K. Marvin Bruce

   So, as I’m bound down by nonfiction—one down, two to go—I’m still working on fiction.   My current project, beyond about a dozen stories ready to submit, is converting one of my published stories into a novel. I’m a self-taught writer.   I’ve never taken a composition class.   I don’t know the conventions of plotting out a story other than by having read many, many books.   I also know that many classic writers of the western canon weren’t trained writers either.   Our society seems to think you have to have a degree to be able to do anything. While I don’t doubt that degrees help, what is missing is the awareness that sometimes writing skill is a gift. Gifts benefit from development, sure.   Today, however, if you majored in something else and you never prospered enough to afford to get that MFA, you’ll find the establishment a struggle.   All of which is to say, I hope I’m doing this right. I’ve written seven novels so far.   A famo...

There are two types of writing, or maybe three.  The two I’m referring to are the writing that I plan out and the writing that comes to me.  The latter is the best.  The possible third is a combination of the two. I sometimes think I should enroll in a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program.  I have friends who’ve done it and they seem to have less trouble finding a publisher.  After all, credentials mean something.  I don’t have thousands of dollars to spare at the moment, so I’m trying to figure out what I can teach myself. An MFA program is one where you pay to write.  You meet other writers and maybe study with someone renowned.  They tell you, I imagine, how to craft stories.  Plan out writing.  Type number one. No doubt this works for some.  I had a writer I barely know call me out of the blue.  He’d studied with Harold Bloom and knew Jane Smiley as a student.  They were in a writing program together.  B...