A few weeks ago, I learned something relatively innocuous. I learned that one of friend-quaintances is working on an MFA.
I have plenty of friends who are writers. I have friends (and foes) who are working journalists, who write things for millions of readers. In spite of knowing these friends are more “famous” than I am, it hasn’t really caused me to feel jealous.
But this felt different.
It’s difficult to explain, but I felt … not jealous, but kind of pained. Dejected? Weird? Sad? I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it felt weird to find out that someone I thought I knew would post that they were working on a novel.
And then — because I’m self-absorbed and unattractive, and prone to doing all sorts of ridiculous things — I wondered if any of her characters were inspired by me.
… probably not.
I do all of my writing online, with all of my material being self-hosted(ish) and self-published. I post fun stuff over here on my personal site and I post my serious stuff on Medium, so I’ve generally shrugged at the MFA vs. NYC debates — especially in the current era. We live in a time where journalists and writers are having to work at building an online presence, in spite of their hard work elsewhere. Journalists, novelists, poets, and artists are forced to become influencers and content creators if they want to continue “staying relevant,” “building their brand,” or … you know … possibly getting paid a living wage.
That last one seems more critical than the other two.
I often encourage writing for the sake of writing, even without a degree or fancy credentials or 200,000 followers.
People ought to be paid for their creative efforts, of course, but I don’t think people need to feel as if their writing is somehow less valuable because they’re a blogger without a degree, or a hobbyist, or a newbie.
Even the folks who will never get an MFA, who will never set foot inside a publishing company, who will never have a professional byline — all of these folks should keep writing.
Not under pressure or under duress — and not without recognition and compensation (of some sort). Write poems for your partner, if they’ll appreciate them. Share your work with friends and/or family. Maybe you can only share your work with Internet friends — but that can be freeing and helpful, too. It’s a way of building community, of sharing your skills, of participating in the world.
My hope is that all writers — hobbyists, professionals, people who are somewhere in between — will keep writing until we can figure out a more sustainable model for everyone to get a fair shake at things.
Jamais Mayville 