There are many stereotypes for those who choose to be writers. Such as caffeine runs through our veins rather than blood, we do our writing in coffee shops, we tend to look like hipsters, are hermits, we're always depressed, we can make up stories on the spot and somehow being a writer means you like cats more than any other animal.
While some writers do drink a lot of caffeine when they get a sudden burst of inspiration at two in the morning and write until the sun comes up, so do students in other majors such as bio-med, nursing and business who needed to cram in a late night study session or needed to finish a project. Do we do our work in coffee shops? Sure, but we don't all like coffee and the shops are not just for writers, and writers aren't the only one's who go there. Not all writers are hipsters or hermits, we're not all depressed, we hate being asked to make up stories on the spot and some writers prefer dogs, fish, spiders or even lizards rather than cats.
While most writers laugh at these stereotypes, there is one stereotype that bothers us the most.
Getting a creative writing degree is useless.
From personal experience, I remember telling a boy I was dating at the time I'm getting my AA so I can go study creative writing at a university. All he would bring up is I should study something else and write in my spare time, saying I can't get a job with a degree like that and at least he could get a job with his degree. He was going to school to become a doctor.
I've had friends confide in me telling how they had friends who were studying outside of the major in a variety of programs tell them that their degree is useless and they won't be able to do anything with it. Most of them were in bio-med or business.
Zoe LeBeau, a current Writing Studies major at the University of Washington had this to say when asked if they have been told their degree is useless.
"For some people, creative writing may be a useless degree. I've seen many classmates who don't take work-shopping seriously; they only write when they have an assignment due. If they don't succeed out in the real world, it's not because their degree held them back, but because they held themselves back."
As a personal belief for myself, what I have learned through my college experience is that it's not about the degree that you get, it's about what you do with the degree and what you make of it.
While getting my degree, I've met dozens of other writers, attended writing conferences, been published, worked for a literary journal and now I'm doing work for Odyssey. I don't think I could have had a better experience with my education, I've learned more going to university than I could have on my own, and my passion for writing has only gone upward as I have made connections through staff and classmates.
I wouldn't trade my university experience for the world, and for anyone out there doubting if they should go for the creative writing degree, go for it. Go for your dream, follow your passion. While we do have to keep in mind that if we want to be writers, we do need a job to support ourselves, but that doesn't mean that the degree is useless. You will have completed a four year degree, you will have graduated from university, you will have accomplished so much. To anyone that doubts you, just remember this;
Your writing degree is not useless!
