Should I take advanced writing in college

"

solwitch wrote:

...I will be more than happy to share my adventure with you and not just you, but everyone.

For my part, all I care about in terms of information is what you want out of your college education. :)

There is no harm you're going to do to yourself by taking an "Advanced Writing" class. If you think you'll like it, go for it! The fact that you'll probably enjoy it means that you're more likely to make a good grade. Everyone likes those! If you have a 4.0 Average on Graduation, nobody is going to care that half of that comes from doing school on "easy mode." (Well, unless you didn't also excel in courses necessary for your profession, that is. NOT failing "Organ removal while not killing the patient" is kind of a pre-req "Surgeon" thing.)

I've never heard of a "Creative Writing" major. But, there are all sorts of Liberal Arts degrees out there, so some college somewhere may offer it. Most are going to be a bit more focused.

"Writing Well" can be taught. There's no magic involved beyond the capacity to host the necessary knowledge and learn the appropriate skills. That's it. That's the feature-set you need and it's obtainable.

Doing so consistently and applying that learning to producing a "Breakout Novel" that propels one on a course of self-employment is a bit more difficult. Don't quit your day job. :)

The "will" to drive on until you finally get recognized is not something that can be easily taught, however. Most books and works of fiction on the shelf have long stories of blood and turmoil with editors red of tooth and claw... Your manuscripts will see slush-piles more often than eager editors and publishers signing checks.

A "degree" isn't necessary for "creative writing." Even a mastery of the chosen language isn't necessary. It's a pretty useful skill, though.

If you wish to combine your courses of formal study with the future possibility of becoming a famous author of deeply-thunked literary works, I'd suggest getting a formal degree in "English" and a "Teacher's Certificate" or the equivalent in your country. I'm very directly suggesting that you establish a profession that will first allow you to pay necessary living expenses, but one that also affords you some well-studied knowledge that you can use to further your ultimate goals. Just about any "teacher" is guaranteed some measure of employment, somewhere. You'll always have a job if it turns out that you suck as a novelist. :)

Note: Being a plumber, electrician, lawyer, couch-repair specialist, research lab tech, astronaut, ditch-digger... Any of those can help further your writing career solely due to the fact that someone will pay you for those skills even if they won't pay you for your writing.

One morning, solwitch is summoned to the department office.

After waiting for what seemed all morning, he's shown in to the department chair's office.

Across a long table, four suits are arranged against him, one of which is the department chair, Mr Blogrant.

"Please have a seat, Sol," he says a little stiffly.

Sol's eyes are drawn to a thick manila folder sitting under Mr Blogrant's right hand, labeled in fat black marker letters "AST".

It is crammed with printouts.

A bolt of horror races through Sol's body from head to toe. His mouth goes cotton-dry. Suddenly he has to pee REAL BAD, even though he went as a matter of routine before entering the office lobby.

(We got your back. However you choose to interpret it. ;) )

"

crunkatog wrote:

One morning, solwitch is summoned to the department office.

After waiting for what seemed all morning, he's shown in to the department chair's office.

Across a long table, four suits are arranged against him, one of which is the department chair, Mr Blogrant.

"Please have a seat, Sol," he says a little stiffly.

Sol's eyes are drawn to a thick manila folder sitting under Mr Blogrant's right hand, labeled in fat black marker letters "AST".

It is crammed with printouts.

A bolt of horror races through Sol's body from head to toe. His mouth goes cotton-dry. Suddenly he has to pee REAL BAD, even though he went as a matter of routine before entering the office lobby.

(We got your back. However you choose to interpret it. ;) )

<3

"

solwitch wrote:

I digress... I digress...

You do little else, so why bother announcing it?

"

solwitch wrote:

I will be more than happy to share my adventure with you and not just you, but everyone.

QED.

Two pages, already written. So what's the delay?

Unless there's an almost inexplicably vast gap between the quality of your writing here and whatever prodigious paean you showed to these two academics, you'll have to forgive my scepticism. Or don't. I don't care.

Burden of proof's on you, Sol. Nothing else to say on the matter until then.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

"

solwitch wrote:

I digress... I digress...

You do little else, so why bother announcing it?

"

solwitch wrote:

I will be more than happy to share my adventure with you and not just you, but everyone.

QED.

Two pages, already written. So what's the delay?

Unless there's an almost inexplicably vast gap between the quality of your writing here and whatever prodigious paean you showed to these two academics, you'll have to forgive my scepticism. Or don't. I don't care.

Burden of proof's on you, Sol. Nothing else to say on the matter until then.

It’s not about you ^.^ Why are you so skeptical is beyond me. You obviously have a lot to say or have said. I’ve have received the input I was looking for, but since you continue to be passive aggressive perhaps you don’t deserve to see it.

When you stop acting like I’m your Achilles heel, perhaps I’ll entertain the notion. Also why in the hell are you getting yourself so worked, your girl friend told you to stop stressing on mundane things. Take a break sir, relax, easy now...

"

Morkonan wrote:

"

solwitch wrote:

...I will be more than happy to share my adventure with you and not just you, but everyone.

For my part, all I care about in terms of information is what you want out of your college education. :)

There is no harm you're going to do to yourself by taking an "Advanced Writing" class. If you think you'll like it, go for it! The fact that you'll probably enjoy it means that you're more likely to make a good grade. Everyone likes those! If you have a 4.0 Average on Graduation, nobody is going to care that half of that comes from doing school on "easy mode." (Well, unless you didn't also excel in courses necessary for your profession, that is. NOT failing "Organ removal while not killing the patient" is kind of a pre-req "Surgeon" thing.)

I've never heard of a "Creative Writing" major. But, there are all sorts of Liberal Arts degrees out there, so some college somewhere may offer it. Most are going to be a bit more focused.

"Writing Well" can be taught. There's no magic involved beyond the capacity to host the necessary knowledge and learn the appropriate skills. That's it. That's the feature-set you need and it's obtainable.

Doing so consistently and applying that learning to producing a "Breakout Novel" that propels one on a course of self-employment is a bit more difficult. Don't quit your day job. :)

The "will" to drive on until you finally get recognized is not something that can be easily taught, however. Most books and works of fiction on the shelf have long stories of blood and turmoil with editors red of tooth and claw... Your manuscripts will see slush-piles more often than eager editors and publishers signing checks.

A "degree" isn't necessary for "creative writing." Even a mastery of the chosen language isn't necessary. It's a pretty useful skill, though.

If you wish to combine your courses of formal study with the future possibility of becoming a famous author of deeply-thunked literary works, I'd suggest getting a formal degree in "English" and a "Teacher's Certificate" or the equivalent in your country. I'm very directly suggesting that you establish a profession that will first allow you to pay necessary living expenses, but one that also affords you some well-studied knowledge that you can use to further your ultimate goals. Just about any "teacher" is guaranteed some measure of employment, somewhere. You'll always have a job if it turns out that you suck as a novelist. :)

Note: Being a plumber, electrician, lawyer, couch-repair specialist, research lab tech, astronaut, ditch-digger... Any of those can help further your writing career solely due to the fact that someone will pay you for those skills even if they won't pay you for your writing.

Thanks, really helps... Also want to be clear, it’s a class I was considered for, my major is in epidemiology (Micro Biology).
It would be taken as an elective, trust me there are so many more easy A’s. My gpa is 3.8...

I have a hard time with math, but thank god it’s over. I’ll probably have to take calculus to meet prerequisites or statistics, but that class is not transferable.

As for the writing, I like writing etc and reading but I never thought I would get praised for a two page essay. Btw my two page was murdered with red ink, it read well enough but still... grammar wasn’t there. I’ll PM you the essay. ^.^

"

Why are you so skeptical is beyond me.

Maybe because your story sounds like it was copy/pasted from one of the many clickbait articles that saturate FaceBook on a daily basis. You know the ones; they use large font and double space everything so that they can justify putting in an ad at the end of each sentence. All full of "true" stories.

The only thing missing from your story is where the class all stood up at the end and applauded.

So is the caught fish 6 inches or 27 inches?

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

...top notch. *Snigger*

Well compared to classmates then?
:-)

"

solwitch wrote:

...Thanks, really helps... Also want to be clear, it’s a class I was considered for, my major is in epidemiology (Micro Biology).
It would be taken as an elective, trust me there are so many more easy A’s. My gpa is 3.8...

I have a hard time with math, but thank god it’s over. I’ll probably have to take calculus to meet prerequisites or statistics, but that class is not transferable.

For Statistics, it depends on the curriculum for your major. However, considering epidemiology dives deep into the pool of "statistics"... Well, good luck. :) One bright side - Statistics and mathematics are... different. I know that sounds weird, but statistics is easier to visualize and understand as a concept than hard-line mathematics. Well, at least to my brain.

Remember - You don't need a degree to practice writing. But, to apply for a position to practice your profession as an epidemiologist, you'd probably be well-served if you had a piece of paper that said some people thought you might be a decent epidemiologist. :)

"

As for the writing, I like writing etc and reading but I never thought I would get praised for a two page essay. Btw my two page was murdered with red ink, it read well enough but still... grammar wasn’t there. I’ll PM you the essay. ^.^

All of your work is going to be marked with red ink for a very long time. Writers have thick skins. You will suck. Badly. As in you can't even suck well, much less tack a few words together in any meaningful way.

If you actually like epidemiology, you might like "The Hot Zone." by Richard Preston. (Non-fiction dramatization) I do have to confess it's somewhat weirdly written. It's great, but just somewhat strange. It reminds me of the style of Crichton's "The Andromeda Strain." (Chriton was an MD, btw.) That could be due to the sort of episodic nature of information as the evidence for a possible ebola event came to light. Andromeda is a bit like that, given in bits and pieces that progress the story with beats of info and development of events. Plot-driven vs character driven? IIRC, Andromeda is more the former while Hot Zone has a bit more from one character's point of view, but isn't itself character driven. (The Hot Zone is about an ebola incident at a medical research lab... an true-story "Oops." :) And, it's actually topical and relevant in regards to these sorts of labs/research facilities and events that end up flying under the radar.)

On your manuscript: I don't mind taking a look at it. But, a word of warning - Remember that I've warned you that writers must have thick skins. Don't personalize yourself in your work. It isn't a special little snowflake. It's simply an exercise in communication gymnastics. Either you vault successfully or you don't, but you will rarely vault perfectly. Whenever I give criticism on another's work, I never care about the "story." I only care about how the story is being told. That includes whether or not you wrote your dialogue attributions correctly as well as.... just how many paragraphs are you going to use to get this character to walk to the desk? :)

Given your current tract, I'd suggest you stick to it. Get that degree or something else that will serve you just as well. Suffer the bit of statistics that you must, confident that Microsoft Excel and Wofram Alpha are just a click away and will surely keep you from killing anyone at the lab bench because you urinated on the p-test... ;)

You gotta eat. A steady income is also something that enables a writer to write. If you want to pursue writing, then keep doing it while you're pursuing... money. Write something every day. (Though, if I know the general habits of professional employers, you will slaving away doing grunt-work for years before you have enough time to set aside for writing regularly. Enjoy! :D)