DIY MFA!
MFA Seminars Newsletter May 2023
Welcome back to the MFA Seminars Newsletter on Substack. This month's issue features an interview with Ryan Jafar Artes (https://linktr.ee/ryanartes), a writer who has experimented with a do-it-yourself approach to an MFA program by following the schedule of an academic semester, creating his own classes and assignments to help structure his reading and writing.
The timing of this interview is not accidental: for writers who did not find the right place in an MFA program this cycle, it's an approach to consider for the coming year. For those who will be starting an MFA in the fall, it might be a useful thing to try this summer, as a way of ramping up. And as always, there are more resources to be found on the MFA Seminars website (https://www.mfaseminars.org).
Thanks for joining us Ryan. I'm curious about the "DIY MFA" program you created for yourself. How would you describe it?
My DIY MFA is really just a way for me to invigorate, amp up, and fortify my already robust writing routine. I love writing. However, I wanted to approach my practice with more vigor. Though I have no problem imagining and starting projects, completion is much more difficult for me, for so many reasons. With my DIY MFA, I planned not only to conceptualize and begin projects, but also to finish as much work as possible, to be ready for my next steps, which are to share my work with audiences larger than myself. I also found and took at least three "classes" each semester, all virtual, allowing me to expand upon both my craft and writing community. I am currently in the process of organizing and cataloging my lifetime of work, as I prepare for my last semester.
What do you see as the pros and cons of a more formal and structured "DIY MFA" approach, versus something still DIY, but less planned and more ad hoc (i.e., what I imagine is the more common approach of someone who wants to get into writing)?
The main difference with my structured DIY MFA and my prior ad hoc DIY writing approach, to which I am sure to return once my fourth and final semester is over, was that I defined a clear beginning and end of the process. I scheduled and planned intentional seasonal breaks, that were just as long or longer than breaks might be at traditional institutions. I focused on finding support groups, extracurricular activities, and took free classes I found that seemed well beyond my particular interests. I made such things work for me in the ways I needed them to work for me. I focused my budget and expenses on travel and home organization. I traveled to places to remove the distractions that being at home has on my writing. I used much less money than I would have spent on school to set my apartment up exactly how I needed it to be, in order for me to complete my DIY MFA, and in general.
Having been engaged in your DIY MFA program for over a year now, are there any changes you would make to your approach based on that experience?
The greatest thing about doing my DIY MFA is that I can pivot and change directions whenever I like, and as soon as something is not working for me, whatever it may be. If I do not like what I am writing, I can put it aside and start something new without fretting over a due date of an assignment. If I do not like a class for whatever reason, whether problematic or mundane or just uninteresting to me, I could stop attending without consequence on a transcript or budget. I focused on finding and attending free workshops, classes, craft talks, and lectures, and many of them just were not for me. Change is built into my whole plan and design, and I leaned into such freedoms.
What initially motivated you to go the "do it yourself" route?
I love to learn and I love going to school. I was motivated simply by the fact that I do not like being told to do things I do not like to do. There is such little wiggle room at traditional institutions for movement between classes after a set date, very early in the semester. Usually, I did not realize a class was not for me until the second week of classes, after the add/drop period was over. By then, it was too late to change without severe cost or penalty. And, even within classes at traditional institutions, there is very little possibility of veering off course of doing whatever assignment is being assigned by the instructor of the class. I prefer relative trains of thought, tangents, and the places to where such abstractions might happen to carry me. My main motivation is that I wanted to do what I wanted to do, whenever and however I wanted to do it.
What do you see as the pros and cons of a DIY approach versus a traditional MFA program, and versus a low-residency MFA program?
I find myself missing in-person classes, and the way thoughts and communities develop in such places and spaces. I miss sharing collective brain space with people who are pondering, musing, wondering, and otherwise thinking about the same things as I am. I miss the ability for side conversations that are not possible in virtual rooms unless very particular chat settings are enabled, and even those are not as fun as the side conversations that occur before, during, and after in-class interactions. I miss the tremendous resources available at educational institutions, though I will say I have better ideas of how to maximize my use of such resources, if and when I do return to a more traditional (or low-residency) path.
What recommendations do you have for people who might be interested in coming up with their own "DIY MFA" plan?
A DIY MFA is a great way to get a lot of work done in a short period of time, without any major expense, outside of the costs of life and living, of course. After I take a long break, I am going to focus my resources on my next stages of presenting my work to audiences larger than myself. During the time of my DIY MFA, I wrote approximately 600 poems, 85,000 words of my first memoir, hundreds of letters to real and imaginary people, and dozens of articles, on top of my regular journal and diary entries. I am organizing my work into a database so I can more easily keep track of it all. I am ready for whatever comes next, whatever it might be.
What are you working on now?
For my final semester, my dissertation project is to rewrite my memoir. I am completely rewriting it, now that I have developed a new understanding of how to do so, with what I learned and taught myself over the course of my DIY MFA. I cannot decide between two narratives, so I am writing them both simultaneously. Once I am done, I am especially excited to return to easier and less rigorous routines of writing poetry and journal entries.
Thank you for your time Ryan (https://linktr.ee/ryanartes), and for sharing the approach you developed with our readers.