It's Time to Be Realistic: Why I Switched Out of My Creative Writing Major
It's not why you think.
Guys. It’s happened.
I’ve finally seen sense.
I’ve switched out of my creative writing major to pursue something more practical.
“Thank god,” the unemployed future version of me is probably saying. “Now I can eat something other than ramen. There was never any money in books anyway.”
To which the current version of me might reply, “well. . .”
The major may have changed, but the dream remains the same. I still want to be an author. I still want to be an editor. Someday — and this is more on the crazy side — I want to start my own press. Storytelling is pretty much my end-all, be-all.
The sad, ramen-gobbling version of me is probably scratching her head right about now. Maybe you are too. Let me explain.
I’m now entering my third semester at Emerson College. I’ve noticed a few things. One, most of the opportunities I’ve had to improve my writing craft have come from outside of my coursework. They’ve been with student publications like Stork or Concrete or Wilde Press or Page Turner, or with organizations that are completely unaffiliated with Emerson, like the Writer’s Room of Boston. They’ve come in the form of casual conversations with fellow writer-friends on what is or isn’t working with a piece (or in the form of heated Thunderdome debates. Looking at you, Alex).
That isn’t to say I’ve found my classes useless — far from it. But it is to say that just by getting out of my tiny hick town and attending a city college, my opportunities have expanded tenfold. Emerson has provided me with the community and the access to succeed as a writer, just by being located where it is and hosting the kind of wonderful, creative people it does.
I still want to write a book — but I feel that I have the passion and the discipline to achieve that on my own. Or at least, with the support of a few trusted mentors and peers, rather than a full-blown writing degree. What is much harder to navigate alone is the publishing process.
Which is why I’ve decided to make a massive, unprecedented change.
It will alter the course of my life!
It will shake the foundations of what I believed was possible for myself!
It will banish the ramen-gobbling version of me to a grey non-existence in the void dimension!
I have changed my degree to. . . writing, literature, and publishing, with a publishing concentration!
Pretty crazy change, huh?
But seriously, I am excited about this. With this degree, I can take classes in magazine production, publishing management, and so much more. I’ll gain skills I wouldn’t have otherwise, and thus open up more opportunities for myself.
But that’s not the best part.
By turning my publishing minor into my major, funky credit things happen. I’ll be on track to get my bachelor’s in three years!!
But that’s not the best part, either.
This change makes me eligible to apply for Emerson’s 4+1 program — only for me, it’s a 3+1!! That means that, if the stars align, I can have my M.A. in the time I expected to only have earned my B.F.A.
Obviously this is all dependent on me getting into the program. The application is apparently due Nov. 1. So that’s going to be a grind. But I think I can manage it.
Wish me luck!