An MFA in creative writing trains you to be a literary academic, not a novelist. Most feedback comes from peers without expertise, not professors. Measure a writing program by published work and scene-craft skills, not by the degree itself.
Chapters
I spoke to a writer recently who told me that his wife said no to our program. The reason? The only way that she would approve this is if there was actually a degree at the end of it. And I get it. A degree feels safe. It feels legitimate. But here's what most people don't understand about creative writing degrees. MFA programs in creative writing are primarily designed to produce literary academics not to produce actual writers. In fact, most people that go through MFA programs don't actually get to the end and have the skills they need to write and publish a novel that they're proud of. In fact, if you look into MFA programs, only about 10% of the work that comes through the program actually gets feedback from the actual professor. The rest of it is just peer feedback from your other students that don't know what they're doing either. Yes, MFA programs come with a degree, but the degree is focused on the academic part of it, not the actual producing writing and books that you're proud to publish. That is what we do. So the question isn't, does it have a degree? The question is, does it produce results? Do graduates actually publish? Can you see the work that they produce? Did their writing measurably improve. That's the metric that matters, not the letters after your name. And at Story Grid, we focus on one thing: can you write scenes that work, that build to full novels that you're proud to publish? Everything in the program is designed around that one outcome. So if someone in your life is telling you you need to get a degree, think about what the goal is. Is the goal to have this piece of paper that you went through a set of classes, Or is the goal to actually become a writer that can produce books that you're proud to publish and that will leave your legacy? If that's what you're focused on, then a diploma isn't the place you should be looking. A degree isn't where you should be looking. You should be looking for something that can actually teach those skills.
