lynda
Nov 5, 2000, 1:58 PM
Post #528 of 2528
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Looking for Grads & Students of Low-Residency MFAs
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Interesting, but the situation still sounds different than mine. You
were very lucky to get to work with the same advisor a second time.
Someone told me that it is highly unlikely I will get to repeat
advisors during the WWC MFA program. WWC emphasizes learning from a
different writer each term, not limiting oneself to one particular
outlook. Furthermore, I'm not planning to start afresh on my novel
this first semester. (I will start afresh on short stories for a
collection, but that is the second prong of my writing projects. My
first prong is the novel-in-progress.) With the guidance of a
wonderful novel writing teacher I worked with for two consecutive
terms, I've drafted a hundred and fifty pages of manuscript. (Part of
it was used as my application writing sample at WWC.) Now I need to
work on *new* chapters and complete the entire draft. I've already
spent a lot of time revising it with the help of previous teachers. I
don't want to lose momentum, but to keep moving ahead. You asked about
my reading speed. (Or was that merely a rhetorical question?) To tell
you the truth, I've never estimated my speed of reading, though I'm
sure it is no different than anyone else's reading ability. To my
knowledge, I got through college and law school without any reading
impairment. (Boy, was there a truckload of reading!) But I doubt that
speed itself reflects depth of analysis or understanding about what
one has read. A certain amount of intellectual alertness and
reflection is required, along with a sensitivity to the imagery,
structure and thematic patterns in the novel. To read with a writer's
eye is more demanding than just getting through x number of pages. In
short, my concern is not how fast people read my manuscript, but
whether some of the time they spend on reviewing and rehashing what
was done earlier (chapters 1-12) will eat up the valuable and limited
time otherwise devoted to discussing *new, continuing* story material
(i.e. ch. 13 and onward). That is the only reason I raised this
question. Thanks for your input, dmh. I appreciate your sharing your
experiences. If anyone else has anything to contribute to this
discussion, please join us. I'd also like to hear from other students
beginning low res MFA programs with a hefty novel-in-progress. How do
you plan to spend your time efficiently, given the limits of 5 or 6
exchanges? Lynda
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