Creative writing degrees: yes or no? - lnkproductions.org

I was at the National Young Writers Festival (as part of TiNA?This Is Not Art), participating in some of the panels. One panel was a discussion about whether writing degrees are useful or not.

I am strongly in the affirmative.

I have a bachelor?s degree in creative writing from QUT (Brisbane) and a post-grad diploma in editing. I?ll mainly focus on the undergrad though, as most people will get one of these (at least).

At the time, I couldn?t believe I was ?wasting? $15-20k on a writing degree. I could be doing this at home AND saving the money. I mean, all I did was write, right? Now, though, I feel the undergrad was invaluable. Being eighteen years old when I started it, I know now that I was never going to write as much on my own.

I now feel the university degree gave me the dedicated time I needed to write and the deadlines required to actually produce work. Furthermore, in writing degrees, it?s not just about physically sitting there and writing. A lot of time is spent reading, analyzing and thinking about writing. You are forced to do exercises you wouldn?t do. You are forced to read things you wouldn?t read. By having a well-rounded understanding of writing, I feel it makes you a better writer.

I?m not sure about others in my degree, but I know I came out a better writer if only because I had dedicated time to become a better writer.

That being said, if you?re a post-teen writer (25+), and many of my writer friends are, you?re likely to be more dedicated than a just-out-of-school teen. That doesn?t mean that a writing degree is not valuable. Just from my experience of post-teen writers without writing degrees, they are self-directed learners, and a degree is probably not needed.

While I wouldn?t fault my degree or my lecturers/tutors, I feel some valuable, if not crucial, components were missing from it. An aside: I would love nothing more than to work at a university and help mould the creative writing courses curriculum.

There is a difference between a writer and an author. Authors, firstly, get paid. They have ISBNs attached to their names. They also know how to run the business of being an author. It is important?more so these days?to be able to market yourself. Many will argue that writers should let the work speak for themselves?sure, but who is running the business? Publicists don?t do as much as you think they do. It is not enough to publish a book and then hope it sells by sitting on a shelf. Learn about marketing.

We were required to read books every week, but they were rarely connected to what we did in class. Linking the required reading to analyzing craft and stylistic and structure and then get us to create our own piece with that new knowledge. Read books, create your own exercises, mimic style and structure.

Spec fic is just as legitimate as classics. Maybe the course should be divided into genres. Although knowing the elements of short stories, poetry and essays are also useful. Write in different genres and different forms, it strengthens your preferred form and genre.

I wouldn?t recommend grading creative writing students or pieces or degrees. Just pass or fail it. Biases will always be in the way. Look at rejection letters this way?eventually you have to pass the course, right?

Source: http://lnkproductions.org/?p=448&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creative-writing-degrees-yes-or-no

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