my first semester in a creative writing masters

Dear Readers, 

Are you considering getting a masters in creative writing? Well, let me tell you why you should, shouldn’t, and what you get out of a masters. 

First and foremost, identify what you think you need a masters for. I had two major reasons: I wanted to improve my writing, and needed it to be a college professor. Let’s break those things down. 

I wanted to improve my writing: 

As someone who received her bachelors in English on a Creative Writing track, and dropped an education masters for high school teaching, I knew that I needed to figure out my next step quickly. I was a writer at heart, despite having gone through a three year writer’s block. My senior year of undergrad I finally got a rush for writing again, but also lacked the training I needed and it showed. I got a B- on my Creative Writing Capstone, my final project was covered in typos and plotholes and missed a lot of details that I knew it needed. 

So, when I dropped my education masters, I decided to apply to a creative writing masters in New York. I spent six months doing nonstop writing, I woke up everyday and wrote pages on pages worth of words. Some were essays, others were creative pieces. I took ideas I had never poached before, and ideas that I was well acquainted with. I created stories that were vulnerable and powerful, that were honest and real. I wrote essays that detailed my plans for the future, my inspirations from the past, my goals and more. I wrote about the things that held me back and why I was pushing for myself to go further and try something new. 

Here are a few things that I learned this semester: editing and revision is the most important part of writing, create a “cut” file for ideas or sentences you write that you like but can’t use, write what you know, but sometimes write something otherworldly, use honesty and details to convince readers, and so much more. The writing production in graduate school is next level. It's everyday writing, every night it’s more writing, and in between editing. It was intense, but the constant writing trained me to be able to write at any time and about pretty much anything. It’s so easy for me to hop into writing mode now, a new skill I have obtained. 

I want to be a college professor: 

This is pretty self explanatory. I want to teach at the college level, in undergrad and graduate school, so it’s important to me to be educated and prepared to teach. I need training in teaching, lesson planning, building a curriculum, etc. 

Here are more things I learned this semester: when creating a curriculum, identify your main goals for the class and then break those goals down into what you believe are the most important parts of those goals and create lesson plans from that. 

Why you should or shouldn’t get a masters: 

There’s really only two reasons you should get a masters, you need it for a specific field you want to work in or you need training in a field or subject. If those things apply to you, get a masters, if they don’t, don’t. It’s that simple. 

However, there are some personal matters I need to discuss. Do NOT date within your masters program. Just don’t do it, save yourself the trouble and the headache of being with some competitive writer that will only hold you back and stunt your success. It sucks and the damage is irreversible. 

Love, 

Sofia Villafaña.