This was a question I struggled with for a while. Ultimately, I decided that going back to school for a writing degree wasn’t the best use of my time and money.
I had thought of writing about my decision process, but Kenji Crosland from Unready and Willing has already done an excellent job of summarizing the pros and cons and suggesting alternatives. I hope you find his guest post enlightening and check out Unready and Willing for yourself.
Alexis
How Useful is a Creative Writing Degree?
You don’t need a creative writing degree to become a successful writer. In fact, five out of the Ten Best Paid Authors in the World had degrees in subjects other than English or Creative writing. Furthermore, the authors that did major in English became as successful as they are not because they had a certificate that told people that they completed a few classes successfully at a university, but because of their hard work and perseverance.
Despite the fact that it isn’t essential for someone to get a creative writing degree to become a successful writer, many students do. Here are some reasons why:
· You have a chance to develop writing skills.
· A creative writing degree gives you credibility as a writer.
· A creative writing program can provide useful connections to help build a career.
Although getting a creative writing degree does indeed provide these benefits to some extent, there are plenty of alternative ways to get the skills, credibility, and connections you need to become a successful writer. These alternatives are not only tuition free, but they’re often more effective that just getting a creative writing degree.
A Chance to Develop Your Skills
One of the advantages of enrolling in a creative writing program is that you have a chance to develop your writing skills. In general, most creative writing classes will require you to write about three or four stories over the course of ten weeks. On top of that, you’ll probably be required to do one creative writing exercise a week. These will be short 500 to 1000 word assignments but can often be very challenging. Usually you’ll only be able to take one or two creative writing classes at the same time, so your other classes will be focused on the study of English literature. So, if you’re taking one creative writing class and two literature classes as I did nearly every quarter, you’ll write three stories, complete ten writing exercises, and write six critical essays on the 10 to 15 novels that you’ve read for the literature classes.
As a fledgling writer it can be difficult to muster the kind of discipline needed to get yourself to write every day. What creative writing classes and workshops can provide is a kind of structure that forces you to do just that. It gives you deadlines and ensures that you spend a lot of time writing. Not only can the coursework help sharpen your skills, but you’ll also have the chance to have your work peer-reviewed by thirty other writers like yourself who can often point out areas where your writing could use improvement. This kind of advice can be instrumental to help sharpen and shape your writing skills.
Although creative writing classes can provide a demanding regimen that will keep you writing and sharpening your skills, few people can keep up the same level of productivity after they graduate. When I graduated, suddenly all the deadlines that kept me writing were gone. Because I hadn’t developed my initiative, the amount of writing I did was a page or two addition to my novel-in-progress every month. Hardly anything to brag about. The moment external deadlines were gone, it became increasingly difficult to find motivation to write. I was too concerned with trying get a steady job and going out drinking with my friends. At the time, I dismissed this lack of productivity by telling myself that I was too busy to write, and that I’d have plenty of time to do that later when things settled down.
In order to be a real writer, you must avoid using these excuses and muster the initiative to enroll in your own private creative writing course.
Here are guidelines for the creation of a creative writing course that will keep you at the top of your game. It can be difficult at first to adapt all of these practices at once so try them one at a time:
1. Write 1000 words every day – If you’re really committed to writing full-time, it’s important to write every day. It doesn’t matter what your day job is and how busy you are. You must be committed to writing at least 1000 words a day. The writing doesn’t have to be good, but it’s important to keep writing so that you stay focused.
2. Write a new rough draft every week – It doesn’t matter how rough your rough draft is, as long as it has a coherent beginning, middle, and end. If you’re a novelist you could write a draft of a chapter.
3. Try one creative writing exercise a week – There are plenty of creative writing prompts and exercises out there. Try a new one every week to expand your boundaries as a writer. You’ll find that much of the writing you get from creative writing exercises can be great material for new stories.
4. Read about writing – Subscribe to writer’s blogs and read all the articles. Read and reread books on the craft of writing. Not all of what you read will be useful to you, but you’ll find that some of the advice can be invaluable.
5. Read in your genre – If you want to write romance novels read romance novels. If you want to write science fiction read science fiction. If you plan to be a novelist read at least a book a week. If you write magazine articles or short fiction, be sure to read the equivalent of a novel’s length every week (about 60,000-100,000 words).
6. Join a writer’s group – Writer’s groups are a great way for writers to be able to exchange ideas and get constructive criticism. I participated in a writer’s group in Tokyo (yes in English), and the moderator was an experienced writer with an MFA.
Follow these six steps and in a few years you’ll have all the training a creative writing course provides. Not only that, but imposing a regimen like this upon yourself will help you produce much more work, which means more chances to get published.
The Credibility of a Creative Writing Degree
Having a creative writing degree communicates to a potential employer that you can put a sentence together and do it well. This could be useful if you’re applying for a position as a staff writer for a television show, as an editorial assistant for a magazine, or as an in-house assistant technical writer at some high tech-company. Indeed, some companies may not even consider your application if you don’t have a degree that attests to your ability to write well.
So, if you want to apply for a 9 to 5 job where they require you to have some mastery of the craft of writing, a creative writing degree can definitely help you get your foot in the door. However, if you plan to write the next bestseller, a creative writing degree will be of little help to you. There are an unfortunate number of starving writers out there with creative writing degrees. As a writer, you must learn to sell your writing by yourself. Don’t expect a degree to do that for you. Although a creative writing degree may certify that you can write at a competent level, it’s not enough to convince a publisher or agent that your writing will be entertaining or will sell well in the marketplace.
As a corporate headhunter in Tokyo my job was to evaluate resumes of candidates for executive level positions. One thing that interested me was how little a degree was valued when it came to considering a candidate for a job. The most important thing was what that person was doing right now. If, for example, someone had a Master’s degree in accounting but for the last five years they were doing human resources, that person would have trouble getting an accounting job. Even if there was a chance, it would be with lower salary and a reduced title. In the job marketplace, relevant experience has always been valued over any academic credentials.
The best way to develop credibility is through your own writing. not through getting a creative writing degree. If you publish, and publish frequently, no one will care if you have an MFA or you dropped out of high school. If you’re an unknown author, publish in lesser known magazines and work your way up to the bigger ones. If you create a successful, high traffic blog or website, you can leverage the credibility your blog generates to publish and sell one of your books. Incidentally, if you can publish enough of your work, you should have earned enough credibility to have no problem getting one of those 9 to 5 jobs where they say they require a creative writing degree.
Making Connections
Another thing a creative writing program can help you with is to make connections. Check to see if the university that you’re going to has a good alumni network. If a lot of alumni are now working as literary agents or as editors at publishing companies, chances are some of your classmates will be heading in the same direction. It can be very helpful for your career to make and maintain these connections.
Your professors can also be valuable connections. One of the best experiences I had in university was the class I took with National Book Award winner Charles Johnson. I was even able to get a letter of recommendation from him, which, now that I look back, I can’t believe I used to get me a job as a teacher of English as a Second Language in Japan.
On top of the connections you might make through your classes, creative writing departments can provide a lot of info about internships and possible employment opportunities. Once I registered as a creative writing major I received about 10 emails a day regarding opportunities for writers. Oftentimes magazines and publishing companies will contact English departments directly with this information and ask them to distribute it to members of their department. Not all the information was valuable, but I did get some of my work published in minor magazines that were introduced to me through the English department.
Although a creative writing program can be a good way to make connections, it certainly isn’t the only way. The bottom line is, if you have what it takes to establish connections through a university creative writing program, you probably have what it takes to establish connections anywhere at anytime. It’s true that some of your classmates may become literary agents or editors but if you’re not an aggressive networker (I certainly wasn’t at the time!) you won’t get anywhere with them.
If, on the other hand, you are a good networker, you’ll probably be able to establish connections regardless of what your major might be. If you learn how to market your writing well, you’ll find that persistence and knowing where to apply your marketing efforts are much more valuable than a chance encounter with an agent at a creative writing workshop.
What if you don’t have good networking skills? Don’t worry. The good news is that networking skills are learnable, even for serious introverts. If you continue to try to make connections you’ll find that it’ll become easier every time.
It’s Up To You
Overall, I’d say that getting a creative writing degree was a valuable experience for me. I did improve my writing. I did get a nice shiny certification that could get me an entry-level technical writing job, and I did make some connections. The degree wasn’t, however, a launchpad to my success. What I hadn’t realized when I was in university was that working to build skills, gain credibility, and make connections is an ongoing job, and you can’t rely on a creative writing degree to provide these for you. You can certainly enroll in a creative writing program to get you in the right direction, but from then on it’s all up to you.
This post is part of the Guest Post Giveaway at the blog Unready and Willing. If you think articles about writing or personal development (or personal development for writers) sounds like a good fit for your blog, please take a look at the Guest Post Giveaway page and see if any of the articles spark your interest.
Kenji Crosland is a creative writing major who, scared of becoming a starving artist, became a corporate headhunter in Tokyo. Since then he’s regained his sanity, quit his job, and now blogs about creating an ideal career at unreadyandwilling.com. He is also developing a web application that just might change the internet. Follow him on Twitter: @KenjiCrosland.
