two things:
1. To be a good writer, you have to read and write. A lot. When you read, you'll find lots of examples of great writing and not-so-great writing. The more you read, the more you can see which of that writing is not-so-great. And read different genres, not just the genre you want to write in. Expose yourself to different styles of writing. When I first started writing, I thought I was going to write humor. As the year progressed it turned into dark humor, which my classmates thought suited me better.

2. Make time to write. I mean, put it into your schedule. Since I worked full time, my thought was, "I'll do my writing when I have time." That meant almost never. A full day of work, come home, eat dinner... and I would usually end up being too tired to do anything else except sit in front of the TV and zone out. I've realized I have to put writing into my schedule so it gets done.

Putting it into my schedule is going to be a lot easier now that I'm not working. Yup, that's right, I'm unemployed. My department was restructured and my position was eliminated. I actually saw this as an opportunity. I've been trying to get into the publishing industry but I don't have any experience in the field, so I had applied for summer internships. Who doesn't want free labor, right? Well, from the ten places I applied to, I only heard back from one company, HarperCollins. It was a very polite email about how I had an impressive background, but they wanted someone who was more in line with industry (read as: a college student who is would be more likely to work for them after graduation). I can understand that. I'm disappointed that I wasn't picked, but I still appreciated that they let me know I was rejected.

So my summer is free. Something I haven;t had since I've graduated from college. I left for vacation with the hubby to Barbados on my first jobless day. We came back a week later and I've been sitting at home since finding various ways to entertain myself. First I ordered all the books I needed for my lit class this fall. Then I cleaned the house. The bathroom has never looked so good. Hubby said I should put learning how to cook on my list of things to do. Not a bad idea.

But now I have free time to write, which I plan to do. I have a new idea for a story and I'm hoping to get a good chunk of it written before school starts. And it means I can update this blog on a more regular basis! I even have a post ready for tomorrow. See, my plan to write more is already in progress. :)