“You’re a writer; what’s your degree in?”
Aug. 13th, 2024 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmerriamYou’re a writer; what’s your degree in?”
This is going around on social media right now. I honestly believe the original idea was to explore what people studied in college and whether it has anything to do with your eventual chosen field of writing - whatever you may write. I realize folks are just having a bit of fun. I am not attributing malice to anyone. But...
Here are my problems with this question: It assumes the financial means to attend college. It assumes college is the standard for being a writer. It assumes too many things.
This question gets my hackles up for several reasons, not the least of which is I’ve been on the receiving end of some nasty academic dick-wagging at a local SFF convention.
I’ve watched too many new and emerging writers (whatever their age) become discouraged because they don’t have a PhD in Late 14th Century Norwegian Poetry – or at least an MFA from some prestigious (or even middling) program. Or because some fucking magazine has told them they’re too old with headlines like 100 Successful Writers Under 10 Years Old And If You Are Over 30, It's Too Late For You, So Just Die. Or maybe they couldn't swing the $$$$$ to attend A Big Damned Writing Workshop at a fancy (or not so fancy) location. Or they’ve never had a mentorship with a Big-Name Writer.
Degrees, workshops, and mentorships can certainly help you on the road to success as a writer. They can give you a grounding in craft and technique, assist you in reaching certain levels of competency, and help you make personal and professional connections in the publishing world. These are all good things. They can make you a better writer and give you a leg up in this biz. They can help you get a seat at the cool kid's table before you’ve even sold a piece of work if that is your thing.
But none of those things (degrees, workshops, etc.) are mandatory or even necessary to become a working, professional writer.
Grab the drink of your choice and sit next to Uncle Michael. We’re going to have a chat, and I’m just going to put all my cards on the table, and if at the end of this conversation, you see yourself in what I’m saying and you decide to keep following your dreams despite not have all the fancy shit above, then I guess I’ve done my damn job.
Let’s start with the cause of this entire post.
“You’re a writer; what’s your degree in?”
I’ve dropped out of college three times.
There are perfectly good reasons for this that have nothing to do with academics. I could probably write another entire post about it, but here are the basics: Life happens. Life happens, and sometimes it’s not fair, but life makes no promises of being fair or easy. Sometimes, the choices you made as a dumb teenager haunt you. Sometimes, your responsibilities in the right here and right now leave you with few options, and none of them good.
I grew up rural working poor. I spent most of my childhood and a lot of my early adult life living in unstable situations, living hand to mouth, living one moderately bad break from being homeless. The schools I attended as a child and teen were, shall we say, a bit substandard. I work an office-type job (from home) now, but the lion’s share of my life has been as a blue-collar punch-a-clock worker.
By the standards of the academic dick-waving I mentioned above, I shouldn’t be where I am. I have no business in this business. By the standards of the academic dick-waving I mentioned above, nothing I have to say is worth listening to, for I am a member of the uneducated, unwashed masses.
But here I am, doing the work, writing and selling novels, poems, stage plays, and other work. And here you can be as well. It is a harder path—a dirt country road full of ruts instead of a smooth superhighway—but I sit here as living proof that success is possible without all the fancy degrees, workshops, and mentorships.
I have published fiction and poetry at every level, from major publishers to top-notch small presses to indie. I have written plays produced in the Twin Cities, which is a major theater town. I have stood on stages in the Twin Cities and performed one-person shows. I have been a Guest of Honor at various regional conventions. I am an award-winning screenwriter. I did all this while steadily going blind.
If a poor, rural, blue-collar kid can have this career, so can you.
Is college or a fancy workshop in a vineyard too pricey for you or not compatible with the realities of your life? There are free online critique groups and workshops you can join. There are entire welcoming writing communities you can join. Find them. Join a writing group of your peers. Need to up your game as a writer? Find a magazine you like and admire and offer to read slush. You will see the same errors over and over and over until you want to puke, but now you know which mistakes to avoid. Read for entertainment, but also study what the author is doing. There are some great books about writing out there. Figure out which ones work with your style and personality.
Remember that everything you see on social media, the sales, the awards, the accolades, etc., is a skewed funhouse mirror that makes reality look like everyone except you is selling their work, winning awards, and traveling to cool places for conventions and conferences. It is all, on some levels, an illusion. You only see the greatest hits of other artists, not the sweat, work, and failures behind the hits, and it comes at you like a firehose of information dedicated to discouraging you.
The sales, awards, etc., are not under your control, but they flow from the one thing you do control—the work of writing. Do the work. Be prepared to fail repeatedly. Your early work will probably suck. Keep working at it until it doesn’t suck anymore. Write your stories, polish them up, and submit them. DO NOT SELF-REJECT. You can’t win if you don’t play. Once you sell a story, novel, or screenplay, all the previous rejection is wiped clean.
Be relentless in the pursuit of your dream. Don’t give up. Don’t let the noise machine stop you. Don’t let the lack of a fancy degree or inability to attend a fancy workshop stop you.
If you want to be a writer, write. Pick up your pen and notepad, open up your laptop, or put a blank sheet of paper in the typewriter and start writing. Write, polish, edit, rewrite, polish again, submit, and start the next thing. Lather, rinse, repeat. That’s all you need to do.
Just write.
This is going around on social media right now. I honestly believe the original idea was to explore what people studied in college and whether it has anything to do with your eventual chosen field of writing - whatever you may write. I realize folks are just having a bit of fun. I am not attributing malice to anyone. But...
Here are my problems with this question: It assumes the financial means to attend college. It assumes college is the standard for being a writer. It assumes too many things.
This question gets my hackles up for several reasons, not the least of which is I’ve been on the receiving end of some nasty academic dick-wagging at a local SFF convention.
I’ve watched too many new and emerging writers (whatever their age) become discouraged because they don’t have a PhD in Late 14th Century Norwegian Poetry – or at least an MFA from some prestigious (or even middling) program. Or because some fucking magazine has told them they’re too old with headlines like 100 Successful Writers Under 10 Years Old And If You Are Over 30, It's Too Late For You, So Just Die. Or maybe they couldn't swing the $$$$$ to attend A Big Damned Writing Workshop at a fancy (or not so fancy) location. Or they’ve never had a mentorship with a Big-Name Writer.
Degrees, workshops, and mentorships can certainly help you on the road to success as a writer. They can give you a grounding in craft and technique, assist you in reaching certain levels of competency, and help you make personal and professional connections in the publishing world. These are all good things. They can make you a better writer and give you a leg up in this biz. They can help you get a seat at the cool kid's table before you’ve even sold a piece of work if that is your thing.
But none of those things (degrees, workshops, etc.) are mandatory or even necessary to become a working, professional writer.
Grab the drink of your choice and sit next to Uncle Michael. We’re going to have a chat, and I’m just going to put all my cards on the table, and if at the end of this conversation, you see yourself in what I’m saying and you decide to keep following your dreams despite not have all the fancy shit above, then I guess I’ve done my damn job.
Let’s start with the cause of this entire post.
“You’re a writer; what’s your degree in?”
I’ve dropped out of college three times.
There are perfectly good reasons for this that have nothing to do with academics. I could probably write another entire post about it, but here are the basics: Life happens. Life happens, and sometimes it’s not fair, but life makes no promises of being fair or easy. Sometimes, the choices you made as a dumb teenager haunt you. Sometimes, your responsibilities in the right here and right now leave you with few options, and none of them good.
I grew up rural working poor. I spent most of my childhood and a lot of my early adult life living in unstable situations, living hand to mouth, living one moderately bad break from being homeless. The schools I attended as a child and teen were, shall we say, a bit substandard. I work an office-type job (from home) now, but the lion’s share of my life has been as a blue-collar punch-a-clock worker.
By the standards of the academic dick-waving I mentioned above, I shouldn’t be where I am. I have no business in this business. By the standards of the academic dick-waving I mentioned above, nothing I have to say is worth listening to, for I am a member of the uneducated, unwashed masses.
But here I am, doing the work, writing and selling novels, poems, stage plays, and other work. And here you can be as well. It is a harder path—a dirt country road full of ruts instead of a smooth superhighway—but I sit here as living proof that success is possible without all the fancy degrees, workshops, and mentorships.
I have published fiction and poetry at every level, from major publishers to top-notch small presses to indie. I have written plays produced in the Twin Cities, which is a major theater town. I have stood on stages in the Twin Cities and performed one-person shows. I have been a Guest of Honor at various regional conventions. I am an award-winning screenwriter. I did all this while steadily going blind.
If a poor, rural, blue-collar kid can have this career, so can you.
Is college or a fancy workshop in a vineyard too pricey for you or not compatible with the realities of your life? There are free online critique groups and workshops you can join. There are entire welcoming writing communities you can join. Find them. Join a writing group of your peers. Need to up your game as a writer? Find a magazine you like and admire and offer to read slush. You will see the same errors over and over and over until you want to puke, but now you know which mistakes to avoid. Read for entertainment, but also study what the author is doing. There are some great books about writing out there. Figure out which ones work with your style and personality.
Remember that everything you see on social media, the sales, the awards, the accolades, etc., is a skewed funhouse mirror that makes reality look like everyone except you is selling their work, winning awards, and traveling to cool places for conventions and conferences. It is all, on some levels, an illusion. You only see the greatest hits of other artists, not the sweat, work, and failures behind the hits, and it comes at you like a firehose of information dedicated to discouraging you.
The sales, awards, etc., are not under your control, but they flow from the one thing you do control—the work of writing. Do the work. Be prepared to fail repeatedly. Your early work will probably suck. Keep working at it until it doesn’t suck anymore. Write your stories, polish them up, and submit them. DO NOT SELF-REJECT. You can’t win if you don’t play. Once you sell a story, novel, or screenplay, all the previous rejection is wiped clean.
Be relentless in the pursuit of your dream. Don’t give up. Don’t let the noise machine stop you. Don’t let the lack of a fancy degree or inability to attend a fancy workshop stop you.
If you want to be a writer, write. Pick up your pen and notepad, open up your laptop, or put a blank sheet of paper in the typewriter and start writing. Write, polish, edit, rewrite, polish again, submit, and start the next thing. Lather, rinse, repeat. That’s all you need to do.
Just write.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-13 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-13 05:32 pm (UTC)I'm fortunate that a writing workshop, on an island or not, and regardless of whether I saw myself as a student or a teacher, has always been among my visions of Hell, so at least I escaped that part of it all.
P.