College talk

I am always surprised at how often teenagers ask me what they should study in college in order to become a writer. Why am I constantly surprised by this?

1. I am not published and I don’t have an agent. Sure, I am a writer, but really, am I the best person to dole out advice?

2. I dropped out of college. Really. I went for two years, at two different colleges, studying biology. Then I stopped. I went to massage school. Then my shoulder quit. Now, I am going back to college to study Russian and English. You really want to ask a college drop-out what you should study at college?

Okay, so now that you know where the surprise comes from, I will try to answer the question. Are you ready?

Study what you are passionate about. Sure, an English degree might seem like the way to go, and for some it probably is, but it by no means a surefire way to become an author. What an English degree will do for you is force you to read a lot and, depending on the program, write a lot. Which, let’s face it, will help you in your quest to become a writer.

But you know what really makes a writer? I mean, really? Writing. No matter what you study in college, keep writing. That is what will make you successful. No matter if you study history, or physics, or economics, or Japanese, or Elvis impersonation, keep writing and you will be okay. Writers write. They have other interests, but at the end of the day what makes them writers is the act of writing.

If you are really passionate about English, then by all means study it (I am). BUT*. If you are passionate about American history, I suggest you focus your studies on that. If you have always been a bit of a science geek, pursue a degree in chemistry. And if you really dig the human body, study anatomy, or medicine, or massage, or something.

Because here’s the deal: if you go to college to study something you are not passionate about – really, truly passionate - you are going to fizzle out. You will give up, quit, get poor grades, drop out. And if you stick with it, even if you do well, you will not be happy. It is impossible to be happy doing something you don’t enjoy for four years.

There is no degree out there that will make a publisher want your book, and there is no course of study that will convince an agent to represent you. You know what will do these things? Great writing. So keep writing, no matter what you decide to study. Keep writing, and keep working, and you will be okay.

*Another bonus to studying something other than English: all that history knowledge is going to come in handy when you decide to write a novel set during the civil war; when your protagonist needs to develop the vaccine that will stop the zombie apocalypse, you will use that chemistry degree; and when the outcome of your courtroom thriller rests on whether or not the human body can actually do that, all your time in the cadaver lab will have paid off.