When I tell people that I'm getting an MFA the responses that I receive from them are mixed and varied. Some people have no idea what an MFA is while others have no idea why I would want one unless I planned to be a teacher. I can't tell you about the value of MFAs as a whole, but here's what I am getting out of my Stonecoast MFA.

Stonecoast is the working writer's MFA.

Most, if not all, of the instructors are working writers who find interesting ways to carve out a life for themselves with the words they put on paper. None of the instructors are one dimensional in that none of them only do one thing. They all work in different genres and story forms, which allow them to market their writing more widely and to produce a livable income. They write poems, short stories, novels, screenplays, plays, articles, memoirs, non-fiction, and teach - or some combination of these forms.

Not only am I learning to write, I'm also learning how to think creatively about my desired profession. How can I make this writing thing work for me? This question or theme is echoed in the residency programming with seminars like "Quit Your Day Job" in which a panel of our instructors told us blow by blow how they have made a living from their writing. In addition, the focus of many of the seminars and workshops is on blending genres in order to give Stonecoast students a wide, yet focused, learning experience. As a result, by the time I graduate, I feel like I will be able to take on any writing project.

So, when you ask me "What good is an MFA?", let me tell you that it has been the difference between learning how to write and learning how to be a writer. At least that's my answer and that's exactly what I wanted out of my MFA program.

Stonecoast MFA Program, a division of the University of Southern Maine


Hello Stonecoasters!

I'm noticing that there are a lot of us on LJ. However, I don't think we all know one another since people have found each other more by chance than anything else.

If you are a Stonecoast student or alum, do you mind responding to this post so that we can get on each other's radar?

It looks like I have given myself another month with a full schedule. I didn't quite pull everything off last month, but I got pretty close. I figure the more I shoot for this big goals, the more likely I am to achieve big things. So, here's what April 2008 looks like.

Stonecoast Work for April
Reading:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  
• Beowulf by Caitlín Kiernan
  
• The Road to Xanadu: a Study in the Ways of the Imagination by John Livingston Lowes
  
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  
• How to Murder a Man by Carlo Gebler

Writing:

• 10k of new fiction for Eighth Day
  
• Revise - Thomas Moore Fairy Tale
  
• Write - Blind Sight

Interviews:

• Chris Ryall, Beowulf comic book writer
  
• Neil Gaiman, Beowulf screenwriter

Other Items

A friend also asked me to write a few scripts for next weekends 48-Hour Film Project: Boston. I don't really have the time, but how could I say no? I have three ideas that I will turn into 4-7 minute scripts. Each script can then be "modified" to fit a couple different genres. That should give the team quite a few options with my scripts alone.

.... or at least it will be tonight.

I'm sending my March 27th Stonecoast packet of fiction and annotations to Nancy Holder today. I've hit my 10k mark for new novel fiction and annotations on "Beowulf" and "20th Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill. I think I may post a snippet from my annotation here on the Joe Hill book because I was so incredibly impressed by the richness of the worlds he creates.



Later today or tomorrow I'll be posting my schedule for next month, but not until I get this packet in the e'mail. ;-)


Also, a little warning to the kiddies out there who plan to attend Readercon. You might want to think about reserving your hotel room now before the hotel sells out. I think it sold out around May last year.

Cheers!

For those of you in the know, I've been driving a project to start up an online magazine that is run by the Stonecoast community. The name has just been confirmed as The Wolfe's Neck Review.

The first issue should be appearing online sometime during the summer of 2009, which means we have plenty of time to get this thing up and running. If you want to keep up with the Stonecoast happenings, check out the Stonecoast Journal since that's where I'll be posting future updates on this and other projects.

The Wolfe's Neck Review is going to be an amazing project once it's done. Stay tuned to learn more! Also, let me know if you want to be included on the E'Zine Team! If you're not a Stonecoast student or alum that's ok because this won't be an exclusive magazine, but it will reflect the general philosophies and work of the Stonecoast community.

This month has been a killer. I am feeling so frazzled and exhausted that all I want to do is sleep.

A couple weeks ago I got my packet back from Nancy, and the comments were very good and encouraging for first draft fiction. Also, yesterday Nancy mentioned that at odd moments she keeps finding herself thinking about my novel and the world I have created. That makes me very happy. :-) So far, I have 28,779 words on the novel and I need to put down at least another 1,200 words before I send out my next packet.

I have read Beowulf the poem, the script, and the graphic novel. I've also read Jumper and am halfway done with Joe Hill's "20th Century Ghosts". It's time for me to finish up the annotations that I've started, but I'm losing steam right now and don't really feel like doing anything but kicking up my feet and writing this LJ post.

I've also been up to a few other Stonecoast related things which you can see on the Stonecoast Journal. Other than that, it's all been MIT related work and overtime hours, and then some relaxing time with my husband.

March is shaping up to be a back breaker. Why do I do this? I guess because I excel when there are mountains of work to be done and deadlines are looming. So, I guess it's understandable that I have set myself up for a month where every spare moment will involve me reading or writing something that probably is related to Beowulf. Here's my March plan:

1. Crank out 10,000 of words of new fiction for my novel, Eighth Day.
   
2. Read Beowulf the poem, Seamus Heaney's translation.
   
3. Read Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery's Beowulf script.
   
4. Read Caitlin Kiernan's Beowulf novelization.
   
5. Read Chris Ryall's graphic novel of Beowulf.
   
6. Prepare for and interview Chris Ryall.
   
7. Compile a master document of all published interviews with Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery regarding their adaptation of Beowulf.
   
8. Prepare a preliminary list of interview questions regarding the adaptation of the script.
   
9. Write a comparative annotation of the adaptation of Beowulf among its 4 story forms.
   
10. Prepare for an interview Steve Gould re: Jumper adaptation.
    
11. ..... and sleep, work, and eat.
    

My Stonecoast deadline is March 27th.

P.S. This is not a normal amount of Stonecoast work. I am a compulsive overachiever and I can't help myself from setting up these massive monthly workloads.

------

In other news, VPXers, Jim Kelly is the Guest of Honor at the 2008 Readercon in Burlington, Mass. If you're thinking of going to a con this year, come to this one. Moreover, this is a fantastic con for writers. It's definitely going to be worth the trip.

Avocadopx mentioned to me yesterday that I don't write as many updates as I used to write. So, I figured I should post a quick update while I'm still on my Boskone high.

Stonecoast is going well. I am currently working with Nancy Holder who is the nicest person ever! Her experience with multiple story forms is a perfect match for my project goals for this semester. In addition, Nancy is a wonderful instructor who knows just the right thing to say, even when what she's saying means I have a big rewrite ahead of me!

Since I'll be attending the Stonecoast residency in Ireland in July, I'm working on two stories that both have Irish roots. I've recently finished the first short story, which is an Irish fairy tale about the poet Thomas Moore. The second story is a legend that has been giving me trouble. I think my problem stems from not knowing who the main character was supposed to be in this piece. I have ideas on how to fix it; we'll see how they work.

Right now, I have two shorts in circulation and I should get these others revised and sent out. If only I had more time in the day! I see no way to get them rewritten and sent out in the next few weeks, so they will continue to linger while I do a quick revise of my 10K word Stonecoast packet for Nancy.

I'm about 25% through the first draft of my novel, Eighth Day. I still haven't perfected the dreaded elevator pitch. However, here's the basic idea behind the novel. Eighth Day is a science fiction thriller set in our distant future, during a time when the world governments have been replaced by corporate states with the ability to do limited pastward time travel. After learning about secret resource retrieval missions into the past, temporal Investigator Matt Osgood is forced to make choices that will endanger his relationship with the Chairman's daughter, the continued stability of the protected zones, and the world outside the protected zones - a world that is being destroyed by the temporal backwashes caused by stealing the resources of the past.

I'm also 20% finished with my screenplay adaptation, which I am doing as the practical experience component of my 3rd semester research project at Stonecoast. The title of my project is "The Art of Adaptation Between Multiple Story Forms". This project will focus on the craft of writing adaptations in any story form - not just screenplays. What I plan to show is how to break a story down into its essential elements, and how to use those elements when planting them into a different story form.

Since I will be adapting a poem into a screenplay, I will be writing a research paper on how the poem Beowulf has been adapted into the 2007 film and how that screenplay has been adapted into a novel and into a graphic novel. In addition to Beowulf, my research will include a variety of other stories that have been adapted from fable to short story, poem to novel, novel to screenplay, etc. My research will include books, articles, published interviews, and new personal interviews. My end goal (outside of Stonecoast) is to produce a series of publishable articles or a book on the art of adaptation.

I have also been building The Online Stonecoast Community Journal, which has taken a lot of my LJ alloted time. In addition, I've spent some time extra making YouTube fan videos of Doctor Who and other Sci-Fi TV shows.

I think that's pretty much it for now. I'll try to post more updates so that I don't have to write any more monster updates like this one!

Hi Everyone,

I'm compiling a list of URLs for online writers' resources to post on the Stonecoast Community Journal. If you know of any great online resources, can you please let me know:

1. The name of the site
   
2. The URL for the main/home page
   
3. The category that it would fall under (i.e. publishing, communities, associations, tools, advice, etc.)

Thanks!
Erin

I've had a few requests from people asking about Stonecoast. So, I thought I'd just let you know that I've started the Stonecoast Journal, which gets updated as often as I can update it and gives a pretty nice flavor of the program.

Feel free to check it out and join the online community.

Cheers.

Locus has just published its recommended reading list for 2007. It's a wonderful accomplishment to get on the list once. However, some of Stonecoast's instructors ( James Patrick Kelly, Kelly Link, and David Anthony Durham) have been listed multiple times!

Here's the link for the complete Locus Recommended Reading List for 2007.

It's been two days since I escaped from Maine, barely missing the Nor'easter that hit Freeport and dumped buckets of snow on top of an already snow covered land. It's also been two days since I left the Winter 2008 Stonecoast Residency, and I'm already missing my friends.

My second residency was nothing short of exhausting and amazing. Ten days of readings, writing, critiquing, and listening have stoked my desire to write. This is a very good thing since I have an incredibly aggressive semester in front of me. Yes, I know, I am an overachiever. Then again, Jason did give me the "overachiever" super power in his Pop'Fic Super Heroes story. How can I let this power go to waste? :-)

I have the amazingly good fortune to be mentored by Nancy Holder this semester. Her experience and my needs (and there are many!) are a perfect match. Over the next five months, I'll be blasting through the first draft of my novel, doing research for my 3rd semester project and thesis, and begin organizing my paper on the art of adapting story from one form to another.

Having a chance to work with Jim Kelly last semester was just what I needed. He's a fabulous story doctor and he has helped to push my writing to the next level. In addition, I had some great workshops this semester with Mike Kimball, Julia Spenser-Fleming, and Nancy Holder. After having my workshop manuscripts critiqued by them, I finally feel like I'm "getting it". Writing is a difficult process, but it's not impossible. The key to writing is time, energy, and a stubborn need to persevere no matter what.

To anyone thinking about writing, my best advice is to just do it. Put those words down on paper no matter how crappy they are right now. Literary beauty comes with revision, and not even Shakespeare can revise a blank piece of paper.

Well, it's that time of year again! I'm headed up to Maine along with 100 other writers who will be gathering at the lovely, if not cold, Stonehouse in Freeport, Maine.

The drive should be nice with bright sunny skies, which is nice since I didn't want to be making the trip in the snow. It's 13 degrees in Boston right now. I can imagine the temp is about the same in Maine, but still, I'm not really looking forward to the piles of snow and cold. After all, I have that here! :-)

In any case, this should be a great residency. Some of the seminars look amazing. One of my favorites will be Nancy Holder's seminar on the Hero's Journey. In preparation for the seminar I read "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and "The Writer's Journey". What amazing books! The most useful thing I learned from reading these two books together was a more intimate understanding of the parts of a story and how they work together. Understanding better how each part works and what it's supposed to be doing has already helped me see how to fix a broken fairy tale that I had written a few months ago.

Another seminar that I look forward to is Julia Spencer-Flemming's seminar on suspense. She assigned Max Brooks' book "World War Z", which was fantastic. I wish I had time to read the other suggested reading for this seminar. It should be good.

There is so much more to tell! Unfortunately, it's time to get the rest of my gear packed so that I can hit the road. I'm way behind schedule, and I still need to defenestrate my Christmas tree, so I had better get myself moving!

If all goes well, I plan to make a blog post on the Stonecoast community Life Journal page everyday. So, if you're interested in more details about the residency you can find them there. In the meantime, have a great day!

My first semester in the popular fiction MFA program at Stonecoast is starting to wind down. I've just finished the most difficult month of the semester and I have just sent off my penultimate packet to my mentor. Now I'm trying to finish up some revisions that I didn't have time to do last month and get them submitted to Cemetery Dance and F&SF sometime before the end of the month.

There is only one more packet on the horizon and that's due on December 10th. Once that packet is sent to my mentor, I'll finally start reading the books for my January residency. Actually, looking at the book list, I had better start on that sooner than later! The amount of reading is significant, but not unattainable. I just wish I had more time.

I also received some good news regarding the July residency. I was one of the students selected to attend the residency in Dingle, Ireland in 2008. The experience should be phenomenal. The only trick is to get back into Boston on the 17th so that I can make it to Readercon. However, I don't see the scheduling to be too much of a conflict.

The Coastline Guesthouse in Dingle, Ireland.


There is a good chance that Readercon may have at least one panel (maybe two) on popular fiction in academia with a special focus on students who enroll in MA & MFA Creative Writing Programs. If we're able to get these panels approved, I will be THRILLED! I think it would be a great opportunity to bring the Stonecoast program into the light - so to speak.

Thanks to everyone for their support as I take on the task of writing my first novel.

I have only written about 400 new novel words over the last two days. However, I have written a 1,200 word summary of the plot as well as a couple pages of notes on how much technology works. I'll be sending all of this to my mentor for feedback. Since this is my first novel attempt, I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback on my concept and how I plan to write the story.

The great thing about the process so far is that I am not wed to any one way of doing things with this novel, so whatever Jim says will have a real impact on the choices that I make as I go forward.

Last Wednesday I had my mid-semester meeting with my Stonecoast mentor, Jim Kelly. I was a little nervous. I'm not sure why. I've known him for a while now, but this is the first time we got together to talk about all of my work. He spent a little less than 2.5 hours with me, which was so much longer than I had anticipated.

We talked about everything from what I'm currently working on to what I plan to work on over the course of my next three semesters at Stonecoast. He was glad to hear that I'm switching to writing science fiction and humorous fiction. I think I might have worried him a little with all of my twisted, dark fantasy! Sorry Jim!

My third semester project is focused on the adaptation of an original work (such as a poem) and turning it into a screenplay. My plan centers on adapting "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" into a screenplay. However, I'm starting to think that I might turn it into a novel instead. My end goal is to introduce new generations of readers to the beauty, fantasy, and horror of the Romantic Poets. Blake, Shelley, Coleridge - three of my all time favorite poets and storytellers. I’m going to have to really think about what to do with my project because it will mean a significant shift in the type of writing I'll be doing over the next couple of semesters (as well as after I finish the program).

I've also been doing a significant amount of research on European discovery voyages between the 15th and 18th Centuries. The information I'm learning is fascinating and it's encouraging me to think bigger than a screenplay. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a fantastical, if not horrific, poem written about a Mariner who kills an albatross and then has to suffer through a series of terrible lessons before his penance is done. I feel like a movie can’t go deeply enough into the psychological depths that need to be explored to fully realize the significance of this poem. So, it’s decision-making time. Stick with the screenplay or switch to novelizing the poem. What to do?!

Next week is going to be insane. On Thursday, I'm heading to the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY - it's one of those locations that just isn't easy to get to anyway you slice it. The schedule has been posted and there are a ton of readings, which should be terrific. I'm especially looking forward to the reading by David Anthony Durham. I was disappointed that he left Stonecoast the semester before I began. I would have loved a chance to study with him, but I can’t fault him for taking a tenured faculty position! Congrats David!

All right, so it's back to work now.

World Fantasy is just around the corner! Stonecoast deadlines are looming! How did that happen?

The next two weeks are going to be a major crunch for me while I try to get everything done before leaving. I have finished one story and need to get a second one done within a week's time so that I can send them off to Stonecoast by the submission deadline, which is November 1. After that, I have 10 days to write the first chapter of my novel and two annotations for my mentor. It's going to be really tight!

One thing I love about Stonecoast is that I am learning to write and submit on schedule. This is something that I've never done before. Instead I would flounder around for months revising a story. This is no longer the case and there is a clear improvement in the stories that I'm writing. My eval from Jim was good. :-) Whew!

World Fantasy should be great fun. I'm driving down to Saratoga Springs from Boston on Thursday, and I have my driving buddy Joy Marchand to keep me company. I think the drive will be around 5 hours, which isn't too bad. I still haven't seen the con schedule, but people are already starting to arrange get-togethers.

I'm sure my VP pals will meet up for dinner or something. There's a breakfast gathering for the Codex crew. Plus, there will be any number of mini meetings here-and-there. I'm sure it'll be a blast.

But first! I have a one-on-one meeting with my mentor next week. I'll be getting feedback on a story that I really like. In addition, we'll be going over my plans for the novel I'm about to start writing, and whatever else he thiks necessary.

Busy. Busy. Busy. I need a nap!

I'm halfway through my first semester at Stonecoast. Before starting the program I had ideas of what an MFA program would be like, and the reality has been pretty consistent. The workflow during the semester has been manageable. However, this mid-semester point is a bit painful.

I am feeling a little overwhelmed with the combination of being hit by my busiest time of the year at work, the need to produce 3 new stories, revise last month's story, and write 2 annotations. However, if I space all of this work out, it will be fine.

One of the things the I love about Stonecoast is the reading list & annotation writing because I'm receiving wide exposure to literature that I have not yet read or may have otherwise overlooked. For example, I just finished reading Jorge Luis Borges collection Fictions and the anthology Polyphony 6.

One of the Borges stories was "The Library of Babel" which was phenomenal. It is a wonderful example of a magical realism story. I'm not sure why I'd never read the story before, but I'm sure glad I did. Not only is it a splendid example of a well-written piece of prose, but it's highly imaginative without ever losing its credibility. The story feels true from beginning to end. "Babel" is also a poignant metaphor of humanity's struggle to find purpose and meaning within the universe.

By chance, I also read Polyphony 6 since Jim wanted me to read one of the Polyphony anthologies. The first story in Polyphony 6 is "The Library of Pi" written by Ray Vukcevich. If I had not just finished reading "Babel," I would have completely missed the homage to Borges.

I always find this type of discovery a little nerve-wracking because I would have completely missed some of the hidden meanings in "Pi," if I have not read "Babel". Vukcevich made some clever tie-ins with "Babel" that drew heavily upon the creative concept of Borges story. Both "Pi" and "Babel" operate on the theory that everything that could ever be expressed (in any language and any form) was contained in the digits of pi and in the books of the Library. Both stories also included a Librarian of sorts that was analogous to god in that he/she had direct knowledge of where/how to find information within pi and within the Library. It is this similarity between the two stories and how they unfold that make the comparison so interesting.

If you're looking for some interesting reading, I would highly recommend reading "The Library of Babel" and "The Library of Pi" together.

My first semester at Stonecoast is about halfway over. The last few months have been pretty difficult, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. I have read more books than ever because I've switched to commuting to work by train. What a difference that has made on my study time!

I've also submitted several annotations and two stories to my mentor, and I've just received his comments on my September packet. Clearly, I still have things to work on (which is why I'm here), but I see a shift in his comments. He's no longer focusing on the predictability of my characters and the flatness of my stories. There is improvement! Yeah!

The feedback that I received this month was much more engaging than what I received on my previous stories. My mentor was able to comment on the complexity of the characters and layers of the plot rather than just focusing on story mechanics. As a result of his evolving feedback, I'm struck by the notion that the best way to see your improvement is through the criticism that you receive, and I'm definitely starting to see a change in the type of comments that I receive on my work. This is very exciting stuff! This is exactly why I enrolled in the Stonecoast MFA program.

The month of October is going to be a killer with 3 stories due in early November. I'm really going to have to kick into high gear to get my pieces ready, but I have this nagging fear that I'm going to be submitting 1st or 2nd draft work for the January workshop.

This raises the question of how polished do you make your work before sending it to a workshop? If you polish a story to the point of gleaming, is it worth workshopping? Is it better to workshop a story that has problems so that you get some new perspectives on potential fixes? I'm not sure what the best solution is on this front. Does it really matter as long as the prose is readable and your critiquers won't be distracted by annoying line editing issues. What do you think?

In the spirit of using Sherwood's idea of using LJ to network, I thought I'd put this request out for everyone's review......

For my 3rd Semester Project at Stonecoast I am going to be adapting a screenplay from an 18th Century lyric poem (which I don't want to name here). In addition to writing a full-length screenplay, I'll also be writing a paper on the adaptation process. As part of my research paper, my program director also wants me to do research on other screenplays that have been adapted from poems.

As part of my research, I would love to interview a couple of writers who have adapted screenplays from poems, short stories, and novels. I'd also like to interview authors who have had their work adapted into a screenplay by someone else. If you have done this and would like to be interviewed by me or if you know of another writer who would like to be interviewed, please send me an email at: erin_underwood at hotmail dot com

I'm still in the developmental phase of my research, but I'd like to get a few interviews lined up for the near future. Realistically, I'll want to start interviewing people between November 2007 and March 2008. I'm happy to work with your schedule and to do it in the most convenient way possible for you, including email or phone.

..... Ok here's the crazy part of the request .....

I would really value being able to interview Neil Gaiman since he has not only adapted screenplays from novels, but he's also adapted the new Beowulf film from the poem. Since I don't know Mr. Gaiman, I thought I'd throw this request to the wind and see if there really is magic in the world.

.............

Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Erin M. Underwood
Stonecoast MFA Program, Popular Fiction S'09