More From "What I Learned"

I liked this eclectic list from the "What I Learned" Post a few weeks back. So much so that it gets its own post. Thanks Anonymous...

I applied to eight programs this winter, was accepted to three and am going to one.

What I learned:

Nearly every person who heard that I was applying to MFA CW programs said, “You don’t need to go to school to write, just write.” Almost as many said “Hemingway never got an MFA.” Each person who said this seemed to think he or she was the first to mention it.

The people who post on the Poets & Writer’s Speakeasy represent a very small percentage of the people who apply to and attend creative writing programs.

I shouldn’t have told everyone that I was applying to Iowa and how it was the only school worth going to. I was wrong and they didn’t want me anyway.

It was easy to become obsessed with the application process: thinking about it, daydreaming about acceptances, fretting about rejections, frenetic refreshing of Tom’s blog and the Speakeasy, rabid stalking of the mailman, etc. There was a huge void in my life when all the results were in and it took me a while to get back in to the groove of living, loving, working and writing.

I learned several different cheats for filling in Adobe PDF files electronically. I wish the schools would all use Adobe PDF forms.

Once I was accepted and visited the university of my choice, it was disconcerting to discover that it was just college – not necessarily the Shangri-La I had built up in my head.

Tom was right about everything. Well, except for one thing – even though I plan to keep writing through the summer, my university has indicated that they are most interested in seeing writing that is generated by their workshop process in the fall.