McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Maybe an English degree is a must?

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arianne:
I would definitely agree that if you look long and hard enough, you will find one or two, maybe even several, fantasy authors who have no English major/creative writing course/Classics education etc of any sort. But are these people the exception rather than the rule? Maybe these are the one in a million extra extra good at writing people...?

On the flip side, I would also agree that there are people who are English majors who couldn't write a novel to save their lives. And there's nothing wrong with that, if they weren't interested in writing a novel in the first place. (Because not everyone is as obsessed with writing as writers are ;D)

I think on a deep level I am worried of not putting in enough symbolism or hidden meaning or whatever it is they put in the Cliffsnotes these days.

On a not so deep level I sometimes just feel inadequate for no reason at all. (Don't we all?)

In a way, it's kind of like music. I listen to a lot of pop music, so let's go with that as a metaphor. I haven't seen many pop artists out there who didn't have some sort of musical education, whether it was at a high-class private school, a music major at college, or, at the very least, most of them have taken piano/guitar/bass lessons.

Are there pop musicians out there who don't know how to play instruments? I'm sure there are. Are there pop musicians out there who don't know how to read music but can write their own songs? Yes there are. Are they good musicians? Some of them are, depending on who you ask. Are there many of these musicians? No.

So I guess the big question I'm trying to ask is, what makes me think that I can be one of these musicians? Am I in fact just another wannabe on American Idol?

I'll just go off and wallow now....

Shecky:
It may sound odd coming from me (I was not far from becoming a permanent student), but degrees mean nothing in and of themselves. What matters is innate ability + study (be it guided or otherwise, as long as it's done intelligently and fully) + practice. Yes, those often occur among those who choose advanced study in the field, but it's not a MUST-have.

Wordmaker:
Heh, trust me, don't worry about symbolism and just focus on writing an entertaining story. People who want to find symbolism will find it even if you didn't put it there, and people who don't won't notice if you put hours of work into including it.

And remember this piece of advice.

LizW65:

--- Quote ---I think on a deep level I am worried of not putting in enough symbolism or hidden meaning or whatever it is they put in the Cliffsnotes these days.
--- End quote ---

To paraphrase Stephen King in On Writing: Just concentrate on plot and character, and theme will take care of itself. Otherwise, he warns, you could end up with something like Atlas Shrugged on your hands. ;)

aikidoka:

--- Quote from: Shecky on April 10, 2013, 05:07:43 PM ---More the latter. I've known a lot of English majors (and English grad students, for that matter) whom I wouldn't trust to write the number 1 on a piece of paper. Education isn't limited to matriculation, y'know.

--- End quote ---
I know what you mean.  I have a friend who has a Masters in English, and one time she emailed me about how she was being a pre-madonna about some upcoming event.  Wrote her back saying I always thought of her more as a post-madonna.

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