So we have come to the part of our journey where I am embarking on the road less traveled. Yes I know a lot of people want to be writers and authors, I couldn't be more happy to see people devoting their live to the written word. As a self proclaimed bibliophile that feels me with endless glee.
However like most things a lot of people say they want to be this and they want to be that, but few actually take the time to prefect their crafts. Not that you can't sit down and just pen the next great novel. now more than ever it seems like we have the fly by night authors that end up with several book deals and movie deals, but I feel like it you want to work on something you should try and be the best at it.
There is nothing that says you have to have a masters degree in creative writing to be an author. It might even be a sill pursuit. I've never been accused of not being silly ever now and then. I' single and I don't have any children. I can afford to still entertain flights of fancy.
With that revelation I am in the process of applying to a MFA program. Well not a MFA in the american sense. I am applying to the postgraduate taught program at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. I have to say that this has been one of the scariest things I have ever done. You would think that as a writer I would have people reading my work all the time and like I've previously said I've got tons of fantiction stories out there, but I've never had anyone read my own work for the purposes of critiquing it. After all the MFA selection committee will critique me and based on what they think I will either get into the program or I won't.
That terrified for me.
I'm not usually one to get riled up about anything. I mean I could stand in front of a pack out crowd at Madison Square Garden and not get nervous. I'm just that sort of person that loves public speaking or just talking to random people in the park. The thought of a group of strangers reading something that I;ve poured my heart into is like getting a bucket of ice water dumped on my head. And if you have any black friends that happen to be girls you will understand how we are about our hair getting wet.
It ain't pretty.
I poked around the internet looking for personal statement examples and I was surprised to find that there weren't any. I mean I found one or two but that was it. I mean come on people we are applying for a program based on writing! So I thought I would add to that two example count and post mine. In hopes that my example could help someone else chase away the angry birds of anxiety.
My personal statement for MMU
My literary journey began as a reaction to a hostile environment, and at its best retains the defiant posture of whimsy. I was born in Ft. Story, Virginia but dragged through a progression of increasingly strange, and fantastical countries by my parents, who were both serving their county in the United States Army.
I moved back to the United States in 1996 for my sophomore year of high school, expecting to become a combination scientist, researcher and weight lost guru. Our last post was Copperas Cove, Texas, a rustic sleepy hollow teeming with mom and pop complexes, sleek five star fast food dives whose clattering silverware and condensation-streaked windows conceal gap toothed gun nuts and tumbleweed farms that looked like scorched earth test sites behind the tinted glass of supped up Ford F-150.
After escaping from my personal version of Lord of the Flies, Copperas Cove High School style, I drifted in and out of several colleges, moved to Florida to learn drag queen couture from Mickey Mouse, finally crash landing in North Carolina to focus on rebuilding my shattered self esteem. I moved to North Carolina in 2001 and completed my undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, after a quick layover in the United Kingdom to study abroad at MMU.
I held jobs at fast food joints, in pharmacies, pounding the pavement with the United States Census Bureau in Guilford county, reading copious amounts of fantasy and writing throughout. At various moments J.K Rowling, James Patterson, Rick Riodan, John Flannagan, DJ MacHale, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin all fundamentally re-wired the way I thought about literature.
Early on my “real” writing was sporadic, more garish Dexter Morgan inspired blood splatter than writing, but gradually it began to take shape, particularly after stumbling across the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I have learned to discipline myself, my writing, pin down ideas, build the story-making machinery, and churn memories and flights of fancy into fiction.
Throughout my 32 years roaming the globe, I have crafted stories and spun yarns as they would say back home. Writing remains my most enduring passion and defines my sense of purpose. I completed my first novel in May, a rough hewn tome fashioned in an attempt to harness that candy coated sense of magic I like dabble in; though the story veered off into murder mystery territory in the latter third. At this juncture, I feel I have reached the fork in the road where I am confident enough to turn left and receive informed feedback. That, above all else, is what I am really looking for.
I have proven to myself that my commitment to the craft demands a higher level of instruction and direction. It is my desire that I have the opportunity to prove the same to you, and thank you so very much for your consideration.
However like most things a lot of people say they want to be this and they want to be that, but few actually take the time to prefect their crafts. Not that you can't sit down and just pen the next great novel. now more than ever it seems like we have the fly by night authors that end up with several book deals and movie deals, but I feel like it you want to work on something you should try and be the best at it.
There is nothing that says you have to have a masters degree in creative writing to be an author. It might even be a sill pursuit. I've never been accused of not being silly ever now and then. I' single and I don't have any children. I can afford to still entertain flights of fancy.
With that revelation I am in the process of applying to a MFA program. Well not a MFA in the american sense. I am applying to the postgraduate taught program at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. I have to say that this has been one of the scariest things I have ever done. You would think that as a writer I would have people reading my work all the time and like I've previously said I've got tons of fantiction stories out there, but I've never had anyone read my own work for the purposes of critiquing it. After all the MFA selection committee will critique me and based on what they think I will either get into the program or I won't.
That terrified for me.
I'm not usually one to get riled up about anything. I mean I could stand in front of a pack out crowd at Madison Square Garden and not get nervous. I'm just that sort of person that loves public speaking or just talking to random people in the park. The thought of a group of strangers reading something that I;ve poured my heart into is like getting a bucket of ice water dumped on my head. And if you have any black friends that happen to be girls you will understand how we are about our hair getting wet.
It ain't pretty.
I poked around the internet looking for personal statement examples and I was surprised to find that there weren't any. I mean I found one or two but that was it. I mean come on people we are applying for a program based on writing! So I thought I would add to that two example count and post mine. In hopes that my example could help someone else chase away the angry birds of anxiety.
My personal statement for MMU
My literary journey began as a reaction to a hostile environment, and at its best retains the defiant posture of whimsy. I was born in Ft. Story, Virginia but dragged through a progression of increasingly strange, and fantastical countries by my parents, who were both serving their county in the United States Army.
I moved back to the United States in 1996 for my sophomore year of high school, expecting to become a combination scientist, researcher and weight lost guru. Our last post was Copperas Cove, Texas, a rustic sleepy hollow teeming with mom and pop complexes, sleek five star fast food dives whose clattering silverware and condensation-streaked windows conceal gap toothed gun nuts and tumbleweed farms that looked like scorched earth test sites behind the tinted glass of supped up Ford F-150.
After escaping from my personal version of Lord of the Flies, Copperas Cove High School style, I drifted in and out of several colleges, moved to Florida to learn drag queen couture from Mickey Mouse, finally crash landing in North Carolina to focus on rebuilding my shattered self esteem. I moved to North Carolina in 2001 and completed my undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, after a quick layover in the United Kingdom to study abroad at MMU.
I held jobs at fast food joints, in pharmacies, pounding the pavement with the United States Census Bureau in Guilford county, reading copious amounts of fantasy and writing throughout. At various moments J.K Rowling, James Patterson, Rick Riodan, John Flannagan, DJ MacHale, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin all fundamentally re-wired the way I thought about literature.
Early on my “real” writing was sporadic, more garish Dexter Morgan inspired blood splatter than writing, but gradually it began to take shape, particularly after stumbling across the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I have learned to discipline myself, my writing, pin down ideas, build the story-making machinery, and churn memories and flights of fancy into fiction.
Throughout my 32 years roaming the globe, I have crafted stories and spun yarns as they would say back home. Writing remains my most enduring passion and defines my sense of purpose. I completed my first novel in May, a rough hewn tome fashioned in an attempt to harness that candy coated sense of magic I like dabble in; though the story veered off into murder mystery territory in the latter third. At this juncture, I feel I have reached the fork in the road where I am confident enough to turn left and receive informed feedback. That, above all else, is what I am really looking for.
I have proven to myself that my commitment to the craft demands a higher level of instruction and direction. It is my desire that I have the opportunity to prove the same to you, and thank you so very much for your consideration.
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