From: mumble@nomail.invalid   
      
   On 06/14/2014 10:18 AM, Brenda Clough wrote:   
   > On 6/14/2014 11:40 AM, mumble wrote:   
   >   
   >> Yes, a creative writing course can only amount to some kind of   
   >> introduction, but the author-blurb I'm referring to said that she had   
   >> taken a *degree* in "Creative Writing". I didn't realize there were   
   >> colleges with full degree programs in Creative Writing, but apparently   
   >> the world moves on whether we're watching it or not. I can imagine a   
   >> four-year program that would go a great distance toward teaching someone   
   >> to be a writer of merit.   
   >   
   >   
   > A degree in Creative Writing is usually combined with a degree in   
   > English -- I have one. IMO if you actually want to write fiction for the   
   > commercial market you should not waste your time and money on a creative   
   > writing degree. Better to get one in botany or systems engineering or   
   > nuclear physics. Then you h ave something to underpin your SF.   
   >   
   > Brenda   
      
   We all have our own views on the whole "career" gizmo, and mine has   
   certainly evolved; if I was a young person who wanted to write fiction,   
   I would study enough English to gain the necessary basics, then study   
   something absurdly pecunious and mercenary... accounting, business,   
   marketing, that sort of thing, with the objective of making a boatload   
   of money as quickly as possible, and I'd live in a slum and spend   
   nothing avoidable until I'd accumulated the necessary amount (much less   
   than most think, I suspect).  Then I'd retire and write fiction, or just   
   sit in the sun and slap mosquitoes or whatever.   
      
   Of course I didn't do it that way, being young and naive I studied what   
   fascinated me then worked as an underutilized drudge and bought things   
   on credit until finally it all came apart, then fell together again in a   
   far better way than I could ever have expected.   
      
   But it sounds as though we agree that paying (quite a lot these days)   
   for a degree that isn't a guarantor of an income (and very few are these   
   days) isn't the best way to prepare oneself to write fiction as a   
   lifestyle.  Not that such makes us right in that, but it's pleasant to   
   find myself at least somewhat in agreement with another poster here.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)