Degrees

[Karenlyn]

I'm a novelist. I was just having a discussion with a friend of mine about the importance of a writer having a university degree. For you writers out there... how important do you think it is for a writer to have studied in university? Very important? Simply helpful?

I'm simply curious about what other writers have to say.

-Karen

 

[novella]

The question can be interpreted two ways, so I will answer both.

While, IMO, having a literary education is essential, I don't think having a university degree is particularly useful to a novelist, unless of course you supplement your income from writing by teaching writing, as many do--in which case, the university you teach at would definitely like to see not just a bachelor's degree but a graduate-level degree. It would, indeed, be very useful, particularly for a novelist with only one or two works. Sort of shows a seriousness of purpose, as well as a vote of confidence in the university as practice.

However, in order to publish a novel, you do not need a university degree. Do you need a university education? No, not really. Many great writers were avid readers but did not have degrees--including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf. The 20th century is full of such examples.

But I'm still not sure whether you're asking whether you need a degree or whether you need an education.

 

[Mathius]

The question can be interpreted two ways, so I will answer both.

While, IMO, having a literary education is essential, I don't think having a university degree is particularly useful to a novelist, unless of course you supplement your income from writing by teaching writing, as many do--in which case, the university you teach at would definitely like to see not just a bachelor's degree but a graduate-level degree. It would, indeed, be very useful, particularly for a novelist with only one or two works. Sort of shows a seriousness of purpose, as well as a vote of confidence in the university as practice.

However, in order to publish a novel, you do not need a university degree. Do you need a university education? No, not really. Many great writers were avid readers but did not have degrees--including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf. The 20th century is full of such examples.

But I'm still not sure whether you're asking whether you need a degree or whether you need an education.

I agree with pretty much everything said above.

I actually think it's quite pompous to assume that you have to have a degree to be a writer, or to be a good writer.

This is one of the things that always bugged me about some of the great fantasy writers like Tolkien, Robert Jordan, or even a moderately good one like David Eddings. It seems to me that they place too much emphasis on education.

It's important to be well educated in literary structure and things of that nature, but the extent that they've gone, with creating their own languages and things of that nature are purely extraneous. They're kind of neat, but for the casual reader, they are really unnecessary.

David Eddings even went so far to say in his "Riven Codex" book (which is a bit of a "directors cut" version of his Mallorean and Belgarion series books) that he felt as though he was having to dumb down his books for his fantasy readers. He felt that writing in "high style" is far more acceptable for civilized company. Of course I'm paraphrasing here. I don't own a copy of the Riven Codex for reference and I'm trying my best to give the gist of it from memory.

I guess some people would consider these things the differences between a good and great author, but for me it's all about two things.

Is the plot well thought out and presented?

Is the story well written, so that I can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell what's going on in the character's interactions?

For me, that's what a good book is about.

Mathius

 

[GreenKnight]

I would go so far as to say that doing an English degree actively damaged my ability to write novels, at least for a few years. I kept trying to be literary and clever when I should have been learning the basics. Like learning to fly before you can crawl. It took a long time to un-learn all that Lit Crit nonsense.

However, I will say this. Going to university proved invaluable in one other sense. It gave me LOTS and LOTS of time to write. I knew I'd never have so much free time again... and I was right!

In summary: College or University is a great place to be a writer, so long as you skip lectures ;-)

 

[WriterJohnB]

I'm assuming you mean a degree in the literary field? I'm in a writers group with 2 Eng. Lit professors and an Eng. teacher. As for me, I've only had HS and the school of hard knocks and I hold my own as long as they're not referring to the more obscure classics.

I think that the most important thing a writer needs (except for desire, if you're planning to be published) is a solid command of the language and sentence structure, spelling, etc., which should have happened way back in elementary school. How many manuscripts do you think have been rejected because the spelling (might have passed spell check, but still be wrong) or grammar is wrong in the query letter?

Next, if you're writing fiction, is the willingness to learn plot, theme, characterization, use of dialogue, etc. And, right along with willingness to learn, it helps tremendously to be able to accept criticism and use it to improve. And I don't just mean criticism on a forum, a rejection from an editor is also criticism, although most editors won't give their reasons for rejection anymore because then they get hate-mail from people who CAN'T accept criticism.

I've interacted with enough editors over the last few years to learn what they are looking for. I try to show new writers these tips on forums and am often greeted with hate. It's like: How dare you criticise me? My mommy never criticised me?

A writer has to learn to take honest crit with a grain of salt. After all, it's only another person's opinion and can be taken or not. Some of the best writers around have been criticised harshly (Stephen King is a hack!) or rejected numerous times before becoming published. In my opinion, the harshest critic of any writing should be the author, judging himself. I will read this post thoroughly before submitting, as I do with everything, because I am always being judged on my writing and first-draft is never good enough.

Anyway, that's far more than my allotted two-cents worth.

Take care,

JohnB