Is a degree in Creative writing worth it?

[Airbenders]

If you want to become an author, is there any point in going to university to study writing? I do t know if any of the famous writers even went to university.

DS is very keen on becoming an author, he's been writing a story since he was 10, he is now 13. All I know is the story is some kind of sci fi action packed adventure, so far he's written 13,000 words.
He is now 13 and keeps talking about wanting to purse this further and so I'm wondering do serious writers have to go to uni to study creative writing even? Does it give them more credibility? Or would studying English at degree level be better? Perhaps he should just keep writing and hope one day He gets lucky and someone likes his story? He's not really interested in magazine competitions but he got through to second stage of the last BBC radio schools writing competition.

I recently finished my degree - I went to Lancaster University.

I was desperate to do creative writing but did worry about the job prospects of having a degree based solely in it as it is considered quite 'soft' - having done it I can tell you it's far from it! A thousand words a week plus critiquing others work is not easy!

Instead I did an English Language degree with minors in creative writing, literature and linguistics - it's 50% English language and then an equal split between the other three, but my actual degree is a BA in English Language, which then opens up teaching, speech and language therapy, research, as well as outside fields like education and social work. I feel I learned plenty of skills that I can take into my writing and am glad I did it the way I did, I know a few people with 1st's and 2.1's in CW who are struggling for jobs as it's such a niche field.

Good luck to your son! He's still got a lot of time to think about it, but the main thing is he keeps his passion for writing and to do things like enter competitions both in and out of school, maybe try blogging or similar too. He has lots of time to decide

I think writing is a skill that you need to work on - and life experience is pretty important too. I'd probably advise him to write articles, short stories, essay pieces but study something else that he finds interesting (a back up in base writing doesn't pan out).

Sadly the world and his dog are 'writers' these days - and journalism is pretty much on its backside as a profession now!

I hope he keeps up his passion - I'm sure he will.

I always wanted to write for a living and I do. I'm a journalist now.
I did English Studies at Sheffield Hallam which was Literature, Linguistics and Creative Writing combined.
I loved, and had a talent for scriptwriting, but went on to do a post grad in journalism as realistically it was more likely to get me a steady job.
I know a lot of people working in admin or as teaching assistants with journalism degrees. It takes determination and being able to work for peanuts in the early days but it's a brilliant career if you can make it. You also need to learn the business of being a writer. Anyone can put pen to paper, but actually making it pay is a different matter.
I always dream of going back to scriptwriting or novel writing when I have the time and money to stop grafting in journalism.
Retirement dream, right there...

Red - Your degree sounds awesome. I love the idea of DS blogging, I'll definitely put that to him.

Fekko- I agree with everything you said and the advise.

Good luck to your son. I suspect encouraging him to write to a purpose and to deadlines - eg competitions - would be help him create completed pieces of writing, as well as continuing his long story.

My 12 yr old is a composer and entering one or two competitions each year has really helped him actually finish stuff, though I'm sure a lot of his incomplete material will be useful at some point!

Grass - Thanks for the well wishes. i think ill try and encourage him to enter more competitions. I've also been teaching him to keep all his scrap material although he doesn't always understand why.

Your 12 yr old sounds great. Good luck to him too with his writing endeavours its so nice when they have some kind of purpose at such a young age.

It's brilliant to see all this creativity. Your Ds might also be interested in National Novel writing month (google 'nanowrimo'). Basically, you sign up for free and then write as much as you can during November - as a teen you set your own word target but there are great forums and discussions with teens from around the world taking part (it's aimed at adults but has a teen section both my Dc and Dd enjoyed it aged 13 and 14). It's not a competition (you're only competing against yourself) but it can be a satisfying way to finish existing projects or start new ones. It's possible to make a living out of writing (I won't ever be rich but love what I do) but most published writers need more than one string to their bow - so some of the good advice on broader degree courses on this thread which contain an element of creative writing could be useful in the future. It's worth mentioning that you can also study for a degree in any subject you want and then do a one year Masters in creative writing after you graduate which can be a less expensive way to specialise and means you can work at the same time. Finally, you could check out some MOOCs (free online short courses run by unis) from organisations such as Coursera or Futurelearn which often include some short courses on creative writing topics and might be of interest to him in the future. When he's older a paid course with a reputable organisation such a Arvon could also worth considering. In the meantime, yes to competitions - a great way to hone skills, finish a piece of work and hit deadlines. Good luck with Ds's writing and you're doing a fab job encouraging him - that's the most important thing of all.

It depends on how much he wants it and is interested in it. There are a lot of creative writing courses now, so when the time comes really look into the modules each one offers. I did a creative writing degree and whilst I might not be working in the field, it certainly taught me so much our language.

Now, there's a lot of editing and going over the same work/paragraphs over and over again until you have a final draft. It gets a bit tedious but personally, I'll really glad I did it. There's a lot of work involved and a lot of deadlines that are close together but if he's really up for it I say give it a go.

There's networking to be done, or was at my uni at least, where they'd have a magazine editorial team made up from students, have good connections to other businesses and so on (it was quite an artsy uni). I'd definitely recommend nanowrimo if you want to look it up, it might help him with deadlines and word counts. Also there's the Golden Egg Company which is a group made up of writers/uni lecturers who they hold workshops and so on throughout the year. I can't remember how much these cost though.

A friend of my DD wrote for a national newspaper whilst at university. He went to Leeds and studied Psychology. He did everything he could to get work and it has worked. You don't need a creative writing degree but you need a lot of perseverence and luck and talent! I think a lot of authors are born and not made!

I write for national newspapers and magazines too never use my degree really. I suppose I'm a better writer for it but my journalism skills are all people skills, with a whole bunch of experience and industry knowledge thrown in.
I'm very good at getting stories out of people. Then I write them beautifully