I went to University for my degree in English, but I really went thinking "This will teach me how to write!" How stupid that was? I did learn a lot of very interesting things, like how I actually really like Milton, which I'd never thought I did, but for writing, it was such a bust.
What I did learn was that, if I wanted to be a writer, I wasn't going to learn how in my creative writing classes, which mostly focused on getting published in our school writing journal... which couldn't give away the five hundred copies it printed.
In the end, I graduated without honors and got a dumpy job where I could write at work. Wrote a few books, then wrote the one that knocked it out of the park. I've got a 3 book deal now writing books I love.
But the REAL happy ending is that, when I emailed my mentor in the English department to tell her the good news, she ran to tell the head of the department, and now I'm a distinguished alumna. Distinguished alumna, picture on the wall, and all for writing the same kind of stories that four years ago my Creative Writing teacher said I should chuck over for "serious fiction."
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 01:11 pm (UTC)I went to University for my degree in English, but I really went thinking "This will teach me how to write!" How stupid that was? I did learn a lot of very interesting things, like how I actually really like Milton, which I'd never thought I did, but for writing, it was such a bust.
What I did learn was that, if I wanted to be a writer, I wasn't going to learn how in my creative writing classes, which mostly focused on getting published in our school writing journal... which couldn't give away the five hundred copies it printed.
In the end, I graduated without honors and got a dumpy job where I could write at work. Wrote a few books, then wrote the one that knocked it out of the park. I've got a 3 book deal now writing books I love.
But the REAL happy ending is that, when I emailed my mentor in the English department to tell her the good news, she ran to tell the head of the department, and now I'm a distinguished alumna. Distinguished alumna, picture on the wall, and all for writing the same kind of stories that four years ago my Creative Writing teacher said I should chuck over for "serious fiction."
The world moves in funny ways, sometimes.