With most college degree programs, there is an obvious benefit to getting the degree. You go to college, earn your degree and then get a job in your field. But what kind of job can you get with a creative writing degree? Will a creative writing degree get you a job writing novels or poetry? No way! It just doesn’t work that way in the writing world. You sell your novels, short stories and poems based on how good they are, not on whether or not you have a creative writing degree.
Of course, that brings us to the best reason of all to get a degree in creative writing–to improve your writing skills. The degree itself won’t get you a job or sell your novel, but it will help you develop your creative writing skills to the point where the stories you write are actually salable. The process of completing assignments that must be turned in for a grade stretches your writing muscles in ways that you just don’t get sitting at home in front of your computer writing whatever you want. When you are given specific assignments to complete, you end up writing about topics you would never have chosen yourself and your experience as a writer grows.
In a creative writing program, you also get a chance to critique other students’ writing and have your writing critiqued by your peers. This is an important step in the development of your creative writing skills because you learn to see the stories you write from an editor’s viewpoint. You learn to spot your mistakes so that you can correct them and strengthen your writing.
A good creative writing program will also give you a background in literature that will allow you to learn from the masters who have gone before you. By studying the works of literary geniuses, you will learn how to use their techniques in your own work to make your writing better.
Although a creative writing degree won’t do much to help you sell your book, it will help you get to the point where you are capable of writing a book that will sell. That in itself is a good reason to pursue a creative writing degree.
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