Do I Need an MFA to Get Published?
For some reason, I’ve been seeing “Do I need an MFA to get published?” getting asked a lot on social lately, and it’s been disheartening to see. Coming from someone who holds an MFA in Creative Writing, I’m going to say this once and for all:
No, you do not need an MFA to be a published author. I don’t know when or why this became a thing, but here we are. The way I see it, the MFA is good for three things:
Structure
Helping you hone your craft
Providing a community
Structure
One of the key benefits of an MFA are the building blocks it provides. Each semester, you should feel like you’ve reached a new level. For example, George Mason’s MFA program was three years long and every semester I noticed I was gaining more and more awareness about craft elements. When I started the MFA, I had a good sense of story, but I lacked the “craft” knowledge and vocabulary. Knowing that I was in a program, though, gave me confidence that there was a method to each course's madness and that with each one I took, as long as I put in the work, I trusted I was going to get better.
If you’re thinking about getting an MFA, I would check out who the professors are and the courses offer. If you can see how each course, semester, or year builds on the other, I would say that’s a good sign.
But let’s say you do have a good idea about what you’re doing or getting an MFA isn’t an option. Build your own structure. Give yourself milestones. You can totally build your own structure.
Honing Your Craft
I know a lot of people aren’t going to want to hear this, but the only way to get better at anything is to practice and fail… a lot. During those three years at Mason, I don’t think I ever workshopped the same story, chapter, or excerpt twice, unless it was a requirement. This allowed me to play, churn out a massive amount of work, and find what I was really good at and what I needed to work on.
You don’t need an MFA to write your face off. You can do the same thing by finding writing prompts or challenges online and using those to dictate what you write next. Or you can just start pulling all those random ideas you have jotted down in your journal.
Community
Community is the thing I miss the most about the MFA. Meeting up and interacting with so many creative people on a daily basis was a gift. You can’t help but be immersed in this creative mindset and lifestyle. With that said, I think you can build your own village as well. You don’t need an MFA to do it, but it is harder in the real world.
Adulting in general is hard, and that can make it difficult for your writing group to meet up regularly. But I think even though this will feel disheartening at times, it’s one of the most important things you need to do as a writer. You need to build your squad. Writing may be a solitary act, but it takes a village to bring a book into the world. You need people who are going to be asking about your writing. You need people whom you can trust to give you constructive feedback. Books don’t get made in a vacuum.
So, no, you don’t need an MFA to be published. What you need to get published is a strong work ethic, Google, and a group of people who are going to support you. You got this!
