did you go/are going to school for writing?

[DivaNicoletta]

Just curious how many people actually majored in writing/english at college/grad school. I am a senior in college, but I switched my major to Humanities. I thought about doing a PHD in English, but I there job competition is VERY tight, so I thought about going to law school instead.

What is your job/training, did you do anything in writing?

[Jamesaritchie]

Just curious how many people actually majored in writing/english at college/grad school. I am a senior in college, but I switched my major to Humanities. I thought about doing a PHD in English, but I there job competition is VERY tight, so I thought about going to law school instead.

What is your job/training, did you do anything in writing?

I majored in English Lit., and in Journalism, and took some writing classes on the side. Worked for a small newspaper for a time.

I learned a LOT about writing in journalism. It's not only a major that involves writing, but it covers a wide, wide range of jobs.

[scarletpeaches]

Left school at sixteen, never looked back. People said "Your schooldays are the best days of your life." I say, "If they're my best days, kill me now."

[AdamH]

I only took one writing course a couple years ago and it was more about meeting writers in my area than anything else since I moved into a new place. It also helped me brush up on some skills I needed to sharpen. I took a theatre degree in university with a minor in english. I might as well had just filed for unemployment right then. ;) But most of what I've learned are from other writers and what I read.

[Sage]

Majored in enviromental studies. Surprisingly, I'm even using it... but not in writing fiction, of course :ROFL:

[azbikergirl]

At one time I was an English major, but at one time I was also an anthropology major, theater major and psychology major. Got my BA in Russian. I work as a software engineer. :D

I've had training as a writer, though. Workshops and the like. Do they count?

[Tish Davidson]

Majored in biology. The only English class I took was the required freshman English.

[Fishmonkey]

PhD in ecology and evolution. Not a single writing or English class.

[sunandshadow]

I majored in English and am finding that, as advertised, it is impossible to get a good job with an undergraduate English degree. But I learned a lot about the history and breadth of literature and a lot about literary theory in my classes.

[Sarita]

I'm currently in school with dual majors in Archaeological Science and Anthropology.

[AncientEagle]

Double major, English because it felt natural, and German for fun. Later graduate studies in Journalism for a short spell.
Although my college identified the major as English, it was in reality English Literature.

[September skies]

I went into Nursing school. But I loved writing too much and after 25 years, took some journalism classes at a community college and then became an intern for a local newspaper. Eventually left, now string for several publications.

[FolkloreFanatic]

My field is Folklore & Mythology. English was too large, not enough personal attention. ;)



Kidding. At first, I didn’t understand why it was an honors concentration, but after studying English, Languages, Linguistics, History, Literature, Social Studies (yes, Social Studies is a concentration, and one of the two most difficult, with a 120-page thesis), Hist & Lit (the other hardest), Anthropological Archaeology, and the Dramatic Arts, I finally appreciate the reasoning behind the requirements.



It’s really fun—the ethnography and anthropology seminars are indispensable in comprehending the underpinnings of narrative structures and the art of storytelling, and the folktales and legends are the best kind of inspirational fodder for the mind.



Of course, I do endure the quizzical expressions, the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons quote, and even the occasional Joseph Campbell fan *shudder*. (We spent exactly one day on Campbell in a seminar, and that was mostly to explain why every reputable folklorist and anthropologist thinks he was a certifiable quack. It was funny to watch his miniseries, though, in a scary sort of way—the generalizations he made were simply hilarious.)

[Vanessa]

My major wasn't in english or writing.

[MadScientistMatt]

Majored in Mechanical Engineering, which is actually relevant to my non-fiction WIP.

[Saanen]

My B.A. is in English, although I started out in art. I switched to English not because I wanted to learn to write better, but because I love to read and think about what I've read. I don't know that my English classes, or the creative writing classes that I also took, made me a better writer. Certainly they made me a more well-rounded person, which helps with my writing.

I'd be writing no matter what I majored in, though.

[Christine N.]

B.S. in Kinesiology (I never spell it right, either! Durn it). BUT... I did take a semester of Shakespeare purely for the fun of it. I took the requisite core classes in lit, the professors bored me to tears, since they talked to the lowest common denominator. Ack. Wrote the papers, read the material, never went to class, still got an A.

The Shakespeare professor was really boring too, but I liked the class.

[KTC]

Not I. But I am trying to make up for it by taking night courses and workshops whenever possible.

[scarletpeaches]

I make up for it by reading a lot, KTC. :D

Edited to add: Your signature made me laugh so much my bowels prolapsed. :ROFL:

[jen.nifer]

Have only recently decided to apply for a course in professional writing which is 4 years part-time. If I get in, it will start next year.

[Honey Nut Loop]

well i've only just left school and am on my gap year. So no.

[Monet]

When I first started writing seriously, I took creative writing courses at the local college to point me in the right (write... heh, heh) direction!

[katiemac]

Currently majoring in Anthropology and Communication.

The latest class where I actually feel I'm learning something new about writing is my internship, where I tutor other students so they can improve their writing skills.

[goatpiper]

I started off with a major in writing, then transferred to a performing arts school and studied musical theatre and acting - my ego had taken over an excessive amount of territory in my brain.
Once I graduated, I didn't want to pursue a career in acting, so I did nothing but wait tables. Met my wife, built a relationship, got married, moved to Denver, CO, and now I'm back full circle to writing.
Once the mountain of debt I have accumulated is abolished (somewhere around my 126th birthday, I think), I plan to go back to school for Philology and a number of different languages - it has always been language, its origin, its development, its use and its abuse that has intrigued me.

[Danger Jane]

Hah, job training.

I can babysit and teach violin and Latin!

I plan on going to school for writing...it's what I really want to do. But there's a lot of other things I could do. I'd love to teach English (or LATIN!), probably high school. I'd like to teach Latin, particularly, because I really understand languages and it's a subject that SO many people hate. But I'll always write, no matter what I go to school for.

[Azure Skye]

I have a BA in Theatre. All of my English classes focused on academic writing not creative writing. One of these days I might take a writing class just to have feedback and to meet like minded people.

[cwfgal]

I have an associate degree in nursing and a bachelor's in health admin. I used just about every elective credit I had during those 6 years (over 30 credits' worth) on some type of writing class, most of them creative writing of some sort though I also took some classes in journalism, business writing, technical writing, etc.

Beth

[Celia Cyanide]

I went to school, and I didn't know what to do. I took all kinds of classes my first few years. I noticed I did really, really well in writing, so I majored in English. Then I found out you had to take all kinds of boring lit classes, and they didn't have one for the Beat Writers, which was kind of a drag. But I took existential philosophy, and that made up for it.

[Hannah]

I’m currently pursuing my bachelor’s degree in journalism with a lot of my extra credits in creative writing and the social sciences/urban studies (AIDS in America, history of neighborhoods, homelessness, etc.) to give me something to write about.

My journalism professor keeps telling me not to major in journalism because you can learn it on the job, he says, but I can’t bring myself to slather in Shakespeare, and the likes, with English literature. That is sooooo not me.

Journalism will keep me writing and I don’t mind the research. :popcorn:

[Jamesaritchie]

My journalism professor keeps telling me not to major in journalism because you can learn it on the job,
:popcorn:

You have a really strange journalism professor. You can't learn something on the job unless you first get the job, and it's darned tough to land a job in journalism these days without a degree in same.

Fortunately, if you go through a four year journalism program, you should have somewhere around a dozen professors, all told.

My first journalism professor was a reporter for The New York Times who was teaching at the university in exchange for his Masters. He gave the opposite advice, (Which was why he was back to get Masters), as did all the journalism profs I had.

[Jamesaritchie]

I went to school, and I didn't know what to do. I took all kinds of classes my first few years. I noticed I did really, really well in writing, so I majored in English. Then I found out you had to take all kinds of boring lit classes, and they didn't have one for the Beat Writers, which was kind of a drag. But I took existential philosophy, and that made up for it.

Boring lit classes! ARRRGGGHHH!

[Hannah]

That's what I thought, Jamesaritchie.

I'm currently a reporter, writer, and staff photographer for my college newspaper and I’m really getting great experiences––not to mention great clips. A lot of the reporting I do is more investigative. Many of the writers there are not journalism majors (not that you have to be), and they are alarmed when I do research and dig into the county records for my stories. They say, "Boy, you must be really ambitious to go through all of that trouble for a story." But that's what it has to be to create balance.

Our model is The New York Times, but ultimately, I'd like to be a feature writer.

[MarkPettus]

"I gave him my opinion--an MFA won't sell a book. Only a good book will sell a book. School and study is something you do INSTEAD of write."

J.A. Konrath -- Yesterday, in his blog. (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/)

Every time I see an opening that says "Journalism Degree required," I'm tempted to mail clips and a CV. You'd be amazed how little the degree matters if you can do the job.

On the other hand, if you can't do the job, the degree will still land you a position. I know way too many people in this category.

[Celia Cyanide]

Boring lit classes! ARRRGGGHHH!

I knew someone would say that. :) The lit classes I was asked to take were, for the most part, boring. I got what I wanted from a lit class out of my philosphy classes, in which we read the kind of stuff I wanted to read. I didn't have anything against Mary Sidney, but I would have preferred to do my senior seminar on William S. Burroughs.

I think this might have partly been the fault of my advisor. I remember she made me take a 100 level writing course, which actually taught you how to write. My prof was always confused as to what to do with me, because it was clear that I already knew.

[victoriastrauss]

Just curious how many people actually majored in writing/english at college/grad school. I am a senior in college, but I switched my major to Humanities. I thought about doing a PHD in English, but I there job competition is VERY tight, so I thought about going to law school instead.

What is your job/training, did you do anything in writing?My B.A. is in Comparative Religion, and I also took a lot of philosophy and history courses. When I entered college, I already knew I wanted to be a writer, so I thought I ought to spend my college years doing something completely different. I'm very glad I did--my college studies have been really really useful in my writing.

Jobwise, I also sought areas that were as different as possible--I didn't want to write at work, and then go home and try to write for myself.

- Victoria

[Jamesaritchie]

That's what I thought, Jamesaritchie.

I'm currently a reporter, writer, and staff photographer for my college newspaper and I’m really getting great experiences––not to mention great clips. A lot of the reporting I do is more investigative. Many of the writers there are not journalism majors (not that you have to be), and they are alarmed when I do research and dig into the county records for my stories. They say, "Boy, you must be really ambitious to go through all of that trouble for a story." But that's what it has to be to create balance.

Our model is The New York Times, but ultimately, I'd like to be a feature writer.
A few years ago you could walk into a paper, and if you could write, you had a job. But like most fields, it's getting tougher and tougher to get a job in journalism without a degree. There are so many people with degrees now that papers don't need to look outside journalism schools for help.

You can still come in the back door by writing nonfiction for magazines and the like, but that isn't an easy road, either. Large papers, where the pay is enough to live on, are getting more and more demanding about degrees.

It's certainly not impossible to break into journalism without a degree, it's done every year, but all things being equal, the person with the degree gets the job at any large paper.

[Jamesaritchie]

I knew someone would say that. :) The lit classes I was asked to take were, for the most part, boring. I got what I wanted from a lit class out of my philosphy classes, in which we read the kind of stuff I wanted to read. I didn't have anything against Mary Sidney, but I would have preferred to do my senior seminar on William S. Burroughs.

I think this might have partly been the fault of my advisor. I remember she made me take a 100 level writing course, which actually taught you how to write. My prof was always confused as to what to do with me, because it was clear that I already knew.


In teh Lit classes I took, we started with Homer, and worked right up through Burroughs, missing as few writers along teh way as possible. I don't care if it's Shakespeare, Dicekens, Twain, teh Bronte sisters, or Mary Shelly, I've never been bored in a lit class. How can you be bored reading and studying the greatest writers and poets of the ages?

As for knowing how to write, maybe you just had the wrong instructor. I'd already had one novel and three short stories published nationally when I started college, and I still didn't know one tenth as much about writing as I learned in my first year of study.

I still don't know how to write anywhere near as well as I would like.

[Jamesaritchie]

"I gave him my opinion--an MFA won't sell a book. Only a good book will sell a book. School and study is something you do INSTEAD of write."

J.A. Konrath -- Yesterday, in his blog. (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/)

.

I don't buy it for a second. For every writer like this, there are ten who used school and study to write.

I think he gave Marcus the dumbest advice anyone has ever received. It worked out great in this case, but do it a thousand more times and almost all will be failures.

Show me one Marcus who succeeds, and I'll show you at least a hundred who fail. It's another case of using the exception to make a rule. I hope to God J. A. Konrath never gets within ten miles of any of my kids.

That is quite literally the stupidest advice Ive ever heard. Of course only a good book will sell a book. Duh. But thinking it's easier to write a good book by dropping out of school makes no sense, and saying that school and study are things you do instead of write shows a vast ignorance of how many of our most successful writers got where they are.

[Celia Cyanide]

How can you be bored reading and studying the greatest writers and poets of the ages?

The simple truth is that I don't enjoy all literature. Some I love very much, but some writers don't interest me at all. I'm interested in film, visual art, and music, too, and it's the same story. I just don't like all of it. And we very rarely, if ever, studied my favorite authors.

As for knowing how to write, maybe you just had the wrong instructor. I'd already had one novel and three short stories published nationally when I started college, and I still didn't know one tenth as much about writing as I learned in my first year of study.

She was the right instructor for the course, which was geared toward non-English majors and ESL students. The purpose was to teach them how to write when they had writing assignments. I already knew this. I was the only English major in the class. I think she had trouble trying to challenge me, while teaching ESL students how to write. I never held it against her, because everyone in my intermediate creative writing class was shocked when I told them I was taking it.

Some people enjoy school, but I never have. I never had a great teacher who inspired me in grade school or high school. My favorite prof was a co-author of Transforming a Rape Culture, but she did not stay at my school for very long. I wasn't sure why, but I heard she just didn't like it there, which would make sense based on my experience with the English department.

[Celia Cyanide]

That is quite literally the stupidest advice Ive ever heard. Of course only a good book will sell a book. Duh. But thinking it's easier to write a good book by dropping out of school makes no sense, and saying that school and study are things you do instead of write shows a vast ignorance of how many of our most successful writers got where they are.

Quite true. And I don't think we go to school because we want to sell a book. We go because we want to learn. I got much more out of school than just "learning to write," and that includes the experiences I had, and the people I met. It does a lot more for you than that.

[pconsidine]

Majored in Fine Arts (Painting), with a minor in Philosophy. But I had absurd amounts of writing to do for all of it (Art History papers anyone?).

I don't draw a line between creative writing and academic writing. They both teach you how to draw the thought out of your head and get it down on paper so someone else can understand it. By that definition, I have all but the paper for a writing degree.

And the job.

[mkcbunny]

I have a BFA in painting and about thirty years of focus on the visual arts. Somewhere along the way, I transitioned into entertainment journalism as my full-time, "day job." After several years in an editorial position, writing reviews and articles, doing interviews, and producing a hefty amount of marketing copy, I decided it was time to tackle some fiction projects that had been clawing to escape the nooks and crannies of my mind. Being laid off from work, although unfortunate in the obvious ways, really helped to get that going. So here I am, writing a novel. It's the first non-fiction piece I've done, and it's a big experimental adventure.

[inanna]

I majored in English Lit, with a minor in Native American and World Lit, and found it invaluable to study classics that I might not have otherwise chosen for leisure reading. I really, really loved (most) of them in the context of a structured setting like that. The creative writing and contemporary fiction studies part of the program introduced me to some truly amazing writers and storytellers, but the overall focus of that education was more on theme and symbolism, voice and style--the intangibles, really.

In terms of my own writing, the novel writing classes I took at a nearby community college gave me the tools I needed to write and edit, to see behind the curtain in order to pick something apart on all kinds of levels. It also helped that I had a great instructor.

And I ran across some very useful tips just reading books on the craft.

[aka eraser]

Majored in Journalism, minored in Psychology and Sociology.

[Shiraz]

No formal training - have learned everything I know from sites just like this, and doing my homework. Any raw talent I have has been honed through trial and error, self-teaching. It's been an interesting ride. :hat:

[aruna]

The simple truth is that I don't enjoy all literature. Some I love very much, but some writers don't interest me at all. I'm interested in film, visual art, and music, too, and it's the same story. I just don't like all of it. And we very rarely, if ever, studied my favorite authors.



.

I'm like you; if I don't like a book I don't care how great a classic it's considered, I don't want to read it. And if I like it, I find that analysing and deconstructing it ruins it for me. Books are of two kinds: those that resonate with me, and those that don't. I feel no inclincation to read the latter just because they are great works; even if it means my literary education is incomplete. I don't care what others think of me if I haven't read Ulysses.

When I was the right age I didn't have the opportunity to go to University; when I did go, I was much older (29), and I went only to get myself a job in Germany. My education in writing came mostly fromn travelling, learning what humanity is about by interacting with as great a variety as I could, from European royalty to the simplest Amazonian Indian. I wouldn't exchange that for a PhD, and I think it's what fuels my writing. The actual craft of writing can be learned in a variety of ways. I was lucky, as when I started out I was taken on by a newspaper right away, and learned on the job. Later I read books and simply observed what good writing is.

Some people don't flourish in an academic situation, and I'm one of them.

[Shiraz]

Well, seems we all have much in common. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has no formal training in the field. Sometimes I felt a little out of place with other writers because of it - you know, less educated. Happy to know I'm not alone.

[kikazaru]

I started out with the intent of becoming an English major, however my very first Lit prof was a crashing bore and a chauvenist to boot and he put me off so much, that I never took another English class again. I ended up majoring in Art History with a minor in Anthropology. Both, while extremely interesting, are not particularily practical - the only joy I get out of it now is by being able to dredge some arcane bit of knowledge out of the recesses of my little brain and whomp my husband at Trivial Pursuit. It is satisfying, but the pay is poor.

[pepperlandgirl]

A BA in English with a minor in Creative Writing. Next year I hope to start in an MFA program or a MA Comparative Lit program. I miss school terribly. I was visiting an old prof today, and it really struck me how much I miss going to class, participating in discussions, even doing homework.

I've been making good use of my time since I got out of school. A very part time job, but today I submitted 3 different novels to 3 different publishers. I'm doing my best to launch my writing career now, and I don't think that I need an MFA to succeed eventually. I want to go to school because I want to learn not with any career in mind, well other than writing--hopefully, in the process, my husband and cats won't starve to death, yeah?