Am I doing the right thing?

[Booze Zombie]

Basically, I'm aiming to be a writer in the near future, but I'm pretty uneducated as I dropped out of "the system" around age 12.

In order to improve my chances of being a good writer, I've applied for some classes at a college, Philosophy, Psychology and English Language and Literature.
Though, as I didn't stay in "the system", I've got no pieces of paper saying I can read, write or even count, so I have to prove my competence to the people interviewing me, so it's going to be all charisma and tests.

So here's the question... well, questions, as when I ask "am I doing the right thing" I am asking two things:

1: Am I going for the right courses to promote a life of writing?

2: Is getting grilled on the spot to test my intelligence and attempt to get right into the college classes a better choice than sitting around for probably half a year just getting pieces of paper to prove I can do all the basics?

Thanks for reading.

 

[AlphaOmega]

I am quite surprised you where allowed to even drop out of school at 12, Since in most countries you have to stay until (average) 16.

That said go for it, some form of qualification is always good.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Hi there, I recommend reading this site, even if it's a little out of date: http://www.watt-evans.com/soyouwanttobeawriter1.html

Cos, you know, it'll basically tell you what I would've told you. Only the guy's funnier. Probably don't want to read the page I just linked, though, unless you were planning on writing to the internet for funsies.

Oh no, I had my eyes keenly set on writing paper books.

If Twilight can sell, I'm sure something I could bash out might make it at some point.

I am quite surprised you where allowed to even drop out of school at 12, Since in most countries you have to stay until (average) 16.

That said go for it, some form of qualification is always good.

Well, it wasn't entirely legal, my leaving of school, I kind of just stopped going and the social services had to recognise I had some issues.
Useless bloody people, child social services.

Also, yeah, that's what I figured, I just want some paper to my name, apparently employers like that sort of thing.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

The papers I've got to prove I am qualified for anything are also quite slimm. Some people just drop from their chairs when I tell them what my degree is. Luckally some employers gave me the chance to prove that I can get things done, allthough I don't like the work I did, I have some job experience in it. Makes me regret though that I didn't follow up on an education when I had the chance. If your passion is writing, go for it, really the most important thing in life is to do what makes you happy. But don't forget that, most of all in these times, employers only need people with the right papers. Not to be rude here, but I suggest to follow an education. I didn't (not to be emo here ) get to the point I wanted because of it.
Hope this is worth something...

 

[Velvo]

If you can handle the pressure of a one on one situation where your intelligence is in question, then by all means, go for that. If you have doubts about your communication skills, or if you get flustered by high pressure situations, I would go for the GED or whatever the equivalent educational standard is where you live.

As far as the classes you wish to take...
First year Philosophy courses are usually just logic courses (A=B, B=C, so A=C, and slightly harder stuff) unless you take a "problems in philosophy" intro course or something. Later courses could be useful if you want to quote philosophers or something, but you could really just read books for that.
Psychology could be a good one, depending on the classes. Knowing how audiences think is great, but writing classes and literature classes will likely focus more on that than psychology classes. I'D do it just for fun though, cause psychology is neat!
Your best bet are solid writing classes. Creative or otherwise. Basically, hope you get a good professor who knows the tools of how to communicate through the medium. Knowing how to develop realistic characters and crafting a story from a drawing board that doesn't just run like "and then this happened! Imagine that!" is the most important part.

 

[Booze Zombie]

First year Philosophy courses are usually just logic courses (A=B, B=C, so A=C, and slightly harder stuff) unless you take a "problems in philosophy" intro course or something. Later courses could be useful if you want to quote philosophers or something, but you could really just read books for that.
Psychology could be a good one, depending on the classes. Knowing how audiences think is great, but writing classes and literature classes will likely focus more on that than psychology classes. I'D do it just for fun though, cause psychology is neat!
Your best bet are solid writing classes. Creative or otherwise. Basically, hope you get a good professor who knows the tools of how to communicate through the medium. Knowing how to develop realistic characters and crafting a story from a drawing board that doesn't just run like "and then this happened! Imagine that!" is the most important part.

That's the main problem I have, the colleges around here don't seem to have creative writing classes.

It's all philosophy (big questions like "are we real or someone's dream" and "tree in a forest, if it falls".
Psychology could be very useful, yes, I do believe understanding people would help me craft better characters and tailor books for an audience and English Language and Literature is probably going to be lots of reading old books and such, so I can probably pick up on what people did to get noted as literary legends.

I've been told the important thing with all of this, though, is don't get locked into thinking everything you learn is correct, the information is just another tool for you to use, never let it go the other way around.

 

[itsnotyouitsme]

paper is a better choice since once you get it you can use it multiple times and you don't have to get grilled every time you need to prove you can wipe your own arse.

 

[Velvo]

I've been told the important thing with all of this, though, is don't get locked into thinking everything you learn is correct, the information is just another tool for you to use, never let it go the other way around.

Totally true, this. Many things to learn in order to write effectively, but learning your own method that works is equally important. Practicing writing is huge. Get a notebook and write every day if you can muster it. Just getting quick at describing things to the smallest detail is a good practice.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Writing fiction is storytelling, and every good storyteller has a voice. If you can't hold a person's interest with a story, you can't write. Everything else falls into place, assuming you put in the work. Simply never stop writing, though. Life is all about the reps.

 

[clipse15]

Basically, I'm aiming to be a writer in the near future, but I'm pretty uneducated as I dropped out of "the system" around age 12.

In order to improve my chances of being a good writer, I've applied for some classes at a college, Philosophy, Psychology and English Language and Literature.
Though, as I didn't stay in "the system", I've got no pieces of paper saying I can read, write or even count, so I have to prove my competence to the people interviewing me, so it's going to be all charisma and tests.

So here's the question... well, questions, as when I ask "am I doing the right thing" I am asking two things:

1: Am I going for the right courses to promote a life of writing?

2: Is getting grilled on the spot to test my intelligence and attempt to get right into the college classes a better choice than sitting around for probably half a year just getting pieces of paper to prove I can do all the basics?

Thanks for reading.

Are there colleges you can get into without being a high school graduate?

 

[Limzz]

I don't know where you live, but get a GED or its equivalent. I doubt you'll get anywhere without one. If you don't know what that is, it's basically interchangeable with a high school diploma.

 

[Always_Remain]

Hey me too (except I stopped going when I first turned 16). I'm working on getting a GED first because it implies that I'm competent for some reason. Pieces of Paper with your name and a title scribbled on them: They apparently mean something to our society. Sigh.

You need skills and passion and blah blah blah to write. I usually try to write something everyday. Practice makes perfect you know.

 

[Dragunai]

Basically, I'm aiming to be a writer in the near future, but I'm pretty uneducated as I dropped out of "the system" around age 12.

In order to improve my chances of being a good writer, I've applied for some classes at a college, Philosophy, Psychology and English Language and Literature.
Though, as I didn't stay in "the system", I've got no pieces of paper saying I can read, write or even count, so I have to prove my competence to the people interviewing me, so it's going to be all charisma and tests.

So here's the question... well, questions, as when I ask "am I doing the right thing" I am asking two things:

1: Am I going for the right courses to promote a life of writing?

2: Is getting grilled on the spot to test my intelligence and attempt to get right into the college classes a better choice than sitting around for probably half a year just getting pieces of paper to prove I can do all the basics?

Thanks for reading.

Im an apsiring author myself. My 1st work is currently on page 180 something of a target 300 minimum so I can qualify as a novellist and not a joke, (this does amount to about 250,000 words if your interested in being taken seriously I'll add.)

I was a C student in school, I slacked off hard and skived when I could but for some unusual reason I have become inexplicably intelligent now. I blame the constant travelling as a child and having a morbid interest in anything I can use to talk about and impress boobs.

Anyway, Growing up I always lived on farms and was cut off from human society and as a result I used to run around (as a kid!) pretending to be in vast other worlds, scenarios etc and when I started getting old and puberty loomed I felt stupid doing this.

My imagination however did not and even now my mind is constantly reeling with ideas of all magnitudes and styles. I am now translating this into my writing work, so all I can say is

---

You can't be taught imagination, You can't be taught creativity, it's just inside you.
The subjects you have chosen are a good idea if you're interested in becoming a writer. Philosphy will teach you character motivation and how a character might think which results in their actions and personality in the story and trust me when I say to you that sitting down and defining a characters personality is no easy task because it HAS to be consistant with only marginal changes occuring as the story progresses dependant on their experinces and that personality has to tie in with other characters personalities and the over all plot.

Example in point:

(Not using my own characters names cause frankly I Don't trust the internet >.>)

Character : Jake - quiet, thoughtful character prefers his own company and is quite hostile towards females because of a recent break up he suffered with his love of 5yrs.

This means he has to not say much in the story so you have to make sure he isn't used too often to continue the narrative unless its something profound he wants to say which will make others think, thus its possible that a more aggressive hot headed character could learn to be more placid from spending time around Jake.

Over time and being around a really sweet female character who just wants to mother his emotional wounds he could learn that while his heart is broken not all women are as brash as his ex and he becomes more forgiving to female characters.

The basic importance being that to have a truely belivable character they have to learn from their experinces in the story and be relateable to you the reader.

Also when it comes to personalities in the plot what I mean is: Jake is hardly going to exert himself to save a female character early on, so she might get kidnapped by some enemy in the story and while her friends try to rescue her he slowly comes to feel guilty for letting her get captured and thus his change in personality (ie giving a damn about a chicks life) will result in him doing something uncharacteristic such as kicking a door and calling out the guards while her friends sneak in the backway, but following this approach can get complicated at times, regardless I think you get the idea.

I have characters in my story who run the spectrum from arrogant jerk to soft natured and polite and each of them interacts with the other in a unique way which remains consistant in the story or is motivated by feelings, events or other influences.

Psychology will also be useful for this but becareful because amature psychology in my experince works better than a deeper understanding and as I mentioned earlier in my self important boasting I read alot and learnt alot as a result about how the human mind works (also makes me a fun guy to watch in an arguement online ^_^) and knowing too much can result in you detailing too much into the characters mind.

When writing you have to let the reader's discover the characers personality by themselves with subtle hints and well worded nudges. You don't tell them in 1 block jake is a quiet, thoughtful character who is burning with rage against women, you let it out subtley by making him speak in short sentences, making him snub female characters who show attention to him (romantically or otherwise) without saying "I had my heart broken" straight off and make some of his comments really deep.

English language and literature are both decent... I guess... I did English as a blanket subject in high school and after they taught me how to read I pretty much worked out the rest myself.

To save you the effort of actually attenind those classes here is what I recommend you do instead.

Read other book from a broad spectrum of authors and genré's even ones you don't like or have a direct interest in. See how they structure sentence's, paragraph's and whole chapter's along with how their characters interact and behave.

Then...

take a nice long walk and look at the world around you. The house you see everyday on your way to work, what does it look like? how would you describe it to someone without it being too detailed?

"He stood on the sidewalk and breathed slowly, small clouds erupting like clockwork from his mouth as the warm air collided with the cool night that surrounded him like a blanket of ice. Hiz gaze drifted from the peeling paint on what was once a typical picket fence, the gate itself hung loosely from its hinge's and as he let his eyes wander up the overgrown garden that consumed the cracked and weathered path he couldn't help but let a chill run down his back.

The house... it stood there, cold and unforgiving. The red brick made it's self prominent under the residual paint of what was once a beautiful two story house. Now... now the shutter's hung limp, clinging to the window frame as though they each dreaded the fifteen foot drop below with a fear even he sympathised with. The dark window's forbidding and ominous, the shadow's inside so pitch he could almost feel the terror's within from the road."

Etc

It's all about how you see the visual in your mind and then how your mind turns it into words.
Oh and recommendation - A good thesaurus and a good dictionary will do more good for you than some pretenious english class.

Good luck dude =)

EDIT:

In regards to the pieces of paper thing, English, maths, a 2nd language and a science will get you into most jobs / secondary education opportunities.

 

[Booze Zombie]

EDIT:

In regards to the pieces of paper thing, English, maths, a 2nd language and a science will get you into most jobs / secondary education opportunities.

I'm not really too concerned with that, I plan on being one of those guys who sits around all day writing once I finish learning.

Thanks for all of those words you bashed out there... gee, I wonder if you write much?
But seriously, thanks for that, I had planned on psychology and philosophy helping me with characters and such and English litrature helping me... well, I'll admit I have not read a book in a while.

I'm mostly an online person.

Also, thanks to everyone who posted but my interview is today, so I guess it's time to go see .

 

[Tallim]

What kind of writing?

If your aiming for creative writing then just get on with it. It doesn't matter how bad you are to start with that, you know what you mean and you can learn all the ins and outs as you go. What you don't want to do is get your head full of all this learning and then be afraid to break the rules or plain ignore it. Or worse get so hung up on grammar and punctuation that you can barely write a sentence.

If however it's factual writing or journalism (see what I did there) then you will need the grounding in education or people usually won't touch you. Though having some good examples of your writing count for a lot.

 

[megapenguinx]

Yes to both questions.
It depends on what you want to write about. All the courses you want to take are great choices, but if you want to write about something in particular, you should specialize.

Also it's better to get grilled on the spot than go through all hoops necessary to prove you can read and write. Nowadays it's harder for people to take someone seriously if they aren't "in the system".
But who knows, you could probably get away with no formal education and just writing about what you know (although I'm a big proponent to getting and education).
Good luck with your career as a writer!

 

[Booze Zombie]

What kind of writing?

If your aiming for creative writing then just get on with it. It doesn't matter how bad you are to start with that, you know what you mean and you can learn all the ins and outs as you go. What you don't want to do is get your head full of all this learning and then be afraid to break the rules or plain ignore it. Or worse get so hung up on grammar and punctuation that you can barely write a sentence.

If however it's factual writing or journalism (see what I did there) then you will need the grounding in education or people usually won't touch you. Though having some good examples of your writing count for a lot.

I had intended to simply bang out books, no rhyme or reason, I'll just bang them out, cut them to pieces, keep the good parts and glue them together, give it logic and meaning once the process is over and hopefully I'll realise what makes a book good for certain audiences.

Yes, I know about the issues with becoming stuck in the knowledge gained from the education system and as far as I can tell, as long as you know that can happen, you can try your best to just use knowledge as a tool and not vice versa.

Yes to both questions.
It depends on what you want to write about. All the courses you want to take are great choices, but if you want to write about something in particular, you should specialize.

Also it's better to get grilled on the spot than go through all hoops necessary to prove you can read and write. Nowadays it's harder for people to take someone seriously if they aren't "in the system".
But who knows, you could probably get away with no formal education and just writing about what you know (although I'm a big proponent to getting and education).
Good luck with your career as a writer!

I hadn't planned on being stuck in a specific genre as specialists tend to be quite vulnerable to fads hitting them quite hard.
For instance, if I had written children's fiction and it was the year Harry Potter took off, well... I think you can guess.

Not that I want to enter writing for the money, mind you. Money is just a nice side-benefit to just completely blasting your words onto a page and trying to make something coherent and maybe even exciting or intellectual.

From what I have read, a lot of prolific writers just do it, they don't get educated on it, but I feel an education could expand my knowledge base and help me write.
I mean, the more you know, the more you can write about... I hope.

Thanks for the luck, have a good day.

 

[Dragunai]

EDIT:

In regards to the pieces of paper thing, English, maths, a 2nd language and a science will get you into most jobs / secondary education opportunities.

I'm not really too concerned with that, I plan on being one of those guys who sits around all day writing once I finish learning.

Thanks for all of those words you bashed out there... gee, I wonder if you write much?
But seriously, thanks for that, I had planned on psychology and philosophy helping me with characters and such and English litrature helping me... well, I'll admit I have not read a book in a while.

I'm mostly an online person.

Also, thanks to everyone who posted but my interview is today, so I guess it's time to go see .

I enjoy writing and if you want to become an author you have to love creating stories and forging the written word. I'm a regular here on the escapist if my beer badge is to be trusted but I do check in every weds for yahtzee's rants so if you wanna discuss writing techniques or just want some friendly advice I'm just a PM away buddy.