Being a Creative Writing major was an easy decision of mine. All my life I had been interested in writing stories and collecting a mass amount of word documents of my ideas. I also hated every math and science class I ever got myself into. Because of that, choosing creative writing as a major seemed like the perfect thing to do. I thought that being a writing major would make life so much easier, I could do something I enjoyed and have it come easily to me. However, this is not an easy major. I've learned that over the past year and a half. The struggles are endless, and here are some things I have to deal with every time I go to class.
1. Grading is opinionated.
When you pick up a book to read or movie to watch, you may enjoy it and your best friend may hate it. Sometimes I slave over writing a story or poem for hours only to turn it into my teacher who just doesn't get it. Sure, there's bad writing and good writing but can content turn off a reader? Yes. So you better hope your teacher likes the same things that you do. And if they don't, you should probably just creep on their Facebook pages and see what interests them.
2. Thousands of words, thousands of pages.
Having not one, not two, but three plus English classes is bound to give you papers on papers on papers. Sometimes you will spend hours on the computer simply typing away. Which brings us to our third problem.
3. Writer's Block.
With good work comes great time. But too bad, so sad, you have a week to turn in your next assignment. Creativity takes time and precision, but with so many papers and so many assignments it is hard to give all of your work the time that it needs. Being a writing major is all about learning how to think and move your ideas forward in a timely fashion.
4. Your peers' talents.
Being a writing major will lead to a lot of workshop classes. These classes includes reading your own work out loud as well as reading others writing. To make the matters even more intimidating, you must critique the works of others and hear your own words pulled apart and stomped on. There is always someone out there better than you, and that will either inspire or bring tears to your eyes.
5. You just can't be shy.
I am a shy writer, the worst kind of writer to be. Being outgoing, critical and involved are important in any creative writing class.
6. You have to know some big words.
Writers speak very eloquently. Being surrounded by writers in everyday classes is like hearing a bunch of beautiful dictionaries speak. So if you want to keep up with the rest, I suggest learning a few big words you can throw into your everyday language.
Being a writing major takes a lot more work than one may think. Getting creative is not always easy, and like I said before great work takes great time. However, even with writing majors continuous struggles, I'd rather be doing this than math any day.