jen5079

I'm still an undergraduate, but I've been thinking about graduate school in creative writing. Do you guys think that it is necessary to attend a graduate school or is it just the talent you have that really determines your ability to be a successful writer?

rumpole40k

The first thing a writer must do is write. I know how stupid that sounds but I've lost track of the number of "writers" who've taken classes, read books on writing, attended seminars (you see where I'm going with this), but never take the time to consistently sit down and write. Everything else is secondary - including graduate classes.

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A humble wolf with dreams of being on a stamp, releasing an autobiography, having a film made showing his daily struggles, having a world wide fan club... - Code Red

"Doing? You're doing what ANY sane man in your appalling circumstances would do. You're going mad." - The Killing Joke.

Wintermute

Successful writing comes down to talent, hard work, and impeccable persistance. No graduate program will turn you into a successful writer if you haven't got the chops. It will keep you reading a lot and writing a lot however, which is the groundwork for writing well. If that's worth the debt to you, then go for it. If not, you are safe in the knowledge that many successful and famous writers never even attended school.

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"I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read." - Samuel Johnson

Industrial

It's kind of like music.

You have to learn how to play guitar before you can make a song.

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That's just more ammo for my arsenal.

Tiamat10

Graduate school would be an awful lot of money to invest in a profession that's not likely to yield much of an income for most of your life.

Plus--and I'm not critiquing you specifically here, having never read anything of yours--if you haven't got the talent now, you're not likely to get it by any amount of formal education.

I think anyone wishing to write creatively, rather than putting themselves in debt for the next 20 years, should just go out and sign up for something they've never done before. Like spelunking. Experience crafts better writers than universities.

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SparkyLT

I don't think any kind of writing school is necassary - I mean, I'm not yet out of high school, but according to most people I'm a pretty decent writer. I'd say it's all about talent.

But, I think a publisher would probably be more interested in you if you can show them some sort of diploma...

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Tiamat10

From what I've seen, publishers are more interested in what you've had published and where than in a piece of paper that says you made it through university and haven't yet had anything published because you were too busy with school work.

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Wintermute

HaHa. If only that were true.

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"I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read." - Samuel Johnson

SparkyLT

Oh well. I can tell my mom I don't have to go to college after all then?

__________________
The latest part of my novella, Darkness. 'Please read' goes without saying, right...?
My Dragon Scroll
Don't these eggs all lined up make you nervous?
Click them then, so they'll hatch and go away!

Wintermute

No, go to college. But know that you don't have to major in English or Creative Writing if you don't want to.

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"I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read." - Samuel Johnson