Questions about MFA in Creative Writing
Hello all. I'm planning to apply to MFA programs in creative writing this fall (for fall 2013 start, hopefully). I'm already working on getting things together (some of it just mental planning at this point. For right now, I'm just researching schools online and working prolifically on a novella). I have some general questions, though.
1) When it comes to the Statement of Purpose and giving the school an idea of the subject matter in one's writing, do you think it's somehow not okay to say that your fictional stories come by and large from personal experiences? Most writers I know of write from personal experiences (sometimes very overtly, sometimes less so, but almost always to some extent). I am just wondering if I should NOT state explicitly that I do so. Does that somehow make me look amateur? Mind you, I choose personal experiences that have some sort of cultural/social significance, not just my mundane daily life.
2) Also, if a school just says 12-20 pages of your fiction, but does not specify whether they want that from one work, or several pages from two different works, what would you do? I'm inclined to think two to show some range. But is there some advantage to just sending 15 pages from one work?
3) When a school's website doesn't specify, are both the writing sample and the statement of purpose supposed to be double spaced? Or is it writing sample double spaced and statement of purpose single spaced? I have an M.A. in English Literature already, and when I applied for that program, I double-spaced the writing sample but not the statement of purpose. I've noticed that some schools' websites are saying to double space even the statement of purpose, but other schools say nothing. To me, it makes sense to double-space the writing sample but not the statement of purpose. What would you do if the school said nothing about it on its website? (And I know some of this is supposed to be asked of the school itself, but I'm assuming it would take forever to get a reply and/or they're annoyed by little technical questions that this community would be more open to addressing).
Thanks in advance...
1) When it comes to the Statement of Purpose and giving the school an idea of the subject matter in one's writing, do you think it's somehow not okay to say that your fictional stories come by and large from personal experiences? Most writers I know of write from personal experiences (sometimes very overtly, sometimes less so, but almost always to some extent). I am just wondering if I should NOT state explicitly that I do so. Does that somehow make me look amateur? Mind you, I choose personal experiences that have some sort of cultural/social significance, not just my mundane daily life.
2) Also, if a school just says 12-20 pages of your fiction, but does not specify whether they want that from one work, or several pages from two different works, what would you do? I'm inclined to think two to show some range. But is there some advantage to just sending 15 pages from one work?
3) When a school's website doesn't specify, are both the writing sample and the statement of purpose supposed to be double spaced? Or is it writing sample double spaced and statement of purpose single spaced? I have an M.A. in English Literature already, and when I applied for that program, I double-spaced the writing sample but not the statement of purpose. I've noticed that some schools' websites are saying to double space even the statement of purpose, but other schools say nothing. To me, it makes sense to double-space the writing sample but not the statement of purpose. What would you do if the school said nothing about it on its website? (And I know some of this is supposed to be asked of the school itself, but I'm assuming it would take forever to get a reply and/or they're annoyed by little technical questions that this community would be more open to addressing).
Thanks in advance...