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.