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coffeeandcalligraphy · 1 year

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Hey, I'm going to uni this year but am stuck choosing Edinburgh (Literature) between Warwick (Creative Writing and Literature) but I don't know which one to pick. Edinburgh has a better lead on the world tables along with a fancy reputation in contrast to Warwick. Do I choose Edinburgh over something that has been burning for years (aka writing about stupid characters) or ya know...something more prestigious? It's really difficult because I don't trust the Creative Writing courses having the ability to give a good experience since they differ so widely and there really is no telling of how it goes.

And on top of that, a lot of my characters are HELLA QUEER and my conservative ass parents are going to be ashamed when they see me writing cute ass guys get along with each other. (Also what do your parents think about Lonan and Harrison in this context???)

So is it social security over passion?

I really am so lost, it's been months and my brain cannot think. I just think that if I have that degree, than it would give me the validation of being a decent writer. BUT like - I've always enjoyed essay writing? This is so bipolar😭

But the main question is, do you think your time in uni was worth the shot of just breathing author air and not giving a fuck about what other people think? (Sos if that sounds harsh, it's the artists attitude of being the wild cards of society).

(I'm in London btw, if you're wondering).

(Also, I LOVE YOUR WRITING LIKE PLEASE I WANT TO EAT IT!!!)

Hiii! Happy you're eating my writing HEHEHE! Okay lots to talk about here, but to answer your main question:

Do you think your time in uni was worth the shot of just breathing author air and not giving a fuck about what other people think?

Okay so, for me... My experience with my degree is complicated but I wouldn't necessarily say the experience was worth it in the ways I thought it would be. To be very fair, my education was VEYR interrupted by COVID (all of second year online, third year had a hybrid mix with some online classes and some on campus, fourth year is the only "normal" year I had besides first, which was interrupted toward the end by the pandemic--I started school in fall 2019). I want to say that because my experience is very much defined by that--I'm sure the culture of uni has changed since 2020, it just didn't change personally for me (i.e., I don't do social gatherings still, so I didn't invite friends over, go out with people, etc, just went to class then went home for 3rd and 4th year, which made socializing hard, more than usual LOL, for me--I'm sure folks who are doing those things had a different experience in my program).

Something you said is super intriguing to me: "I just think that if I have that degree, than it would give me the validation of being a decent writer."

If I can say something for relatively certain, a degree isn't going to give you the validation of whether you're a good writer or not (and I wouldn't recommend people go into a CW degree with that hope in mind--tbh, studying CW isn't "practical" and without a strong financial plan, etc, I would feel veryyyyy reckless/irresponsible on my platform to just go "ahhh yes! study creative writing!!")

If I can be honest, I was a good writer going into my program and I'm a better one coming out--but that isn't majorly because of the degree, to be upfront (I don't want people to think "ohhh rachel studied CW and she's such a good writer now, and she must be a good writer because she studied writing, and therefore I'm going to study writing to be a good writer"--I reaaaallllyyy want to be transparent with my audience about this because I know it's a privilege to study CW and I don't want to give people the wrong idea). I'm a better writer because it's been four years and I wrote 3.5 books in that time, ~20 short stories, ~20 poems, etc. Of course, some of that was for the degree but MOST was not (except for the poems). Hundreds of thousands of words.

How much you get out of a CW program depends on sooo many things like how the program actually functions (if you're not sure--I would ABSOLUTELY try to get that info from either an open house or some alumni if you can get in contact, I wouldn't go into a CW program at all without an idea of how the program runs--but that's just my advice!). Can also depend on your cohort for that year, whether there's a pandemic (looool), the profs, who's on sabbatical, who just got hired, etc, etc, etc. So I don't have concrete advice for whether you should study literature or CW, or if you feel you're in a position where you can choose passion over social security (that could be something to think about with an adult in your life!).

I also think it's important to know where YOU are in your writing journey. If I could go back in time and talk to seventeen year old Rachel, I'd probably advise her to go down a different path, to be honest. It's not that I found my degree completely hopeless, not at all, I met some AMAZING educators and writers who taught me SO MUCH (I worked with a writer I'd looked up to for years!!! like what!!! made some great writer buds, and would NOT be a poet without this degree), and I have great memories! But I also know myself now looking back, and I struggled in the early half of my degree to feel "settled" because I was in a different place than was typical for writing students.

I'm nervous to talk about this because I don't want it to seem egotistical, etc, but I'd developed a writing & editing process/style before I got to school, which isn't really typical for my program. I started writing and publishing extreeeemely young, and have been told by faculty that they don't really... see students like this in undergrad. When I entered my program, I was faarrrrr from a fantastic writer, and I was still "settling" into my style, but I'd found one (wrote a majority of Moth Work before my degree, for example).

My degree helped me with many things and I'm so grateful to have had a chance to study CW at the post-secondary level, but I also would've been fine without it (and I'm saying this NOT to dig at my program or school, not at allllll, but because I have an audience of young people who I *know* may be considering studying CW because I did it, and I want to be honest in saying that you can absolutely be a great writer without studying CW at all--and coming in a bit too defined might not make the experience the *most* useful, but that is just my experience ofc).

ALSO EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to know: I had a four year scholarship that paid for all of my tuition that I earned by stressing SO HARD in high school (my high school GPA was literally 99% which is actually so concerning to me now because the amount of stress I was under??? But I did it because I knew I needed that scholarship to study CW--the min. for this particular one at the time was a 96%, and I was anxious about not making that, hence the average). That scholarship was 26k in total, spread out at $6500CAD/year (which was the price of my tuition).

I had to work extremely hard in first, second, and third year to keep a particular GPA which was I think about an 83% to keep it--to be fair, I was so anxious about losing it that I went wayyyy above that which made me :) so stressed :) but I did keep up that scholarship, so I'm graduating without debt for tuition. I'd also won an external scholarship and bursary that paid for about 30% of my first year housing, and the rest was covered by my parents who'd had savings for my education.

I didn't work a typical job during my undergrad (in third year I did some diversity/equity/inclusion volunteer work that paid at a min. wage part-time rate for about a year though), and was extreeeemely lucky to have my parents' financial support for housing and food.

It is *sooooo* important to have a plan about finances if you're going to study CW, because this isn't going to be a field where you can look for a *particular* job after you graduate (and I know even that's complicated in other fields too, not to generalize!).

I hope this was helpful! Also not to scare you!!!! But I get some high school students asking me this question and I just really want you to have all the info about what my experience was like, because I know this is an impractical degree (I'm leaving with sooo many practical skills that fall nicely into the industry I want to work in, but still, I'm aware that not everyone can do this--so I want to be honest!).

Also to answer the last bit about queer characters:

My parents don't know much about my writing, haha (my mom reads my published short fiction/poems & my dad reads whatever I send him from LinkTree, but they don't read my personal projects because I would PERISH--they are very aware of the characters though, but not specific things). They sometimes ask me if Lonan and Harrison are dating (but I ask myself that question too lol--they've known about them since maybe 2018, so it's been a while!). They're LGBTQ+ affirming & always have been!

Anyway, I hope this was useful! Message me if you'd like more details, but it's critical to me that people are also aware that the experience CAN be multi-faceted.

#asks #turning of rb's on this because ahhh so personal #BUT I don't want to be dishonest abt this because I knowww a lot of #teenagers follow me & I feel really responsible for being #honest about certain aspects of my undergrad experience!

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