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Do You Need a Degree to Be a Writer?

March 17, 2020

Writing

academia, creativity, writing

This question is silly – ironically enough, you maybe found this post googling that very same thing… Do you need a degree to be a writer?

As I’ve often mentioned, the answer to any headline ending with a question mark is “no”. This is the case here, too. No, you don’t need a degree to be a writer (as I said, the question is so silly that I feel stupid just answering it).

However (here it comes)…

This isn’t the entire story, either. No, you don’t “need” a degree to be a writer, in the sense there have been many writers who didn’t have a college degree and produced some stunning works of art.

Yet, I’d be a liar not to admit my PhD has made me a better writer – though probably not quite for the reasons you might suspect.

In today’s post I’ll take a closer look at what getting a college degree (say, in creative writing or English literature) does for you as a fiction author. Is it better? Could it be worse?

Ultimately, the proper question isn’t whether you need a degree to be a writer, but whether going through a (relevant) degree makes you a better writer.

do you need a degree to be a writer
A college degree relevant to writing can open a hole in the wall. But you still need eyes to see
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Affect in Writing: A Way of Feeling

March 10, 2020

Writing

affect, art, fiction, writing

If you searched Home for Fiction for the term “affective power”, you’d discover tons of results. I have referred to the concept of affect in writing in many of my posts – “Sounds in Literature”, “Writing and Reading Symbolism”, and “Narrative Exposition”, to name three.

I now finally decided to write a proper post about it, for two reasons: Firstly, it’s important to speak a bit more analytically about something I use so often. Secondly, I realized that some of my more academically inclined readers might think I make some claim to Affect Theory.

Let’s clear this latter part right away: Although perhaps some accidental commonalities might exist, the way I use the concept of affect has absolutely no connection to affect theory.

Rather, I deploy the concept of affect in writing to refer to emotions, thoughts, and states of mind. I’ll open up the concept in more detail, also explaining i) why it’s important for writers; ii) how to use it in your fiction.

affect, image of woman
Affect in writing is an expression involving emotions, thoughts, and states of mind
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Writing Criticality: Identify and Control Points of Divergence in Your Fiction

February 26, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

fiction, plot, writing

In physics, criticality refers to a nuclear reaction that is able to continue by itself. But for our purposes, I use it as a metaphor to indicate “points of no return”. In other words, points of divergence in a novel, where the plot can take two (critically) different directions.

The concept of points of divergence might be familiar to authors writing alternative-history science fiction. For an example, you can see my review of Elleander Morning. However, when I refer to writing criticality, I’m not limiting myself to speculative fiction.

The concept of points of divergence is ubiquitous. It pervades all fictional narratives, regardless of genre. Or at least… it ought to! In this post I’ll show you how to work with points of divergence – identifying, controlling, and deploying them successfully.

A note on terminology: I use the terms “Writing Criticality” and “point of divergence” interchangeably in the post.

points of divergence
Writing criticality is… critical. As does criticality in a nuclear context, points of divergence imply a point of no return. Once you commit to a plot line, you need to stick to it.
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