The Question of College Majors

by | Nov 13, 2013 | Writing

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.

I’m often asked what’s the best college major for someone who wants to be a novelist. There is no right answer. I will say that most creative writing programs are not designed to help you get published. And most don’t teach writing craft tips to help you improve at genre fiction. I’ve talked to writers who, after graduating with a bachelors in English or creative writing, still had to go to writers conferences before they got published. And it was at conferences that they learned how to improve their storytelling techniques.

But every author has a different story.

Here are a few authors who majored in English:
-Stephen King
-Douglas Adams
-Tom Clancy
-Arthur Miller
-Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodor Geisel)
-Amy Tan
-Stephenie Meyer
-Dave Barry
-Toni Morrison
-John Updike

And here are a few authors who majored in another field:

-John Grisham was a lawyer.
-Michael Crichton studied medicine at Harvard.
-Robert Ludlum was working as a Broadway producer.
-Danielle Steel studied fashion design.
-J.K. Rowling majored in French.
-Larry Niven majored in math.

And there are plenty of authors who didn’t go to college, but continually worked hard at their craft until they sold their first article or book. Here are a few:
-Mark Twain
-Jane Austen
-William Shakespeare
-Charles Dickens
-Agatha Christie
-Ray Bradbury
-the Bronte Sisters
-George Orwell
-H.G. Wells
-Jack London

In case you didn’t know, I majored in fashion in college, hoping to someday start my own wedding gown design business. But if I were to go back in time, I think I’d have majored in marketing or business. When I started writing, I didn’t realize that, should I succeed, I would become a small business owner and that marketing my “products” would be so very important. I think a business or marketing degree would have been useful. Or even accounting, though I shudder to think how agonizing an accounting degree would have been for me. I had one accounting class in college and that was more than enough.

What about you? Are you in college now? If so, what are you studying? And if you are still in high school, what are your college plans, if any?