Chances are, if you’ve found this post, then the answer to that question is ‘Yes’. I was standing in those shoes myself just over two years ago. I am also a Lecturer in Biology and a specialist in distance education, which has given me an unusual perspective on the MA experience. I have the luxury of being able to look back with hindsight and share some advice to anyone beginning their postgraduate writing journey. It’s a toolkit of sorts, in the form of some questions it is worth asking of yourself at the very beginning of the journey, to help position yourself to get the most out of an MA experience and push your writing further in the direction you wish to travel. How you engage with the questions is entirely personal but like the MA itself, they are a tool which can be used to develop your understanding of how you work as a writer and a learner.
Do i really want to do an ma IN CREATIVE WRITING?
“I’ve already answered that,” you cry. Bear with me here.
Committing to study an MA is a significant outlay of time, funding and creative energy, all of which can bring immense rewards (and certainly did in my case). In reality though, you don’t need an MA to become a professional writer, and you don’t need to have ‘Profession: Published Author’ on your bucket list in order to study an MA. Also, studying an MA won’t guarantee you a place at the professional writer table. So, the question remains. Is an MA what you want to do and what is motivating you to study it? Really unpacking this question before you start is going to put you in the best position to suck the marrow out of your study. Here are some tough questions to ask yourself to help with the process. The more honest you are with yourself, the more personally productive MA study will be for you.
do i have enough prior knowledge and practice to study at ma level?
Nowadays, not all MA programs for Creative Writing require an evidenced prior level of study or carry out a selective admission process. That means that prospective students have to become their own admissions tutor. In my case, I knew I could study at Postgraduate level as I’d completed a PhD in a scientific discipline. I had only studied one undergraduate module for creative writing but I was already absorbed in the world of books, an avid reader and part of the wider community. This gave me enough confidence to say that I understood, at an undergraduate level, the nitty-gritty of writing craft and the basic tools, techniques and formulae writers have at their disposal to create effective pieces. I also knew in a rough-diamond way, that I could write. What I was looking for was something to stretch and polish that diamond. I didn’t need to know about the basic structures and genre-norms. I needed an environment that pushed me to the boundaries of those and helped me find where I existed in the borderlands as a writer. Other students without undergrad qualifications had professional experience that led them naturally to the next step. Yet others had come through a more traditional undergraduate route. There are often as many paths into postgrad study in the modern world of education as there are students. The paradigm hasn’t just been rewritten, it’s been replaced.
Nonetheless, you need to ask yourself whether you are approaching an MA to give you the basics. If you are, then you may not be ready to start right now. There are plenty of options out there to brief yourself on the basics. Of course there are undergrad courses, but there is also a whole canon of creative writing craft books that can help you do this independently. There is a range of creative writing courses available at low-to-no costs through community colleges, libraries and other areas that provide free learning. There is also the internet, which is a rich, rich vein of writing advice. Don’t be afraid to pause the MA plans long enough to put yourself in the best position to thrive. Studying an MA is absorbing and however hard you work, you will always find you run out of time and haven’t read enough (here’s the cheat sheet … there is no ‘enough’ because for every book you finish, you will add 5 more to a list). There simply isn’t time to do it justice if you are also trying to read backwards to simpler concepts about how to develop and execute ideas.
do i want to study creative writing or do i just want to write?
Here’s the thing with an MA, it’s an academic qualification and so, like it or not, you will be required to produce work that sits within the parameters of the assessment structure your choice of university uses. You need to make your peace with this before you start. It doesn’t matter whether you are the next James Joyce, Jane Austen or Dan Brown, for this period of time you will have to channel that talent into producing work that satisfies the (albeit usually very broad) assessment criteria to gain your MA. Yes, you may feel your story would have been pure perfection if you only had another 1,500 words to spare but if the requirements were for no more than 2,000 then you won’t get credit. Sure, you may have written an exceptional commentary or essay on something related to your craft or that of other writers, but if this doesn’t apply and demonstrate the requirements of the question, then you won’t get credit.
None of this is a bad thing. Writing to requirement is a skill that not only spills out into the world outside academia, but that also forces you to really engage with how you apply the craft of writing to your own work. You can graduate from the MA and write as freely as you choose but you need to be ready to accept the limitations and embrace the benefits of the assessment structure in an MA. Studying an MA is not the time to waste energy on deconstructing the requirements - it will only be your energy that is lost and this could be channelled into writing and learning. Even the loosest of MA programs require you to produce work that is assessed at some point. My advice is to look at these requirements ahead of making a decision about study, and critically assess whether this is a system you want to work within for the duration of the course.
The study of creative writing goes beyond just creating your own writing. For me, this was one of the real luxuries of being on an MA course, and will remain the draw for me of further study. Expect that during your course you will need to produce more than simply your own creative work, you will on occasion be asked to delve deeply into the influences and processes you brought into its creation and those of other authors. These parts of the course will require much more formal academic study and writing. I strongly believe they are a vital part of engaging with your own place in the writing world, and developing that further to explore where your own words can take you. Still, this is something you need to consider when you’re opting for postgraduate study.
Which MA is right for me?
“The answer is still ‘yes’,” you cry and this makes me incredibly happy because more than anything, I want as many people as possible to feel they can pursue writing as an academic passion and a creative occupation. Now comes the hard part: which course do I choose from the modern-day smorgasbord of options? I can’t give you a simple answer to that and I’m not going to list the many different choices and flavours of MA here. I will ask you to consider who you are as a learner though, in the hope that when you start to research your options, you can do so knowing what questions to ask.
getting it right is better than getting it quickly
No two MAs are the same and finding the right match for you is going to define the experience you have. There are complex reasons why a student chooses any particular MA program. My process was to look at how the MA was delivered (for me a distance course was the only option) and then to look at what specialities within the MA were on offer (I wanted fiction and creative non-fiction). In an ideal world, I would have selected what I felt was the best match from these choices but as with many of you, I’m sure, financial considerations came into play and I made a pragmatic choice based on what I could afford in the end. I haven’t regretted it for a minute. It was a great choice and I knew that because I had given time to analysing how I study and what I wanted from a course.
Know your own worth as a writer and a student and set your goals accordingly. My advice would always be to make a ‘wish list’ and apply to the ones you really want first. If they are selective, you may not get a spot, but if you don’t try, then you definitely won’t get a spot. Be bold.
what kind of learner are you?
There are a variety of course models available, from distance to on-site, with some hybrids in between. How well you match these depends on how you best respond to study. I am a very independent learner and I spend a lot of time interacting digitally so I don’t need to be face-to-face with students or tutors. I’m at the extreme end of the learning continuum in that respect, but we all fall somewhere along it. Where that is will define which mode of study works for you but here are some broad comments that might help you decide.
Learning at a distance, via forum interaction/email with other students and tutors often suits more independent learners. That doesn’t mean if you don’t feel independent yet, you can’t thrive. Distance courses are designed to develop your skills and confidence in this kind of learning. There are a lot of pros. As writers, you have time to reflect on the pieces that people have written and deliver feedback in a measured and thoughtful way rather than in a very reactive way. Tutors can deliver focused attention and have time to reply in detail to questions, in a medium that means you have that reply to hand and in full when you need to look back at it. You are also building what can become your online writing and critique network when you graduate. However, with forum interaction, you don’t get the face-to-face visual cues and you may not feel you are well-suited to interacting all the time via the written word.
Some distance courses include an element of tutorial contact that is verbal - either by voice or video call, or with the option to travel to a campus. If you really feel that this is vital to how you learn, then one of these might be more suitable. Be cautious though, of interpreting this as ‘better’ than a forum-based course. They are different but for any individual learner, one or other might provide the best experience. Understanding who you are as a learner is really important.
Face-to-face courses are the other end of the continuum. On these, you will be able to join a student community that meets in person and you will physically see your tutor rather than have a digital/distance interaction. These can definitely spark creativity and community, and if having personal contact with groups of writers is your motivating factor, this is one choice that will give you that. At MA level though, I would caution that while the ‘taught’ element of the course may bring you in contact with other students and your tutor, the extended project element is often isolating because students can choose to write it anywhere and may return home to do so, or at least reduce their time on campus. In these cases, distance courses with digital social spaces like forums provide sometimes more contact than a physical course, not less.
My final tip here is don’t be afraid to ask questions of your potential courses ahead of your decision. There isn’t a university out there that discourages students from asking the questions they need to make the right decisions for them about study. Asking pertinent questions won’t affect your admission process but it may be the difference between a successful choice and an unsatisfactory experience.
So, you still want to do an ma in creative writing?
“I do,” you cry.
“I am glad,” I reply. I have some tips for you to help you enjoy the ride, but I’ll keep those for another day. The only homework I’m setting you is to go out there and own your ambitions. Find your MA home. I’ll see you again soon.