19.50.5: An Interview with DIY MFA Founder Gabriela Pereira (BONUS EPISODE)
Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
4.7 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2024
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Gabriela Pereira, founder and instigator of DIY MFA, which is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Arts in Writing. Pereira has some incredible advice for how to put together a writing curriculum for yourself. Using the pillars of writing, reading, and community, she explains how she first came up with the idea for DIY MFA. We also talk about how to build a well-rounded craft, how to know what you don’t know, and what exactly it means to “write with focus.”
Thing of the Week: DIY MFA Starter Kit
Homework: Observe your own habits! Think about your writing time like a pie: 1 slice for writing, 1 slice for reading, and 1 slice for community. Draw a circle at the end of every day and map out how much time you spent doing each of these three things. Do this for several weeks, and watch the patterns that emerge!
Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was Gabriela Pereira. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.
Join Our Writing Community!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. |
| 0:05.6 | If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.com. |
| 0:11.8 | S.W.w.com |
| 0:11.8 | Sighting. |
| 0:15.2 | Season 19. Wildcard. |
| 0:20.1 | This is writing excuses. |
| 0:23.2 | Interview with Gabriela Pereira of DIYMFA. |
| 0:27.0 | I'm Mary Robinette. |
| 0:28.7 | I'm Howard. |
| 0:29.9 | I'm Aaron and we are joined today, as the title says, by Gabriella Pereira. |
| 0:36.0 | It's so lovely to have you here. Tell everyone a little bit about yourself |
| 0:40.2 | and how awesome you are. I am so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Gabriela Pereira, |
| 0:46.6 | founder and instigator of DIYMFA, which is the do-it-yourself alternative to a master of fine arts |
| 0:52.9 | and writing. And basically what we do is we help |
| 0:55.5 | writers get the knowledge without the college. I love that. I also love the word instigator. |
| 1:03.3 | I'm kind of curious where you came up with that before we get into the actual bulk of it. |
| 1:08.6 | How did you decide to make yourself the instigator or were |
| 1:12.0 | you simply born this way? I've always been a little bit of a rebel, so there's definitely that. |
| 1:18.4 | But the term instigator came from the fact that when I started the company, DIYMFA, it felt |
| 1:25.4 | really presumptuous to call myself the founder. Like, founder felt so |
| 1:30.7 | imposing and big. And it was just me and my cat, you know, it was just us and a home office. And so |
| 1:38.5 | it felt like I needed some other quirky title. And I, I don't know, I was thinking about all of those like startups that they have like |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.