7 Struggles of Your Typical Creativing Writing Student

Your average Creative Writing student is a zany fellow–somebody who is a deep thinker, who sees the world and feels an intense desire to try to replicate it through language. They’re a person who enjoys reading and learning from already well-established authors, a type of person that has an acute eye and spends time observing the patterns of the world.

But with any major, creative writers have their struggles…

1. Getting strange looks from random passers-by simply because we’ve been staring at them for too long.  

We swear–all we’re trying to do is get some intel on the daily happenings, quirks, and strange tics of total strangers. It’s intuitive to us to draw from daily experiences to create unique and interesting characters and scenarios, which is why we study everyone around us.

2. Getting even more strange looks for constantly carrying a little notebook and writing in it at possibly inappropriate times.

For us, it’s a journal, and if you were to open it, you’d see lots of random words, seemingly unconnected phrases, and many strange drawings here and there.  When we see the world, we need to memorize it. When we see an odd behavior or intriguing building, we instinctively write about it. Sometimes the moment might not be ideal, but it’s important–all those scattered thoughts might just end up in our next piece.

3. Failing to capture the world as it truly is.

Every creative writer sees the world a certain way, wants to convey it exactly as they see it, but sometimes we fail in our execution: Our narrative falls flat, the behaviors of our characters don’t seem realistic, or the pacing of the story is off. As beginners, it happens to us all; we must simply keep writing.

4. People–family, peers, co-workers–constantly asking us why we chose Creative Writing as our major.  

Sure, it might not be as practical as a business or science degree. But Creative Writing definitely offers lots of transferable skills, namely knowing how to write well. Plus, happiness and contentment doesn’t only come in the form of a paycheck.

5. Forever seeing typos, grammar errors, and poorly phrased sentences in publications.

Grammar and semantics isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, we realize. On the outside, we keep our cool; internally, we all correct the mistakes in our head so that, at least to us, it reads well.

6. Constantly being asked if we’re trying to get a job in journalism.

While the two majors do share some qualities, they’re very different in subject matter. Not everybody understands this subtle yet important difference, but we hope one day to show these people that Creative Writing is just as desirable and important of a major.

7. Writer’s block–an enemy to us all.

Possibly the worst feeling for a Creative Writing student is when we have to write something for class or a deadline and the only thing we can think about is that daunting white page staring at us through a flimsy screen. That little black cursor blinks at us mockingly, and the only remedy is to find the courage and inspiration to simply start typing.

Of course, Creative Writing isn’t all a struggle. It has its challenges, but we write because it’s an outlet, a way for us to release stress, share stories and experiences through characters, and to free our creative energy. Simply, writing is our mode of expression, and we’ll continue to try to capture the world through language even when our mission seems impossible.

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