Category: DIY MFA

Happy 2019!

It’s been a while since I wrote my last post.  For good reason, though: I’ve been busy writing!

Update on my Writing

            Darksea is still getting shopped around at smaller presses, my next novel’s word count is slowly growing, I finished and submitted another short story, and I’m re-tweaking two other shorts for re-submission.

            Additionally, I’m continuing to write articles for Gay Parent Magazine, and my foray into the world of Ghostwriting is slowly producing fruit.

            All told, I couldn’t shouldn’t be happier with how things are progressing, writing-wise.  (See what I did there?)

            There’s always room for tweaking a routine.

Tiny Habits

I tried something called Tiny Habits in the fall, which resulted in a… well, tiny improvement in my daily writing schedule (tiny, but one that has had an effect on my writing habits every day since then!).  Tiny Habits, created by Stanford Professor BJ Fogg, is fun, easy, and free to try.  I highly recommend it – a ‘session’ only takes five days.  You really have nothing to lose by doing so.

Chunking Tasks Throughout the Day

            With more room for improvement, I enlisted hubby’s help to set aside chunks of my day for specific writing tasks (previous to this, our calendar simply said: “Gary – Writing”, which was far too vague for this expert procrastinator + excuse-finder).

            So now, my Monday to Sunday schedule looks a little something like:

• 5:30 – 7:00 am             –           Fiction Writing;
• 9:30 – 11:00 am           –           Ghost Writing;
• 7:30 – 9:00 pm             –           Extra Writing.

(with one of my Ghost Writing sessions being set aside for “writing administration”)

            That’s been working pretty well so far…

            …which brings us to DIY MFA!

DIY MFA

I’d seen adverts for Gabriela Pereira’s program for some time, and it had caught my interest several times.  In a nutshell, this do-it-yourself Masters-of-fine-arts is a “system or framework for your writing life that will help you create a customized educational plan that works for you.”  Gabriela states that, when you boil the MFA right down, you find a universal formula consisting of three elements:

            writing + reading + community = MFA

            I’m on day 2 of the program, so I don’t have a lot to offer beyond that description at this point.  One element of the program, however, is regular prompts to write, which I will be following*, with regular posts here, over the next month or so.

*I said it, so I’d better do it now, eh?

            …Here goes!