DIY MFA in Creative Writing Overview

Goal: Strengthen your technical writing skills and understanding of various genres, forms, and literary techniques.
Reading List:
- Fiction: Story by Robert McKee (narrative structure), The Elements of Style by Strunk & White (grammar/style basics), and The Art of Fiction by John Gardner (techniques for fiction writers).
- Nonfiction & Memoir: On Writing by Stephen King, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr.
- Poetry: The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo.
- Screenwriting (optional if you explore this): Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder.
Writing Exercises:
- Write 500-word vignettes that focus on a single aspect of craft: dialogue, setting, character voice, etc.
- Genre-hopping: Write microfiction or flash pieces in genres you don’t normally explore (e.g., horror, romance, sci-fi).
Application: Incorporate these exercises into your short fiction or microfiction projects to build momentum and versatility in style.

Goal: Read widely and critically, building your reading list around authors and genres you admire and wish to emulate.
Develop a Personal Reading List:
- Focus on solarpunk, mythologized futures, and anarchist literature (Ba Jin, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler).
- Revisit classics with a critical eye, studying structure and technique. Focus on experimental narratives (e.g., Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas).
Critical Reading Journals:
- After each book, write a 500-1000 word analysis of the writing techniques, focusing on what you can take away for your own work.
- Use these journals as reflective prompts in your writing process (e.g., How can I adapt Le Guin's world-building strategies for my solarpunk mythologies?).

Goal: Dive deep into your particular areas of interest, aligning with your themes of identity, solo living, queer heresy, slow living, etc.
Microfiction & Solarpunk Mythologies:
- Explore how microfiction can reflect myth-making. Write daily micro-stories that reimagine mythologies through a solarpunk lens. Use these as building blocks for future larger projects.
- Consider world-building exercises from RPG frameworks like Thousand-Year-Old Vampire and adapt them to a writing format (use this for both plot and character development).
Creative Nonfiction:
- Develop essays blending philosophy and memoir. Your work on The Curious Hermit could form the basis of a longer essay collection, blending personal narrative with social critique.
- Read essays from writers like Rebecca Solnit and Zadie Smith to analyze how they blend personal narrative with larger social and political themes.
Writing Ritual:
- Incorporate your daily focus words (Identity, Service, Consistency, etc.) into creative prompts. Each day, use your word as a thematic seed for journaling or flash fiction.
Experiments in Form:
- Play with nonlinear structures, fractured timelines, or alternative storytelling methods (e.g., multimedia fiction, writing in fragments, hybrid forms of poetry and prose).
- Consider incorporating code and data into your creative practice, such as using coding to generate text-based art or interactive fiction.

Goal: Build a career strategy around your creative practice, from growing your audience to mastering the submission process.
Building Your Platform:
- Focus on Farcaster and other decentralized platforms where you’re already cultivating a following. Engage your audience through serial fiction projects, experimental writing, and microfiction.
- Start building a newsletter around your solarpunk mythology world—perhaps sharing world-building notes, short stories, or philosophical reflections.
Submission Practice:
- Create a submission spreadsheet to track calls for short story collections, microfiction anthologies, solarpunk-themed magazines, etc.
- Submit to a set number of magazines, contests, or anthologies each month (e.g., aiming for 5-10 submissions). Focus on both mainstream and niche publications.
- Develop a pitch for essays and personal narratives—could start with philosophy-oriented publications or those interested in queer, slow-living themes.
Self-Publishing:
- Explore publishing a microfiction collection on a platform like Gumroad or Patreon as a way to monetize your smaller works while continuing larger projects.

Goal: Complete a major creative project as a demonstration of everything you’ve learned in the DIY MFA.
Major Project Options:
- Novella or Novel: Craft a longer solarpunk mythology work, where you combine speculative elements with a slow-living narrative framework.
- Essay Collection: Expand on your philosophical and spiritual explorations, creating a reflective series that explores themes of queer heresy, solo living, and the divine as paradox.
- Microfiction Anthology: Curate your weekly microfiction into a thematic collection, organized around a narrative arc or concept.
Workshops & Feedback:
- Develop a peer group (online or in person) where you can workshop drafts of your capstone work.
- Alternatively, create a community-based writing challenge (perhaps on Farcaster), where participants can share writing based on the same solarpunk or anarchist themes you’re working with.

Goal: Supplement your main curriculum with flexible, interest-driven projects.
Translation: Study translated works, particularly ancient Chinese texts or anarchist literature, and explore translation as a creative practice. Try translating poetry or flash fiction from Mandarin (or another language you’re studying).
Digital Storytelling: Learn about interactive or transmedia storytelling, experimenting with combining written work with visual media or even coding interactive fiction.
Workshops & Masterclasses: Take online workshops from platforms like Coursera, MasterClass, or even local writing centers for more interactive engagement.

Portfolio: By the end of this DIY MFA, you should have a robust portfolio that includes:
- A collection of short stories, microfiction, or essays.
- A major completed project (novel, essay collection, etc.).
- A clear platform strategy (blog, newsletter, social media presence).
- Submission history or self-published works.
Reflection: Use your focus words to journal throughout this DIY MFA process. Reflect regularly on your progress, noting how your identity as a writer evolves with each new milestone.