Hey guys,

I've been reading back in the archives for this topic and kind of want a more consolidated debate on the matter. In your opinion, how important is "life experience" in a grad MFA applicant? I'm graduating school in December, which is when I intended on submitting my applications, but I'm starting to think that I should take a few years off, work, and whittle my character.

Your thoughts?

Those who have finished or are working on your MFAs: what would you say is the % of people in your program(s) who came in straight out of undergrad?

Thanks!

It's not about the break between programs, it's about the life you've lived. Every single student is different, but I can tell that only a few of my classmates were 21 or 22 when we began the program. Technically I had no break between programs, but I dropped out for five years so that's different. Even still, my 20s were uneventful. I draw my stories from my crazy childhood.

Your stories come from your experiences. If you've got more experiences, logic dictates you have more stories to tell, and that's what they want: storytellers. I got my experiences in real early....and led a pretty boring adult life, which I do not find appears in my writing too often.

People always want to know WHY you care about a story, WHY you chose to tell it. Just think about it: who's more qualified to direct that script we just got about bounty hunters in Australia? The former bounty hunter, or the kid who's been in school since he was five?

But it's not impossible. It's just the commonly accepted logic.

The thing is, there seriously are NO EFFING RULES or FORMULAS to getting into this industry or these schools. They want to know you can tell stories, and they want to know how freaking much you need to tell stories, as much as they want to know the stories you want to tell. That's a lot of "tells" and a lot of "stories" in that sentence but read it again til it makes sense.

If you don't get in, don't keep doing what you're doing. Go chase experiences. Go find stories.



I was gonna go teach ESL in Taiwan.

Best of luck to all who read.