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/lit/ - Literature

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6366218 No.6366218 [Reply] [Original]

What should i study in college if i wanna be a writer?

>> No.6366225

>>6366218

Something that makes money.

>> No.6366234

Nothing, because you'll be so focused on wanting to be a writer that you'll find everything you do a waste of time and not focus on it properly while to takes away from the time/energy you could have spent writing.

>> No.6366261

>>6366234
This. I began writing when i was finishing my engineer degree. I was with a near perfect GPA and because of not caring that much about engineering anymore my grades suffered a little, and most important my traineeship suffered a lot. But at least i wrote a book. Best feeling ever.

>> No.6366293

Literally anything except writing. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER MAJOR IN WRITING. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.

>> No.6366337

>>6366293
Is literary theory fine?

>> No.6366344

>>6366337
No. Just watch free lectures from Yale that are on youtube. In the 21st century the only money you should be spending on becoming a writer are on two things: books and a computer.

>> No.6366347
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6366347

>>6366344
mfw uni is free in my country

>> No.6366394

>>6366293
I don't go to school but live in a town with a large university that actually has decent humanities and arts programs. The creative writing students I meet are almost invariably the most insuffferable pieces of shit. The classes and professors sound just awful too.

>> No.6366409

Maybe major in English?

>> No.6366481

>>6366261
Nice job man. What's the book about? Not about engineering stuff I hope

>> No.6366490

I think if you're a good writer you'll be naturally quite talented, although not perfect at first. Creative Writing would definitely refine your skills but it's too cliche of a course and you'd have better luck adventuring and building new experiences. At the end of the day, writing, for me at least is often based off my own life experiences. Some people are so imaginative and creative they can just be hold up in a room and come up with a super developed and intricate story, if you're one of those people you don't need a Uni course in creative writing you just need to sit the fuck down and write.

Those are just my two cents.

>> No.6366492

does studying writing hinder creativity?

>> No.6366500

>>6366492
Probably. You learn to write like some failed writer professor, not like yourself. Independent study of theory and a good spattering of influences probably couldn't hurt, though.

>> No.6366508

Anyone can write. Just do it and don't worry about whether you're ordained by an institution.

>> No.6366531

>>6366293
Kazuo Ishiguro was in a creative writing program and the stories he wrote for class were picked up by faber & faber, because they scouted for promising new authors there.


I was a bit surprised too.

>> No.6366536

>>6366500
This pretty much sums it up.

>> No.6366560

>>6366492
how could creativity be hindered by anything? if you don't find it then you don't have it.

>> No.6366585

>>6366560
Natural creativity can be replaced by using elements derived by someone else, an unskilled professor for instance.

>I want to write about (x), but Professor I. Settled says we should write about (y), and she shits on anything that doesn't meet her preferences.

>> No.6366593

>>6366225

Correct

Major should be left-brain to force you to structure abstract insight. Minor in humanities and spend your free time training yourself.

Definitely do not, do not, do not major in humanities.

>> No.6366600

>>6366585
why couldn't you write both things, what you are told by someone trying to teach you and whatever you want? are you gonna write exclusively for your professors? why do you want to be a writer if you won't write?

>> No.6366609

>>6366218
Live and read first, then continue the first two while writing.

If you're going to study, study something you're passionate about. Studying literature might not be too bad, but give yourself as broad a base as possible. You never know where inspiration will come from.

>> No.6366621

>>6366600
Influence. People don't go into universities fully fledged writers. Even if you make it a point to only write what you want, the influence of your professors and peers is going to imprint. You can't just separate your writing like that. What defines your personal style is your subconscious, natural choices that you don't think about. Same thing happens with any art/craft.

>> No.6366622

>>6366337
>Is literary theory fine?
If you're interested in literary theory then go for it, but it won't help you become a better writer. Plus it's really only worth studying literary theory if the school has a good program for it. It's what I studied in school and 3 different professors from my university had pieces in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, for whatever that's worth, but at least I was studying under world-renowned scholars.

In my experience, creative writing programs warp the minds of a lot of the students that go through them. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but they inculcate an attitude of writing for other creative writing students and not for the general literate public. This is especially true in MFA programs. It's its own niche. Most famous writers never studied creative writing in school.

Just major in whatever interests you. Learning to become a good writer comes from practice, a lot of reading, and learning from life experiences. Maybe take a few creative writing courses if you want to get feedback, or just join a creating writing club or group. Even my shitty, little, rustbelt town has two different creative writing groups that meet at the local library.

>> No.6366632

>>6366621
You don't go anywhere fully fledged. If you start working your coworkers will influence you, in any college your peers will, people in the street will, girls at parties will. You still have to keep writing and think things. Otherwise you don't want to be a writer, you want to have good books with your name on them.

>> No.6366639

Something interesting to stimulate your creativity, i.e. not writing

>> No.6366648

>>6366632
But it isn't the job of your coworkers and girls at parties to teach you how to write. How is it so difficult for you to grasp that a handful of people teaching you "how to be a writer" over the course of nearly half a decade, MIGHT cause you to write like them rather than yourself.

>> No.6366656

>>6366648
I get it, what I'm saying is that if you let them is your problem. If you can't critically chose what you learn from someone you have very basic thinking skills, like a toddler or little child would.

>> No.6366660

>>6366666

>> No.6366666

>>6366656
Sure, I bet you're a towering hero of independent, rational thought. That's why you're on /lit/.

>> No.6366668

Do a classical studies program. Learn Latin, profit. Otherwise, philosophy or math.

>> No.6366669

>>6366666
Shit get.

>> No.6366675

>>6366666
literally perfect

>> No.6366679

>>6366666
>>6366660
why would you cite a man before he even posts?
why would you shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane?

>> No.6366684

>>6366666
No, I just don't go around blaming others for my own deficiencies instead of trying to improve them, mister quints.

>> No.6366685

Study a subject which you really enjoy and can immerse yourself in that can help provide the framework for whatever you see yourself writing. History, engineering, physics, even theology. But most writing courses are just people who can't write for shit telling you things you could easily discern from reading whatever book they assign.

If you must take up some sort of writing as a degree, I would only recommend Technical Writing, as that allows you to get a job that enables you to work closely with experts in numerous fields, actually pays well enough for you to live on while providing enough time to write on your own, and lets you practice writing every day. Added bonus that many of the tenants of technical writing actually translate surprisingly well to creative writing and help you avoid numerous pitfalls that amateur writers are prone to making.

>> No.6366688

I used to workshop stories a lot and I could always tell when a review was done by an English major or something similar. They always had the same complaints about structure and "character development" and rules I was supposed to follow. Submit a story to the Spark Anthology if you want to know what I'm talking about.

>> No.6366697

>>6366684
I'm not an English major or a writer, I'm just aware, to some small degree, of how basic human social interaction.

Given where I am, this reaction probably shouldn't be surprising.

>> No.6366724

>>6366218
OP< I feel blessed to have done THEATER for my writing toolbox. Throughout I was exposed to literature and memorization, as well as the idea of inhabiting a full-life as much as METHOD can be done to inhabit another human during performance as possible (see:: what RobertDowneyJr does in TropicThunder).

The main takeaway is truly this buddhist school of thought. The antagonist does not ever see themselves as the antagonist; their actions seem perfectly OK to them (AND MAYBE... ETC).

I could say more but figure it out. Or don't. Theater worked for me.

I also know I am not "intelligent", suckers. I KNOW NOTHING I KNOW NOTHING I KNOW NOTHING IKNOWNOTHING

>> No.6368390

>>6366724
I've actually wanted to do some theater, but I never considered that it would help with my writing