It could be a helpful career, though I remember hearing at Shore Leave that you can't really make a living off of writing Star Trek novels. However, I could have misheard, misrepresented, or misunderstood what was being said.
Are Any Star Trek Writers English Majors?
- Thread starter VulcanMindBlown
- Start date
I majored in film & television production, with a focus on screenwriting. So I did have some training in the construction, deconstruction, analysis, and criticism of narratives, their structures, and their constituent elements.
I also spent a lot of time in college involved with the campus sci-fi club and its activities: volunteering at sf conventions, organizing sf film festivals, writing for our amateur sf magazine, etc.
I actually had a bit of an epiphany right before graduating, when I attended a chemistry department picnic for the first time ever and realized that I had spent four years attending chemistry classes and had never socialized with any of my fellow chemistry majors--because I had been too busy hanging out with the science fiction club. It also came as a shock to realize that the other chem majors were actually excited by what they were learning and discussed it with the same enthusiasm and interest that my friends and I had when debating how the Flash's protective aura worked or whether Darth Vader was really Luke's father. (This would have been around 1982, see.)
That's when I realized that maybe I had taken a wrong turn somewhere . .
A few years later, I attended the Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop in Seattle, where I met David Hartwell, who convinced me to move to New York and get a job in publishing.
I actually had a bit of an epiphany right before graduating, when I attended a chemistry department picnic for the first time ever and realized that I had spent four years attending chemistry classes and had never socialized with any of my fellow chemistry majors--because I had been too busy hanging out with the science fiction club. It also came as a shock to realize that the other chem majors were actually excited by what they were learning and discussed it with the same enthusiasm and interest that my friends and I had when debating how the Flash's protective aura worked or whether Darth Vader was really Luke's father. (This would have been around 1982, see.)
That's when I realized that maybe I had taken a wrong turn somewhere . .
A few years later, I attended the Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop in Seattle, where I met David Hartwell, who convinced me to move to New York and get a job in publishing.
I don't think anyone would ever suggest "Author" as a career path even for English majors who's choices are limited (speaking as one myself!)
The creative writing courses that some universities run would probably be useful - and the University of East Anglia in the UK runs a master's degree in it.
I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
And I always thought it was a coincidence that your first name is "James"...
Keith R.A. DeCandido has a B.A. in English from Fordham.
There's a few MA courses now, I am about to start one on the OU.
Of course, I don't write Star Trek books, (though you never know. I can hope.) but there are more courses around these days.....one of my tutors of my BA was best mates with Paul Magrs who wrote for Who and stuff, so the courses seem to be more genre fiction friendly than you would expect. But only a little. The power on mine was definitely among people who considered watching LOTR to be enough to make you an expert on SF and F, with Italo Calvino and words like magical realism bandied around if they were feeling extra punk rock.
Am looking forward to the OU one, and might even focus on SF and F if they are receptive.
Isn't Una McCormack a lecturer ? When she's not doing the incredibly important job of being a geek parent (that's not sarcasm)
In terms of education, it's perhaps worth noting that, outside mainstream academia, there are various SF and Fantasy writing workshops out there, some of them very well-established. I attended Clarion West, but there's also the original Clarion on the East Coast and others.
You don't get a formal degree or diploma or anything like that, but you can learn a lot about writing and publishing from people who are already in the business--and make some valuable connections, too.
Honestly, CW set me on my path way more than my formal education ever did, although it probably would've been hard to get hired as an editorial assistant way back when without an actual college degree in something.
And putting on my editor hat for a minute, I can testify that,when it came to buying or rejecting manuscripts for Tor, I never cared what college the author went to or what sort of fancy MFA degrees they had. All that mattered was the words on the page--and, okay, the author's previous credits, reviews, awards, and sales figures.
You don't get a formal degree or diploma or anything like that, but you can learn a lot about writing and publishing from people who are already in the business--and make some valuable connections, too.
Honestly, CW set me on my path way more than my formal education ever did, although it probably would've been hard to get hired as an editorial assistant way back when without an actual college degree in something.
And putting on my editor hat for a minute, I can testify that,when it came to buying or rejecting manuscripts for Tor, I never cared what college the author went to or what sort of fancy MFA degrees they had. All that mattered was the words on the page--and, okay, the author's previous credits, reviews, awards, and sales figures.
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Good luck with that jaime!
I have a BA in English. Originally it would have been in Literature, but I ended up with enough credits to change the focus to Non-Fiction Writing and Editing, which ended up helping me professionally more than the lit degree might have.
Yes, I teach creative writing at undergraduate (BA) and postgraduate (MA, PhD) level. But my BA was history and social and political science. My PhD is in sociology.
Ironically I went and double checked your twitter profile today to make sure my memory wasn't cheating me, just today. I am one of your followers and occasional quippers on there
wotcha Una.I am just starting my MA...where do you lecture? I am gonna be on the OU course.
Ty.
I have of course repeated myself in another later post like a muppet and only just scrolled up. XD
I am one of your followers and occasional quippers on there
Wotcha!
That's a good course! I teach at Anglia Ruskin University. Hope you enjoy yourself!
Is it turn that you can't really make that much of a living writing for Star Trek books?
The honest answer: It would be hard to make a living writing ONLY Star Trek books. Don't get me wrong; the advances and royalty rates are perfectly reasonable and I'm not complaining about them at all. But do the math: there are only 12 slots a year. Maybe some bestselling authors can do fine writing only one book a year, but that's like assuming that all actors get paid like movie stars.
Most writers have day jobs or juggle multiple freelance assignments. In my case, I write all kinds of books, I'm a Consulting Editor for Tor Books, and I also write advertising copy on the side. (I've also been known to do some ghost-writing now and again.) It works for me, but only because I don't have all my eggs in one basket.
Hope that makes sense.
Most writers have day jobs or juggle multiple freelance assignments. In my case, I write all kinds of books, I'm a Consulting Editor for Tor Books, and I also write advertising copy on the side. (I've also been known to do some ghost-writing now and again.) It works for me, but only because I don't have all my eggs in one basket.
Hope that makes sense.
Though not a Trek lit writer, I spent 20 years as a writer and editor after leaving UEA... where I did Maths. I don't know of any of my EAS contemporaries who'vs made it as a writer ( some have as actors: one's in Gotham).
Don't take writing courses if you want a career as a writer. Do other things, learn English in passing because it's as useful as solid arithmetic in a load of careers, try writing in your spare moments, and maybe do something like the UEA creative writing course as a post-grad, particularly if you're already selling a few things and want to improve.
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