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Original poster

Creative Writing Degree

105 replies

UNmaturestudent · 02/05/2021 16:52

Thinking of returning to Education as a Mature Student. I'm twenty five and looking to do a degree.

Has anyone got any advice or guidance for this? Real life experiences, the application process, funding, etc. I won't be able to do it without qualifying for the maintenance loan.

The whole thing is pretty new and scary!

For further information, I have a part time job, two days a week and an almost three year old who will receive free nursery funding in September. I'd like to hang on to my job as I enjoy it.

Thanks!

OP posts:
dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2021 12:15

It's a self-perpetuating cycle- the more people have degrees the more employers will ask for one, if only as a filtering mechanism.

This is also why I'm reluctant to tell anyone who wants to write that they should do a degree.

Yes, a degree is a good pathway for someone less privileged to break into the sector. But if we get to the point where you can't be taken seriously as a writer unless you have a degree, then that just creates new barriers for the less privileged.

LWOTT · 07/05/2021 12:15

@dreamingbohemian you clearly can’t grasp that social mobility is going backwards. You also need to read up on how few people in 2021 from working-class backgrounds are working in areas like TV and film.

LWOTT · 07/05/2021 12:16

There are already huge barriers for most people @dreamingbohemian. A degree won’t possible harm their chances.

dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2021 12:30

[quote LWOTT]@dreamingbohemian you clearly can’t grasp that social mobility is going backwards. You also need to read up on how few people in 2021 from working-class backgrounds are working in areas like TV and film.[/quote]
I assure you, as someone from a working class background myself, I am well aware how few working class people there are in many many sectors.

I agree social mobility is declining -- but that's happening even though the percentage of people going to university has massively expanded. A degree does not guarantee anything, and new barriers get put up all the time.

There are so many more routes to success today, you see people sharing their work online and finding connections and success that way. I would not automatically recommend a degree to anyone, I think it really depends on their individual situation. The OP can get by on 4K/year and has no career ambitions so we're not talking about social mobility here. As I said, if it were someone coming from a less privileged background and wanting to break into professional writing, I would see a degree as more worth it.

LWOTT · 07/05/2021 12:48

@dreamingbohemian But you are not from a working-class background. Your parents were both writers.

dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2021 13:10

[quote LWOTT]@dreamingbohemian But you are not from a working-class background. Your parents were both writers.[/quote]
My parents divorced when I was a baby and my mother and I moved back with her family. That is how I grew up, in a very working class community and family. My parents were not proper 'writers' back then, they were young struggling people from working class families trying to do something different. So please, do not tell me my background is not working class or that I don't know what it's like to 'move up' in society. We had literally nothing when I was young and I spent several decades trying to figure out how to act 'properly' among middle class types, it was a real struggle.

This was in the US and I understand the context is different in the UK (have lived here for years) but the point is I do understand how transformative a degree can be. But is this what we want social mobility to look like -- that you have to go deeply into debt to make even a small number of connections and hope something works out? There are so many different ways to break into the creative industries these days, some of which are even more accessible for people from less privileged backgrounds.

Anyway I don't know why you're banging on about me, none of this is relevant to the OP! Why don't we leave it there.

LWOTT · 07/05/2021 13:24

Having divorced parents does not make you working-class.

SarahAndQuack · 07/05/2021 13:28

@LWOTT

Having divorced parents does not make you working-class.
She's not saying that.

You indicated that having parents who were writers made you middle class; she's pointing out it was her dad who wrote (her mum got into it later), and it was her mum who brought her up, and did so in a working class context.

dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2021 13:32

I didn't say it did Hmm

Jesus why are people being so combative on this thread

dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2021 13:34

Exactly @SarahAndQuack, thank you

LWOTT · 07/05/2021 13:38

This is the reason why the arts are fucked up. You are aligning yourself to the working-classes and their struggles when both your parents were writers. You do not face the same barriers other do.

dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2021 13:50

No I don't face the same barriers, and I said so

Pretty fucking rude to say I'm aligning myself with the working classes, that's my family you're talking about
All my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, who never went to university, who work manual labour, who still live in the same factory town (and who I love dearly and am close with)

The arts are fucked up but it's not because of people like me so maybe drop it already ffs

FridayLunch · 07/05/2021 13:55

Can I ask whether you've checked the course structure? Do you know which modules you'll be taking, what your options are etc? Will you be doing a project ? How many words will it be? What do you like writing about? Does that fit with the course?

I only ask because I did an MA in Creative Writing and a high percentage of my cohort hadn't checked out the details before signing up. We had a huge reading list, literary criticism classes, writing analysis and a whole host of other things.

The people who did the best on my course were those with very clear aims, who knew what they wanted to work on, who could accept criticism (your work will be critiqued by your fellow students) and who put in the hours even if they weren't particularly enjoying it.

Have you taken any writing courses before? A degree is a big commitment.

TheLastLotus · 07/05/2021 14:31

@LWOTT you haven't disclosed your background. Are you even working class?
You claim to be a professional writer yet can't see how everyone having a degree doesn't necessarily reduce class barriers if the degree doesn't come with privileged access to networks for all of its members. You are instead focusing on the 'feedback and criticism on writing' that a degree gives you which is really not the point here.

Anyway as pp have mentioned this is not the point of the thread and this degree is just a hobby for OP anyway so this discussion isn't relevant

LWOTT · 07/05/2021 15:37

@TheLastLotus yes I am a writer from a working-class background. Not sure what class I am now.
@dreamingbohemian calm down. I haven’t insulted your family and this isn’t an episode of The Sopranos.

bottleofbeer · 07/05/2021 17:00

Oh ffs, degrees aren't worth shit. Let's get it out there.

PresentingPercy · 07/05/2021 17:31

Really? They seem to be lots of professional roles. Creative Writing degrees don’t train journalists and very many journalists have first degrees in something else. Creative writing helps shape writing and enhance skills but the opportunities are limited. But if work doesn’t matter then none of that matters.

PresentingPercy · 07/05/2021 17:32

They seem to be required for lots of professional roles - that should have said.

luluDan · 07/05/2021 19:36

OP - don’t do a foundation year! Do an access to HE programme at your local sixth form college and then do the degree. The access course fees will be refunded if you go to Uni. The uni will want you to do the foundation because they get the £9k fees... the access will be a better foundation for studying at uni. The only reason to do a foundation year is if you are 18 and desperately want to go to uni with your friends... PS study what you love and you can’t go wrong!

bottleofbeer · 13/05/2021 23:51

Oh, innate ability does exist. Absolutely. If someone can produce beautiful, amazing art, do you think that others who can barely draw a stick man can be taught to do the same?

A truly talented musician?

A brilliant mathematician?

A writer who can mesmerise and sell millions of copies?

Of course that is innate talent.

bottleofbeer · 13/05/2021 23:54

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence could attain the same as me, it's book learning.

I simply do not have any particular innate talent. It's an entirely different thing.

LWOTT · 13/05/2021 23:55

Innate talent or not, writing is also a craft and that requires learning how to do it, then working very hard.

bottleofbeer · 13/05/2021 23:58

I do not doubt it. Btw, LWOTT, we may know each other.

LWOTT · 14/05/2021 00:00

What do you write BoB?

bottleofbeer · 14/05/2021 00:02

I don't but we were both friends of Bof. Saw you on the other thread x