Done!

The writing samples for the UBC application were uploaded on Wednesday. Five days before the due date, but I couldn't take it any more. I wasn't working on them, but neither was I working on anything else. On Tuesday Kathryn K. phoned me with some great suggestions, I rewrote my non-fiction piece and my cover letter and on Wednesday I finished the last revision and pressed SUBMIT.

I was so relieved to have done that! Yesterday I wrote 3.5 thousand words of a brand new story, and today I worked on an older story I had in mind. What a release!

Now how to get through the next three months? Write, of course.

Warren Wilson Will not Happen

at least not this application cycle. The deadline was September 1st, 2013. I could've sworn it was September 15th, 2013.
Oh well, there is always the next application cycle.

To Thine Own Self Be True.

Yesterday evening, after a brouhaha at home (did I mention that I have a full family life?) I went to local Chapters for a reprieve. From the magazine rack I picked up a Poets&Writers because it had applying to and living after an MFA as its themes for September.

Not a good idea. According to P&W I am not doing any of the things that I should be doing. In my cover letter I am not praising the writing of my future faculty, I am not exhibiting any literary pyrotechnics to draw their attention to my writing prowess, I am not showing off my knowledge (albeit paltry, so may be it is a good idea not to draw attention to it) of modern literature. I am not using punctuation marks creatively. I actually tell the selection committee that I did not always want to be a writer, only to show them that I subconsciously did all the right things for a budding writer. I thought that was clever, no?

And UBC does not place too well in their rankings! It is at number 19 overall, so it did make it into the top twenty, but just. Warren Wilson, however, places consistently at 1 or 2, with number 1 overall. I think I will apply there just for kicks!

I have decided that I am not going to change my writing samples much. This is what and how I write,  I want to get better at it, and this is who I am - yeah, I wanna get better at that too, but it's probably too late. So I am submitting what I have. And I am not changing myself for it either. Myself has served me reasonably well in life so far.

Application, part one.

The first part of the Graduate School application for UBC MFA has been accomplished. I have ordered and paid for my transcripts, and I have uploaded my application and paid that fee as well. I got my third referee - Chris Adrian has agreed to provide a reference letter, yey! Of course, I couldn't do it without mishaps - I mistyped Kathryn's and Murray's email addresses. Had to phone UBC and ask to be allowed to change them.

Now I only need to finish Genealogy and Once (my non-fiction pieces) and upload them and my short story and cover letter by September 15th. And then wait. For three months.