Nooks, Crannies, and Niches

Whether or not writing degrees are worth the time or the money is a question for the ages. Some say the degrees are arbitrary and do nothing to improve your writing. Others claim that sycophancy is so rampant, you can only get good grades if you suck up to the professor. However, the primary argument I've read over and over against a writing degree is that it bland-izes your writing. On this, I agree completely.

Now, back up for a sec so I can voice my adamant support of writing programs in general. My writing has improved dramatically between the start and finish of my writing degree, and I give the college complete credit, but there's no denying that it's given me a bit of a complex.

Along with many other fledgling writers with B.A.s, I find it hard to accept that I want to write genre fiction. I've had it subtly, but constantly enforced that literary fiction is the only noble kind of writing. If you want to be a writer, you have to have a style, voice, and message so singular that it'll never be satisfying to be a "genre" writer.

I think the issues with this are pretty obvious. Everyone has different ideas about what makes good fiction - not only the gatekeepers in publishing and academia. Unfortunately, it's only the stuff vetted by ancient scholars and snooty award judges that makes it to the higher echelons of learning. Because of this, I've grown a weird inferiority complex about my writing. The things I write just don't seem good enough.

Then I remind myself that I live in the real world. I live in the world where genre fiction reaches thousands of people very day. I live in the world in which the internet lets authors reach very particular niches through self publishing. I'm not entirely free, but I'm working on accepting myself and the fiction I want to write. I'm no longer afraid of grabbing at crazy specific plots, and hybrid genres. 

It's all good here on the internet, and there's plenty of room to live outside of the box. I just have to keep reminding myself.