How to Become a Writer in Indiana with a BFA, MFA or Similar Creative Writing Degree

Indiana’s Creative Writing Classes, Courses and Workshops Can Prepare You for a Creative Writing Degree

There are many things standing between a green-behind-the-ears writer attending a workshop and the published author who’s up on the stage. The most significant of those, and the one that you have the most control over, is practice.

Fortunately, in Indiana there are many opportunities to hone your writing skills, you just need to take advantage of them.

The Indianapolis Writers Meetup convenes every week and serves as a venue where professionally-aspiring writers can share critiques of their work.

The Indiana Writers Center sponsors classes, workshops, and its own publications. Inwords features original anthologies and titles by members, while Flying Island is the center’s online literary journal that accepts submissions from authors with ties to the Midwest. It’s based in Indianapolis.

The Fort Wayne Writers Guild’s mission is to support local creative writing artists through groups, meetings, and community-based activities that advance the literary arts. It hosts a range of events throughout the greater Fort Wayne region.

If you live near Evansville then check out the Midwest Writers Guild. It does book events, publishes its own literary journal, and participates in the Franklin Street Bazaar every year. Monthly meetings for writers are held at a local bookstore.

It’s only natural that once you start cranking out material that’s good, you’re going to need a publisher. Indiana has plenty of those too.

Tanglewood Publishing in Indianapolis prides itself on discovering authors with a spark; those who will be critically acclaimed tomorrow but who have been passed over by undiscerning publishers today. With a nod towards its niche that values creativity in children’s writing, it describes itself as a publisher of good books for bad children.

Ave Maria Press is a major Catholic book publisher based in Indianapolis. It was founded by the same French priest who established the University of Notre Dame and St. Joseph’s Parish in South Bend.

Nearing its 20^th anniversary, Indianapolis-based Blue River Press, with Cardinal Publishers Group as its distributor, publishes authors who write on subjects from sports and YA to travel and pop culture.

If you live in Indiana, you can spend a lifetime staying busy with all of the writing opportunities that abound. However, it’s one thing to stay busy. It’s another to write professionally.

Writing Colleges in Indiana Offering Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Creative Writing Provide a Path to Becoming a Writer

Writing groups, open-mic poetry readings, and local journals that publish your work are all a lot of fun. But there’s a difference between having fun as a creative writer and making a career out of it. That’s where a degree in creative writing, including BFA and MFA options, come into the picture.

When you were a kid maybe you shot hoops with the neighbor down the street. You might’ve thought you were pretty good…until you played the kid who was in a professional league.

It’s the same with creative writing: there are writing groups that meet at the local coffee shop, and then there are college-level writing classes that are taught by successful professional writers and publishers with decades of experience.