I was wondering what would be the best major for my preferred career choices. Ideally, I want to be a writer. Broad term, I know, but I have various interests in mind. I want to be an author, a screenwriter for television, movies, and video games, and journalist. I have been a English major since I started college two years ago. I am in my third year of college and wanted advise on what are my best options. I’ve considered staying with English as my major and minoring in something like philosophy or anthropology, both of which I love. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
Well, first of all, if you are already a college junior changing your major may extend your time to degree.
There’s no one best major for writing; English is a great start because it is a major in which you write a lot and get lots of feedback on your writing. If you want to write fiction, especially, English majors spend a lot of time discussing literature and the tried and true tropes and techniques. But there are other majors in which you can write a lot and receive that feedback: philosophy and anthropology are both fields that allow you to do that. Anthropology also allows you to study culture and human interaction, which can be interesting perspectives to have as a writer.
But a lot of writers don’t major in a writing-intensive major and still find success. They write what they know. For example, John Grisham was an accounting major in college; he went to law school and practiced criminal law for years before becoming an author who writes legal thrillers. Sandeep Jauhar has written two bestselling nonfiction books about the medical field - unsurprising, as he has an MD. The journalist David Brooks majored in history; Fareed Zakaria has a PhD in government; Thomas Friedman (another journalist) majored in Mediterranean studies and studied Middle Eastern studies on the graduate level. Joseph Staten, a writer who wrote scripts and dialogue for the Halo franchise, majored in communications and international studies. Screenwriters have all kinds of majors.
The most important to enter the field is evidence that you can write. Journalists submit examples of their work when applying for jobs; authors have to submit at least excerpts of a manuscript if not a draft of the entire thing. Same with screenwriting. Your major doesn’t matter so much as your talent.
It’s highly desirable to learn area(s) to write about, as well as how to write well. The markets for writers seem to correspond to the fields that are “hot” (for instance, computer stuff). It will be helpful to learn one or more disciplines that people want written about (do some coursework in it/them perhaps).
Also, the field of marketing (selling somebody’s services or products) not only is hot, but especially needs writers. I noticed when looking at writers’ resumes on Indeed.com that some of the people had undergraduate education in marketing. (Many had English or journalism degrees and many didn’t have that, but rather had degrees in a technical field.) It would be helpful to learn marketing (a course or two perhaps).
As far as “author, a screenwriter for television, movies, and video games, and journalist”, please be aware of Bureau of Labor Statistics’ low job projections for those (http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm), except technical author (and assuming books are meant by “author”).
Think about other things you like and have a backup plan. Unfortunately, a lot of authors don’t make it professionally or they can’t live solely on the money they get from being published. And if you want to go into traditional publishing, you kind of have to get a job unless you have a steady source of income from something else (parents, spouse, etc). It takes months for literary agents to respond, and another few months for a publisher to respond. Then, you have to wait two years for your book to actually get published, go through editing, etc.
I think that business is a good major, or business classes, because publishing is…a business, when it comes down to it. Depending on what type of genre(s) you want to write, a philosophy class might be helpful as well.
Best of luck!