In case you haven't seen it, Richard Ford gives his list of ten rules for writing here. For the most part, I think they're pretty good rules. I get it. I shouldn't drink and write. The same advice probably goes for drinking and Facebooking too. And drinking and blogging, which I'm not, by the way, doing right now.
Still, I struggle with advice #2, which says "Don't have children." I'm a parent, and I just don't agree with that. I'll be the first to admit it's not easy trying to write and raise a child, but it's no harder for me than for the person who has to work an extra job proofreading at night, or the person with insomnia, or the person with a chronic illness. And I'm inherently resistant to the implication that there is one writing process that works unilaterally. For that reason, I also struggle with Annie Dillard's, The Writing Life, because ahem, I have a life life. I can't go isolate myself in a windowless tool shed and write for twelve hours a day. Does that make me less of a writer?
Well, actually, yes it does, but maybe someday, I'll have the luxury of time.
For now, I may not have marathon nights of manic writing, but I have Sunday mornings where I sit in my office with the sun coming through the window, a cup of coffee next to me, and my laptop on the desk. The writing still happens; it just happens differently. My MFA gives me the structure and allows me time to be a writer, rather than just a parent, and our program here has a diverse population with multiple candidates like me. Fortunately for us, this program provides that space for difference.
You can see my work here .
And you can read more about the WVU MFA here .
From Kelly Sundberg: Secretary, Council of Writers. Moo.
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