Q: “I just found out about #CTC29 but you’re already on Day 5. Is it too late to join?”

A: It’s not too late and we’d love to have you be part of the fun. The more the merrier and you can join anytime in the month of August. But the sooner you sign up the better because it will give you more time to do all the prompts and connect with other writers in the challenge. Come September we’ll be closing the challenge headquarters and it won’t reopen until we run the challenge again later this year.

To join, just sign up and jump in on whatever prompt is live that day. Prompts go out via email at 5am each day, but we’re also posting links to all past prompts at our Super-Secret Headquarters webpage. You’ll find the link to that page in the welcome email you get when you sign up.

Q: “I didn’t get today’s prompt. What happened?”

A: First, check your spam filter and make sure to whitelist DIY MFA so you don’t miss emails. If it’s not in the spam filter, then the email probably got eaten by the gremlins of the interwebs. But don’t worry, you can still find all the prompts listed on the challenge headquarters page. That way if you miss a prompt or join part-way through the challenge, you can always catch up.

Q: Once I’ve written something, what am I supposed to do with it?

A: That’s totally up to you and what you feel comfortable with. You don’t have to share your work at all and if you want to just store your pieces away in a notebook on your desk, that’s totally fine. The last thing I want is for the pressure of sharing your writing to get in the way of your actual writing.

That said, some intrepid writers have been blogging their prompts and sharing their progress each day, then tweeting the links with the #CTC29 hash tag. Sharing your work is a great way to keep yourself accountable. An alternative to this is to “play catch” with another writer. All you have to do is email each other your daily piece. The other person doesn’t have to read or comment, just catch it and keep you accountable. When you know that someone is waiting for your piece, it be the difference between dragging yourself to the desk to write, or giving into the temptation to skip a day.

At the same time, I totally understand that many writers would rather not post their work publicly online. (In fact, if you do post your work, keep in mind that once you hit that “publish” button on a blog, the writing is considered “previously published” and you won’t be able to publish the piece in a magazine or market that only accepts unpublished work.) To resolve this, I’m working on the possibility of a more private online space just for writers in the challenge. I will definitely keep you posted if we’re able to go ahead with that.

Got other questions not covered here?

Just email me or a member of the DIY MFA team and we’ll help you out. In the meantime, get ready to do some serious writing.

The post #CTC29: Writing Challenge FAQ’s appeared first on DIY MFA.

Can I use the name of a deceased person as a character name in my “based on a true story” work of fiction?

Depends on who the dead person is.  If we’re talking about a historical figure who’s long-since deceased (Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Henry VIII) chances are you don’t have an estate of that person who will sue you if you take creative liberties with that character.  If on the other hand, your character is more recently deceased, you have to worry about what the legal world calls “Rights of Publicity,” which falls outside my husband’s area of expertise.

Can you write a fictional story based on factual events and people as a jumping off point?

Certainly!  It’s called historical fiction.  Sure, if you rewrite history defaming certain public figures you might run into trouble with their estates, but if the factual events and people are just a jumping-off point for the rest of the story, you shouldn’t have any problem.  Think, for instance, of the movie Forrest Gump where the protagonist meets several presidents and John Lennon.  He even “helps” Lennon write the lyrics to the song Imagine and teaches Elvis how to dance.  If you’re writing a story that is embedded in a historical time period, it makes sense that people and events of that time would appear in your story.

Is there a disclaimer you need to add if you portray a factual person in a negative light within your fictional story?

The safest bet if you want to portray a factual person in a negative light (especially if you’re taking creative liberties with that person) is to change the name.  If the person is really well-known, chances are readers will pick up the reference.

Can you mention brand names and actual businesses in fiction and other creative works (both as parody and not)? For instance, can you have a character shop at 7-Eleven? Can you make a joke about Lifesavers?

As far as casual mention of brand names in fiction (like having a character order a Diet Coke or listen to an iPod), my understanding is that this is OK.  The main thing you should consider as a writer is whether using certain brand names will date your book.  Some brands have been around for a while and are here to stay so if you mention them, it won’t immediately date your story.  But other brands (particularly as far as technology goes) are constantly changing and mentioning the brand will definitely lock your story into a particular place in time.  If you’re writing a book that takes place in a specific time period, then dating the story can work in your favor but if you want a more timeless feel, you’ll want to watch out for mentioning brands or types of technology that will date your story.

In terms of parody, as we mentioned in the Infringement, Fair Use and Derivative Works post you can  imitate or mention existing stories or brands for humorous effect.  What you need to be careful of is not to defame that brand.  For instance, in the Coming to America  example, the restaurant McDowell’s is a parody of the McDonald’s brand but the humor comes from the fact that the fake brand is actually almost identical to the existing brand and the owner of McDowell’s continues to insist that the brands are totally different.  If, on the other hand, McDowell’s were a strip club that also happened to serve burgers and fries, that could be considered a defamation because it’s taking a family-friendly restaurant and turning it into something quite the opposite.

How does copyright work on the internet? On blogs for example? What is the “copyright” status of a blog or other internet-published piece of writing?

Generally, when you post something on a blog, it’s considered “published.”  This is why it’s important to be careful about what you give away on blogs for free (i.e. posting large chunks of your novel or entire short stories).  At the same time, having published something on your blog does not preclude you from publishing it elsewhere as well, as long as you make it clear to the entity publishing your work that it has already appeared on your blog.

As far as the copyright status of work on a blog, the minute you hit that publish button and your post or story or piece of writing goes live, you’ve got copyright.  And what’s nice about publishing on a blog is that you have a time-stamp and date associated with when your piece was posted so if any question comes up regarding your copyright, you have that record already.  Of course, if you want to sue for damages, you will do better to have actually registered the copyright to your work with the copyright office, but because of the disposable and ephemeral nature of blog posts, it is almost certainly not cost-effective.

Worst case scenario, if someone takes your content and tries to pass it off as their own, you have proof from your blog time-stamp that your content was here first.  You can contact the offending party and just ask them to take the work down from their site.  Public shaming is also an effective tactic.

The post Legally Speaking: Q&A appeared first on DIY MFA.

The great thing about DIY MFA is that there’s only one person you can–or should–compare yourself to, and that’s you.  Everyone’s journey is different and unique.  This is why it’s so important to understand where we’re starting from.  Otherwise, how are we to know where we’re going, much less how we’re going to get there.

Today, take a few moments to answer the following questions about where you are right now.  You may want to keep them to yourself in a private notebook, or you might want to share your answers with writer friends.  You may even want to post them on your blog (in which case, leave a link in the comments!)  Just make sure to jot the answers down so that in a few months you can see how far you’ve come.

Weekend Writing Prompt:

Reading:

1. Do you read regularly? If so, how many books per year, on average?
2. What are your Top 3 preferred subjects or genres?
3. List the last 5 books/magazines you’ve read.

Writing:

1. How long have you been writing regularly?
2. Do you have a project you’re focusing on?  Or are you experimenting with various things?
3. How often do you write?  Is your writing schedule regular or sporadic?
   

Workshop:

1. Do you belong to a writing group or have writer colleagues who read your work?
2. Do you participate in workshops at conferences or other live or online events?
3. Do you take time to evaluate the feedback and implement what resonates with you into your work?

Community:

1. Do you have writer friends?
2. Do you engage with other writers either face-to-face or online?
3. Are you a member of any writing associations?

Note:Don’t worry if you answered “No” to many of the above questions or left some answers blank.  That’s actually very valuable information because it shows you which areas of your writing life are in need of a little extra attention.

Now, I want you to draw a circle and divide it into slices, like a pie. The slices don’t have to be exactly even because they correspond to how much time you will spend on each of the areas of DIY MFA.

Once you’ve created your pie, estimate how many hours you plan to spend on DIY MFA activities each week.  Be realistic, here.  No sense in saying you can dedicate fifty hours per week to DIY MFA when really all you can squeeze in is five.  Pick a number that works within the constraints of your life and responsibilities and write that number down.

Now, with a little middle school math (or if you prefer, you can just “guess-timate”) budget out how much time you’ll spend on each slice of your pie.  This will tell you exactly how many hours or minutes you should spend on each part of DIY MFA.

Remember, your pie can shift and change depending on your priorities in a given week. Don’t feel like you have to be locked into this plan forever.  Depending on what’s going on in your life, your pie can change.

The point is, none of this is set in stone and it’s important to keep updating your pie in response to what’s going on in your writing life that week, month or year.  Maintaining a flexible outlook and reevaluating your plan are central components to DIY MFA.  After all, life happens, and your DIY MFA plan will have to adjust to fit.  The flexibility and continuous evaluation process are what help make DIY MFA a program that you can sustain for the long haul.

The post Let’s Start at the Beginning appeared first on DIY MFA.

While I was researching and applying to graduate schools, I noticed a few threads common to most MFA programs.  Despite being very different schools–in different states and with different areas of focus–most MFAs emphasized four main components: reading, writing, workshop and community.  Here at DIY MFA, we focus on those very same things.

Reading

When it comes to reading, each DIY MFA writer will have a different area of focus.  For example, I write middle grade and teen fiction so the vast majority of what I read will fall in those categories.  This is not to say that I don’t also read books for adults, but they’re not my primary focus.  Another writer who wants to study literary fiction will have a completely different approach to reading than me, and that’s fantastic.  This is where DIY MFA differs from most MFA programs.  Instead of limiting what you can read only to a prescribed list of great books, the goal here is to help make your literature study serve your writing.  This means gaining a deeper understanding of the body of literature where your work fits.

Writing

The writing component of DIY MFA is divided in two parts: study of craft and making the most of creativity techniques.  In terms of craft, my area of expertise is fiction so that is what I will be concentrating on.  My goal, however, is that as DIY MFA grows I will bring in Guest Lecturers to do posts that focus on craft in other areas such as: poetry, non-fiction, playwriting, and screenwriting.  If there is enough demand for a particular genre in fiction (i.e. children’s books, teen lit, romance, thrillers, etc.) I can do posts or get Guest Lecturers for those genres as well.  My aim is that the lecturers teaching about a certain type of writing will have a lot of expertise in that area.

In terms of creativity, I have tons of creativity exercises and techniques up my sleeve.  Some of these are tricks I learned when I took a creativity seminar as a psychology grad student.  Others are exercises I’ve developed to help my students kick-start their creativity.  My goal is for everyone to build their own customized writing “toolbox” with exercises and techniques that work for them.

Workshop

When it comes to workshops, I’ve experienced just about every type you can imagine.  This means that I can give you lots of tips and ideas on where to find critique buddies and how to navigate the sometimes-intimidating world of receiving feedback on your work.  We’ll also talk about what to do with that stack of comments after you’ve gotten critiques, and how to approach the revision process.

Community

It’s important for writers to find networks of likeminded people, and that’s where this website comes in.  My goal is to give the DIY MFA community a place to meet and interact.  In the Spring, I plan to launch a DIY MFA live course where there will be even more opportunities for interaction and community.  In addition, I will be tweeting from @DIYMFA, and we can always use the hash tag #DIYMFA for tweets related to this project.  And don’t forget to visit our Facebook page (facebook.com/DIYMFA) as yet another way to interact with DIY MFA writers.

As for tips and tricks, I have lots to say on this subject as well.  We’ll cover topics ranging from writing conferences to reading in public, from where to find literary events to what to do with your rejection letters.  My hope is that as a community, we can not only serve as a support system for each other, but also help one another build personalized writing communities specific to each of our needs.

Why DIY MFA Works

The beauty of DIY MFA is that while it still covers the same four components as a traditional MFA, you decide how to structure each component in a way that fits your goals.  If you want to learn to write thrillers, you don’t have to spend hours studying eighteenth century parlor-room novels (unless you want to, of course!)  Similarly, if your goal is to engage with a community of thriller-writers, no one’s going to force you to hang out at a children’s literature reading.  Of course, branching out beyond your chosen genre can actually help you enhance your writing and can open your mind to new ideas.  But the great thing about DIY MFA is that you get to choose how you invest your time in a way that serves your goals.

This means that while DIY MFA still covers the same basics as a traditional MFA, each writer’s self-made program will be unique to that writer.  That means you get to take ownership of your writing education.  And ultimately, reclaiming ownership over our writing lives is what DIY MFA is all about.

Note: For an updated description of how DIY MFA works, go here.

The post How Does DIY MFA Simulate the MFA Experience? appeared first on DIY MFA.

Those who are familiar with the DIY MFA program probably already know the answers to most of these questions but for those who are new to the program, I thought it would be good to take some time and iron out the details.

Sound good? Great! Let’s get started.

What is DIY MFA?

This is probably the question I get most often. DIY MFA stands for Do-It-Yourself MFA. No, it doesn’t stand for “Do-It-Yourself Mafia,” though some may think that would be much more exiting. MFA has nothing to do with organized crime.

OK that’s nice, but what-the-hey is an MFA?

The MFA stands for master’s degree in the fine arts. You can go to school for an MFA in any number of fields including: Film, Studio Art and Sculpture, Music, Theater and, of course, Creative Writing. This is usually a two-year degree (if done full-time), though length can vary between different programs. Also, some schools offer an MA (Master of Arts) in Creative Writing and some schools even have PhD’s in Creative Writing. The most popular advanced degree in Creative Writing is still the MFA, though, which is why I decided to call this program DIY MFA.

Do you have something against MFA programs? Is that why you created DIY MFA?

MFA degrees can be great–in fact, I happen to have one. For some people, the MFA is a good fit, but for others it just isn’t feasible. Logistics, time and money are all factors that play into a writer’s decision to do an MFA and for some people it just doesn’t make sense. But this doesn’t mean these writers are any less serious than their MFA-going counterparts. That’s where DIY MFA comes in. I want to share some of what I learned in my own MFA experience and help writers develop their own Do-It-Yourself writing plans.

If I do the DIY MFA, will I get a degree?

Sadly, no, at least not a real degree. I would be happy to grant you an imaginary degree but that won’t help you much in terms of building credentials or a resume. DIY MFA is not accredited by any powers-that-be so if your goal is to get an official degree, you’ll need to go to an official school.

More importantly, an official degree would go against the core beliefs of DIY MFA. The whole point of DIY MFA is that learning can’t be defined by geographical location or a set period of time. Learning happens throughout life. You learn something every time you write a new sentence, send out a query or get a rejection. DIY MFA’s #1 goal is to help you reclaim your writing education and take charge of what you learn, rather than letting it take charge of you. DIY MFA is about being an active participant in your own writing life.

How does DIY MFA work exactly? Are there classes? Do I have to do homework?

Starting off, DIY MFA will center around this blog. There are posts every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. I’ll also be tweeting from @DIYMFA and posting updates on the DIY MFA Facebook page. As DIYMFA.com grows, I plan to release more worksheets, workbooks and other products to help you along on your journey. The idea is to give you lots of different ways to construct your own personalized DIY MFA program. You can participate as much or as little as you like—whatever fits your schedule and your writing style.

OK, that’s great, but where’s the structure? I need structure!

Don’t we all. As a writing teacher, I’m all about setting up a curriculum that ties together, so don’t fret: you’ll have structure if you need it. Each week the posts on the DIY MFA blog will center on one topic. Topics will include: reading the literature, creating characters, plotting a novel, connecting with the writing community, etc.

• Monday: Columnists talk about the craft and business of writing.
• Tuesday: Columns focusing on topics specific to various genres.
  
• Wednesday: This is the day that the new DIY MFA Radio episodes are posted.
• Friday: Just in time for the weekend are our #5onFri posts.

So that’s the gist of DIY MFA. You can pick and choose what parts of the program work best for you. Of course, I always love to hear feedback from you all, so if you have any thoughts you’d like to share or topics you want me to focus on, don’t hesitate to email me at: gabriela at DIYMFA dot com.

Are you excited? I know I am.

The post What is DIY MFA? (and other FAQs) appeared first on DIY MFA.