For a long while now I have felt the insufferable yearning to get back to my writing roots. I feel that I have deluded myself for far too long. After years of delay unrelated to my craft, I am about to embark on another journey of self-illusion. I will be taking an MA next year in English Literature. This is something that must be done due to economic, personal, and emotional circumstances—and it is a decision I did not make lightly. Alas, I must continue down this avenue in order to survive for the time being.
I started writing because of the media I love. I love the visual media—TV, film, even cartoons. But as I worked my way through a degree in television production and a secondary degree in English (which encompassed film, creative writing, and literature), the goals I had set for a career became hazy. I believed that to reach my goals of becoming a professional writer I would have to diversify. I spread my interests into the aforementioned areas of knowledge with a great zeal and frenzy. Only I soon realized it was a mistake. Instead of diversifying, I should have focused on my main interest.
I have written very little over the past two years. In fact, my interest in writing has dwindled and almost vanished. That is not to say that I do not enjoy writing—I want to write the rest of my life. I merely feel that what I have been writing does not suit my interests. I do not feel as strong of a connection to writing as I once did. It has almost become a chore. As an undergrad, I was instructed to write literary fiction. My professors and colleagues all degraded what I most enjoyed. Literary fiction was not just the de facto writing style, it was the only style recognized. Popular fiction—the only type I could see myself writing in the long run was not allowed. And while I had much support from my screenwriting professor, others in the writing program looked down upon screenwriting as something unworthy of a true writer. It also didn't help, I must admit, that I learned little from my screenwriting professor as his own skills were lackluster.
Now I am at a crossroad as what to do. I still believe that a university level program is the right step to achieve my goals. What I want to do as a writer, and what I have been setting myself to do have diverged somewhere along the way, and I am unsure as to how I should straighten out my path. I will wait out the next two years in the English MA program—as I said I must. And I will continue to write and send out fiction to publishers. But after, I need advice as to where or what I should study. I do not believe I will ever be a great fiction writer. I don't think I will even be much more than a mediocre pop-fiction writer. And though I do wish to continue writing fiction, and believe that writing traditional fiction will help me grow as a writer, I need to get back—somehow—into screenwriting.
Any thoughts would be most welcome.
I started writing because of the media I love. I love the visual media—TV, film, even cartoons. But as I worked my way through a degree in television production and a secondary degree in English (which encompassed film, creative writing, and literature), the goals I had set for a career became hazy. I believed that to reach my goals of becoming a professional writer I would have to diversify. I spread my interests into the aforementioned areas of knowledge with a great zeal and frenzy. Only I soon realized it was a mistake. Instead of diversifying, I should have focused on my main interest.
I have written very little over the past two years. In fact, my interest in writing has dwindled and almost vanished. That is not to say that I do not enjoy writing—I want to write the rest of my life. I merely feel that what I have been writing does not suit my interests. I do not feel as strong of a connection to writing as I once did. It has almost become a chore. As an undergrad, I was instructed to write literary fiction. My professors and colleagues all degraded what I most enjoyed. Literary fiction was not just the de facto writing style, it was the only style recognized. Popular fiction—the only type I could see myself writing in the long run was not allowed. And while I had much support from my screenwriting professor, others in the writing program looked down upon screenwriting as something unworthy of a true writer. It also didn't help, I must admit, that I learned little from my screenwriting professor as his own skills were lackluster.
Now I am at a crossroad as what to do. I still believe that a university level program is the right step to achieve my goals. What I want to do as a writer, and what I have been setting myself to do have diverged somewhere along the way, and I am unsure as to how I should straighten out my path. I will wait out the next two years in the English MA program—as I said I must. And I will continue to write and send out fiction to publishers. But after, I need advice as to where or what I should study. I do not believe I will ever be a great fiction writer. I don't think I will even be much more than a mediocre pop-fiction writer. And though I do wish to continue writing fiction, and believe that writing traditional fiction will help me grow as a writer, I need to get back—somehow—into screenwriting.
Any thoughts would be most welcome.