I’m a full-time writer with no English degree. (I’ll tell you a bigger secret, I actually don’t have a degree at all.) And after doing this for a few years I’ve learned the answer to an enormous question: do you need a college degree to be a writer? No.
*Let me throw in a disclaimer here: I strongly believe in education. I think that education paves the way for opportunity and we are all better because of it. However, I am writing this to challenge the concept that a writer can and will only be bred in an educational institution.*
Do You Need a College Degree to Be a Writer
For those of you who are new to The Write Practice blog, hi, I’m Kellie. I’ve been writing on here for about two and a half years. I started as an amateur and recently launched my own writing business. So really, I am the poster child for how you really CAN make it.
(I’m still not completely sure how I made it, but I’m going to spend the next couple posts sharing what I did and how you can make it as a writer too!)
3 Secrets to Becoming a Writer Without a College Degree
Here are three reasons you don’t need a college degree to be a writer.
1. Nothing Beats Doing the Work
I wrote my first book in 2014. That’s when I met Joe. (He’s the guy who started this whole blog.)
I inadvertently signed up for a program I thought was on storytelling and blogging. Turned out, the four-month intensive switched from a nice, easy program on writing stories and starting a pretty blog to a four-month, never sleep, insane deadlines, learn how to write a book program.
It was extremely challenging as over those four months, Joe taught us how to write a book. He showed us what it looked like to structure a chapter, build a world, and tell really good stories.
The difference, though, is that we only met for “class” once a week for two hours. Every other second was dedicated to doing the actual work.
I could have read a hundred books on writing, listened to a writer tell me all their secrets on book writing, or even Googled how to do it. There’s plenty of information out there.
What no book, writer, or google search could teach me was what it was really like to write a book. The anxiety right before a big deadline, the tears shed from trying to organize an outline, and how sometimes you write complete crap and know you’re writing complete crap but have to write it anyway.
Nothing could have taught me how to write a book apart from doing the work.
2. Apprenticeships Are Everything
After I wrote that first book, I started a separate four-month apprenticeship with Joe. In those four months, I learned how to launch a book, ghostwrite blog posts, create an eBook, and a hundred other things.
A couple of months after that I even started to work for Joe and help with a few ghostwriting projects. I ended up writing two more books as Joe’s apprentice. He taught me words to cut out of my vocabulary and showed me how to fix awkward writing, how to meet and interview clients, and the ins and outs of book writing.
I wouldn’t have been able to become a full-time writer without apprenticing. To learn from someone who is doing the work and living the life you want to live is irreplaceable. It is the fastest way to get where you want to go. You don’t need a piece of paper that tells you that you are capable of doing something; you need to learn from a master.
3. This Is the Age of Information
Welcome to 2017, the age of information. Everything we could ever want to know is available at our fingertips. I Google my way through 60% of my daily life. That’s just how it is nowadays.
The incredible thing is that there are hundreds of blogs (The Write Practice being your favorite, obviously) that will teach you how to become a writer. There are even free courses online to study literature. It’s incredibly easy to become just as educated as those with a college degree with the information on the internet.
One of the subjects studied most heavily by those on the road to an English degree is different types of literature. I love literature and recently thought about getting a degree so that I could study it.
But guess what I did instead? I started a classic book club with my friends. We read the kinds of books you find on college syllabuses and meet once a month to talk about themes, writing, how the author conveyed a hard subject, and most importantly, how the writing affected everyday readers like my peers.
It’s really possible to become educated in all sorts of things if you want it badly enough. The power truly is in your hands.
What About You?
To all my friends with English degrees (and I have a lot of them), I genuinely hope I don’t offend you. I’d actually love to hear your thoughts. What did you love about your college degree? How did it benefit you in your writing career? What do you think about the big question,”do you need a college degree to be a writer”?
If you don’t have an English degree and are a writer, let me know that too! What did you do to learn your skills?
How have you learned to be a writer? What will you do to learn more? Let me know in the comments!
PRACTICE
Take fifteen minutes to learn something YOU need to learn about writing. If you struggle with characterization, write a piece introducing a new character. If your weakness is dialogue, write a conversation between two people.
Let me be honest with you: I suck at grammar. So I'll spend the next fifteen minutes googling some of the grammar rules I'm weakest at.
Becoming a better writer (especially without a typical classroom) means knowing your weaknesses and being adamant about getting better.
Share what you learned in the comments below, and don't forget to leave feedback for others. Share some tips with other writers as well!
I wish I could find some one to apprentice with, I love writing and I do write, but I do not have a degree, I would love to study for one but it can be expensive when you depend on mobility payments to live on. But I will keep trying to get my words out there and maybe even one day soon get paid for those words. Great post I really enjoyed it Veronica.
Hi Veronica — it all comes down to love of learning. As a full-time university student, we have many here just for the sake of getting a degree, and not especially to learn. Kellie’s post (above) demonstrates her willingness to put in the work in the enterprise of learning how to write. If desire to learn matches the acquisition of a degree, it is definitely worthwhile. Those who make it without formal education are ones who are highly motivated (like Kellie McGann).
All the best, Pat
Find a good writers group. Locally or even online. Hint, there are some blog posts about how to find the right group for you. Best of luck.
I never thought about it – I never thought one would need a degree in literature to become a writer. What we need though is education. How we acquire it is a different matter. Some of the greatest writers had entirely different training than literature. Dostoyevsky was an engineer by training, Chekov was a doctor. If someone is desperate to get a degree he or she should study something that would teach them how to observe and analyse life and structures of society. In my opinion, all literature departments in universities should be transformed into departments for cultural studies.
My grammar sucks too. I use a program called Grammarly (the free version) to help me with it.
Azure, YES I LOVE Grammarly! Let’s be real, it saved me even on this post…haha 🙂
I am also a Grammarly fan. The free version. If you want more, that is up to you.
I started writing books in grade school, and my best class was English throughout school. But, I lost interest in personal writing after an English teacher in 8th grade made fun of my story in front of the entire classroom. I used names like Autumn and Summer, (everyone laughed) and once I wrote “He lifted his hand and placed it on the railing.” The teacher literally lifted his own hand and slammed it on the desk. “Did he do that?” he asked. Well, that was it for me. I switched to art. I did enjoy reading, though. However, several college degrees later, including two Master’s within ten years, completely destroyed my desire to read anything enjoyable. I learned that if it’s not for knowledge, it’s just a waste of time. I also learned to scan, not read, and hone into only the important statements. I am challenging myself to read some fiction weekly. Writing fiction (like the next contest), is unbearable, yet I am trying. And yes, I suck at writing simple. I embellish everything, with huge words and a ranting vocabulary; 3/4 of my original writing is scrapped. I love to write in rhyme, because it’s fun. I know it sounds ridiculous, so I stopped. IE: Helen rushed to make it on time, only to find a long line. She stopped and thought, “Well, okay fine. Rather than whine, I’ll come back later. Instead, I’ll stop at the bar and have a glass of red wine.” LOL! In conclusion, education can be a real negative. It depends on the person you are trying to reach.
Yes! I totally agree that what makes you a writer is writing. Getting a college degree gives us some practical tools and techniques. Furthermore, nowadays with Internet and lots of information out there, we can educate ourselves about it. However, there is nothing like sharing our ideas and getting feed back from otherwise. Writing makes us more sensitive and appreciative players of words.
There is no doubt that a college education is important, but thing don’t always work out. Sometimes one just has to look at the hurdles set before them and move past. I am on my fourth book with my fifth due out later this year. Is my writing different in the fourth than it was in my first, absolutely. Has the road been perilous, of course. However, many educated individuals who have become writers tell similar stories of the evil darkness lurking out there in the real world.
I think everyone should take a class in boxing or martial arts because you’re going to get repeatedly knocked down. A college degree normally doesn’t show you how to get up and keep fighting.
To be honest, I don’t think you need a degree to be a writer any more than you need to be a writer to have a degree. However, the two would work perfectly together The more knowledge a person acquires, the more he or she is able to write. Without some education, we’d be wordless. 🙂
It does seem more important to be a writer to have a degree as so much of higher education depends upon being a good writer
I write a history column. Weekly since April 2008. I hated history since 5th grade and barely passed. We’re talking D’s. Luckily my writing and research skills were ok. They’re much better now of course. Anyway it was just like writing a paper for school. I’d research a topic then write about it. After 9-1/2 yrs of researching the civil war and other amer history trivia, i’m pretty good. Most people think I have a degree.
I read and write to write better. I hope I am writing better today than yesterday. I watch animes (Japanese cartoons), movies, and TV dramas to listen to the storytelling and dialogue. I listen to gossips in everyday life and imagine them happening to me.
I have a degree in Engineering Business Management with 2nd Upper Class Honours. Took some courses in copywriting with American Writers & Artists Inc, John Carlton, and Kopywriting Kourse by Neville Medhora. I was a salesman for much of my professional life but now writing fiction (and thinking and reading) as my main vocation.
During secondary school, which I guess it’s called ‘high school’ in the US, I failed 12 out of the 14 test and examinations for my literature. The kind teacher advised me to drop the subject and I did, only to pick it up as a writer 3 years ago. Love it. And at times hate it.
I do not know how to improve as a writer. Maybe doing the actual work (writing) is the better way for me.
Prefer Urdu / Hindi
I just do it. My degrees are both in marine biology. The only jobs I could get were in environmental regulation and public health. However, I had fantastic English teachers and read constantly. More often than not I would wind up drafting letters and articles the bosses absolutely had to have written correctly.
The drawback: my caustic wit and vocabulary meant that I could not be anonymous when being critical of boneheaded policies.
My point, if I have one is this: practice and example lead to good language mechanics. A degree in English is not as needful as time spent with words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters: both the reading and the writing thereof.
The article seems specifically aimed at professional writers with schedules and deadlines who churn out cookie cutter material, but the idea still applies. Learning the mechanics of writing is essential to being a writer, but no class, degree, or how-to blog or book can teach you how to be a good storyteller. As suggested, the only way to learn that craft is by reading and by doing it, over and over, until you can keep the reader engaged. Life experience also helps greatly.
I don’t have a degree, but I never would have attempted writing a novel without my previous writing education and my general life experience. Characters, as an example, tend to only be as interesting and capable as the writer behind them.
Can’t we CHOOSE to expose ourselves to the greats of writing, theory and criticism WITHOUT the need to pay to sit in a classroom?
Are you not an autodidact? Why do you need to have someone forcing you to learn and grow?
Shouldn’t learning be a life long process? Is it not beneficial for us to follow our own passions, spend our time in ways that are valuable to us? Must we ALWAYS seek the approval of professional “educators”?
Of course you can educate yourself. But exposure to the critical process is quite important. Otherwise, you don’t improve and end up getting stagnant as a writer. And nothing beats formal instruction in grammar. If you can self-correct your grammar before giving your editor copy, you automatically come across as a professional. And no, MS spell-check does not cut it.
Growing up around my mother is the equivalent of a four-year English degree, but I studied it in college too. I’d say my education has been more help to me than I can say.
I agree with you a writer requires no degree at all.But it is the case of people whose mother tongue is English.But in others case,if a writer has a degree preferably English it is well and good.It helps a writer to have some grounding in English especially English literature and it helps him to build upon as a writer.Just imagine, a non-english speaking writer straightaway proceeds to become a writer without having adequate skills in English language.No googling will help him.On the other hand a writer’s lack of skill in English language will make him a laughing stock among the readers and other skilled writers as well.Needless to say without having adequate skill in the English language, it is actually suicidal even to think of becoming a writer.Holding a degree in English will increase a writer’s confidence to build upon his career.
I have 3 semesters to go before I get my English degree. But as much as I want to finish something I started, It was not what I expected because I was hoping it would help me write things I wanted to write. Then there was another class called Write to think. Neither really helped me write anything I wanted to write. It was only when I wasn’t in school did I learn what I needed to learn to accomplish my writing goals.
But I did get to read some great literature. When I was a teen I was being tutored by a woman who taught me to love the written word. I wish I was as far into story writing as I am now back then, she could have helped me greatly in my story writing career.
Hi Kellie,
Thanks for this inspiring post. I’ve always thought that you don’t need a college degree in English to write books. This is because some of my favorite authors never attended college studied science or professional courses in college. However, I had the impression that they must have special talents to be able to write so well.
I know better now, thanks to the influence of The Write Practice. I’m so thankful to Joe for emphasizing practice, and publishing from the get go. I know I’m getting better by the day. I like that the program exposes members to first class authors. I wasn’t even aware of the unlimited resources to help developing writers until I joined this community.
My main weakness is that I read endlessly and take notes to the detriment of writing. I’ve dreaded trying the 15 minutes practice on typewriters because of my limited skills in word processing. But that has change now I’ve decided to submit this piece on the dot of 15 minutes. I’ll see how far I can go from there.
Thanks again,
Jola
I went to school for a college degree in writing. The one thing I enjoyed studying my major was reading the different types of stories. But sometimes, I feel like I did all that studying for nothing. I haven’t written anything resembling a novel at all.
Hi, I’m a science professor at a local community college (have been since 1982). My writing ability has come from my vivid imagination and lots and lots of research, trial and error, harsh critiques, and ice cream.
i thing, that you should write by your heart. it’s really important express your thoughts. Of course, for technical and right grammatical for examples, essays exist survises like https://pro-papers.com/buy-grad-school-application-essay. But it’s big differents. You know what i mean?