Interesting thoughts that have been brought up here! I hope BYU’s MFA is a success.

I really enjoyed my BYU experience, but not so much the actual creative writing track. For one thing, at that time they lumped all kinds of creative writers into one workshop, which made only a little more sense than lumping those learning French, Spanish, and Chinese into one class. For another, the theory courses were very ambiguous and ethereal and academic and didn’t provide any practical training for a creative writer. The emphasis seemed to be more on preparing me for a PhD program, since the MA is not a terminal degree. I did like some of the workshop experience, but the professor never said anything, so it did seem like students teaching students. My favorite class of the whole degree was the Mo lit reading class I took from Eugene England.

My BYU MA gave me some great things. It turned me on to Mormon literature, the AML, etc. which have continued as abiding interests in my life. And it was through the MA program that I got an (extremely boring) summer internship in the LDS Church’s curriculum dept. which then directly led to a less-boring full-time stint at the Ensign magazine and a subsequent reasonably well paid career in corporate marketing communications. However, as far as preparing me to become an actual published creative writer, the program did less for me than two years of participating in a good writer’s group and studying books and magazines put out by the likes of Writers Digest would have done.

While I can see benefits to MA and MFA programs, I come down on the side of thinking it’s too often all just a big pipe dream for the students. It’s a lot like the multilevel marketing industry in which I work: everyone wants to launch their own successful home-based biz and make money, but fewer than 1% actually make it. If a program in law or dentistry had those job-placement odds, it would fail. So I think MFA programs should be a lot more realistic and should include a lot more practical emphasis on carving out a workable writing life. I almost wonder if most creative writing degrees should possibly be simply a tag-on minor to some real vocational degree, meaning one with reasonable odds for providing a lifetime remunerative career.

And hawkgirl, I agree that BYU’s MFA will offer Utah writers seeking that particular degree more choice. Although the U of U’s MFA is really good, it isn’t the right fit for everybody. I’m excited to see what BYU’s program produces.

And Shawn, you make some really good points. As far as an MFA being a “gamble,” though, so many worthwhile endeavors don’t offer a guaranteed outcome. Seeking to be a published writer is itself an incredibly precarious choice. Although you don’t have to invest a whole lot of *money* into writing (like you would an MFA), you’re still investing tons of time and creative energy and there’s no guarantee at all public success will come of it. I would also argue that even if I hadn’t found a part-time teaching job or had some (small) literary success after my MFA, I still would have found the experience more worthwhile than almost anything else I’ve done in my life. Of course, that’s my own personal experience, but my MFA was worth every penny. (And as to point number three . . . society didn’t pay for my MFA. I did. .

Robin and Moriah, I think part of the problem is Robin has a pretty broad definition of “creativity,” and Moriah’s is more narrow. While I agree with Robin that all of us have the potential to be “creative” in the broad sense of the word–even if that creativity is expressed in, say, coming up with ingenious new ways to organize one’s closet–I also agree with Moriah, especially when we narrow the definition to “artistic creativity.” Just as I’ll never be an athlete, some people will never be artists. And that’s okay.

Your mother created and raised you and I can’t help but feel sorry that her daughter cannot see any creativity in her

You know, I DO get the metaphor and simile and hyperbole and symbolism and whatnot.

It doesn’t take a genius to make a baby, and my mother still can’t spin art out of whole cloth. Really, you need not be sad on my or my mother’s behalf.

I repeat: There are a lot of people in this world who can’t and it’s GOOD that they can’t. They have other talents. Peace exists in one’s soul when one recognizes the talents that one has and DOES THAT instead of wishing and pining over what talents one doesn’t have.

I have faith that there’s lots of room in the Celestial Kingdom for mathematicians and accountants and lawyers and philosophers to do what they do without needing to be creative, and I hope they’re there because I need those kinds of people to help prop me up when I get lost in my head for days at a time.

My husband does NOT have a creative bone in his body but what he does allows me to do what I do. It’s the whole wind-beneath-my-wings cliche come to life. And I have NEVER said it was BAD that someone isn’t creative.

I am in the camp that thinks creative writing can be taught, but I don’t think creative writing can be taught to people who don’t have an originating talent. Given that talent for words, anyone can be helped to improve. But that’s the crux of it. I don’t think the word to define is “creative,” but “teaching.” I’m in the school that asserts that no one really learns anything from anyone. Real learning comes through personal experience. You can tell me and tell me something, but until I experience it, apply it, etc., it isn’t really learned. So it is w. writing. We can yap about how to do it until the cows come home, but no one really learns until they act on what they hear. So its the acting on that is the learning process, not the teaching. I believe we can guide one another to better writing (teach it), but that you only really become a better writer by doing. So sure, teach it. That teaching can direct the writer to put ideas into practice and from that practice, he/she will become better.

I’m thrilled that BYU will have an MFA for writers. This was news to me.