Advice for an aspiring writer

karaokeman

I'm thinking of going into Creative Writing, as I'm currently doing a BA in English and I love writing fiction, poetry and prose.

Just wondering if anyone can give me any advice on how I will know that I am good enough to be a writer.

Would also like to hear recommendations of getting into the industry, is it easy to get jobs writing short stories for magazines and that?

echo beach

karaokeman wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone can give me any advice on how I will know that I am good enough to be a writer.

You will know you are good enough to be a professional writer if and when somebody pays you to do it.

If you love to write then you are already a writer. How good you are is totally subjective. Some people may think your writing is wonderful while others don't. Just keep at it and hope for the lucky break.

karaokeman

echo beach wrote: »

You will know you are good enough to be a professional writer if and when somebody pays you to do it.

If you love to write then you are already a writer. How good you are is totally subjective. Some people may think your writing is wonderful while others don't. Just keep at it and hope for the lucky break.

Thanks I want to do Creative Writing in Trinity.

Is there anything I would need to do after that, sorry planning far ahead now but I just don't like the feeling of not knowing my career plan.

Kinski

karaokeman wrote: »

Thanks I want to do Creative Writing in Trinity.

Is there anything I would need to do after that, sorry planning far ahead now but I just don't like the feeling of not knowing my career plan.

Career plan? Sorry to be the voice of doom, but forget about it. Creative writing is not a career you can plan on having. By all means, if you want to do the course and have the cash, go ahead (though personally I think CW courses a waste of time and money), but have something else to aim towards as your career.

Writing fiction, poetry, or drama is something you can do on the side, and if you're talented, dedicated, and above all else lucky you may one day make a living out of it, but don't count on it.

El Guapo!

Why not do a journalism course instead of creative writing?
That way you can have a career in journalism while still getting the skills needed for creative writing and you can do that in your spare time.

Kinski

Dean09 wrote: »

Why not do a journalism course instead of creative writing?

That's a bitch to get into as well. Was just reading a story the other day about a media graduate in the UK who bankrupted himself trying to get into journalism (despite apparently having plenty of talent and doing stints at the BBC etc.)

pickarooney

Journalism is a dying art in any case.

--Kaiser--

echo beach wrote: »

You will know you are good enough to be a professional writer if and when somebody pays you to do it.

If you love to write then you are already a writer. How good you are is totally subjective. Some people may think your writing is wonderful while others don't. Just keep at it and hope for the lucky break.

To quote Stephen King

If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn`t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented

--Kaiser--

pickarooney wrote: »

Journalism is a dying art in any case.

Unfortunate but true. I refuse to read badly written, poorly researched, regurgitated news on the internet but instead fork out money for a quality newspaper. I know I am in an increasing minority

pickarooney

Can you still get quality newspapers? More and more they seem to be full of badly written, poorly researched, regurgitated 'news'.

El Guapo!

pickarooney wrote: »

Journalism is a dying art in any case.

Sad really.
I watched a very good documentary on the subject recently. If anyone is interested it's called Page One: Inside the New York Times and as far as I know it's still available on Netflix. I'm sure it's easily found online too.
It tells the story of the struggle of the NY Times to stay afloat in the media world. Really interesting stuff.

--Kaiser--

pickarooney wrote: »

Can you still get quality newspapers? More and more they seem to be full of badly written, poorly researched, regurgitated 'news'.

The Sunday Times is the only one I read regularly and IMO still high quality

sallywin

Financial Times Weekend, top class. The likes of Simon Schama, Paul Betts, Tim Hayward, Andrew Jefford (occasionally) and many others. It's pure quality reading, every weekend. I consider it a steal at 3.50 and no way would I spend that money on another newspaper currently on the market.

Simon Schama also made a beautiful documentary about Shakespeare, was on BBC Two about a week ago. Out and out class.

echo beach

Dean09 wrote: »

Why not do a journalism course instead of creative writing?

The small bit of modern journalism that isn't advertising, is creative writing, pure fiction most of it.:)

EileenG

If you want to be a writer, then write.

Read in your genre, and see what is being published and what the trends are. Creative writing courses tend to be slow to respond to what is happening in publishing, and to ignore a lot of genre fiction.

Personally, I think that short stories are a very hard way to make money from writing. Novellas are a good short write with a higher profit potential.

karaokeman

Thanks to all, I'm in two minds about doing a CW postgrad or journalism as they all seem quite deer.

Are Novella's any good, never heard of them tbh.

I will also take advice to read works in what I would like to publish to know trends, writing techniques etc.

EileenG

karaokeman wrote: »

Are Novella's any good, never heard of them tbh.

I will also take advice to read works in what I would like to publish to know trends, writing techniques etc.

Are you serious?

Novellas are between 10k and 50k words long, and very popular with the e-book publishers. Quicker to write and edit than a full length novel, and more likely to be bought by a browsing reader.

The novella that all the fuss is about now took ten days to write. Okay, it took more time to edit, but there is always an edit time.

If you have a choice, then three novellas of 25k words is likely to make you more money than one 75k novel.

hcass

karaokeman wrote: »

Thanks to all, I'm in two minds about doing a CW postgrad or journalism as they all seem quite deer.

Are Novella's any good, never heard of them tbh.

I will also take advice to read works in what I would like to publish to know trends, writing techniques etc.

You could do it in the UK for free. Well, you get a UK student loan and you only have to start paying it back when you earn over £21,000. I did my self but luckily I got in before the fees went up so I only have to pay back £3,400. I did a CW and Media Writing degree but it only took one year as I was allowed skip to third year on the back of my HND in journalism.

karaokeman

hcass wrote: »

You could do it in the UK for free. Well, you get a UK student loan and you only have to start paying it back when you earn over £21,000. I did my self but luckily I got in before the fees went up so I only have to pay back £3,400. I did a CW and Media Writing degree but it only took one year as I was allowed skip to third year on the back of my HND in journalism.

Could I do it for erasmus?

hcass

karaokeman wrote: »

Could I do it for erasmus?

I'm sorry, can't help you there. I don't know anything about ERASMUS.