Advice for Creative Writing Students

[@ShaelinWrites]

Hey folks! I realize now that I didn't consider how covid will be affecting post secondary at all, so sorry for that! I graduated right before lockdown so that was never a factor in my education, but I hope you can apply these tips even when attending your zoom lectures.

[@dakotathrelkeld9644]

Hey Shae, I just recently graduated this previous May with a BFA in creative writing too, but I have not idea what to do with it an covid has made it very hard to do any job searching in my experience. I don't know what kind of job to look for, how to go about getting it, if anybody will care if I make a portfolio of short stories, etc. Please help!

[@joshuanichols4626]

Just started a creative writing degree this semester. Lets goooo

[@trinity3272]

Good luck!

[@ShaelinWrites]

Yesss good luck!

[@nessiefanatic]

me too!!! i’m so ready to get my GEP courses out of the way and do my writing classes. best of luck to you!

[@ctrain8900]

Let's goooo

[@aznSeddie]

Break a lead! ✏

[@nydv16]

Awesome, this amazing video was there since four years 🌟👏

[@anikalanger2702]

i sent you a really stressed out ask on tumblr last year about applying for a writing program and now i have been accepted and will start in october! thank you so much for guiding me all the way through this journey and especially for this video which encouraged me once more!

[@MrHarryGray]

Anika Langer congratulations! And good luck, you’ve got this

[@anikalanger2702]

@@MrHarryGray thank you!!

[@lindseydrew9812]

Omg what’s the program? I’m curious

[@anikalanger2702]

@@lindseydrew9812 it's in germany, one of the like two writing programs we have here. and i love it so much, everyone is wonderful and i'm honestly living my best life (apart from the pandemic of course)

[@imaginativebibliophile549]

Shaelin, I will commence high school on Tuesday. I am exceedingly excited to start a Creative Writing degree in four years. I recently wrote a short story, Across Letters and a poem, Autumn Walk. I have written two novels and several short stories and poems. Whenever I receive a rejection letter from a literary magazine, I think of the perpetual joy in writing. I love you

[@imaginativebibliophile549]

Licinda Stevens Thank you

[@ferbthecow5324]

@Licinda Stevens tf?

[@maya-gur695]

Ahhhhhh the orientation day for my graduate creative writing program is on Monday and I'm so excited and stressed out at the same time! The timing of this video is perfect.

[@ShaelinWrites]

Ahhh good luck! I'm so excited for you!

[@maya-gur695]

@@ShaelinWrites Thank you so much!

[@_antonia]

Going back to uni in two weeks for my second year of a creative writing joint honours degree! And yes, you gave me the idea to study writing in the first place. It was because of you that I discovered my real passion in life. I am so grateful that you are here! Thank you so much!

[@hannahpalmisano5695]

Can you do a video on your cohort and like experiences/funny moments/adventures you’ve had? They can all be anonymous, I just love stories about friendship and especially when they concern one of my favorite booktubers! 😂

[@cwfcwfcwf]

Graduating with distinction. We just assumed you would have been at the top of your classes. :) Congratulations Shaelin. 👍

[@lynt.8269]

The timing on this is impeccable?? I start my freshman year next week, and although I must first undergo general education nonsense, I am hyped to gain skills to put towards my writing and life in general?? Thanks for the video Shaelin~!!

[@nessiefanatic]

same i just started last week!! i can’t wAIt to get to the actual writing courses

[@ShaelinWrites]

Ayeeee good luck, I hope it's a blast!

[@oliviaann9946]

Thanks so much for making this. I'm going into my first year, and I've kind of been feeling alone, but this made me so excited to start my degree!

[@t0dd000]

Wow. Yes! Embrace the projects! School is so beneficial because it forces you focus things you would not focus on normally. Learning to find joy there is a real benefit. Get involved. Take the lead. Engage. School is amazing if you let it be.

[@oliviacanady8669]

My first college creative writing class starts in a couple of weeks! I’m excited! Thanks for the video!!

[@SkeletonQueen3268]

I’m looking to go back to school in the spring and I really am interested in creative writing but I just have that anxiety in the back of my head of feeling like creative degrees are “useless” (thanks mom for that feeling) but I really am considering it. Writing is just something I love so much

[@adheliaputri-b5t]

being first year is the same everywhere... you don't instantly find friends and feel comfortable and have fun. That's what I read somewhere lol.

[@trinity3272]

Yayy, this will hopefully be me in a year (let's all pray I get into a good university🤞) xxx

[@andreaavila3302]

I've been subscribed to you since before your video of "Why I'm Studying Writing in University" (which I don't think is up anymore) so it's insane to see that you are now done uni after watching you make your first As I Write videos and graduating from high school! I haven't been able to keep up with more recent content and am so out of the loop (I still thought you were a religious outliner until now!) and need to catch up on your videos but thank you so much for posting all these years and it's amazing to see you grow dramatically, and I kind of like being an OG subscriber but nevertheless you've been one of my favourite authortubers since day one and have helped me so much with my writing in different ways. While I'm just a subscriber you were like a virtual writing friend to me :) I'm still sad the Dragon Tear never got to see the light of day but I have respect for you peacefully shelving something your heart is no longer in. Congratulations on getting your degree!

[@laurenearle6261]

Starting a creative writing degree in 3 weeks, thank you for this video! 💛

[@t0dd000]

Congratulations on finishing! That's awesome.

[@corinadelbarro2110]

Loved the timing, thank you Shaelin! I decided to start my program early before the rush of people and so I began in July to get the required classes out of the way quickly. I’ve just started my class “Storytelling in the Entertainment and Media Industries,” and while I have been taking the opportunities that arise for writing conferences, I was rather intimidated to get close to the fifty some people in the group chat they’d made. But after this video I did it! I took the leap and asked them if they’d want to send in a request with me to open up our Uni’s creative writing club as a virtual club now that we can’t be on campus 😁 Excited to hear back from them!

[@impatastic15]

I'm a hs senior and I'm really nervous about applying for creative writing programs soon, this video helped a lot so thanks :)

[@worldofkhi29540]

me too! i've been stressing about it and debating between programs

[@impatastic15]

@@worldofkhi29540 What colleges are you thinking of applying to?

[@worldofkhi29540]

@@impatastic15 i'm from NY so the schools i'm definitely sure I'm applying to are public schools like Hunter College or Stony Brook. for privates, I was thinking Barnard or Sarah Lawarence. I've been struggling with schools out of state just because I have to consider the location, like would I be okay with a switch from an urban area to a more suburban one. how about you?

[@impatastic15]

@@worldofkhi29540 I'm also from NY so I've been thinking of going to Brooklyn College, hunter college, suny purchase, suny potsdam and suny oswego cause they seem to have notable writing programs. I'm hoping I get into brooklyn bc it's close by but I'll be fine with going upstate too

[@worldofkhi29540]

@@impatastic15 dopeeee, i kind of also want to do business administration so I've been trying to figure out which colleges would allow me to double major and if not I'm going to minor in one of them

[@bookshopsandlattes]

Thank you for this video!!! I’m in my first semester of college as a creative writing major💖

[@courtneybillisepic]

i love your energy SO MUCH (that shirt??? everything. i want it. where did u get it). i'm currently in the stage of looking at applying to universities, getting scholarships and all that biz and i'd love to know any input or advice you have !!! i'm so excited eee

[@nocturnus009]

Congratulations 💐🎉🎊👩‍🎓 Good luck on all there is as you, "Turn into 2" & face your 2nd act. From Someone that just enjoyed Jessica Brody's Save The Cat Writes A Novel & currently reading Jeff Vandermeer's Wonderbook. I'm having that turn into 3 feeling currently. Like Rody Pipper in They Live (1989) when he gets his sunglasses & sees the world differently. Looking forward to all there is to share, may your Creative Reservoir Always Be in The Path of the Deluge 🌊🌊🌊!

[@j.m.thomas1007]

🎉🍾🥂Congratulations 🥂🍾🎉

[@Carolina-wz2qo]

loving that shirt damn

[@aznSeddie]

When it comes to printing, check if your prof. allows online submission for assignments (iLearn or Blackboard), esp. for fiction assignments. That way, everyone comes in with their own copy of your piece. I really only had to print class copies for poetry workshops, thank goodness.

[@ShaelinWrites]

My guess is more and more programs are switching to online submissions to save paper (or by necessity now that many workshops will be over zoom) but sadly my fiction workshops required hard copies and oh boy, did I go through so much ink.

[@DanielaLopez-hg1tc]

I would really like it if you made a video about applying to uni (for creative writing) with information about submitting portfolios, grades, etc..

[@ShaelinWrites]

When I apply for my MFA I'll definitely talk about that, but my undergrad program actually didn't have a portfolio and every school is so different with this! The way my school did this is you apply for a general admission (which is very straightforward, just submitting your grades), then only students who meet a certain grade bar in Writing 100 are able to move into the Writing program, then there's a similar grade bar at the end of your 2nd year as well. Because of that I never had to submit a portfolio so I unfortunately don't really have the experience to talk about that!

[@augusthawley5504]

Me watching this entire video only being a junior in high school: 👁️👄👁️

[@AlexBlank]

I'm terrible at connecting with people, and all of my classes will be online this semester, which might make this even worse. Stepping in and out of Zoom calls will most likely make the creative writing classes more introverted than in regular circumstances. On the one hand, this makes it much less stressful, but I know I'll miss out on opportunities for human intercation, epsecially since I'm not the one to reach out to people most of the time. It doesn't really bother me personally at the moment, but I'm worried I might look back on it and regret I didn't take this specific part of it as seriously as I could. Not to mention I have only two creative writing classes this term, since I study English literature overall, and I won't get another shot at a class like this until, hopefully, my final year.

[@simplyme922]

Congratulations 👏 👏 👏 👏 Major accomplishment.

[@ShaelinWrites]

Thank you!

[@diogocasstro]

i hope someday i started a creative writing degree

[@ioanam.2374]

This video made me think how cool it would be if authortubers gave us homework and we had some sort of unofficial writing school on youtube. Shaelin? Thoughts on that? lol

[@robinsprung207]

Great video as always!

[@mabimabi2952]

I wish I could take a Creative Writing course but my country doesn't care about literature at all. It's impossible to live off of it here. In my whole country, there are only about 3 universities that offer a somewhat close course but they are wildly inaccessible and not well funded. It's very sad that the publishing industry here is basically dying and the government seems to not care. My dream is to become a writer so sometimes I wonder if I should just write my book in English and find an agent that would help me get it published in the US. Because I feel like I have no future where I live.

[@catlinejade3672]

Portugal? :v (Im Portuguese)

[@mabimabi2952]

@@catlinejade3672 It's actually Brazil. Mas se a situação é a mesma aí, quer dizer temos mais que o Português em comum.

[@catlinejade3672]

@@mabimabi2952 acho que não está tão mau assim, a maior dificuldade é o mercado ser muito pequeno :v mas como disseste só 3 universidades pensei que era xd

[@sakshiagarwal8398]

Can u please make a video on book cover designer. I am thinking to become that along with writing but don't have proper knowledge to go with. So explain it and how we can connect with publishers for this

[@ShaelinWrites]

Sorry, this isn't something I know anything about so I don't think it's a topic I'd be able to make a video on!

[@sazmarie1281]

I’m intrigued by the tattoo on your left arm! What does it say?

[@molly4566]

think I must have this printer curse too...

[@nafezabumuaileq2199]

Thank you very much for your explanation. I am really so interested to write in human rights besides novels and short stories. What I'm keen to know whether creative writing is an independent art needs four years of study or a person can be talented by practise to write professionally? My other question is where can I find a remote job where I can work from home? Thank you very much in advance for your reply. Gaza

[@cheryldavid2219]

In the 2nd year of an MFA in Creative Writing. That's all I can say right now.

[@Kai.9876]

Hey Shaelin, just wondering what exactly you've used your degree for since graduating/what opportunities have opened up for you now? I'm wondering whether it's a degree that can be useful in daily life or if it's simply to expand your craft. Or how I can make money with it in ways other than publishing a book. Thanks! I love your videos btw :)

[@ShaelinWrites]

I have a job with a publishing company, but that was a job I got more as a result of having this KZbin channel than my degree haha. In the future I plan to get my MFA so I can teach writing at a college or university, so I need my bachelor's degree to move on to that. I can't say it's changed my daily life in any way haha but I was also already employed at a full time job before I graduated, so I haven't really experienced a job hunt or really been in any contexts where having a degree would matter. Careers people with writing degrees often go into are marketing, publishing, editing, technical writing, or teaching, but it is a degree that is more to improve a skill than guide you to a specific career path.

[@lakeshagadson357]

do you need some kind of degree for writing or essay

[@ShaelinWrites]

nope! degrees are just one way to learn, but you can write and be a published author without one!

[@rajashekharnarayan4717]

Hi Shaelin

[@rifacreativelife9832]

👍👌💫👏👩‍🎓

[@cxa011500]

Tip #1: Don't major in creative writing