Studying to become a writer
Got asked by a friend what advice I'd give his daughter on what to study at university or college in order to become a creative writer or journalist. Here's what I had to say:
My advice for someone who wants to actually make a living in creative writing (in general) or science fiction (in particular) is NOT to study those things at university. Study anything else instead -- seriously. Most creative-writing programs graduate people who at best will place stories with publications that "pay" in copies. And there are NO good undergraduate programs for SF writing. If your daughter wants a good grounding in writing SF, she should go to the six-week Odyssey, Clarion, Clarion West, or Clarion South workshops:
Odyssey
Clarion
Clarion West
Clarion South
After getting an undergrad degree in something else (psychology is an excellent area of study for a writer, as characterization is nothing but the art of dramatizing psychology), she might want to consider what is, as far as I know, the only program in which one can do a master's in writing commercial SF:
Seaton Hill
Journalism is another matter: many newspapers or other media outlets prefer to hire people with journalism degrees. But for creative writing, you need not just to be able to write (which is all a creative-writing program purports to teach you) but also have something to write about (which a good liberal-arts or general-sciences education will give you).
(For my own part, I have a degree in broadcasting, and took courses in psychology, sociology, English literature, and history of drama.)
I wish your daughter the best of luck!
Cheers,
Rob
4 Comments:
And I'll add this: my friend Suzanne Church, a fellow Canadian, looked at the prices for Clarion (in Michigan), Clarion West (in Seattle), and Clarion South (in Australia), and decided that going to Australia made the most sense -- with the exchange rates when she did it, tuition was substantially in Australia, and that went a long way toward offsetting the extra airfare -- plus she got to live Down Under for six weeks. How cool is that!
Jebs me gots a degree in psychology and it ain't helping me no writing career. lol. seriously, good advice from a master.
What? No science courses for a SF writer? And somehow he pulls it off with ease. I'm the opposite with a wad of science courses and only a couple liberal arts courses. I agree with Joe though, great advice.
Remember that Fred Pohl, who writes lots of hard SF, didn't even graduate from high school, and although Kim Stanley Robinson, who wrote the rock-hard RED MARS, GREEN MARS, and BLUE MARS trilogy, may indeed be Dr. Robinson, his Ph.D. is in English Literature. A science-fiction writer needs to know about science, of course; learning it in a classroom is only one possible route to that knowledge, though. :)
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