I don't know what it entails because I'm still in college. That said, I'm huge into creative writing and my dad (who has a masters in creative writing) said it is extremely worth doing.
English
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What does he do, or what did he do that was helped by his degree?
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It won't help with career, if that's what you mean, unless your goal is to become some kind of creative writer.
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Ideally. As I said in the OP, I've self-published some fiction, and I've got massive ambitions there. It's just a matter of either making it big with that (extremely improbable m, I'm aware), or putting my talents to productive and rewarding use elsewhere.
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You could do both. It's possible to devote your creative talents to 60% of the time earn a living from journalism, advertising etc. and then spend the other 40% on fiction, novels, short stories, etc.
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Indeed. The question is, how do I get into journalism and advertising?
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The same way you'd get into most jobs, I assume.
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Touche. I did a few bits of game journalism years ago, though only for freelance sites or friends. My biggest problem these days is that I rarely have any ideas for articles. Had one this year, and that's the first in a long time.
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I suppose if you were serious about earning a living from it you'd have to write the articles that need writing, even if they bore you, until one you actually have interest in comes along.
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Yeah, primarily news pieces, I guess, and hopefully stuff that would get me noticed by that circle of peers. I've sorely lacked motivation for many years now, unfortunately. :/ One thing I have done lately, and will be doing a few times in the near future, is editing literature. I have a few friends writing short stories and otherwise for fun or one day publication, and they're asking me to polish them up. I thoroughly enjoyed helping my French-Canadian friend with the first chapter of her story, and now I have some native-speakers asking for help with theirs. It's funny because I took a proof-reading course years ago, then - when the going got tough with tons and tons of practice work - I just lost all motivation. :/
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The best way to become motivated is to just write, I've found. Whenever I have a break from writing for whatever reason it's extremely difficult to get back into it, but when I force myself it just becomes habit again. I love editing almost as much as writing my own stuff, so if you think that'd be something you could get into it I'd definitely work towards it.