Sometimes I wish God would just email me with instructions on what I'm supposed to do with my life. It would make things so much easier. :)
I've been doing a little more writing recently, as I talked about in a previous blog entry. The story I've been working on, The Cage, has reached over 18,000 words (37 pages in Word). It still needs a lot of work. However, here is what's been going through my head recently.
I enjoy writing, and I have at least some moderate skill at it. I enjoy writing a good bit more than I enjoy working with computers. I certainly feel more fulfillment in writing. Part of me says that writing is my life's purpose. I have found that the University of Minnesota has a Creative Writing graduate program, and part of me wants to go back to school and do this. Part of this Master's program is to write "a book-length manuscript suitable for publication." This program (or a similar one) would be a big boost to my writing skills. This would be a major career change. And yet, at the same time, if it didn't work out, I would always have my Bachelor's degree and computer work experience to fall back on.
Even if it's not being a novelist or freelance writer, I think I would enjoy writing for a magazine or newspaper or something like that more than working on computers, so a creative writing degree may have other uses as well.
But then, of course, sometimes I think the idea is silly. I would most likely make more money staying in the computer world. Of course, even if I did go to school for writing, I would stay working in the computer world until I found something else. I could just continue working in computers and work on the writing independently. My only concern about this is that I would not be able to improve on the skill nearly as much, though I could start reading a whole bunch of "how to be a good writer" books.
One of the big obstacles is, of course, money. If I decided to go back to school, it would likely not be for several years, so this idea may not matter for the time being anyway. But it is a decision that I will have to make at some point.
God, my email is cooper.joel@gmail.com, so if you could let me know... :)
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2 comments:
Joel ~ you are gifted. Go back to school for creative writing. You don't want to look back and "wish you did that"... Will your work let you go back to school? If you do this when you have kids it might be difficult too. But don't give up your dream!
You could always combine the two and do technical writing... Okay, just kidding. I think that would be the worst of both worlds, not the best of both.
You would always try starting with one class at the U, either nights or remote. See how you like it before going through all the work of getting into a masters program. If you don't like it, at least you know you gave it a shot and won't regret it later. If you do like it, hey, all the better.
I would also agree with Gina that earlier is better. I've been swamped with my graduate work, but I'm so glad I'm doing it now before I'm married or have kids. You can't control the first one, but can control the second! But hey, a bunch of people in my classes are married and have kids too, it just makes the schedule thing a little trickier.
I'd love to read your stories when they're done, or even before they are.
I still whip out Cooper's Copter every once and awhile and play until I get frustrated at losing... Darn helicopter-killing entities!
"There once was a guy named Han..."
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