Writing is a lonely business (https://yanyi.substack.com/p/how-do-i-feel-less-lonely). And you may fantasize about buying yourself a ready-made community at an MFA program. Plenty of these programs will have the bones of a community: a writing series, workshops, and cohorts of other people who love writing as well.
However, the writing world works exactly like the rest of the world. Just because someone likes something you like doesn't mean they will be compatible as your friend. It's dangerous to uproot your life in the name of a fantasy that might not deliver.
If you want to find community, you do have to do it the old-fashioned way: stay curious and interested and join events or groups with similar interests. Most of the time, you won't meet anyone who you necessarily click with—your writing community might end up being someone in your existing friend circle who just started picking it up.
Once you have one friend, you can stick together and workshop together, for instance. And then you'll have automatically doubled the possibility that you *both* will find another friend, who knows someone who knows someone...until your workshop has grown to ten people or more.
As long as you advertise what you're doing by continuing to do it, people will think of you when someone else is asking around for a community, too. Thanks to you, they'll already have one to join.
I went to the low-residency MFA program at The University of Tampa and I found it to be a huge waste of time and money. I developed some friendships during the program, but following graduation, I found that staying in touch and maintaining friendships with fellow students almost impossible. Getting together to write and share our work with each other has been impossible. I developed better friendships with my writing group that doesn't charge money, so, my suggestion is to find a writing group at your local public library or start your own.
The very quick and simple answer to this is: no.
Writing is a lonely business (https://yanyi.substack.com/p/how-do-i-feel-less-lonely). And you may fantasize about buying yourself a ready-made community at an MFA program. Plenty of these programs will have the bones of a community: a writing series, workshops, and cohorts of other people who love writing as well.
However, the writing world works exactly like the rest of the world. Just because someone likes something you like doesn't mean they will be compatible as your friend. It's dangerous to uproot your life in the name of a fantasy that might not deliver.
If you want to find community, you do have to do it the old-fashioned way: stay curious and interested and join events or groups with similar interests. Most of the time, you won't meet anyone who you necessarily click with—your writing community might end up being someone in your existing friend circle who just started picking it up.
Once you have one friend, you can stick together and workshop together, for instance. And then you'll have automatically doubled the possibility that you *both* will find another friend, who knows someone who knows someone...until your workshop has grown to ten people or more.
As long as you advertise what you're doing by continuing to do it, people will think of you when someone else is asking around for a community, too. Thanks to you, they'll already have one to join.
I want to get an MFA because I just want to write. And I need the discipline. Not sure that is good enough either, like getting one for the community
I went to the low-residency MFA program at The University of Tampa and I found it to be a huge waste of time and money. I developed some friendships during the program, but following graduation, I found that staying in touch and maintaining friendships with fellow students almost impossible. Getting together to write and share our work with each other has been impossible. I developed better friendships with my writing group that doesn't charge money, so, my suggestion is to find a writing group at your local public library or start your own.
Hope this helps. Best of luck to you.