Become a writer … the heavy metal way
Dear Steff Metal
I always wanted to be a writer, but I don’t know where to begin. I’m in my third year of an English major at college and I don’t have anything to show for it except for some better-than-average marks and several short stories the school Lit magazine won’t touch with a ten-foot clown pole. Should I stick around for a MFA? Do you have any advice on how to get started as a writer?
***
I sure do!
First, I’ll tell you my story, since I can only offer you advice based on my own experiences.
I went to university to be an archaeologist. I loved every minute of my four years there. I took papers on museum ethnography, social anthropology, gothic literature, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, love and death in classical literature … and a really terrible, terrible English paper called ‘Reading, Writing, Text.’
While at uni I wrote a few short stories and submitted some poems to the English dept. magazine. Some were accepted, despite their obvious crappiness. I poked at my novel a little when I had a spare moment, dreaming of the day I accepted my Pulitzer.
Photo by Alial Hasani , a Jordanian metal blogger and photographer.
In my third year I noticed an ad in Student Job Search: ‘Content Writer Wanted for Real Estate Newsletter’. Money for writing? I’d never heard of the concept. I applied with a sample piece about how I was obsessed with Dr. Phil (I know – pathetic) and got the job.
I had to write two 400 word articles per week on general interest topics, and I got paid $40 per piece. I kept that job till I finished uni. I enjoyed getting my monthly check so much I decided to submit articles to magazines.
I wrote my first articles on topics I studied at uni, music I listened to and problems I encountered. Somehow – despite knowing nothing at all about the query letter – I sent out several query letters to editors, and I ended up with a few projects, and a few checks. I was hooked.
When uni finished I simply stepped up my writing pace, and I started reading about writing online – on industry blogs and in discussion forums. I finished my novel and won a competition to pitch it to a HarperCollins editor, which was a massive ego boost! I’ve since finished three more novels with a forth half done. I’ve also self-published five ebooks, which sell through my websites.
The only writing course I took at uni taught me nothing about being a writer. I learned everything from trial and error, reading on the internet, writing, and sending off my work to editors and agents.
I learn by doing, so for me, sitting in a classroom talking about writing didn’t teach me anything. My archaeology degree gave me new skills, crazy experiences, and heaps of interesting factoids to write about. My non-writing degree helped my writing career more than a MFA (or MCW in New Zealand) ever could.
I can’t tell you what’s best for you. I can only talk about what worked for me. Because of my specific experiences, when people ask me what they should study at university if they want to be a writer, I say “anything but writing.” I believe if you really are a writer, you learn everything you need to know by writing, not by sitting in a lecture theatre talking about writing. Unless you’re going to be an English teacher, an English degree will be naught use in the real world.
If you want to be a writer – really be a writer – you need to write. And then, you need to submit. Aspiring writers often forget the submitting stage, because it involves the bane of every writer’s existence – rejection. When you start submitting, you start getting rejections letters, and they bruise your tender ego something terrible, especially in the beginning.
I recommend you start discovering the realities of the writing life while you’re still at uni. Sign up to FundsForWriters free newsletters, read up on writing query letters, (I pack lots of info into my Freelance Success ebook). Use Duotrope to find short story and poetry markets. Read industry blogs. Join a writing discussion forum.
Try this for a few months, and reassess how you feel about writing. Which mediums do you enjoy? Which do you detest? I’ve discovered that I enjoy novel writing, magazine articles, ebooks and copywriting the most, and short stories the least. I concentrate my effort on those four areas.
You may discover you no longer want to make writing a full time career, but you enjoy it as a side hobby. You may discover a knack for writing non-fiction you never knew you possessed, or a knack for blogging.
You can’t make a decision about the future without arming yourself with information first. Learn the realities of the writing life before you decide to dedicate another two years of university and several thousand dollars to your pursuit. Above all else – write. Always write.
Resources
- Holly Lisle’s website contains over 100 000 free words about writing fiction. She also stocks some excellent ebooks on writing (including one of mine).
- The free writing newsletter Writers Weekly contains articles, markets and information for writers of all walks of life.
- The Swivet is agent Colleen Lindsay’s blog and a great industry blog to start reading. The sidebar contains over 150 links to other blogs, sites and forums for writers.
- Nathan Bransford is another blogging agent
- Miss Snark bites down on foolish writers.
Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff
