Many people see something magical in a beautiful work of art, and artists of all kinds often take pride in their craftsmanship. Creative writers say they find fulfillment in the writing process.
“I believe that making art is a human need, and so to get to do that is amazing,” says Andrea Lawlor, an author who this year received a Whiting Award — a national $50,000 prize that recognizes 10 excellent emerging authors each year — and who is also the Clara Willis Phillips Assistant Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
“We all are seeing more and more of the way that writing can help us understand perspectives we don’t share,” says Lawlor, whose recent novel “Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl” addresses the issue of gender identity.
[Read: What an MFA Degree Is and What You Need to Know.]
“Writing can help us cope with hard situations,” Lawlor says. “We can find people who we have something in common with even if there’s nobody around us who shares our experience through writing. It’s a really powerful tool for connection and social change and understanding.”
Creative writing faculty, many of whom are acclaimed published authors, say that people are well-suited toward degrees in creative writing if they are highly verbal and enjoy expressing themselves.
“Creative imaginative types who have stories burning inside them and who gravitate toward stories and language might want to pursue a degree in creative writing,” Jessica Bane Robert, who teaches Introduction to Creative Writing at Clark University in Massachusetts, wrote in an email. “Through formal study you will hone your voice, gain confidence, find a support system for what can otherwise be a lonely endeavor.”
Read the guide below to gain more insight into what it means to pursue a creative writing education, how writing impacts society and whether it is prudent to invest in a creative writing degree. Learn about the difference between degree-based and non-degree creative writing programs, how to craft a solid application to a top-notch creative writing program and how to figure out which program is the best fit.
Why Creative Writing Matters and Reasons to Study It
Creative writers say a common misconception about their job is that their work is frivolous and impractical, but they emphasize that creative writing is an extremely effective way to convey messages that are hard to share in any other way.
Kelly Caldwell, dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City, says prospective writing students are often discouraged from taking writing courses because of concerns about whether a writing life is somehow unattainable or “unrealistic.”
Although creative writers are sometimes unable to financially support themselves entirely on the basis of their creative projects, Caldwell says, they often juggle that work with other types of jobs and lead successful careers.
She says that many students in her introductory creative writing class were previously forbidden by parents to study creative writing. “You have to give yourself permission for the simple reason that you want to do it,” she suggests.
[See: Colleges With Great Writing Programs.]
Creative writing faculty acknowledge that a formal academic credential in creative writing is not needed in order to get writing published. However, they suggest, creative writing programs help aspiring authors develop their writing skills and allow space and time to complete long-term writing projects.
Working writers often juggle multiple projects at once and sometimes have more than one gig, which can make it difficult to finish an especially ambitious undertaking such as a novel, a play for the screen or stage, or a well-assembled collection of poems, short stories or essays. Grants and fellowships for authors are often designed to ensure that those authors can afford to concentrate on their writing.
Samuel Ace, a published poet and a visiting lecturer in poetry at Mount Holyoke, says his goal is to show students how to write in an authentic way that conveys real feeling. “It helps students to become more direct, not to bury their thoughts under a cascade of academic language, to be more forthright,” he says.
Tips on Choosing Between a Non-Degree or Degree-Based Creative Writing Program
Experts note that someone needs to be ready to get immersed in the writing process and devote significant time to writing projects before pursuing a creative writing degree. Prospective writing students should not sign up for a degree program until they have reached that sense of preparedness, warns Kim Todd, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts and director of its creative writing program.
She says prospective writing students need to think about their personal goals and figure out if a creative writing degree will help them achieve those goals.
Aspiring writers who are not ready to invest in a creative writing degree program may want to sign up for a one-off writing class or begin participating in an informal writing workshop so they can test their level of interest in the field, Todd suggests.
How to Choose and Apply to a Creative Writing Program
In many cases, the most important component of an application to a writing program is the writing portfolio, writing program experts say. Prospective writing students need to think about which pieces of writing they include in their portfolio and need to be especially mindful about which item they put at the beginning of their portfolio. They should have a trusted mentor critique the portfolio before they submit it, experts suggest.
Because creative writing often involves self-expression, it is important for aspiring writing students to find a program where they feel comfortable expressing their true identity.
This is particularly pertinent to aspiring authors who are members of minority groups, including people of color or LGBTQ individuals, says Lawlor, who identifies as queer, transgender and nonbinary.
How to Use a Creative Writing Degree
Creative writing program professors and alumni say creative writing programs cultivate a variety of in-demand skills, including the ability to communicate effectively.
“While yes, many creative writers are idealists and dreamers, these are also typically highly flexible and competent people with a range of personal strengths. And a good creative writing program helps them understand their particular strengths and marketability and translate these for potential employers, alongside the more traditional craft development work,” Melissa Ridley Elmes, an assistant professor of English at Lindenwood University in Missouri, wrote in an email.
[Read: Demand Booming on College Campuses for Creative Writing.]
Elmes — an author who writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction — says creative writing programs force students to develop personal discipline because they have to consistently produce a significant amount of writing. In addition, participating in writing workshops requires writing students “to give and receive constructive feedback,” Elmes says.
Cindy Childress, who has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana–Lafayatte and did a creative writing dissertation where she submitted poetry, says creative writing grads are well-equipped for good-paying positions as advertising and marketing copywriters, speechwriters, grant writers and ghostwriters.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual compensation for writers and authors was $63,200 as of May 2019.
“I think the Internet, and writing communities online and in social media, have been very helpful for debunking the idea that if you publish a New York Times Bestseller you will have ‘made it’ and can quit your day job and write full time,” Elmes explains. “Unless you are independently wealthy, the odds are very much against you in this regard.”
Childress emphasizes that creative writing degree recipients have “skills that are absolutely transferable to the real world.” For example, the same storytelling techniques that copywriters use to shape public perceptions about a commercial brand are often taught in introductory creative writing courses, she says. The ability to tell a good story does not necessarily come easily to people who haven’t been trained on how to do it, she explains.
Childress says she was able to translate her creative writing education into a lucrative career and start her own ghostwriting and book editing company, where she earns a six-figure salary. She says her background in poetry taught her how to be pithy.
“Anything that we want to write nowadays, particularly for social media, is going to have to be immediately understood, so there is a sense of immediacy,” she says.”The language has to be crisp and direct and exact, and really those are exactly the same kind of ways you would describe a successful poem.”
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What to Know About Creative Writing Degrees originally appeared on usnews.com
