Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. -- Flannery O'ConnerMany of you know that I detest quotations for being catchy sentences taken out of context. The above aphorism is probably out of context. I tried to find its origin, but alas, fair Google was bogged down by those incidious quote-a-day pages.
Anyway, I was looking around for writing inspiration when I stumbled across it. And frankly, it lead me to ponder my existance as a writer. [Caution: journaling ahead.] I've decided that I'm a writer in that I can spell and phrase thoughts appropriately, but frankly, I'm no writer in an authorial sense. I simply don't care. I don't sit under trees composing poems while listening to someone play the lute. I don't get a story idea and then have to write it down. Frankly, my entire life has been a great void of story ideas. I generally don't enjoy making up stories. Poems are a little more fun to create, but I don't unless I have to. Three times in my life -- yup, I've counted -- that's all the times that I've thought to immortalize something in poetic form. One of those times was me killing a cochroach.
Nope, not a poet. Not an author. Just a writer.
Which stinks. I'd like to think that my talent isn't just for practical purposes, although I will admit that I am a practical sort of girl. Am I meant for expository writing and the occasional witty observation? This certainly shatters a dream. But not really, as I never actually dreamed of being an author/poet. Frankly, that sounds just as boring as whittling one's life away in a cubicle or being an accountant. Yawn. It's all flickering computer screens to me.
However, I find writing other things just as boring. Like lengthy union reports (trust me). Or even that ever-popular "looking for a summer job" article. That's only interesting once, but it's something that is written every year in nearly every business or career minded publication.
So, what is one to write? One could write criticism. One could write copy for web sites, for brochures. Or one could be a journalist.
Or maybe English majors aren't meant to do anything with books. Maybe it all just comes down to having a good grasp of written and oral communication with a healthy dose of critical thinking. Who needs literature or creative writing? I'm beginning to think that I don't.
Posted by Julie Young at February 24, 2004 11:36 PMYep, I hear ya. I spent four years with literature and creative writing only to land a job where one of my duties is to make sure that each diagram of the sun in an astronomy book doesn't make the sun look "too spiky." But having studied literature, at least I can really enjoy what "reading for pleasure" is now... that went out the window during college.
Posted by: Donna R. Hibbs at February 25, 2004 09:03 AM* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I hope not to offend, so read this comment carefully and with an open mind.
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Well, I don't really think that English is much of a major at least at the Bachelor's level. It is kinda like History. You study english or history if you want to teach it someday. Pick up 10 books. How many of the authors do you think studied english in their undergrad for college? If I was to guess I would say maybe half. One could just be an avid reader of good books and pick up on style and be a writer. Or someone could be some obscure major and write about a life shattering event in their lives.
If you want to teach English, here or abroad, then I think it is a very good major. I don't know if this link will appear, so you may have to copy and paste it in.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/student/counselling/WhatCanIDo/english.html
I'm not saying that people who do the types of jobs listed on the site are any less needed in the job market, but many of the jobs (publications researcher, manuscript reader, book critic, novelist, public speaker, real estate, agent, documentation specialist, etc) are done people by people without a specialization in english. This may be a contributing factor to the lack of available positions out there, and the lack of prestege that goes with the positions.
Good Luck JMY on finding the right job for you. I know you make one hell of a critic, and you write with your infamous sarcasm. You also have a lot of professional writing experience, which I think you excel at. I don't know how much you enjoy doing either of these things, but I would probably steer you down some of those paths if I was going to offer guidance.
Posted by: Brian at February 25, 2004 01:16 PMOnce the spring sunshine warms things up, you should sneak away from the world for awhile, sit under a tree somewhere, and quietly read Annie Dillard's THE WRITER'S LIFE.
If you think a life dedicated to writing is no different than working behind a beige partition typing data entry, you're dead wrong. Writing can be hell, but it's worth enduring. I think you're just overworked by college assignments right now, which are all tapping into your creative well and -- frankly -- you're successful at the college stuff, but you're also in a rut. The fact that you keep your blog going tells me that you're already a writer.
These are the conversations I love to have over coffee during office hours. Feel free to come on by when the Senioritis is hitting a fever pitch like this.
Posted by: Michael Arnzen at February 25, 2004 01:22 PMJulie, regarding the quote: take a look at Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose (Farrar, 1969) according to this site
http://www.icgov.org/literarywalk/authors/foconnor.htm
and this site
http://www.gerardmanleyhopkins.org/lectures_2003/flannery_oconnor.html
specifies MM pages 84-5.
Hope this helps.
And to put things into further perspective, I have a Ph.D. in English literature, and I am thrilled that I get to teach so much lit at SHU, but more than half of my time is spent teaching writing. Of course, if there had been such a thing as digital studies or cybercultural studies when I was making my career choices, I would have probably gone that route in the first place. I had no idea that the web page and programming skills that I used to pay the bills, and the games that I played for fun, would join with my pre-existing interest in journalism to create what is pretty much a dream career for me.
Okay, maybe this job would need to require me to teach one or two fewer courses a term for it to be my DREAM job -- but I really can't complain. My point is, when I couldn't find work doing what I thought I wanted, I didn't know what was coming.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at February 25, 2004 04:38 PMJulie, I know that I'm only a "first year," so I'm still figuring things out on the college scene, not to metion the big picture of life in general, but I'd like to offer my perspective, if you'll have it... The way I see it, before college (from a place not so far away in a time not so long ago), everyone looks at a list of majors and thinks what kind of jobs go along with a degree in that major. Usually the things that come to mind are rather everyday-practical things like doctor, teacher, lawyer... you know the drill. The way I see it, there is a "dream job" (as Dr. Jerz put it) for everyone--the task is finding it and, probably the more difficult part for some, getting hired in that position.
Personally, I'm in a bit of a change-up with what I want to do, which (I'm told) is okay at my present stage. However, taking a step back and considering all the possible jobs that there are in the world, there's got to be one in which you're going to excel and, in the same breath, you're going to love. Take your time and really do some searching (I'm sure you already are because you're so on-the-ball). Julie, I just know that when you find what it is that you're meant to do with this degree in English, you're going to be amazing! :^)
Posted by: Karissa at February 25, 2004 10:54 PM