A declaration

I am standing here at my computer in my underwear and I am bristling with ideas.

What a powerful thing it is to put words on a page—to guide thoughts and help someone create images in their mind.

A declaration:

To hell with an MFA. Okay, step back—MFAs can be good, I think, the point is I don't need one.

I've been sitting here thinking I'll work for a couple of years, write in my free time, get better at writing, then when I'm in an MFA program—that's when I can really get down to business.

No. I reject that. That's Wrong. See, I can start all of that now. Why do I need to wait two years before I start taking myself seriously? Like all the writing between now and then is just child's play, just fodder so that when the real writing begins I'll have a leg to stand on.

No, the real writing can and will and does start right this moment.

Reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Wikipedia page got me thinking of all this. Everything Is Illuminated started as a senior thesis. As an undergrad. I am an undergrad. Why can't my writing be just as urgent, just as focused, as his was?

I'm having a moment of, Damn it, if you can do it, so can I. This is good, this is a good moment to have.

The point is I don't need to piddle around with my writing, biding my time until I've had enough life experience for an MFA.

There's no set path for a writer, but there's some kind of path and, for me, that always involved taking time off, doing an MFA, applying for the Stegner Fellowship, teaching, then maybe, at the end of all of that, maybe I'd have a manuscript that was halfway decent and salable.

Screw that. This is my declaration:

*I refuse to wait for my writing to simply happen.
*I refuse to twiddle my thumbs.
*I pledge to devote myself to my writing.
*I pledge to take my writing seriously while not taking myself too seriously.
*I do not need an MFA to make me into a writer.
*I already am a writer.
*I have enough tools and knowledge to start writing in earnest now, this very moment, this second, this moment in time. There is never a better time to start than now. There is never a more important sentence than the one I'm currently working on.
*I pledge to write new stories.
*I pledge to be honest in my writing.
*I pledge to only write about the things in which I believe.
*I pledge to not be cute.
*I pledge to kill my (literary) babies.
*I pledge I pledge I pledge I refuse I pledge, God damn it, from this moment on—writing Matters.