career in writing?

Question

i love writing stories and poetry and i've been told im really good at it. Ive been awarded things for my poems and my stories from school. i want to either have a career in music or creative writing. im not too sure which to pick. Are there any details about creative writing? like colleges? or pay?

Answer 1

Writing is almost as tough as music. I too am learning the craft and it's not as easy as it looks. Folks love my writing as well but it's no where near publishing quality. At least for a new author. There is a whole level of politics that goes with getting published. Getting out of the slush pile is the hardest thing to do. Once you have success then your golden and people come to you. Even publish authors who don't have popular success struggle. Only the best of the best of the best make a fortune writing. Most of the big names you know in writing make a decent living pumping out at least one book and several short stories a year. Many teach creative writing or take on editing for extra cash. Writing is much like the music industry in that the publishers get almost all the money. You get the labor, expense and hopefully some money after it's all said and done.

Grammer is crucial :( I hate grammer but have been having to go back and relearn it. If your grammer isn't perfect you'll get rejected. Taking creative writing courses do help as a good one will teach you what publishers want. The rest of the writing comes from you. A bad creative writing teacher will try to force their style on you. If you write like them what's the point? You have to offer something new to make it as a writer. Be different somehow, fresh, something that grabs the reader by the throat and says read me or else.

Combining writing and music is potentially lucritive enough or potentially just another expensive way to be broke and unhappy :)

At least with writing you have many outlets. Writing for newspapers, magazines, Ezines and other places is a good way to get a name started and put a couple bucks in your pocket. Find published authors. The best way to get published is to have another published author help you get published or for thier agent to take you on. Slush piles submissions rarely get read and when they do they do not get much of a chance usually. Every so often one gets picked but I wouldn't bet my future on getting pulled out of the slush pile.

Good luck, your welcome to contact me as we have two common interests in this area. Contact published authors. Go to writers conventions and learn. Some of these can be your best resources. Don't inflict your writing on them until you have something to show. Making a horrible impression is to make a lasting one and might close doors down for you. So get your stuff publishing ready before showing it at conventions and talking to agents and such. Hiring a proffesional editor isn't a bad idea either until you are good enough they'll just publish you or until you have the experience to edit yourself.

Answer 2

I am a writer. My first novel will be published this year. I have never met a Creative Writing or English professor that liked me and vise versa. I have never achieved higher than a grade of C in any advanced English course in college. Just because a college professor does not believe in you doesn't mean you are not good enough.
My advice to you is to practice your craft by writing every single day (even when you don't feel like it). Write about what you love or hate; whatever moves you. A reader can tell when a writer is writing from the heart. Purchase a copy of the Writer's Market (comes out every year). It lists thousands of publishers of books and magazines for all genres. Make sure you submit your best work and NEVER EVER give up.
Good luck!

Answer 3

There aren't many stats giving details about creative writers and such because the field is so versatile and any angst-driven teenage girl who writes about her breakup with her boyfriend can be considered a creative writer. It's like trying to gather stats on "actors" and "models."

Certain college courses can help you improve your skills, but ultimately, you either have it or you don't. Some people think standardized courses only serve to strangle creativity on some level, but that's only opinion.

Pay varies (obviously) because some creative writers may have steady jobs, and others may live from one published work to another.

The beauty with the decision you're trying to make is, you can do both. Writing can be done in spare time, anywhere at all, so it's not at all inconceivable that you can have a steady career in music (since it generally requires more guidance and dependence on others) and do creative writing side projects.

Answer 4

The best road to take in creative writing is to enroll in a strong college program, and try your best to impress the heck out of your instructor. If your professor truly loves your writing, he or she will volunteer to be your mentor. To have a mentor is key to success as a writer. They could open up doors for you in the publishing world which would be shut tight to most. Yet, professors have their pick, sometimes from up to a 100 students, to mentor. Sometimes they don't mentor for a few years. Or feel it's too much of a headache. The other road is the tough road. You send out stories and poems to various literary journals throughout the country, and you sit at home and wait, wait, wait until you get a response, often not favorable. Doing it the hard way, could take years, and I mean years, and it's still a question mark if you would succeed in your endeavor. Same holds true for music, try to get a mentor.

Answer 5

I wish to keep a released novel in my hand and be equipped to mention that it is mine, and available in the market for the arena to look. I wish my books to intend anything extra to me than what it says at the quilt or inside its pages. Though my readers would possibly not ever understand it, I wish my books to inform a tale of the whole thing I went by way of to deliver it to lifestyles - the entire successes and the screw ups, the entire difficult paintings and the joys occasions, the entire hoping and dreaming and ready, and the whole thing that tale intended to me in the course of the lengthy approach of writing it. I could like to be country and even international popular, but when not anything else, this could be adequate for me.