Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer by J. Michael Straczynski

Author:J. Michael Straczynski [J. Michael Straczynski]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

1) CHOOSING YOUR MAJOR

As noted upstream, if it’s your heart’s desire to major in Creative Writing, then don’t let my words discourage you; do as your soul requires. But if that degree is not necessary to your long-term plans, then you might want to consider the possibility of pursuing a complementary major or a backup major.

A complementary major is a field of study that can either assist you with some aspect of your writing, or give you credibility in areas that can help establish you as a writer even when your credits are not yet significant. So if your goal is to write articles or thrillers set against a geopolitical background, a degree in political science can be a definite advantage. If you want to write plays, consider a degree in Theater Arts.

As someone who has always felt very distant from other people, I needed help getting into the minds of my characters and feeling what they were feeling, which is what led to my first degree in Psychology. I was also drawn to the idea of writing stories about people from a global perspective, hence my second degree in Sociology. Neither of these were backup majors because there was no way I could make a living from either of them unless I went for a PhD, and that was not something I wanted to pursue. I was looking for information and training, not a piece of paper to put up on the wall. (When asked about my academic training, I usually respond by saying that the best thing about getting BA degrees in Psychology and Sociology is that “I’m qualified to be unemployed in two different directions at the same time.”)

A backup major is a field of study that will help you survive financially while pursuing your career as a writer. These are often vocational in nature or involve specific training for jobs that can be done without taking too much brain power away from the writing process. (The Wachowskis, creators of the Matrix movies, and with whom I collaborated on several projects, worked as carpenters during the years they spent trying to sell scripts.)2 Other possibilities that don’t involve quite as much sawing and hammering would be computer science, real estate, game design (which could also be viewed as a complementary major), pharmacy, mathematics, or marketing.

However: when considering a backup major, be wary of those who would use this to deflect your interest in writing rather than seeing it as a way to support yourself during those difficult early years. You should get a job in real estate or chemistry so there’s a Plan B you can fall back on in case you don’t make it as a writer. Realistically, we all know that a career in writing may not manifest itself, but the Plan B approach can often result in self-sabotage. If there’s something else you can do for a living, the odds are that you’ll end up doing exactly that in the end, because whatever it is will probably be easier than writing.

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