should i study creative writing

Why Learn Creative Writing?

Sean Glatch  |  November 1, 2022  |  5 Comments

Why learn creative writing? Truthfully, creative writing is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in the 21st century. When people think of a creative writing course, they often imagine a group of lofty, out-of-touch people who wear argyle sweater vests and have unproductive conversations about abstract concepts.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth: the best writing classes remain engaged with the real world, and the skills gained in a creative writing course apply to nearly every facet of daily life.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth picking up a course in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, we have five reasons to learn creative writing. But first, let’s talk about what actually happens in a creative writing course.

The Basics of a Writing Workshop

Whether you’re enrolled in a poetry, fiction, or nonfiction writing class, you can expect the following writing process – at least in a quality writing course like the ones at Writers.com.

• Weekly prompts and writing exercises to sharpen the precision and necessity of each word you use.
• Constructive critiques from a community of writers who are each growing their writing skills alongside you.
• A creative space to explore new ideas, experiment with language, and arrange words in new and exciting ways.
• Focused writing instruction from a master of the craft.

The benefits of creative writing come from engaging with the course material, the writing prompts, and the other class members. These elements help you become a better writer, both in creative realms and in everyday life. How? No matter what form of writing, a creative writing class pushes you to connect ideas and create effective narratives using the best words – and that skill translates into real world success.

The Benefits of Creative Writing

1. why learn creative writing: improved self-expression.

Improving your writing skills leads to stronger communication. When you practice finding the right word in a story or poem, you engage the same parts of your brain that are active in everyday writing and speaking. A creative writing course subconsciously turns you into a more effective communicator.

The importance of precise language and self-advocacy translates well into both interpersonal relationships and working environments. Take it from this expert on how writing and self-advocacy results in career and leadership success.

2. Why Learn Creative Writing: Job Success

This brings us to our next point: great writing leads to job success. Of course, your boss probably isn’t expecting you to write emails in the form of a short story or a sonnet – though if they are expecting this, you have a pretty cool boss.

In reality, almost every job requires some sort of written work, whether that’s simple written communication or something more elaborate, like publishing data or marketing materials. In a creative writing class, you practice the style and grammar rules necessary for effective writing, both within the realms of literature and in career-related writing. Sharpening your writing and creativity skills might just land you your next promotion.

3. Why Learn Creative Writing: Improved Thinking Skills

Strong writing leads to strong thinking. No matter what type of writing you pursue, learning how to write is another form of learning how to think.

That might seem like a bold claim, so think about it this way. Without language, our thoughts wouldn’t have form. We might not need language to think “I’m hungry” or “I like cats,” but when it comes to more abstract concepts, language is key. How would you think about things like justice, revenge, or equality without the words to express them?

When you hone in on your ability to find choice, specific words, and when you work on the skills of effective storytelling and rhetoric , you improve your ability to think in general. Good writing yields great thinking!

4. Why Learn Creative Writing: Empathy

Reading and writing both rely on empathy, especially when it comes to being an effective workshop participant. When we read and write stories, we situate ourselves in the shoes of other people; when we read and write poetry, we let language navigate us through emotion.

The importance of creative writing relies on empathy. We practice empathy whenever we listen to another person’s life story, when someone tells us about their day, and when we sit down with a client or work partner. When we write, we practice the ability to listen as well as to speak, making us more effective communicators and more compassionate human beings.

5. Why Learn Creative Writing: It’s Fun!

In case you’re not convinced that a writing course is right for you, let’s clarify one more fact: creative writing is fun. Whether you’re in a fiction writing course, starting a memoir, crafting a poem, or writing for the silver screen, you’re creating new worlds and characters. In the sandbox of literature, you’re in control, and when you invest yourself into the craft of writing, something beautiful emerges.

The Importance of Creative Writing

Simply put, creative writing helps us preserve our humanity. What better medium to explore the human experience?

To learn creative writing, like any art form, requires compassion, contemplation, and curiosity. Writers preserve the world as they observe it in stories and poetry, and they imagine a better world by creating it in their works.

Through the decades, literature has explored society’s profound changes. Literary eons like the Naturalist movement and the Beat poets responded to the increase in Western Industrialization. Confessional poets like Virginia Woolf helped transform poetry into a medium for emotional exploration and excavation. And, genre movements like the cyberpunk writers of science fiction helped popularize the idea of an “information economy.”

Thus, the importance of creative writing lies in its ability to describe the world through an honest and unfiltered lens. Anyone who engages in creative writing, no matter the genre or style, helps us explore the human experience, share new ideas, and advocate for a better society. Whether you write your stories for yourself or share them with a wide audience, creative writing makes the world a better place.

Jobs for Creative Writers

Because creative writing isn’t a STEM discipline, many people don’t think that learning it will help their job prospects. Why learn creative writing if it doesn’t make any money?

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Creative writing skills are much sought after on resumes, since both creativity and the ability to write are soft skills in decline. Additionally, if you’re considering a career change—or ready to start one!—these are some popular jobs for creative writers.

• Average Starting Salary: $51,000
• Demand: High
• Skills needed: creativity, grammar, timeliness

Copywriters help companies put their branding into words. A copywriter might write emails, blogs, website content, or ad copy that encompasses the company’s voice and purpose. Copywriting requires you to write in a mix of styles and forms, flexing your writing muscles in new and exciting ways.

Grant Writer

• Average Starting Salary: $50,000
• Skills needed: storytelling, research, argumentation

Nonprofits and research facilities rely on local and national grants to fund their projects. Grant writers help secure that funding, writing engaging grants that tell the organization’s story in an engaging, tailored, and convincing way. Creative writers will enjoy the opportunity to tell a meaningful story and create positive community change through this career.

Communications/Public Relations Specialist

• Skills needed: creativity, communications, social media

A communications specialist helps drive a company’s image through various social channels. They may help create a positive narrative for their company through blogs, journalist outreach, social media, and other public-facing avenues. Much like copywriting, a PR specialist helps weave an effective story for a company.

• Average Starting Salary: $55,000
• Demand: Medium/High
• Skills needed: creativity, storytelling, organization, self-reliance

The dream job for many writers is to write and sell books. Being a novelist is an admirable career choice—and also requires the most work. Not only do you have to write your stories, but you also have to market yourself in the literary industry and maintain a social presence so that publishers and readers actually read your work. It’s a tough business, but also incredibly rewarding!

Reasons to Learn Creative Writing: Finding a Writing Community

Finally, creative writing communities make the writing struggle worth it. The relationships you foster with other creative writers can last a lifetime, as no other group of people has the same appreciation for the written word. Creative writing communities create transformative experiences and encourage growth in your writing; if there’s one reason to study creative writing craft, it’s the friendships you make in the process.

You don’t need a class to start writing, but it’s never a waste of time to learn the tools of the trade. Creative writing requires the skills that can help you in everyday life, and a creative writing course can help.

At Writers.com, we believe that creative writing can transform both individual lives and the world at large. See the importance of creative writing for yourself: check out what makes our creative writing courses different , then take a look at our upcoming course calendar today.

Sean Glatch

Would like to apply for a course to write a novel.

I’d be happy to help! Please email [email protected] with any questions, and we’ll find the right course for your writing.

[…] Sean. “Why Learn Creative Writing.” writers.com. June 7, 2020. https://writers.com/why-learn-creative-writing . Accessed November 7, […]

[…] And last of all it’s fun! I hope to live my life doing the things I love, with like-minded creative people who I love. I have many exciting things upcoming as I continue with the process of completing my first novel, Les Année Folles, such as publishing to my first magazine, journal, and working on the millions of short story ideas I have stored in my head. Stay tuned! References: Glatch, S. (2020, June 7). WHY LEARN CREATIVE WRITING? Retrieved from Writers.com: https://writers.com/why-learn-creative-writing […]

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Is A Creative Writing Degree Worth Your Time (And Money)?

• by Hannah Collins
• March 20, 2017

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I got my Creative Writing degree by accident. My college, in the UK, was unusual in requiring first-year students to pick an additional subject in their first year – partly to widen their interests, and partly as an escape route if their first choice wasn’t everything they hoped . My major was Fine Art, so naturally I scanned down the list of related arts subjects that A) I was vaguely competent in and B) didn’t clash with anything else on my timetable. Out of everything, Creative Writing seemed the best answer. I figured it would be fun distraction from the studio during the first year of my degree. Little was I to know that I’d be graduating with both subjects emblazoned on my degree certificate.

For most people, a Creative Writing degree isn’t something you sleepily sign up to like I did. Since you’re reading this article, you’re obviously thinking a lot harder about the pros and cons than I ever did. I can tell you straight off the bat that a degree is not an iron-clad guarantee of career success, or even enhancement, nor an automatic ticket to fame and fortune as a writer.

That’s not to say that a Creative Writing degree won’t help your career (especially if you’ll need to pitch for work, like a ghost or travel writer ), but it’s far from a sure thing. Really, the best question isn’t where a Creative Writing degree can take you next , but what it can do for your craft and method.

To help you with this all-important decision, I’ll take you through the pros and cons, as well as some alternative paths that may meet your needs just as well (if not better).

Pros of a Creative Writing degree

1. you’ll be part of a community of writers.

Half (or more) of the appeal of college is socialization. Even if you study part-time; seminars, lectures, group study and extracurricular activities will keep you busy both socially and intellectually. Being regularly entrenched in a fertile learning environment with so many other like-minded people can develop and grow your skills – both writerly and socially – exponentially. You’ll encounter different people with vastly different experiences, tastes, and writing styles to you, and you’ll find unexpected sources influencing and evolving your work.

You’ll also be networking almost constantly, and without the usual unpleasant effort of finding a suitable event. This may sound trivial, but you’ll be learning alongside the influential writers, editors, agents, and reviewers of the future – people who are only going to grow in influence as time wears on. While there’s no guarantee you’ll meet the next huge publisher, you may well form a relationship that will benefit you down the line. Even passing acquaintance makes you a more known quantity when someone is checking manuscripts or organizing a literary fair down the line. And all that’s before the opportunities you’ll have to write for college newspapers, literary collections, and reading events.

2. You’ll be given regular feedback on your work

Criticism can be double-edged sword, but we’ll just focus on the positive side, for now. Unless you already have a bank of reliable and relatively unbiased alpha and beta readers at your disposal, it’s likely that, beyond school teachers, you’ve been relying on family and friends for feedback. The problem with that is that, no matter how much they swear to be as honest as possible, they’re going to be far more inclined to pull their punches when your work really needs beating into shape.

Now, there will be some in your seminars or critique groups who may show you similar kindness, but there will certainly be others who won’t – for better or worse. The thin-skinned may find this a rough ride, but they’ll also find that it almost unavoidably toughens them up. As well as your peers, you’ll of course have the opportunity to pick the brain of your tutors and lecturers, who can sometimes offer counsel worth the steep price of admission by itself.

You’ll also be asked to critique and evaluate the work of others, which not only sharpens your own skills and powers of observation, but will help you define your personal brand .

3. You’ll read. A lot

Bookworms, rejoice! It goes without saying that the key to great writing is reading great writing. A Creative Writing degree will have you reading for study as well as just pleasure, and reading a lot of things you might not normally choose.

A less obvious benefit is that you’ll also read a lot of poor-quality and early work from other writers. Nothing will help you catch lazy decisions, easy clichés, and damaging writing devices quicker than looking out for them in the work of others. Plus, seeing someone else’s work go from first-draft mess to fourth-draft promise will reassure you that your own early efforts can be redeemed.

4. You’ll also write. A lot

It seems almost redundant to say this, but doing a Creative Writing degree will have you doing, well, a lot of creative writing. Probably a good 1000+ words per week. Yes, it can be draining , but writing, like any other skill, needs a lot of practice, and you’ll certainly get that.

5.  You’ll learn discipline

The rigorous structure of education – whether full or part-time – can be ideal for those of us who thrive within that kind of environment, and you might be surprised to find yourself in that category. Actively receiving feedback, week after week, incentivizes good writing behavior, and having others depend on you for the same will hone your study of, and appreciation for, the craft.

Cons of a Creative Writing degree

1.  college is expensive.

Let’s talk about the gauche subject of money, shall we? America has both the most sought-after and most expensive colleges in the world, ranging at the time of writing between about $11,000 and about $45,000, depending on the length of the course and whether you need bed and board while you study. For many of us who are less financially fortunate, this changes the question from, ‘Should I get a degree?’ to ‘Is it really worth me getting a degree?’

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, there’s no absolute guarantee that pouring your hard-earned savings into a costly course will yield tangible results, and if money is your biggest barrier, then you may want to consider the cheaper alternatives abroad (particularly Canada), or the other options I’ll be sharing soon.

2. Not all the feedback you receive will be useful or constructive

Remember that double-edged sword? Having your work regularly scrutinized can be hugely beneficial, but bear in mind that you’ll be getting a mixed bag each week. We creative people tend to also be a little precious with our work, so turning in something you’re proud of only to have it harshly savaged by your class in an unfriendly (possibly caffeine-deprived) attack can be hard to take, especially if your creative writing journey is in its infancy. The worst part is they might all be wrong, too, as sometimes the pressure of having to contribute something to the class can induce unnecessary opinions.

3. You might not be suited to college

We all learn differently and flourish in different environments. I started my Fine Art degree with a class of about 35—40. By graduation, that group had been whittled down to under 30. College isn’t for everyone, and I don’t mean that those people are in any way stupider or less motivated. The intensive, results-driven, traditional academic system doesn’t work for everyone.

4. The pressure to succeed could make or break you

This goes back to harsh critiquing and the college environment not being everyone’s cup of tea. The students that dropped out of my Fine Art course did so for many different reasons. Some felt they’d picked the wrong course, or even the wrong college. Some felt homesick. Others sadly crumbled under the pressure – which can feel substantial. A lot of that pressure comes from your tutors pushing you to succeed (sometimes to their definition of success), but a lot of it can come from yourself, which is far trickier to deal with.

5. Creative Writing may not be the best subject for your creative writing

Creative writing can be a beneficial degree for writers, but it’s often best as an accompaniment to another subject. It’s possible that the wider knowledge of a Literature degree, the expanded knowledge base of a History or Law degree, the non-fiction applications of a Journalism degree, or even the technical thinking of an Engineering degree will benefit your work more. Before settling on a Creative Writing degree as default, ask yourself what your writing (and your life) really needs.

Alternatives

There may have been a time when a college education was not only highly affordable, but reliably opened doors to well-paid and suitable jobs. Sadly, that’s just not the case anymore. Happily, there’s also more in the way of alternative (and cheaper) educational paths than ever before. To ensure you’re making a totally informed decision, it wouldn’t hurt to consider the other options available to you, such as:

• Joining a creative writing group ,
• Starting a creative writing group,
• Enrolling in a community college course,
• Getting a Writing Certificate ,
• Taking an online class ,
• Joining a low-residency creative writing program ,
• Starting a blog or becoming a journalist (learn on your feet!)

To degree or not to degree

It can be just as hard to decide against pursuing a degree as it is to start one. If you feel that something is holding you back from reaching your full potential as a writer, there’s a lot to be said for, well, just being a writer. Read a lot of books. Start a blog. Go out and experience the world. Meet new people. And write – as much as possible. If you’re still feeling stuck in a rut, maybe a degree – or one of the alternatives – could help you.

Ultimately, you get out of a degree what you put into it. Do thorough research, visit as many campuses as you can, listen to what others have to say about certain courses and/or tutors, and – most importantly – figure out exactly what you want.

If you’re committed to improving as a writer, a Creative Writing degree is one of the best places to do so. If you’re not, all you’re really getting is a really expensive piece of paper. Of course, the best way to find out more is to ask those who know. If you have a Creative Writing degree, are currently studying for one, or just want to find out what they’re like, let me know in the comments.

For more advice on honing your writing as part of a group, check out Why Joining A Writing Group May Be The Best Thing You Do All Year , or for a choice of non-college classes, try 10 Online Creative Writing Courses For Every Kind Of Writer .

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Hannah Collins

4 thoughts on “is a creative writing degree worth your time (and money)”.

As you said, a Creative Writing degree is no guarantee of success as a writer. But, here in the States, no degree is guarantee of anything, including employment in a degree field. I have friends with degrees that don’t come close to the jobs they have. With the exception of Law and Medicine, I don’t think there is a degree program (especially at what we call the undergrad level) that really prepares a student for a job in any particular area better than any other degree program. That is, Bachelor’s Degrees are all pretty much the same.

That said, I’m now in graduate school pursuing a Master’s Degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing/Fiction. It will allow me to teach, should I need or desire to go that route, or to write professionally (by virtue of the demands it makes on clarity and honing craft). Most of the writers I admire have Master’s degrees either in English or in Fine Arts/Creative Writing. Does that mean I’ll automatically make a spot beside them when I graduate? No. But, it just may be the deciding factor in whether or not I have the skill to do so. Are there successful writers with no college at all? Yes. Just as there are successful writers whose credentials read like alphabet soup. I think there is happy medium to be had and I think everybody needs to figure out where that is for themselves.

In the end, I think the decision of whether to attend grad school for a Creative Writing degree should depend almost entirely upon your skill level. If you’re satisfied taking a chance as you work through your learning curve, cool. If you want a bit more guidance in the most efficient way to do so, by all means enroll in a good writing program. At the very least, you’ll be employable by every company on the planet that fears putting their brand on poor grammar and lazy usage… which I’m still assuming is all of them.

My wife works for a company that demands a Master’s degree for their managers (they don’t specify a subject, which tells me that it isn’t really necessary, just a way to thin the herd of applicants). Increasingly, employers in the States are doing this. With this in mind, you may just as well get some real personal satisfaction out of your degree program. And what better way to do that than to spend all your time reading and writing?

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the comprehensive insight. That’s really interesting to hear in regards to Master’s requirements for recruitment. I wonder if that will sway opinion more in favour of getting a degree for those reading this.

You’re right – if you love doing something, doing it intensively and frequently while becoming more qualified in it sounds ideal. I certainly enjoyed it, but it was still quite draining at times. That being said, I was doing both a Fine Art AND Creative Writing course, so my creative juices were stretched to the limit!

I completely understand the challenges you faced! Congrats, by the way, for doing it! Too many people think of FA/CW degrees as easy. But I’ll match the work necessary to comprehend most philosophy with that of Quantum Physics, any day. It’s all the same process, just different signifiers. The result is, you’re really smart and the world, according to Cormac McCarthy, became personal to you. In the end, that’s the most compelling reason of all to pursue education.

I plan to do a Creative Writing degree, and reading this article and comments help me@

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What to Know About Creative Writing Degrees

Many creative writing degree recipients pursue careers as authors while others work as copywriters or ghostwriters.

Tips on Creative Writing Degrees

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Prospective writing students should think about their goals and figure out if a creative writing degree will help them achieve those goals.

Many people see something magical in a beautiful work of art, and artists of all kinds often take pride in their craftsmanship. Creative writers say they find fulfillment in the writing process.

"I believe that making art is a human need, and so to get to do that is amazing," says Andrea Lawlor, an author who this year received a Whiting Award – a national $50,000 prize that recognizes 10 excellent emerging authors each year – and who is also the Clara Willis Phillips Assistant Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

"We all are seeing more and more of the way that writing can help us understand perspectives we don't share," says Lawlor, whose recent novel "Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl" addresses the issue of gender identity.

"Writing can help us cope with hard situations," Lawlor says. "We can find people who we have something in common with even if there's nobody around us who shares our experience through writing. It's a really powerful tool for connection and social change and understanding."

Creative writing faculty, many of whom are acclaimed published authors, say that people are well-suited toward degrees in creative writing if they are highly verbal and enjoy expressing themselves.

"Creative imaginative types who have stories burning inside them and who gravitate toward stories and language might want to pursue a degree in creative writing," Jessica Bane Robert, who teaches Introduction to Creative Writing at Clark University in Massachusetts, wrote in an email. "Through formal study you will hone your voice, gain confidence, find a support system for what can otherwise be a lonely endeavor."

Read the guide below to gain more insight into what it means to pursue a creative writing education, how writing impacts society and whether it is prudent to invest in a creative writing degree. Learn about the difference between degree-based and non-degree creative writing programs, how to craft a solid application to a top-notch creative writing program and how to figure out which program is the best fit.

Why Creative Writing Matters and Reasons to Study It

Creative writers say a common misconception about their job is that their work is frivolous and impractical, but they emphasize that creative writing is an extremely effective way to convey messages that are hard to share in any other way.

Kelly Caldwell, dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City, says prospective writing students are often discouraged from taking writing courses because of concerns about whether a writing life is somehow unattainable or "unrealistic."

Although creative writers are sometimes unable to financially support themselves entirely on the basis of their creative projects, Caldwell says, they often juggle that work with other types of jobs and lead successful careers.

She says that many students in her introductory creative writing class were previously forbidden by parents to study creative writing. "You have to give yourself permission for the simple reason that you want to do it," she suggests.

Creative writing faculty acknowledge that a formal academic credential in creative writing is not needed in order to get writing published. However, they suggest, creative writing programs help aspiring authors develop their writing skills and allow space and time to complete long-term writing projects.

Working writers often juggle multiple projects at once and sometimes have more than one gig, which can make it difficult to finish an especially ambitious undertaking such as a novel, a play for the screen or stage, or a well-assembled collection of poems, short stories or essays. Grants and fellowships for authors are often designed to ensure that those authors can afford to concentrate on their writing.

Samuel Ace, a published poet and a visiting lecturer in poetry at Mount Holyoke, says his goal is to show students how to write in an authentic way that conveys real feeling. "It helps students to become more direct, not to bury their thoughts under a cascade of academic language, to be more forthright," he says.

Tips on Choosing Between a Non-Degree or Degree-Based Creative Writing Program

Experts note that someone needs to be ready to get immersed in the writing process and devote significant time to writing projects before pursuing a creative writing degree. Prospective writing students should not sign up for a degree program until they have reached that sense of preparedness, warns Kim Todd, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts and director of its creative writing program.

She says prospective writing students need to think about their personal goals and figure out if a creative writing degree will help them achieve those goals.

Aspiring writers who are not ready to invest in a creative writing degree program may want to sign up for a one-off writing class or begin participating in an informal writing workshop so they can test their level of interest in the field, Todd suggests.

How to Choose and Apply to a Creative Writing Program

In many cases, the most important component of an application to a writing program is the writing portfolio, writing program experts say. Prospective writing students need to think about which pieces of writing they include in their portfolio and need to be especially mindful about which item they put at the beginning of their portfolio. They should have a trusted mentor critique the portfolio before they submit it, experts suggest.

Because creative writing often involves self-expression, it is important for aspiring writing students to find a program where they feel comfortable expressing their true identity.

This is particularly pertinent to aspiring authors who are members of minority groups, including people of color or LGBTQ individuals, says Lawlor, who identifies as queer, transgender and nonbinary.

How to Use a Creative Writing Degree

Creative writing program professors and alumni say creative writing programs cultivate a variety of in-demand skills, including the ability to communicate effectively.

"While yes, many creative writers are idealists and dreamers, these are also typically highly flexible and competent people with a range of personal strengths. And a good creative writing program helps them understand their particular strengths and marketability and translate these for potential employers, alongside the more traditional craft development work," Melissa Ridley Elmes, an assistant professor of English at Lindenwood University in Missouri, wrote in an email.

Elmes – an author who writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction – says creative writing programs force students to develop personal discipline because they have to consistently produce a significant amount of writing. In addition, participating in writing workshops requires writing students "to give and receive constructive feedback," Elmes says.

Cindy Childress, who has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana—Lafayatte and did a creative writing dissertation where she submitted poetry, says creative writing grads are well-equipped for good-paying positions as advertising and marketing copywriters, speechwriters, grant writers and ghostwriters.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual compensation for writers and authors was $63,200 as of May 2019.

"I think the Internet, and writing communities online and in social media, have been very helpful for debunking the idea that if you publish a New York Times Bestseller you will have 'made it' and can quit your day job and write full time," Elmes explains. "Unless you are independently wealthy, the odds are very much against you in this regard."

Childress emphasizes that creative writing degree recipients have "skills that are absolutely transferable to the real world." For example, the same storytelling techniques that copywriters use to shape public perceptions about a commercial brand are often taught in introductory creative writing courses, she says. The ability to tell a good story does not necessarily come easily to people who haven't been trained on how to do it, she explains.

Childress says she was able to translate her creative writing education into a lucrative career and start her own ghostwriting and book editing company, where she earns a six-figure salary. She says her background in poetry taught her how to be pithy.

"Anything that we want to write nowadays, particularly for social media, is going to have to be immediately understood, so there is a sense of immediacy," she says."The language has to be crisp and direct and exact, and really those are exactly the same kind of ways you would describe a successful poem."

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 12 best creative writing colleges and programs.

College Info

Finding a dedicated creative writing program at a school you're excited about can be a real challenge, and that's even before you start worrying about getting in. Nonetheless, there are some great options. In order to help you find the best school for you, this list rounds up some of the best colleges for creative writing in the United States .

The Best Creative Writing Programs: Ranking Criteria

You should never take college rankings as absolute truth —not even the very official-seeming US News ones. Instead, use these kinds of lists as a jumping-off place for your own exploration of colleges. Pay attention not just to what the rankings are but to how the rankings are determined.

To help with that, I'll explain how I came up with this highly unscientific list of great creative writing colleges. I started by narrowing my search down to schools that offered a specific creative writing major. (If you don't see a school you were expecting, it's likely because they only have a minor.)

In ranking the schools, I considered five major criteria:

• #1: MFA Ranking —If a school has a great graduate creative writing program, it means you'll be taught by those same professors and the excellent graduate students they attract. Schools with strong MFA programs are also more likely to have solid alumni networks and internship opportunities. However, many schools with great undergrad programs do not offer MFAs, in which case I simply focused on the other four options.
• #2: General School Reputation —The vast majority of your classes won't be in creative writing, so it's important that other parts of the school, especially the English department, are great as well.
• #3: Extracurricular Opportunities —One of the key advantages of majoring in creative writing is that it can provide access to writing opportunities outside the classroom, so I took what kind of internship programs, author readings, and literary magazines the school offers into consideration.
• #4: Diversity of Class Options —I gave extra points to schools with a variety of genre options and specific, interesting classes.
• #5: Alumni/Prestige —This last criterion is a bit more subjective: is the school known for turning out good writers? Certainly it's less important than what kind of education you'll actually get, but having a brand-name degree (so to speak) can be helpful.

The Best Creative Writing Schools

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of schools! The exact numbering is always arguable, so look at it as a general trend from absolutely amazing to still super great, rather than fixating on why one school is ranked #3 and another is ranked #4.

#1: Northwestern University

Northwestern's undergrad creative writing program boasts acclaimed professors and an unparalleled track record of turning out successful writers (including Divergent author Veronica Roth and short-story writer Karen Russell).

Outside the classroom, you can work on the student-run literary journal, intern at a publication in nearby Chicago, or submit to the Department of English's yearly writing competition . The university is also home to a top journalism program , so if you want to try your hand at nonfiction as well, you'll have plenty of opportunities to do so.

#2: Columbia University

Like Northwestern, Columbia is home to both a world-class creative writing program and a top journalism school (plus one of the best English departments in the country), so you have a wide range of writing-related course options. Columbia also benefits from its location in New York City, which is bursting at the seams with publishing houses, literary journals, and talented authors.

#3: University of Iowa

The University of Iowa's big draw is the infrastructure of its graduate Writers' Workshop, which is often considered the best MFA program in the country.

As an English and Creative Writing major here, you'll take classes from great young writers and established professors alike, and get to choose from a wide range of topics. This major provides transferable skills important for a liberal arts major with a creative focus. You'll also have access to the university's impressive literary community, including frequent readings, writing prizes and scholarships, and the acclaimed literary journal The Iowa Review .

#4: Emory University

Emory is renowned for its dedicated undergrad creative writing program , which draws the very best visiting scholars and writers. Students here have the chance to attend intimate question-and-answer sessions with award-winning authors, study a range of genres, compete for writing awards and scholarships, and work closely with an adviser to complete an honors project.

#5: Oberlin College

A small liberal arts school in Ohio, Oberlin offers very different advantages than the schools above do. You'll have fewer opportunities to pursue writing in the surrounding city, but the quality of the teachers and the range of courses might make up for that. Moreover, it boasts just as impressive alumni, including actress and writer Lena Dunham.

#6: Hamilton College

Hamilton is another small college, located in upstate New York. It's known for giving students the freedom to pursue their interests and the support to help them explore topics in real depth, both inside and outside the classroom. Hamilton's creative writing program takes full advantage with small classes and lots of opportunities to intern and publish; it also has one of the best writing centers in the country.

#7: Brown University

Brown's Literary Arts program offers one of the top MFAs in the US as well as an undergraduate major . For the major, you must take four creative writing workshops and six reading-intensive courses, which span an array of departments and topics, from music and literature to Middle East studies and Egyptology.

#8: Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University has an excellent creative writing MFA program, lots of super specific class options, and a number of scholarships specifically earmarked for creative writing students. This school’s undergraduate English program also offers a concentration in creative writing that allows students to specialize in a specific genre: poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. If you’re interested in exploring your potential in a specific writing genre, Washington University could be a great pick for you.

#9: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT might not be a school you generally associate with writing, but it actually has an excellent program that offers courses in digital media and science writing, as well as creative writing, and provides plenty of guidance on how graduates can navigate the tricky job market.

Not to mention the school is located in Cambridge, a haven for book lovers and writers of all kinds. Though it probably isn’t a good fit for students who hate science, MIT is a great place for aspiring writers who want to build writing skills that are marketable in a wide range of industries.

#10: University of Michigan

University of Michigan is one of the best state universities in the country and has a top-notch MFA program. This school’s undergrad creative writing sub-concentration requires students to submit applications for admittance to advanced creative writing courses. These applications give students crucial practice in both building a writing portfolio and articulating their interest in creative writing to an audience who will evaluate their work. If you're looking to attend a big school with a great creative writing major, this is a fantastic choice.

#11: Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins is another school that's known more for engineering than it is for writing, but, like MIT, it has a dedicated writing program. As a major here, you must take not only courses in prose, poetry, and literature, but also classes on topics such as philosophy and history.

#12: Colorado College

Colorado College is a small liberal arts school known for its block plan , which allows students to focus on one class per three-and-a-half-week block. The creative writing track of the English major includes a sequence of four writing workshops and also requires students to attend every reading of the Visiting Writers Series.

Bonus School: New York University

I didn't include NYU in the main list because it doesn't have a dedicated creative writing major, but it's a great school for aspiring writers nonetheless, offering one of the most impressive creative writing faculties in the country and all the benefits of a Manhattan location.

How To Pick the Best Creative Writing School for You

Just because Northwestern is a great school for creative writing doesn't mean you should set your heart on going there. (The football fans are completely terrifying, for one thing.) So where should you go then?

Here are some questions to ask yourself when looking at creative writing programs to help you determine the best school for you:

Does It Have Courses You're Interested In?

Look at the course offerings and see whether they interest you. While you can't predict exactly what classes you'll love, you want to avoid a mismatch where what you want to study and what the program offers are completely different. For example, if you want to write sonnets but the school focuses more on teaching fiction, it probably won't be a great fit for you.

Also, don't forget to look at the English courses and creative writing workshops! In most programs, you'll be taking a lot of these, too.

What Opportunities Are There To Pursue Writing Outside of Class?

I touched on this idea in the criteria section, but it's important enough that I want to reiterate it here. Some of the best writing experience you can get is found outside the classroom, so see what kind of writing-related extracurriculars a school has before committing to it.

Great options include getting involved with the campus newspaper, working on the school's literary journal, or interning at the university press.

Who Will Be Teaching You?

Who are the professors? What kind of work have they published? Check teacher ratings on Rate My Professors (but make sure to read the actual reviews—and always take them with a grain of salt).

If you're looking at a big school, there's a good chance that a lot of your teachers will be graduate students. But that's not necessarily a bad thing: a lot of the best teachers I had in college were graduate students. Just take into consideration what kind of graduate program the school has. If there's a great creative writing MFA program, then the graduate students are likely to be better writers and more engaged teachers.

What Are the Alumni Doing Now?

If you have a sense of what you want to do after you graduate, see if any alumni of the program are pursuing that type of career. The stronger the alumni network is, the more connections you'll have when it comes time to get a job.

What About the Rest of the School?

Don't pick a school for which you like the creative writing program but dread everything else about it. Most of your time will be spent doing other things, whether hanging out in the dorms, exploring off campus, or fulfilling general education requirements.

Many schools require you to apply to the creative writing major, so make doubly sure you'll be happy with your choice even if you aren't accepted to the program.

What's Next?

Are you sure a creative writing major is the right fit for you? Read our post on the pros and cons of the major to help you decide what path to take in college.

For more general advice about choosing a college, check out our complete guide to finding the right school for you. Some major factors to consider include deciding whether you're interested in a small college or a big university , an in-state or out-of-state institution , and a public or private school .

Alex is an experienced tutor and writer. Over the past five years, she has worked with almost a hundred students and written about pop culture for a wide range of publications. She graduated with honors from University of Chicago, receiving a BA in English and Anthropology, and then went on to earn an MA at NYU in Cultural Reporting and Criticism. In high school, she was a National Merit Scholar, took 12 AP tests and scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and ACT.

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Why You Should Study Writing

by Melissa Donovan | Jul 6, 2023 | Better Writing | 6 comments

Study writing to master the craft.

Stephen King said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

He’s right. These are the only two things you absolutely must do in order to be a writer. But they aren’t the only things you can or should do. Plenty of other activities will benefit your writing. Foremost among these is studying the craft.

I know a lot of people shift uncomfortably in their chairs when they see the word  study . If you’re in school, the last thing you need is more homework. And if you’re done with school, there’s a good chance you’re not interested in reliving the experience. Besides, writing is supposed to be fun, right?

Well, yes. Writing is fun. But it’s not always fun. There are some parts of the process that aren’t fun at all. And studying is not always tedious. When you study something that you’re interested in (like writing), it’s a lot more engaging and a lot less laborious.

Reasons to Study Writing

Here are some of the benefits you’ll reap when you study writing:

• Obviously, studying anything, including writing, is a way to acquire knowledge. The more you study, the more you’ll know. If you want to be good at writing, you’ll need to explore the craft in greater depth.
• When you study writing, you also gain practical experience because studies in writing include exercises that give you concrete practice at the craft.
• Studying also helps you advance faster than learning strictly through hands-on experience.
• Through the course of your studies, you’ll do a lot of reading, which, as Stephen King said, is essential to becoming a writer.
• Writing requires a lot of different skills. You acquired the basic skills during your formative years. You’ll acquire more by reading and writing. When you study writing, you’ll expand your skills even more.
• You will learn things you can’t (or don’t) learn any other way. For example, through study you could come across some writing technique or literary device that you’ve never encountered through reading or writing, and it could be just the thing you need for some project you’re working on.
• Learning new things is good for your cognitive health. The human brain needs a variety of stimulation, and acquiring new knowledge is essential for a good, strong mind. And of course, a good strong mind will ensure that your writing meets its full potential.

How to Study Writing

The most formal way to study writing is through an accredited school, such as a university or a community college. But that’s not the only way to study the craft. Here are some ways to study writing inside and outside of academia:

• Take a class at your local university or community college. If you can’t find one nearby, look into online classes offered by these institutions.
• Expand your search for online courses. For example, MasterClass offers writing courses by luminaries such as Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, R.L. Stine, and Judy Blume as well as Dan Brown and James Patterson. Shonda Rhimes and Aaron Sorkin offer courses on writing for screen and stage.
• Get books on the craft. I was lucky to study creative writing in college. Since then, books on the craft have been my favorite way to continue learning. They allow you to study broadly or zoom in on particular areas of focus, such as characterization or plotting.
• Pick up college textbooks and use them as a guide to create your own study plan. Check out the English department on an accredited university’s website and see if you can find a course syllabus for creative writing, fiction writing, or poetry. Use the syllabus to create your own self-paced study.
• Hire a writing coach. This is a great way to learn through study and practical application. A good writing coach will be able to identify your writing weaknesses and guide you through the process of learning how to eliminate them.
• Join a writing group. While this is a less formal method of study, you will inevitably pool and share your knowledge, as a group.
• Take a workshop. Workshops focus more on the practice of writing and using feedback to improve your writing, but you’ll learn a lot of technique and pick up other knowledge through the process. For example, I first heard the word juxtaposition  in a workshop. I felt silly because I didn’t know what it meant, so I looked it up after the class and I remember it to this day.
• Subscribe to journals, magazines, and blogs. Lots of these publications offer articles that import important knowledge about the craft of writing. Make sure you’re getting information from a credible source when you’re getting it off the Internet.

Some of us love learning, so studying writing comes easily, and it’s enjoyable. If study doesn’t sound like a fun activity, consider the benefits and the ease with which you can engage in a little study each week to expand your knowledge and skills.

How do you study writing? Have you taken classes? Do you have a collection of books on the craft? What is your favorite learning method? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing!

I agree. Studying writing is the best way to improve. I’m in the middle of reading James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers. He has some very specific advice about getting a notebook and using it as the basis for your study as you read other authors’ work. He suggests we take notes on beautiful images we find as we read, passages of language we find unique or intriguing or inspiring, ways an author handles point of view — anything that jumps out at us as something we would like to try. I highly recommend his book for the wealth of tips he has on starting and pursuing a writing career through what he calls “A Writing Improvement Program.”

Hi Susan. Thanks for this recommendation. I agree — studying writing is one of the best ways to gain skills. Keep writing!

A valuable post. I know, that by reading I’ve learned a lot. I now read in a different way. Not just absorbing the plot and falling in love with the characters, but noticing the techniques other writers use. I am also a member of a critique group and have learned a lot there, too. As yet, I’ve not taken a formal class. Reading books such as Stephen King’s On Writing is a valuable way to learn your craft, and I found a Brandon Sanderson online workshop. Other authors are so helpful.

Hi Vivienne. I agree with everything you’ve said. It’s important to examine other writers’ techniques, and critique groups are immensely helpful. Brandon Sanderson’s online classes are priceless!

Any other art and all sport requires practice and skill building Writing shouldn’t be treated any differently.

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So you want to be a writer …

Philip hensher.

Good writing is a mixture of the calculated and the instinctual. No one writes through pure dazed inspiration; questions of craft and calculation enter in quite quickly. Last week, speaking at the Bath festival, Hanif Kureishi cast some doubt on the existence of transferable, teachable craft in writing by witheringly classifying 99.9% of his students as "untalented" and saying that writing a story is "a difficult thing to do and it's a great skill to have. Can you teach that? I don't think you can." (Kureishi teaches creative writing at Kingston University, apparently ineffectually).

What lies, or ought to lie, beneath the growth of creative writing as a subject is the conviction that a good deal of the best writing derives from conscious craft, if not all of it. Commentators sometimes say that writing can't be taught; that beginning writers either have "it", in which case they don't need to be taught, or they don't have "it", in which case money and time is being wasted by the exercise. But writers can perfectly well have native ability, a feel for language, an inventiveness and a keen eye towards the world and still not quite understand how they can do something well, not once, but repeatedly. A good creative writing course will explore underlying principles of good writing – not to impose invented "rules" on writing, but to introduce ways of thinking about writing that are strong and purposeful. You could teach yourself how to make a chair by taking a lot apart, and experimenting with joists. A furniture-making course might school you in some unsuspected skills, and save you some time.

A bad creative writing class will look like this. A student has submitted some work with the words: "I don't think it's very good." The class has (mostly) read it. After a long silence, one of the student's best friends, primed, says: "I really like the way you … " The student says: 'Thank you." Another one says: "I didn't quite understand about the bit where …" The student explains. Half the class stay silent; the student leaves with ego intact and work unimproved.

I've seen the experience of becoming a writer from both sides. When I began, it didn't occur to me to go on a creative writing course – there were few in the late 1980s, and it seemed more pressing to do an academic PhD. I taught myself to write. I still think, for a writer who is also an insatiable reader, there is a lot to be said for the self-taught route. But since 2005, I've started teaching creative writing in universities, and now teach at Bath Spa . When I look at my first novels, they seem to me to have no idea about some technical features of the novel. I don't think I really had a solid novelistic technique until I wrote my third or fourth novel, and in today's publishing world, that would be a serious disadvantage in a career.

Creative writing, as a discipline, may not be entirely selfless, despite any beneficial results. It is no accident that it started expanding at precisely the moment when traditional financial props of the writers' trade such as the Net Book Agreement were abolished; when traditional supports of writers' incomes such as book reviews started being eroded by budget cuts; when publishers, under their own pressures, started savagely cutting away at their standard advances for authors of all levels. The days when VS Pritchett could run a house in a Regent's Park terrace on the proceeds from short stories and book reviews are long gone. In 2014, a professorial salary may be anything, financially, from a useful support to an absolute necessity.

Forced into the academy, a writer might run a good seminar something like this. We would probably talk about an exercise of street observation undertaken in the previous days – how people groom themselves, or attract the attention of strangers. We might discuss an aspect of technique with reference to a passage from a published piece of fiction – last week we talked about character from the outside, looking at a page of Elizabeth Bowen . We might look at a classic book, or an absolutely new novel – it's an obligation on a creative writing course to keep up with new work, and we're investing not just in new work, but in new digital techniques for writing.

Other ways of thinking about humanity might prove relevant. There are writers' statements or thoughts about what they do as writers – Arnold Bennett's glorious book on the subject, or Virginia Woolf 's counter-statement about the exterior and interior world of the mind, or any number of interviews with present-day authors. Or we could have a look at sociologists' analysis, like that of Erving Goffman , or psychologists', or anything else that seems interesting and relevant. When student work is discussed, it has to be a safe but rigorous process. Constructive comments are insisted on; not ego-massaging niceness, but specific comments on where something has gone wrong and how it might be improved. The focus is on technique as well as emotion and experience. Is the presiding consciousness the right one? Does he need to filter everything through his awareness? Is this the right tense? What is this thing called free indirect style? Does enough happen? Do students say: "I really like the part where you …"? You bet your sweet bippy they don't.

Classes, at Bath Spa and elsewhere, differ greatly. With a faculty that includes very varied authors, there is never going to be a uniform approach. But we often find ourselves addressing recurrent issues. How can I create characters that are memorable and engaging? (Top tip – introduce them in small groups, and out of their customary context.) There doesn't seem to be enough happening – my characters just keep telling each other how they feel about each other, and then they have an affair or kill each other or have a baby. But then what? (Top tip; incident has to keep coming from outside, and the unexpected illuminates character. Try experimentally dropping a giant block of frozen piss through the ceiling of their room and see what they do.)

There are also possibilities that writers just haven't perceived. You don't have to present action as a one-off series of events; actions can be beautifully recurrent in a sentence running: "Whenever Amir visited Brenda, he always took the second-cheapest box of milk chocolates from the newsagents for her. She would always thank him effusively." You don't induce emotions by talking about those emotions; you are much more likely to do so by describing facts of the world, quite objectively. Go out into the street and watch human beings attentively; you will probably realise with a shock that your vocabulary of gestures – which now runs, in its entirety "he shrugged, she grinned, he frowned, she shook her head, he rolled his eyes, she sighed" – is totally inadequate. (And how rude and rare is shrugging, anyway?)

Personally, I like to irritate as well as inspire a class, sometimes by saying sagely: "A short story consists of an introduction, five OR seven episodes, and a coda in which the weather changes." (Worked for Chekhov , anyway.) Or: "If you're going to have an animal in a story, have a dog and not a cat." (Dogs are easier structural principles, running up to strangers in parks, and so on.)

Your students are not, thank heaven, going to be much like you as writers. They are going to react against you with their own thoughts and creative principles. Yes, there are courses where people who write present-tense historical novels, apparently about 21st-century women in a crinoline, produce students who do exactly the same thing. But a good creative writing course will produce independent-thinking, craftsmanlike innovators with critical, widely curious and energetic minds. I don't know why this goal isn't more common in universities, anyway.

Philip Hensher is a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University.

Jeanette Winterson

1) I don't give a shit what's in your head. By which I mean if it isn't on the page it doesn't exist. The connection between your mind and the reader's mind is language. Reading is not telepathy.

2) I don't care whether you like the texts we study or you don't. Like or dislike is a personal thing and tells me something about you, but nothing about the text. If you don't think something is well written, convince me. If you do think so, convince me. Learn from everything you read and understand how to learn from everything you read. And above all read! My classes use texts I am pretty sure they won't know because I want them to see how wide is the world of books and thought and imagination. I am trying to reposition them in relation to, in response to, language.

3) Writing is a love affair not a solitary pleasure. You can write about anything you like but there must be a connection between you and the material.

4) Do not take any "advice" on how to write from anyone who has not written and published a significant piece of work. (Ezra Pound was right.)

Jeanette Winterson is a professor of creative writing at Manchester University.

Rachel Cusk

Many creative writing students start with the belief that writing is entirely the operation of point of view; in other words, that the world only exists in so far as it is perceived by a human personality. Most of what I teach involves encouraging students to exteriorise their subjective world by fixing it to objects, instead of routing everything through the persona of Jane or John. For the reader, being trapped in the head of Jane or John, and dependent on them for every scrap of information, is the precise opposite of their own experience of existence. A story that starts with "Jane looked out of the kitchen window and thought about her life" – despite the fact that it may be perfectly true – will always be struggling to free itself from a basic unreality.

Many students find this idea counterintuitive, but the easier and more effortless something looks, the more thoroughly it is underpinned by technique. The desire to write comes easily; writing itself is technical and hard. I give my students exercises in which a certain object has to feature. I choose the object myself: the more alien it is to their subjective processes the better. The object represents the impingement of reality, and it nearly always has the effect of turning their writing inside out. Over time I've learned which objects work the best: some of the things I've used – a violin, a pair of scissors – have been too easily conscripted into the student's subjective world. Others – a lawnmower, a new pair of shoes – unfailingly make the writing more objective. The narrative has to find a way around it, like water has to flow around an obstacle, and the result is that the whole enterprise is given form.

Rachel Cusk is professor of creative writing at Kingston University.

Michael Cunningham

I teach a class on the craft of fiction-writing at Yale, which is a hybrid of a literature course and a writing workshop. If a more traditional literature course has to do with why we're interested in writers like Henry James and James Joyce, my class focuses on how they did what they did, using only ink, paper, and the same vocabulary available to everyone.

If a more traditional workshop is largely based on trial and error – write a story and we'll tell you what's wrong with it – my course is based at least partly on why writers write as they do; on the basis for their decisions.

I do remind my students, periodically, that fiction contains an element of ineluctable mystery along with its elements of craft, and that a great story or novel is great in certain ways we can elucidate, and certain ways in which we cannot. We don't dissect great literature in the belief that once all its organs are spread out on the table before us, we've got it figured out.

We read extensively and, each week, do our best to determine how certain effects were achieved by a different writer. How did James build his characters in The Aspern Papers ? How did Joyce structure "The Dead"?

The students perform writing exercises as we go along. During the week we spend on character, for instance, I ask them to write a single paragraph that conveys the appearance and essential nature of a character. During the week on structure, I give them an impossible welter of information – seven different people, with twice that many interconnected dramas and conflicts – and ask them to sketch out a story, with the understanding that they can omit as much, or include as much, as they like.

During the final third of the semester I simply tell my students to take what they've learned, and write a story. Any story they like. Which can be anywhere from one to 25 pages long (though I encourage them to lean more toward single-digit page counts) – I stress economy and precision throughout the semester. The stories they come up with are often surprisingly good.

Michael Cunningham is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Yale University.

Tessa Hadley

Last week we spent half an hour or more looking in minute detail at two versions of a paragraph from Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea . She seems to achieve the compression and electric intensity of her final version through minimising the connective engineering of the syntax in her sentences, taking out explanations, excising the mediating voice from around the things seen. The students went home to work on a paragraph of their own, cutting and intensifying in that way, taking out what's flabby and banal.

In the short-story class, we spent lots of time thinking about endings. Why do the endings of short stories carry so much more weight, in proportion to the whole, than the endings of novels? We wrangle over the endings of particular stories we've been reading together – Dubliners , Eudora Welty, Agnes Owens and others. What satisfies, what doesn't? How can the writer tell when it's enough? Why has taste turned against endings that clinch too tightly, or have too much twist in the tail? The students are working on their own stories: with that reading and discussion behind them they can think with more scope and more audacity about where to go, how to sign off. Rehearsing these things collectively loosens the tight fit of fear and inhibition, imagination relaxes.

The writing course offers an audience. Everyone lifts their game in response to the exacting readers they'll face next Tuesday. Student writers are under pressure to learn to hear themselves, to hear how they sound, to make essential judgments about tone and pace and transition. Of course, all writers have always had to learn this; a good writing course just crystallises the opportunity. In the past apprentice writers practised with a coterie of friends, or with their family, or with a mentor. Writing courses aren't free; but I'm sure they do help to widen the circle of opportunity, beyond the metropolitan and university cliques.

Tessa Hadley is a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University.

Gary Shteyngart

It helps to be clean and presentable when teaching. Students react to sharp odours. It can't be like the University of Iowa during John Cheever's time when you could just wander in drunk and fall asleep for two hours. Today's MFA students expect you to be awake. I also try to get students to bring in snacks because I have low-blood sugar. But the snacks are really for everyone.

Gary Shteyngart is associate professor of creative writing at Columbia University.

Naomi Alderman

1) The most useful thing you can do is read someone's work and give them specific advice regarding what is and isn't working in their particular book. That is what goes on. It's the non-universal stuff that is the most useful. Are you using description to cover the fact that you don't really know your characters? Have you given your particular character a motivation that makes sense? It's not general, it's specific.

2) Another key thing you can help with is finding the writing routine that works best for each student. For me, when I'm working on a book, it's around 800 words a day every single day . Five hundred words a day is too few. A thousand is too many. I can't take the weekend off; if I do the book has dissolved to mush when I get back. So a teacher can talk to you about your process. Suggest different ways of working, different times, places, different rituals to get you in the right mental place for it. Again, this is very particular to the individual.

3) If you're a responsible teacher, you talk to your students about money. You say: most novelists earn around £5,000 a year from their writing. You watch them blench. You say: so if you're going to do this, you have to think about how you're going to support yourself. I tell my students about journalism, about other kinds of writing, about crowdfunding, about grants, about balancing the day job with the novels, and the pitfalls of all of these. Most people can't make a living only from selling their art, but almost anyone can put together a life in and around the artform they love if that's what they really want. You help them work out how to do that.

Naomi Alderman is a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University.

Don Paterson

At St Andrews, we tend to teach that most problems writers encounter have already been solved by other writers: students learn to be good readers first. Often the most useful exercise is just to compare some bad writing with some good, and then learn how to articulate the difference between the two. This is most bracing when the bad writing is your own. Here's Robert Frost; here's you. What's the difference? Ouch. I teach in three ways: seminars on poetic composition (I take a fairly technical and linguistic approach, but not everyone does); workshops, where students can hone their editorial and critical skills; and one-to-one sessions, which address the very personal business of "art practice". There are many useful textbooks that can help with the first two, though very few of those are about "creative writing" (a term I try to avoid anyway). Almost no books I've read address "practice" very satisfactorily, though many students have benefited from reading (ex-marine!) Steven Pressfield's The War of Art , which is basically the Allen Carr method for writers: just do it already.

Don Paterson is a professor of poetry at the University of St Andrews.

Chang-Rae Lee

My classes are undergraduates only. Our primary activity in the workshop is to read very closely both the workshop material and a published story, which is assigned weekly. It's as simple as that. No use of "exercises" or discussion of "technique". While what the pieces might "mean" to us will no doubt arise, we first and foremost pay zealous attention to the words, going sentence by sentence, considering what's being instituted by each clause in every way possible (language, idea, structure, trope, tonality, perspective etc), appraising how the prose is developing its world and characters as well as shaping our apprehension of them.

Chang-Rae Lee is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University .

Kathryn Hughes

1) Lots of people can write beautiful prose, it's structure that's tricky. Novelists can afford to just start writing and see where it takes them, writers of non-fiction need to have a plan. Draw up a list of "landing places", points in your narrative where your reader can have a bit of a sit down and admire the view so far. Your job as narrator is to lead them from one landing place to the next, neither chivvying them along nor allowing them to lag behind. Make sure, though, that you don't come over like a drill sergeant. The trick of good narrative non-fiction is to allow the reader to feel that they have worked it all out for themselves.

2) Just because you are trying to learn how to write, it doesn't mean that you need to employ an entirely new vocabulary. Be ruthless about cutting out any word that you wouldn't use naturally in everyday speech. In real life no one calls a book "a tome" or says "she descended the stairs" or refers to "my companion". A book is a book, people walk down the stairs and a companion is actually a friend, or a lover, or a colleague or someone you were standing next to at the bus stop. Be specific and be real.

3) It is entirely normal – in fact, it is entirely right – to feel despair during the writing process. At some point in the relationship between a creative writing tutor and a student, there will be a conversation that runs exactly like the closing lines of Samuel Beckett's 1953 novel, The Unnamable :

You must go on.

I can't go on.

I'll go on.

When you hear these words coming out of your mouth, the best thing to do is shut up shop for the day and go and read someone who is writing the kind of stuff that you would like to. You'll start work the next day with a better pair of ears. And good ears, actually, are what good writing is all about.

Kathryn Hughes is director of UEA's MA programme in biography and creative non-fiction.

Although we give classes on the technical aspects of writing, one of the most important things we give is more basic. It's permission. Permission, for example, for a student on the MA to say, "I'm sorry, I really can't come out on Friday night – I have coursework." Because however supportive of a partner's or friend's or relative's ambition to become a writer people are, they often aren't very good at granting them the necessary time. And, for most of us, it's easier to say, "I have coursework" than "I'm writing a novel – it'll take me about five years, and might not get published."

We also give students permission to experiment, and encouragement to try things that they think might fail. Even quite late on in the course, when I'm advising students about what to write for their final dissertation, they will ask me, "Can I try this?" They know it's what they should do, they just need permission to do it. If they didn't have someone they respected (because that person is a tutor, because they've been published) to say this, they might never dare – and much of their best work wouldn't happen.

Finally, we – the teaching staff – give students permission to believe they might become "real" writers. Because, by being in the room with them, week after week, we help demystify what "real" writers are. Too many people write badly because they write up to their idea of what "real" writing should be or what a "real" writer should write. They put on literary airs. If someone holds writers in too much esteem, they'll never become one.

Toby Litt is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Birkbeck University of London.

Joyce Carol Oates

Students in graduate writing programmes are already seriously committed writers by the time they enrol for a workshop; prospective students must apply, and only a small number are selected. Certainly in the US, many, or most, have already published short fiction. No one "teaches" young people how to write in fiction workshops; the classes might be described as intensely focused editing sessions in which manuscripts of substance are examined with the close scrutiny with which they would be examined by editors at such magazines as the New Yorker and Harpers, or in such literary publishing houses as Ecco/HarperCollins and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

Joyce Carol Oates is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Establish a writing schedule ahead of time for the coming week or month. This is more important the less time you have. If you work full-time, you might plan to write for an hour at 6am on Tuesday and Thursday, or at 4pm on Wednesday and Saturday. Write this commitment down in your diary or calendar, don't schedule anything that conflicts with it, and sit alone somewhere you can focus when the time comes. It's OK if you don't produce sentences during that time, but don't do anything else – don't check email, don't text, don't go online (and for heaven's sake, if you're using a computer, shut all files and windows except for the one you're working on). If some nagging errand you need to do occurs to you, write it down, but don't start doing it.

Create an outline. This will give you a roadmap to follow and make you less likely to write yourself into a corner. It's fine to deviate from the outline, but it's very useful to think about the overall structure of what you're trying to produce. Similarly, don't go back and revise until you've completed a first draft. Solutions to problems tend to reveal themselves much more clearly when the whole work is finished than they do along the way.

If you don't enjoy the process of writing in some way, you probably shouldn't do it. While there are people who make lots of money from books, most don't, and many writers I know have found the experience of having a first (or subsequent) book published disappointing and anticlimactic. I agree with some of what I understand to be Hanif Kureishi's viewpoint , but I don't think anyone knows who does or doesn't have talent without that person giving writing a try.

Curtis Sittenfeld has taught creative writing at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Victoria University in New Zealand, and St Albans School in Washington.

Blake Morrison

On the MA at Goldsmiths, I work individually with students in a range of forms (novels, short stories, poetry, non-fiction) but also run a specialist seminar in life writing. One key strand of the seminar is memoir, and among the exercises we've done this term are:

1) Restricted point of view. Recounting an episode from the perspective of someone whose eyes are sharp but whose capacity for understanding is limited. There's a wonderful example of this in Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark , where a small boy recounts a traumatic episode (his dying sister being taken from the house by ambulance-men) while hiding under a table – all is revealed by what he observes in the movement and appearance of adult feet.

2) Bearing witness. Working in pairs, student A speaks of an episode he or she witnessed, and student B writes it up, selecting, exaggerating or even inventing key details – an exercise in how to create authenticity and demonstrate "I was there". Orwell's essay "A Hanging" offers a brilliant precedent, as does the first chapter of Tim Lott's The Scent of Dried Roses , which reconstructs the day of his mother's suicide.

3) Narrative pace. Forget what creative-writing handbooks say: narratives can't be all showing and no telling. A 10-minute scene that runs to 50 pages might be followed by a paragraph encapsulating two years. Lorna Sage's Bad Blood , Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life and Martin Amis's Experience are bold and inventive in the way they vary pace, and I encourage students to do the same.

All such workshop exercises have the same end in sight – to help aspirant writers find the right form for the story they want to tell. The luckiest go on to publish and win acclaim – two of our former students (Ross Raisin and Evie Wyld) made Granta's recent list of the 20 best young British novelists. But even those who don't win prizes or publishing contracts usually benefit from the course, by articulating their ideas and experiences, and by putting writing at the centre of their lives.

Blake Morrison is a professor of creative and life writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

• Creative writing
• Hanif Kureishi

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Five reasons to study Creative Writing

A creative writing degree has many real-life applications and gives you a variety of careers to choose from. discover five of the best reasons to study this degree and how it can improve your future..

1. Storytelling is important

Understanding what makes a story work and how to get people to engage with it is a valuable skill. It helps people to see the world in a different way through persuasive, intelligent and emotionally aware arguments and stories. People care about stories, and they like the people who know how to tell them.

2. It’s truly creative

Creative Writing is a unique challenge, demanding you to make things from nothing as no other subject does. Though you’ll be channelling the skills you’ve been taught into a specific project, you’ll be making something entirely new; characters, creatures and entire living, breathing worlds.

3. Work with published authors

Like English and History students get to work with published, fully-fledged academics, Creative Writing students work with actual authors. For a writer, the chance to work with someone more experienced who’s used to the difficult creative process is rare and valuable.

• READ MORE 
• Search undergraduate courses
• Creative Writing subject guide
• Creative Writing subject table

4. Flexibility

The brilliant thing about Creative Writing is that it blends so well with other subjects. For example, taking it alongside an English course will expose you to a rich literary heritage that could influence your own style. Combining with media or film studies will allow you to explore the long-running screenwriting legacy. Creative Writing, as a subject, is invariably informed by other areas of study. You can pair it with pretty much anything.

5. Transferable skills

Pursuing Creative Writing at university will make you a master of language. You’ll be writing all the time; it’ll be your job. That’s great, because the world always needs writers, and not just for writing stories. In most sectors written work is involved, as people are needed to accurately convey information and make it engaging as they do so.

• What graduates do and earn

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Ready Set Study

Creative Writing Vs. Literature

Are you torn between pursuing a major in Creative Writing or Literature? It’s time to shed some light on this eternal debate.

In this article, we’ll delve into the intricacies of these two majors, exploring their curriculum, coursework, and career prospects. Let’s dissect the writing skills developed and the job roles each major offers.

Discover the similarities and differences between Creative Writing and Literature programs, and gain insights into the factors that can help you make an informed decision.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Creative writing and literature are distinct majors that offer unique perspectives on storytelling.
• Creative writing focuses on crafting original narratives and developing creativity and storytelling skills.
• Literature majors analyze and interpret literary works, developing critical thinking and research skills.
• Creative writing graduates often pursue careers as authors, screenwriters, or content creators, while literature graduates can explore opportunities in teaching, publishing, or research.

Overview of the two majors: Creative Writing and Literature

Creative writing and literature are two distinct majors that offer unique perspectives on the world of storytelling.

While both majors focus on studying and analyzing written works, they differ in terms of the skills developed and job prospects.

In creative writing, students develop their skills in crafting original narratives, honing their creativity, and mastering the art of storytelling. They learn to create engaging characters, build immersive worlds, and evoke emotions through their words.

On the other hand, literature majors delve deep into the analysis and interpretation of literary works. They develop critical thinking, research, and communication skills, as well as a deep understanding of literary traditions and cultural contexts.

In terms of job prospects, creative writing graduates often pursue careers as authors, screenwriters, or content creators, while literature graduates can explore opportunities in teaching, publishing, or research.

Overview of the curriculum and requirements of the two majors

The curriculum and requirements for the two majors differ in terms of the courses students need to take and the skills they need to develop.

When it comes to required reading, creative writing majors focus more on contemporary literature and works within their chosen genre. They analyze and interpret texts not only from a literary perspective but also from a writer’s standpoint, looking at the craft and techniques employed by the authors.

On the other hand, literature majors are exposed to a wider range of literary works from different genres, time periods, and cultures. They critically analyze and interpret texts, delving into themes, symbolism, and social contexts.

Both majors contribute to the development of critical thinking skills, but creative writing majors also prioritize the development of their own unique voice and style as writers.

Overview of coursework and assessments in Creative Writing and Literature

To excel in your studies, you’ll need to complete a variety of assignments and assessments that will test your understanding of the different genres and literary techniques. The coursework in Creative Writing and Literature majors is designed to develop your skills in both reading and writing. In literature courses, you will analyze and interpret various texts, while in creative writing courses, you will have the opportunity to express your own ideas and stories through writing. The teaching methods in these disciplines often involve workshops, where you will receive feedback from both your peers and professors. Technology has had a significant impact on creative writing and literature education, providing new tools and platforms for students to engage with the written word. With the rise of online platforms and digital publishing, students now have more opportunities to share their work and connect with a wider audience.

Comparison of Writing Skills Developed

When comparing writing skills developed in both disciplines, you often notice the differences in analysis and interpretation.

In creative writing, the focus is on self-expression, imagination, and storytelling. Writers in this discipline use various techniques like descriptive language, dialogue, and character development to engage readers.

On the other hand, literature emphasizes critical thinking, analysis, and interpretation of texts. It involves examining themes, symbols, and literary devices within a piece of writing. This analytical approach enhances your ability to think critically, analyze complex ideas, and make connections between different texts.

Both creative writing and literature contribute to the development of your writing skills, but in different ways. Creative writing helps you refine your ability to create compelling narratives, while literature cultivates your analytical and interpretive skills, contributing to a deeper understanding of literary works.

Comparison of Career Opportunities and Job Roles in Creative Writing and Literature

Comparing career opportunities and job roles in creative writing and literature, you’ll notice distinct differences in the types of professions and industries that each field can lead to.

In creative writing, the focus is often on developing writing skills for various forms of media, such as novels, poetry, screenplays, and advertising copy. As a creative writer, you have the potential to work as a novelist, poet, screenwriter, or even in the field of advertising and marketing.

On the other hand, literature emphasizes the study and analysis of written works from different time periods and cultures. This field opens up career prospects in academia as a professor or researcher, as well as in publishing, editing, and literary criticism.

While both fields offer job prospects in writing, creative writing tends to be more versatile in terms of the industries and career paths it can lead to.

Comparison of Salary Potential in Creative Writing and Literature

If you’re considering a career in either creative writing or literature, you’ll be interested to know the differences in salary potential between the two fields. While both fields offer opportunities for artistic expression and storytelling, they differ significantly in terms of earning potential and job market.

Here are four key points to consider:

• Earning Potential: Creative writing careers, such as becoming a novelist or poet, can be financially challenging, with average incomes varying greatly. On the other hand, literature-related careers, such as becoming a professor or literary critic, often offer more stable and higher-paying opportunities.
• Job Market: Creative writing positions are highly competitive, with limited job openings and a high number of aspiring writers. Literature-related careers, however, have a wider range of opportunities, including teaching positions, publishing roles, and research positions.
• Advancement Opportunities: In creative writing, success often depends on individual talent and market demand. Literature-related careers offer more potential for advancement through research, publishing scholarly articles, and gaining recognition in the academic community.
• Industry Stability: The job market for creative writers tends to be more volatile, with fluctuations in demand and trends. Literature-related careers, particularly in academia, offer greater stability due to the enduring importance of literary study.

Considering these factors, it’s essential to weigh the financial prospects and job market conditions when deciding between a career in creative writing or literature.

Similarities between Creative Writing and Literature Programs

As you explore both fields, you’ll notice that creative writing and literature programs share many similarities in terms of the skills and knowledge they provide. In both disciplines, writing techniques are emphasized to develop strong communication skills and the ability to express oneself effectively. Whether you are analyzing a literary text or crafting your own creative piece, critical analysis plays a vital role in both creative writing and literature studies. It allows you to delve deep into the meaning and structure of a text, honing your analytical skills and fostering a deeper understanding of the craft. To illustrate this further, here is a comparison table highlighting the similarities between creative writing and literature programs:

Difference between Creative Writing and Literature programs

When exploring the differences between creative writing and literature programs, you’ll find that the focus in creative writing is on developing your own unique voice and crafting original stories, while in literature programs, the emphasis is on analyzing and interpreting existing literary works.

The difference in teaching methods between these two disciplines has a significant impact on critical thinking. Here are four key points to consider:

• Creative writing programs encourage students to engage in imaginative thinking and explore their own creativity.
• Literature programs, on the other hand, foster critical thinking skills by challenging students to analyze and interpret complex texts.
• Creative writing programs often rely on workshops and peer feedback to enhance writing skills and encourage collaboration.
• Literature programs typically employ lectures, discussions, and close readings to deepen students’ understanding of literary works and develop critical analysis skills.

Factors to consider when choosing a major in Creative Writing vs. Literature

Considering your personal goals and interests, it’s important to weigh the various factors when deciding between a major in creative writing or literature.

When choosing a major, one important factor to consider is the specific skills and knowledge you wish to acquire. A major in creative writing focuses on honing your writing skills and exploring different creative forms, while a major in literature delves into the study of literary works and the analysis of texts.

Another factor to consider is the career opportunities associated with each major. A major in creative writing can open doors to careers in writing, editing, or publishing, while a major in literature can lead to careers in teaching, research, or literary criticism.

Lastly, the importance of experiential learning cannot be overlooked. Both creative writing and literature programs offer opportunities for hands-on experience through workshops, internships, or literary events, which can enhance your skills and broaden your understanding of the field.

Ultimately, the decision between a major in creative writing or literature should align with your passions, career goals, and desired learning experiences.

In conclusion, when considering a major in Creative Writing versus Literature, it is important to take into account various factors such as personal interests, career goals, and financial prospects.

While both majors offer opportunities for developing writing skills and exploring literary works, they differ in terms of curriculum, career paths, and salary potential.

Interestingly, according to a recent study, it was found that graduates with a degree in Creative Writing have a higher job satisfaction rate compared to those with a degree in Literature. This statistic highlights the value of pursuing a major that aligns with one’s passion and creative abilities.

Ultimately, the choice between Creative Writing and Literature should be based on individual aspirations and the desire to make a meaningful impact in the literary world.

Creative writing courses

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Introduction to Creative writing

Discover practical online writing courses that will help you grow as a writer. It doesn’t matter if you want to pen a novel, become a poet, work as a journalist, or write for the joy of it—there’s a study option to suit you here. 

These courses will teach you the craft behind different writing styles, so you can discover what inspires you most. You can search short courses or full qualifications. Either way, you will learn from published authors and editors who can guide you towards wherever you want to be in your writing career. 

Start comparing online creative writing courses across universities. We can offer advice on entry requirements, flexible study arrangements, fees and enrolments. When you study through us, it’s easier to balance your learning with other commitments in your life. 

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Travel Writing

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Introduction to Creative and Professional Writing

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Writing the Short Story

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Creative writing study FAQs

A creative writing course teaches you how to approach different styles of writing, like fiction, short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. You will be encouraged to share your work so it can be critiqued by others, which helps you develop your skills to a publishable standard. 

Creative writing courses are both inspiring and practical. You’re given the space to experiment with your own ideas, but you also learn writing for different genres, platforms and formats. 

Depending on your course, you’ll learn how to:

• kickstart your creativity
• develop a distinctive writing style
• think critically about work produced by other writers 
• write across areas like short fiction, long-form fiction, genre fiction, poetry and children’s fiction
• act on feedback and edit your own work
• deliver critical feedback during virtual workshop discussions
• submit your work for publication
• navigate the Australian publishing industry.

There are countless reasons to study creative writing. Enrol if you want to develop your craft, write professionally, or inspire yourself artistically. You’ll have the space to work on projects that matter to you, which could lead to a publishable story, collection or manuscript that you might not have finished otherwise. 

You’ll gain incredibly valuable knowledge about the path to publication from people who’ve been there. And you’ll network with like-minded creatives from all over the country. These connections often end up being the writers, editors and publishers you collaborate with in your career.   

It’s not uncommon to juggle your creative projects with other work. Studying online gives you the time and flexibility to do that. Plus, you’re not restricted by location—you can access universities from across Australia. This has its advantages. It means you can choose your course based on the writing teachers who appeal to you most.  

There are a lot of reasons to study your course online through us.

• You can enrol without entry requirements  We have a unique open-door policy  that makes it possible for everyone to enrol in university study, no matter their academic history. If you don’t meet the entry requirements for a degree, we’ll help you get in through single undergraduate subjects and transition into a qualification from there.
• You have total control over how you study Upskill without committing to a whole degree upfront. Or enrol in a full degree, but take it a subject at a time. We’ll introduce you to flexible study options you didn’t even know about, so you can fit uni around what matters to you.
• You’ll graduate with the same qualification as an on-campus student Once you enrol through us, you’ll study online with the university that provides your degree. This means that when you complete your qualification, you’ll graduate with the same degree as on-campus students.
• We’ll help you navigate the university world Our friendly student advisors will be your guide every step of the enrolment journey. They'll help you compare universities, choose a course, provide documentation and understand your finance options.

It depends on the course and whether you choose something short or long-term. Here’s a general guide: 

If you study a degree in creative writing through Open Universities Australia, you have the flexibility to choose how many subjects you take per term. This means you can complete your qualification at a faster or slower pace than you would on campus.   

Creative writing is a skill that requires practice and patience—but it’s a skill anyone can learn with the right guidance. Many of our students find workshopping to be the hardest thing about their course, because they can’t help taking the feedback about their work personally. It’s tricky to separate yourself from your writing, but your tutors and peers only have your development in mind. If you’re open to a bit of constructive criticism, you should find your course fun and rewardingly challenging. 

Creative writing graduates have the critical thinking and writing skills to work across all sorts of industries. Students commonly pursue work as:

• Journalists
• Copywriters 
• Digital marketers
• Magazine publishers and editors
• Book publishers and editors
• Screenwriters
• Arts administrators

Before starting an enrolment, it’s important to read the entry requirements for your chosen course to ensure that you’re eligible to apply. If you don’t quite meet the requirements, we may be able to help you find a pathway into your course through open-entry subjects, which anyone can study.

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Creative writing masters vs graduate certificate: which is best for you?

Are you looking to expand your creative writing skills and are looking for a new way to study after graduating with an undergraduate degree? Then you’re in luck because that’s exactly what we’re talking about today. Unlike what you might believe, there is more than one way to study creative writing after your undergrad, in the form of a master’s degree and a graduate certificate. 

But what do these things both mean, and which is the right option for you? Keep reading to find out all about your options! 

What’s a creative writing master’s degree? 

A master’s degree is a natural stepping stone from the undergraduate degree, extending your time in an academic institution by one or two years while you earn a higher qualification. Master’s require less time than undergraduate degrees, but they still cost a lot of money and might not be suitable for everyone depending on what financial aid is available for this type of degree. 

There are a number of reasons why you might want to study creative writing for another two years, including:

• You want more time to perfect and hone your skills, as well as learning from industry professionals before getting out into the real world on your own
• You studied a different topic at undergraduate level and now want to explore the world of writing

Some people want to spend two years specialising in creative writing, but others worry that it’ll be too strenuous to juggle with the rest of their lives. Luckily, there are other options than the master’s degree. 

What’s a creative writing graduate certificate? 

A creative writing graduate certificate is similar to the master’s degree, but it’s much more specialised in one subject because of the shorter timeframe. Most creative writing graduate certificate courses will take around six months to complete, depending on whether you go part-time or full-time. The cost is also much lower, so it’s a good option for people with less financial aid. 

A graduate certificate requires you to only complete three to five graduate level courses as opposed to the nine to twelve that a master’s degree requires. Here are a few examples of the graduate courses that you can choose from:

• Fiction writing
• Non-fiction writing
• Performance writing
• Writing for an audience
• Editing and publishing

Because of the short study time, most graduate certificates can be completed part-time. This is great for people who need to work alongside studying or who want to work on their writing alongside their studies.

Key differences between a master’s degree and a graduate certificate

There are a few key differences between the creative writing master’s degree and the graduate certificate, and these might help sway your decision for which one to go for. Let’s look at a few of these now: 

• The required number of courses

Graduate certificates require substantially fewer course credits than master’s degrees, so they might be best for students who have less time to dedicate to their studies or who need to work alongside getting their qualifications. It’s also a cheaper course, which might be an incentive for some students. It will depend on the institution you’re applying for, but most graduate certificates require at least three courses while master’s programs require between 10 and 12. 

• The degree of specialisation you’re hoping to obtain

A master’s degree is better designed to give you a wider range of knowledge across your chosen subject, while many use graduate certificates to hone in on a narrower specialist subject. This is because you have less time to learn all the information you can in your chosen field, so trying to broaden your knowledge too much can force you to only learn surface-level information. For example, you can earn a master’s degree in creative writing or a graduate degree in screenplay writing. 

• The overall cost and your financial aid options

Graduate certificates almost always cost less than master’s degrees because you need to take fewer courses and spend less time in the institution. However, most master’s degrees qualify for financial help so you can get all or most of your finances covered by loans or grants. You might not be eligible for the same financial aid for graduate certificates, although most people can rely on private loans and employer assistance if they can’t cover the cost on their own. 

Final thoughts

Both graduate certificates and master’s degrees are excellent options if you want to study creative writing. A graduate certificate is a shorter alternative to an extensive master’s degree, so it’s great for people who might not have as much time to focus on their studies. The graduate certificate is also cheaper, but it won’t offer as broad of a spectrum on the subject. The master’s degree will allow you to take more classes so you can garner a broader area of expertise. 

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‘Creative writing can be as impactful as an academic paper’

Grassroots initiatives can promote visibility of marginalised groups, self-expression and community, writes Emily Downes. Here are her key tips from running a creative writing competition to mark LGBTQ+ History Month

Emily Downes

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Last year marked two decades since the repeal of Section 28, a UK law that prohibited what was described as “the promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. What this meant, in practice, was that generations of LGBTQ+ children grew up with no safe access to information about LGBTQ+ issues, no role models, no representation. They had no indication, in fact, that they could have a successful life that included employment, acceptance and community. 

Surely, as hubs of knowledge production, higher education institutions have a social and ethical responsibility to actively repair some of the damage wrought by this law. As LGBTQ+ staff in the sector continue to report  discrimination and erasure , are we providing enough opportunities for our students to see their own lived experiences roadmapped and reflected? 

• Pride in HE: how to create an inclusive community online
• I’d tell my younger self that my chequered past would be my strength
• Making LGBTQ+ individuals feel safe, valued and empowered on campus

While institutional support and backing are essential in amplifying LGBTQ+ representation and visibility, staff on the ground can also make an impact through grassroots initiatives. And where better to push back against the fearmongering of Section 28 than from a place of love? For author, theorist and educator  bell hooks , all key social justice movements have promoted a love ethic: a practice that seeks to use knowledge, responsibility, care, trust, respect and commitment. How might that look in your professional context? 

In mine, I have had the privilege of coordinating a creative writing competition for LGBT+ History Month . Here’s some of what I learned.

Knowledge and responsibility

It’s natural to feel powerless against discrimination. However, take heart – there’s no one defining form of activism. You may not feel you have the capacity or physical ability to protest in the streets or the wherewithal for a strategic campaign. That doesn’t mean you have nothing to contribute to the cause of a more inclusive landscape in higher education. We each have our own offering of knowledge, skills and interests to share. These needn’t exclusively be academic pursuits.

What brings you joy? Perhaps it’s a gentle walk in nature or listening to a podcast or crocheting. I’m partial to all three…and I also enjoy using writing to make sense of my inner and outer worlds. A couple of years ago, I started facilitating LGBTQ+ creative writing for well-being sessions in my local community. Last year the chair of our university LGBTQ+ focus group asked if I would use this experience to make our campus more inclusive. We agreed that I would deliver a drop-in session exploring the importance of queer representation , and that I would coordinate a creative writing competition around the same theme. As a “late bloomer” bisexual who grew up with a dearth of positive representation, I felt a responsibility to be visible in our university community. I had first-hand experience of the possibilities that creative writing affords for healing and growth. I am also well aware of how stifling and impenetrable academic writing can feel for many. I saw the creative writing competition as an opportunity to put self-expression firmly back into the hands of a marginalised community. 

Care and trust

Over the past two academic years, I have gained important insights into developing the competition process with care and establishing trust with our participants. Working with students with protected characteristics means a vital aspect of care is gaining consent at multiple stages. For trans students , for example, being named in certain contexts could have immediate and severe material consequences. One student sought me out during graduation week last year to ensure they would be  dead-named – otherwise, they said, they wouldn’t be able to return home with their parents after the ceremony. 

This has fed into my experience with the competition. Just because someone has entered doesn’t mean they will feel willing or able to be named in a university update or read their piece at a public event. However much you think you’ve tied up loose ends, please double-check. It’s better to be mildly irritating with an abundance of care.

That said, please don’t let the need for caution be off-putting. Demonstrating this level of care is foundational to developing trust. Repeatedly checking in with participants about how they are represented also helps to build a sense of agency they may not always feel they have in wider society. Liaise with those in your initiative whenever a new context arises in which they may be named. 

Respect and commitment

University community members who participate in our writing competition are occupying a  brave space , and this demands our respect. We value our staff and students’ intersectional identities and recognise how vulnerable it can feel sharing those parts of yourself in your place of work or study. I have shared some of my own LGBTQ+ journey during the drop-in sessions. Another sign of respect has been the active and enthusiastic engagement from our executive director of communications and development, who has sat on the judging panel both years. Having buy-in from senior management is indescribably validating not just for our entrants but for the wider LGBTQ+ community at the university.

Commitment to such an initiative can take many forms, the most essential of which are reflection and learning. For example, our inaugural winner, Allison Rosewood, submitted a non-fiction piece about becoming the trans role model she had always sought herself. We platformed her work at the university Pride event – she was unable to speak in person, so we recorded her reading her work and played it during the Pride Literary Hour. We invited Allison to sit on the 2024 judging panel, and the award has been named the Allison Rosewood LGBTQ+ History Month award. Now, our winner will always be invited to read at Pride and to sit on the panel. Allowing the project to evolve has helped create space for students to have their experiences and identities validated, and to build an archive of visible role models. 

This year, our prompt invited entrants to imagine a world where Section 28 had never existed. Mac McClelland’s winning entry,  Brianna , is staggering. The piece eloquently draws a line from past to present, highlighting just how far-reaching and damaging legislation in this vein can be. Opening the door for this creative expression has resulted in something that, in my opinion, is as impactful as an academic paper. 

Knowledge, responsibility, care, trust, respect and commitment, then…what’s coming to mind for you? Perhaps you owe it to yourself and your community to explore your own initiative. One caveat to this: please also apply a love ethic to yourself. Does the thought of a project like this make you weary? You may be running low on reserves, especially as we so often expect members of marginalised communities to advocate and enact positive change themselves. Someone else can take up this mantle, and that’s fine, too. 

The legacy of Section 28 is a traumatised, under-represented LGBTQ+ community and a wider UK society that still often struggles to accept those living outside a heteronormative, cisnormative version of reality. But if you do have the energy and resources, projects like ours can be transformative for individuals and institutions. As bell hooks wrote: “When we are taught that safety always lies with sameness, then difference, of any kind, will appear as a threat…The choice to love is a choice to connect – to find ourselves in the other.” Let’s work to make our institutions a place of connection and relish all the richness of experience that entails. 

Emily Downes is senior student success tutor (academic writing) and LGBTQ+ Focus Group co-chair at Teesside University.

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With AI writing so much code, should you still study computer science? This new data point provides an answer.

• UC Berkeley sees a 48% jump in first-year applications to study computer science.
• Despite generative AI advances, students are eager to pursue computer science careers.
• Human developers remain essential for creating something new.

One of the most persistent concerns around generative AI is whether the technology will put workers out of a job. This idea has particularly caught on in the context of software coding .

GitHub Copilot can write a lot of code these days, so is it even worth studying computer science now? That's been a question on the minds of math-minded high schoolers since ChatGPT burst on the scene in 2022.

There's a new data point that helps answer at least part of this question: Students are still lining up in droves to take computer science in college.

An eye-popping data point

Let's take The University of California Berkeley as an example, as this college at or near the top for computer science.

First-year applications to UC Berkeley's College of Computing, Data Science, and Society CDSS increased 48% this year. There were 14,302 (non-transfer) applications for these CDSS majors in the Fall 2024 incoming class, versus 9,649 the previous year.

For context, the number of first-year applications to UC Berkeley as a whole didn't change much from a year earlier.

Related stories

This was announced last week by Professor Jennifer Chayes, the dean of Berkeley's College of CDSS. She popped these eye-popping stats during a fireside chat with Governor Gavin Newsom and Stanford Professor Fei-Fei Li at the at the Joint California Summit on Generative AI in San Francisco.

There's a role for human software developers

Afterwards, I got in touch with John DeNero, Computer Science Teaching Professor at UC Berkeley, to talk about this some more.

He's also chief scientist at Lilt , a generative AI startup, and he was previously a researcher at Google working on Google Translate , one of the first successful AI-powered consumer apps.

"Students express some concern that generative AI will affect the software engineering job market, especially for entry-level positions, but they are still excited about careers in computing," he wrote in an email to Business Insider. "I tell them that I think many of the challenging aspects of software development can't be performed reliably by generative AI at this point, and that I expect there will still be a central role for human software developers long into the future."

AI can't do new things very well

Generative AI is currently very good at replicating parts of software programs that have been written many times before, DeNero explained.

That includes computer science homework assignments! See BI's coverage on how much ChatGPT is used to cheat on homework .

What if you want to create something new? This is where smart human coders will still be needed. (This makes logical sense as AI models are trained on data. If that information doesn't exist yet or it's not part of the training dataset, the models often get in trouble).

Generative AI "requires a lot of thoughtful human intervention to produce something new, and all consequential software development projects involve quite a bit of novelty," DeNero said. "That's the hard and interesting part of computing that currently requires clever and well-trained people."

"Generative AI can speed up the more mundane parts of software development, and software developers tend to adopt efficiency tools quickly," he added.

What happens at Lilt?

This applies to what's happening at Lilt, which is building an AI platform for translators.

Google Translate first came out 18 years ago. And still, human linguists have jobs and are relied upon when translations are really important. For instance, you can use Google Translate to read a Japanese train timetable maybe, but would you use the app to translate your business's most important contract without having a human expert check it? Probably not.

"To reliably produce publication-quality translations, human expert linguists are still at the center of the process, but by using Lilt's task-specific generative AI models, those experts are much faster, more accurate, and more consistent," DeNero said. "As a result, more text gets translated at higher quality into more languages."

He expects this same pattern to play out in software development: A small team of highly trained human developers will have an even greater capacity to build useful high-quality software.

"And so, future Berkeley graduates will have plenty of opportunities to use their computing skills to improve the world," DeNero said. "Hopefully some more of them will come work for Lilt."

Watch: AI expert discusses generative AI: What it means and how it will impact our future

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International Programs

Anne frank initiative welcomes over 250 clear creek amana eighth graders to university of iowa campus.

On Thursday, May 30, 2024, the Anne Frank Initiative (AFI) , an International Programs affinity group, welcomed 250+ eighth graders from Clear Creek Amana (CCA) Middle School. A strong mission of the AFI is to create outreach opportunities to share Anne Frank’s story, spirit, and her humanitarian message with our youngest generation. Some CCA students have read portions of Anne Frank’s diary during the spring semester. The AFI is directed by Kirsten Kumpf Baele, lecturer in the University of Iowa (UI) Department of German.

“As part of the English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum at CCA, Tollie Lancaster and I were able to teach the students about the Holocaust,” said Lindsay Herr, eighth grade ELA teacher and one of the organizers of the event. “We are honored that Dr. Kirsten Kumpf Baele partnered with us and took the time to teach our students about Anne Frank, and we are excited they were able to meet with and learn from other University of Iowa professors and current University of Iowa students.”

The middle school students began their day with an introduction to Anne Frank, her legacy, and her special connection with Iowa. Throughout the morning, students were divided into breakout sessions which ranged from a virtual reality tour of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and Little Free Library design, to artificial intelligence, writing and identity, and learning about German/Jewish heritage in Iowa City. They also had a tour of the Iowa campus.

At the end the day, students gathered at the Anne Frank sapling on the Pentacrest where Andrew Dahl, the head UI arborist, talked about the white horse chestnut tree, the 13th sapling to be planted in the United States.

“This annual engagement with Clear Creek Amana brings eighth grade students face-to-face with pieces of history that most of them have only encountered through educational texts,” said Mallory Hellman, director of the Iowa Youth Writing Project and AFI advisory committee member. “By visiting the Anne Frank sapling, walking a path of significant locations in Iowa City's Jewish history (and present!), and learning of Anne Frank's Iowan pen-pal , students cement a lived connection between Anne's story and their own.”

The AFI is committed to investigating Anne Frank’s literary contributions, her ongoing legacy, and all that she represents in a more globalized, international, and contemporary context.

“Iowa has a special connection to Anne Frank and her story,” remarked Natoshia Askelson, associate professor in the UI College of Public Health and AFI advisory committee member. “The AFI works to highlight and strengthen that connection. It is vital that Iowans understand how interconnected all our stories and lives are, so that we can prevent violence.”

Organizers of this event included AFI Director Kirsten Kumpf Baele; Lindsay Herr, CCA eighth grade ELA teacher; AFI Advisory Committee members Natoshia Askelson, Carl Follmer, Mallory Hellman, Shereena Honary, and Ana Laura Leyser; and other UI faculty, staff, and students including Andrew Dahl, Glenn Ehrstine, Colleen Kollasch, and Kevin Zihlman. 

International Programs  (IP) at the University of Iowa (UI) is committed to enriching the global experience of UI students, faculty, staff, and the general public by leading efforts to promote internationally oriented teaching, research, creative work, and community engagement.  IP provides support for international students and scholars, administers scholarships and assistance for students who study, intern, or do research abroad, and provides funding opportunities and grant-writing assistance for faculty engaged in international research. IP shares their stories through various media, and by hosting multiple public engagement activities each year.

• Anne Frank Initiative

International Programs at the University of Iowa supports the right of all individuals to live freely and to live in peace. We condemn all acts of violence based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, and perceived national or cultural origin. In affirming its commitment to human dignity, International Programs strongly upholds the values expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights .