Was the Master’s Degree Worth It?
This is a perennial question in the writing community: is getting a Master’s worth the time and expense? So I’m going to talk about my experience and point of view. Your mileage, as ever, may vary.
I got my undergrad degree in Radio-Television-Film (RTF is what we called it) Communication from the University of Texas at Austin. My focus was screenwriting and critical media studies. You know, watch a movie and take it apart critically, same as we did to books in lit class. That’s all well and good, and I was exposed to a number of essays, films, and ideas I might not have found on my own. But the real “wealth” in the experience was in forging relationships with a number of my professors. These professors got me my internship with producer Lynda Obst. Their recommendations got me into grad school.
Speaking of which: Why did I go to grad school? Because after doing film work, I decided I was more of a writer/editor than someone who enjoyed the irregularity and uncertainty of the Hollywood machine. So I found a program that was not just writing but also had a publishing track at Emerson College in Boston. It offered an MA, which felt more practical than a straight-up MFA. So I went, and I learned things like book design, and copy editing, and ever more screenwriting, alongside a number of writing workshops. But again, the greatest benefit to me from that program was having instructors who recommended me for a publishing internship that turned into my first “real” job.
All this to say, I wish I’d known going in that higher education is more about networking and finding opportunities than it is about the actual education. At least in my experience, in creative fields. Yes, the writing workshops were helpful, but they were also conducted at the whims of whomever was running them. This instructor likes science fiction, that one doesn’t. This one looks for elevated prose, that one is cool with something more like genre fiction. This one likes humor, that one prefers a serious tone. And similar things with your classmates: knowing So-and-so is going to be snooty about this and Whatshisname will absolutely love it. Because, outside of spelling and grammar (and even those are sometimes negotiable), writing is subjective, and “teaching someone to write” is… wibbly-wobbly. Plenty of wonderful writers never earned a degree. It’s not a necessary prerequisite.
If you want feedback and/or workshop style help, find or found a critique group. If you’re concerned that a bunch of amateurs will not be able to help each other, see if there is a class or organization at your library or a local community college. And there’s always the online community. Yes, be careful whose advice and feedback you listen to, but that’s true in higher education, too. Just because they’re a professor doesn’t mean they get the last word on what or how you write. They aren’t an emperor giving a thumbs up or down (even if some of them think they are).
No matter what, go in with a concrete understanding of who you are and what you want to write. “I want to write but I don’t know what” isn’t an option. If you’re unsure, you’re not ready.
So. Was either degree worth it? For the connections that led to jobs, yes. For having met my husband in grad school, yes. And for whatever reason, having a degree sometimes sets you up as an authority on the subject. But for the actual writing? Though I walked away with some insights, I also watched people get crushed under expectations and deterred from writing and doing the things they were passionate about because an instructor forced them in another direction. Again, you have to already be firm in yourself to withstand it. Which isn’t the same as “not being open to critique.” It’s about having that inner compass that tells you when the feedback is right and when the person just isn’t understanding what you’re doing. And you need that in any workshop or critique group situation.
In short, learning the craft of writing doesn’t require formal education. You can be self-taught. You can find instruction in other ways. The degree helped me network and find jobs in the industries I was studying. But I can’t say my writing benefitted much from my earning two degrees. I had been a writer for years already by then, and while I love to learn, I don’t know if I’d say the cost was entirely worth the outcome.