Do I need a degree to be a writer?
No.
That was easy, wasn’t it?
On’y jokin’ - video and transcript below.
Link to video.
Video transcript:
Hello, my name is Jess, I’m a writers and careers advisor and this is careers advice for writers.
Topic one is something I’ve been asked often: do you need a degree (especially in English or Creative Writing) to be a writer?
The short answer is “no” - this is not a career like Psychology or Law where there are specific qualifications you legally have to have in order to succeed - the only qualification is that… you can tell stories. And that you want to.
And even if you WANT a degree - it doesn’t have to be in Literature or Creative Writing. Mine happens to be in those subjects, but that’s mostly because I didn’t actually know what I wanted to study. I would argue most people who choose to study English Literature don’t do it because they’ve got a firm grip on what they want to do with the rest of their lives, actually - but for the record, that’s fine!
Some of the skills/attributes you DO need to make a career in writing are:
persistence
curiosity
read a lot
PRACTICE
industry knowledge
And while a degree is one way of developing these areas, it’s absolutely not the only way. Instead, you could choose to do…
short courses
join writing groups
enter competitions
listen to writing-related podcasts
speak to career professionals
My undergraduate degree, for reference, taught me mostly to write snappy 2000-word short stories (which was really useful for writing competitions!) and also to take constructive criticism. You WILL need this latter skill if you ever want to work with an agent or publishing professionals like editors.
My Creative Writing MA taught me to write beautiful prose, but it didn’t teach me to hold the complicated structure of a novel in my head, necessarily. It didn’t teach me - and nor did it promise to - anything about publishing as an industry**. It was all about improving my craft, not the nitty-gritty of publishing my work.
**note - I think other MAs and MFAs DO teach some of this stuff - really, this goes back to working out what kind of training you personally want and need.
The institution I work for now doesn’t even teach humanities or arts courses, and yet I have met a ton of students and colleagues with science and engineering backgrounds who are writing or who have even published creative, fictional works.
BUT - if you already have a Lit/Creative Writing degree (or you think that’s what you’d like to study) - is it beneficial? What is it good for, if not for getting you published?
This is where you need to think about transferrable skills. In my personal experience, a lot of the skills I gained or further honed during my degree have been really useful even in my non-writing career. Skills like…
communication
writing for different purposes
media literacy
(Once upon a time, for example, it was my job to read, understand, interpret and then explain complicated Immigration Rules guidelines from the Home Office for the benefit of international students. I honestly think my degree helped prepare me to do that.)
I have worked in:
HR/Recruitment
Customer service
Libraries
Visas/Immigration
University admissions
Careers (obviously)
(Does that seem like a lot of jobs? It is, I get bored easily)
My point is, my education choices helped me secure and succeed in all of those jobs! Remember - ALL RECRUITMENT IS STORYTELLING - and who’s a better storyteller than someone with two Creative Writing degrees??