Do you need a degree to be an author? To be a good author? To be a successful author?
There’s a lot of debate around the topic of writers and education.
One side says, “Yes, absolutely. You can’t be competent, much less great, if you haven’t been schooled in the established rules and traditions at higher than elementary levels.”
The other side says, “No, not necessary. You can write if you know the basics of spelling and grammar. Get to it!”
Who do you listen to? It depends on what you want to do. If you want to write, you need tools to set words to paper, digital or physical. If you want to teach, you don’t necessarily need a degree to share your knowledge and experience. You can offer workshops, lead writing groups, or mentor emerging writers. However, effective teaching requires a deep understanding of both the craft and how to convey it—being a skilled writer doesn’t always translate to being a skilled teacher. You’ll need to refine your ability to guide others through the nuances of storytelling, structure, and language, as well as provide actionable feedback tailored to their needs. If you want to teach in a university, though, you’re gonna need that degree.
Let’s dig in.
Reading is perhaps the easiest, most accessible approach to learning about genre and style. Read a lot. Copiously. Read brain candy; read the classics. Read comics and newspapers. Devour the words. Get lost. Note. Literally take notes on what you like and what you don’t. Go beyond “I love horror!” and get deeper. Is there a phrase that stood out? A twist you didn’t see coming? Do you like the author’s voice? Why? Break down anything that catches your attention.
I’m reading a book with a character who has to be the most evil I’ve ever encountered. There’s no gore or torture. No violence. And yet, this secondary character and two lines of dialogue made me put the book down for a few days. That’s skill! I made a note of it.
You can take classes without an eye to a degree. Universities and colleges often let you audit a class. Beyond that, there are online courses (more than one class, some even leading to a certificate) and classes (one-offs) that are purely informative. The cost varies wildly. Some are free; others run into the hundreds of dollars. Check reviews, talk to people who may have experience in this realm, and spend wisely.
The Masterclass series will expose you to teaching from seriously big names: Atwood, Gaiman, Oates, Mamet, Patterson, and more. All wildly successful authors, all willing to share their lens and experience. Usually broad information, rarely specific. Masterclass charges an annual fee, but you get access to all the classes, and they run sales from time to time.
Workshops are like classes but intense. They require more from you, usually in the form of more writing and critiquing other students. You’ll discuss what works and what doesn’t on a more personal level than a class. You can usually get pretty granular with the subject matter. The same range of pricing applies.
Online workshops offer a solid experience from the comfort of your home (or coffee shop, etc.). In-person workshops level that up a bit. The discussions are livelier and more interactive. There are educational centers (Clarion West comes to mind) dedicated to writing. They tend to offer longer residencies and very focused writing. Do a lot of research with this type of learning. You want one that fits well and puts all your resources to good use.
Writing groups put you with other authors of varying backgrounds but often within the same genre. Birds of a quill and all that. These groups share works in progress, reading chapters out loud, offering feedback and suggestions. I know a few well-established authors who have had the same writing clutches for decades. Literally. Think Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori. One gathering, and Frankenstein was born. Other creative minds challenge you to produce your best possible work.
In that same vein, beta and critiquing groups can challenge you. They tend to be more readers than authors (or authors setting down their black pens and picking up red ones). These are people who give their opinions—sometimes strong ones. Plot, tone, word choice—everything is up for debate. Where a fellow author might share advice on how to fix a problem, a beta reader may just say they don’t like it and that scene sucked. Listen. Get good at parsing what influences the story and what might be sour grapes. There’s value in all of it.
Writing/critiquing groups are an in-the-wild, live-action way to learn and hone what you already know. Approach them carefully and find a good fit. It may take you a round or two, but you’ll know pretty quickly if it’s not going to work.
Finally, you. There’s an old adage that says, “Never try to be better than someone else. Be better than you were yesterday.” Compete with you. Read over old pieces, finished or not. Go wayyyyy back. Cringe. Smile. Exclaim, “I wrote that? Nice!” Be horrified. Be proud.
And then step up.
Kimberly Rei
Kimberly Rei, in addition to writing creepy tales, is an editor with Black Hare Press and takes joy in offering the wobbly wisdom of her experience. She does her best work in the places that can't exist...the in-between places where imagination defies reality. With a penchant for dark corners and hooks that leave readers looking over their shoulder, she is always on the lookout for new ideas, new projects, and new ways to make words dance. Her debut novelette, Chrysalis, is available on Amazon. Kimberly lives in gorgeous Florida where the Gulf hides monsters and the sun is a special kind of horror.
Dean Shawker
Dean Shawker hails from Bracknell, UK, and now lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Dean is co-founder and editor of Black Hare Press.
Having found that his BSc in Bioengineering and BA in Digital Media were as useful in real life as calculus and geometric proofs, Dean now works in commercial non-fiction during the day and moonlights as a minion of the hell hare, Captain Woundwort, in the dark hours.
He writes speculative fiction and dark poetry under the pseudonym Avery Hunter, and edits under the name D. Kershaw.
You’ll usually find him hanging out with the rest of the BHP family in the BHP Facebook group, or here as a servant to the Stygian Lepus.
