What kind of class in College can I take to become a writer?

Question

I been writing since I was 12 and I want to go to College to be a better writer. I love writing stories and some day I want to have a book out. All the people I talked to they tell me to take journalism. I write fiction stories so what kind of class will help me write better.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

english for sure  

Answer 2

creative writing

Answer 3

You major in journalism and minor in creative writing. You should talk with publishers and agents prior to attending college. Your parents can hire a few agents as consultants to review your work to see what your chances are for getting published. There are so many people who want to be writers that something like 1 in 10,000 make a living in creative writing. Therefore, you take a more obtainable job like journalism and you write fiction on the side.

That being said, there are a handful of successful teenage writers. The kid who wrote Eragon is an example.  

Answer 4

Your best bet is to meet with a counselor in your prospective college to discuss your interests.

All colleges have classes in the English department to aid students looking to improve their writing skills. Some courses may be called "English composition" (aka "English comp") while others may be "creative writing" or even more specifically, "writing fiction."

"English literature" classes will be a historical over-view of writers and criticism.

An important thing to realize: English majors often have difficulty finding jobs-- since there are a limited number of successful writers at any given time.

Journalism is applied writing-- a useful skill to have-- with an aim of telling non-fiction or news-oriented stories. Publications such as newspapers, magazine and journals are the primary source of jobs for writers-- so learning what they require is a good way to hone your wordsmithing.

Finally, many great writers came out of other professions and just had a love of the written word. So it doesn't necessarily require majoring in English to get published.

Answer 5

I think you will find that most bestselling authors did not major in English or Creative Writing in College.  In fact, I think that majoring in English is a great way to kill your urge to write and your creativity.  You will be asked to analyze other people's literature and then parrot back to your teachers their own opinions about the work.  A lot of English majors that I have known went into the major planning to become writers and instead ended up teaching high school English.  There's nothing wrong with teaching, unless teaching is not what you want to do.

Instead of majoring in English, start writing.  Read a lot.  Some English courses are important, of course, because if you can't write an intelligible sentence, you're never going to sell a book to a publisher.  Interact with other writers face to face.  Live your life.  Because in living your life, you will become exposed to the issues that you'll deal with in writing stories that will engage a broad range of readers.  I kept my English classes to a minimum in college, and I believe that because I studied other subjects (religion and philosophy, primarily, with a minor in history) I am prepared to write novels that relatively few people have the breadth of experience to write, but which would appeal to a broad range of people nonetheless.  I'm not saying that I can write better than others.  I'm saying that my unique experiences in education and in life enable me to write MY stories in a way that is unique.  Your education can help you learn the mechanics of writing, but writing your unique stories?  There's no class in college that's going to teach you that.  Learn the mechanics and live, and then write about what you feel passionately about.

Answer 6

English helps also as you have lots of papers to do

Answer 7

Journalism, English, creative writing courses...anything pertaining to grammar, writing, reading, etc.

It wouldn't hurt to take some history classes as well. Knowing some things about the past is always good in molding a good story for the future.

Answer 8

English lit

Answer 9

My daughter wants to be a writer, so she's majoring in history. The stuff I most enjoy reading was done by people who have real life experience to back up their writing. Detective books written by prosecutor's or policemen, for example. Think about what type of book you want to write. If it's fantasy, you might want to take some general science classes like ecology, that will help you design your worlds.

Answer 10

Look into Journalism as a degree option.  Yes, it might not be your cup of tea regarding fiction - BUT There will be plenty of writing courses with that . . . The advisor will be able to give you a degree program.

It will be up to you to pick the writing classes that best suit you.  There are a list of writing courses in the course booklet.  And the booklet will give you a description on the courses.  Try looking online at the college you want to go to.

Answer 11

Short story writing.

Answer 12

creative writing, if you want to write fiction.

Answer 13

You can major in english in college.  Journalism will help you hone your writing skills.  You should also take creative writing and literature.  The best writers are well read in the classics.

Answer 14

First you should know what type of writer you want to be, a course in Grammar and Syntax and Creative Writing will help with your career.

Answer 15

take a lot of literature courses and major in English.  This choice will definitely get you on the right path.

Answer 16

It is so refreshing and inspiring to hear a young person planning to follow their creative dreams!

Aim for a degree in English and/or Creative Writing.

Best of luck to you!

Answer 17

Couple of classes that you can take that would help would be regular english classes so you can learn more about sentence structure and overall writing.

Second I would take an English Literature class so you can read some of the works people have already done so you can see the different writing styles that are out there.

Journalism is good cause it will help you learn to write short material.

Hope this helps.  

Answer 18

Ok, I may get blasted for this, and I agree that Creative Writing courses can help you be a better writer, but if you want to write a good book, I think you need to take some Philosophy courses.  Maybe even a Psychology course or two.  I have a degree in English and a degree in Philosophy and I took a lot of other courses to get my breadth requirements with those degrees and frankly, the Philosophy courses helped me to become a better creative writer than most of my English courses ever did.  

English courses may help you to learn how to pick apart and analyze other writers and figure out technical stuff, but if you want to learn how to think and understand people and characters, take Philosophy, Psychology and Drama.  Philosophy helps you learn how to stretch your mind and "think outside the box".  It helps you to learn how to frame arguments, think critically and wrap your mind around other viewpoints.  You should especially take some Aesthetics courses.  Popular Culture might be a good one to take, too.

Answer 19

creative writing will help.