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.