The Creative Thesis
“The training of literary talent requires repetition of the experience of reading . . . it does not require repetition of the experience of writing (other than that required to achieve general literacy) in the same way that piano playing or drawing does.” – Samuel R. Delany, About Writing
My first packet is off to my mentor, so now is the perfect time to take a step back and explain this whole “Creative Thesis” thing. The thesis is one of the graduating requirements for my MFA degree. It can take on a variety of forms, but it must be at least 75 pages of publishable fiction (publishable meaning, I suppose, that no one would be horrified if they received it to be considered for publication, and not that it will be snapped up by literary magazines like dog treats). My thesis, if everything goes according to plan, will be around 120 pages, and that’s a pretty considerable “if.” Mostly it depends on which stories my mentor decides are polished enough to be included.
The ~120 pages contain ten short stories that I’ve worked on as a Spalding student. They were conceived as a story cycle, so the narratives are linked. The first story I wrote is the last story in the collection. It was written when I was an undergraduate, but the number of words that still exist from the first draft are evaporating quickly.
The cycle is loosely based on my family, and the overarching narrative follows a woman from childhood to death and a little bit beyond. The stories cover three generations of the family: the grandmother, two sons, and two grandsons.
The first story works as an introduction, and takes place a few months before the final story. Story II & III jump back to the grandmother’s childhood. S-IV transitions from one generation to the next and is narrated by one of the grandmother’s daughters. S-V and VI feature the grandmother’s sons during childhood and early adulthood. S-VII is about the relationship between the grandmother and one of her adult sons. S-VIII transitions to the next generation, narrated by one of the grandsons as a child. And finally, S-IX and X are told by the grandsons, one as children and the last as adults.
So what’s the story cycle about? I’ll boil that down into a list of themes or goals, the subjects I’m aiming to consistently present across the range of stories. It’s about generational influence, mental illness (directly and the fear/fascination that family members experience indirectly), undeserved guilt, relationships between brothers, emotional and physical distance between family members, and the mythology a younger generation creates to explain the older generation.
Yes, that’s all very vague, but it works as an overview of the structure and content. The stories are arranged chronologically except for the first, which takes place between S-IX and X. Who knows if I’ll keep this order, but it’s made me happy for a few months so that’s better than the previous iterations. Other factoids that are probably interesting only to me: 5 are told in first person (1 by the grandmother, 1 by each son, 2 by a grandson | 3 are retrospective), the rest are in third person (2 grandmother, 1 daughter, 2 grandson | 2 retrospective). Perspectives and narrative distance are the most likely elements to change, but it’s helpful to know where I stand at the moment.
Today I mailed out Stories I-IV. In July, V-VII, and for August, the remaining VIII-X. Since I and IV were brand new stories this time around, I’m planning on focusing directly on revision for the rest of the submissions. Hopefully I can look at each of the stories on a few different levels: the micro-level to examine words, sentences, and paragraphs, the story-level to look at structure within each story and higher level elements like character, setting, tension, theme, and then the macro-level as I continue to shape each story as part of the larger cycle.
My next post will describe the various revision techniques I’m using to analyze the stories at each of those levels. If I haven’t completely bored you by this point, come back and check that out. In the meantime, if any of this seems interesting, please visit The Creative Process and share your ideas, inspirations and practices with the rest of us.
The Final Stretch
Somehow, time has passed me by. I started the Master of Fine Arts brief-residency program at Spalding University in the Fall of 2007, but it seems ridiculous that a year and a half has passed already. Working full-time and filling the rest of the hours with a writing program is quite the time machine. I’ve had the opportunity to work with wonderful mentors and workshop leaders: Ellie Bryant, Joyce McDonald, Robin Lippincott, Kirby Gann, Rachel Harper, Jody Lisberger, Julie Brickman, and Crystal Wilkinson, as well as participate in a community of writers that have consistently inspired me to improve.
And now I’ve started my final semester.
Three projects form the bulk of the MFA program: the Creative Thesis (a story cycle, for me), the Graduation Lecture, and the extended critical essay, which I completed last semester. So the months before graduation will be spent rewriting, revising, and polishing the stories in my thesis and developing a lecture to give at my final residency in November. Fortunately, I’m excited about both the lecture and the thesis, and feel like they are ready to be pushed toward final, presentable products.
There is, however, a lot more that goes into that final push than I would have thought before I started the degree. Since I’ve been working on the stories that comprise the Creative Thesis for a year and a half, they’ve become so familiar to me that it’s difficult to see their flaws, and even the noticeable ones seem impossible to fix. Stories that seemed strong at the end of a first draft are flimsy when placed next to their brothers, and the possibility of them all standing together seems laughable at the end of a long day. Pulling it all together is the hardest part.
So I’ve decided to write a little about this final leg of the program. Putting the process into words where I can see them helps make the whole thing less daunting, and hopefully it will be helpful to others as well, whether fellow MFA students or anyone else trying to complete a project that’s occupied their minds for so long it’s difficult to imagine letting it out.
I also hope that some of you will join me in cataloging your projects, writing or otherwise. The most exciting things I’ve learned as part of a community of artists have always arrived from a sharing of process. Just knowing that a multitude of paths exist that all lead to that final goal is encouraging. As more light is shed on the ground in front of us, it becomes easier to pick and choose, and the creative process is strengthened.
If you’re interested please join the social network I’ve started at ning.com: The Creative Process. I’m hoping it can serve as a hub for individual blogs. It has a discussion board, a chat room, individual profiles, and a number of other features designed to make creating a community online easy (as long as I can figure them all out).
For anyone that’s just getting started on the whole blogging thing, you can either blog at The Creative Process page, or if you’d prefer to have your own separate space, I recommend Wordpress.com. If you sign up for a free account, the site will lead you through the entire process and set up a blog just for you. Then you can connect your Wordpress blog to The Creative Process and you’ll be ready to go. Let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment below.