{"id":10908,"date":"2019-03-12T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/wilkinson\/2019\/03\/12\/mfa-ashley-teller\/"},"modified":"2019-03-12T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:00:34","slug":"mfa-ashley-teller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/2019\/03\/12\/mfa-ashley-teller\/","title":{"rendered":"So you\u2019re in an MFA program\u2013now what?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A Foot in the MFA\u00a0Door: On Inspiration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by\u00a0Ashley Teller<\/p>\n<p>In my first semester in the MFA in Creative Writing program, I learned a great deal about the art and business of being a writer, especially in the Aspects of a Writer class that all the incoming students take together.\u00a0 It is not all that it seems to be: it has the pros and cons, just like any job really.\u00a0 However, being a writer is one of the most beautiful and purest of art forms.\u00a0 It\u2019s about taking one\u2019s emotions or an idea that has sparked in one\u2019s head and putting it to paper in the rawest form.\u00a0 And then it\u2019s about revising it. It is not easy, but that is the point.<\/p>\n<p>Great art cannot be accomplished overnight.\u00a0 It is a process one should never give up, which is something I learned when I took Richard Bausch\u2019s Techniques of Fiction class.\u00a0 Inspiration can happen at the most unexpected times.\u00a0 I know through experience that you cannot force inspiration to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, you must go out in the world and experience life in order for inspiration to hit\u2014or for you to recognize it.\u00a0 If you\u2019re out and about and paying attention, an idea can pop up into or form in your head.\u00a0 Because of this, I recommend that every writer carry around an inspiration journal at all times.\u00a0 When inspiration strikes, you have easy access to writing it all down.\u00a0 Some of my friends use their phones for this.<\/p>\n<p>At times,\u00a0 I have been unsure of whether I was meant to be here or whether my writing was any good.\u00a0 However, I talked with my professors, and they are fantastic.\u00a0 I recommend talking to them because they\u2019re definitely there for us.\u00a0 They know we have talent and want to push us, help us, and see us succeed.\u00a0 No one wants to see anyone else fail.\u00a0 It\u2019s common for writers to get down on ourselves, but being in an MFA program gives us ways out of that thinking.\u00a0 When it gets hard, we can talk with our fellow classmates and professors. Seeing what others around us are accomplishing and talking about how we\u2019re all doing this thing we call writing is really helpful, especially during a tough time.\u00a0 We are great inspiration for each other.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, thinking about others is something I\u2019ve come to value.\u00a0 I have learned that we, as MFA students, have the ability to work with the community and even apply for grants through the school to do the types of projects that not only impact ourselves but also impact others.\u00a0 It\u2019s incredibly rewarding to help out other people rather than just focus on ourselves.\u00a0 As writers and as students, we can shape and change our own lives and the lives of others, especially younger people. Whether you call this literary citizenship or give it another name, it\u2019s inspiring for everyone involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A guest post by MFA Candidate Ashley Teller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2854,"featured_media":16757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2274,2499,1133,2523],"class_list":["post-10908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","tag-mfa-creative-writing","tag-mfa-creative-writing-ma-english","tag-mfa-degree","tag-mfa-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}