Working to feed your writing

With the recession still prevalent in students’ minds, arts degrees are receiving fewer applicants while science, business and IT soar in numbers.

People may have a love for poetry, novels, and plays, but there remains an ever-present fear of completing a degree that will result in unemployment.

Parents recommend studying for  a ‘serious’ degree and as a result students are often too afraid to follow their dreams when it comes to selecting a college course. After all, is university not the first step on the path most people follow when deciding on a career?

Speaking recently at the 'Write Here, Write Now' awards ceremony at The Mansion House in Dublin, Irish author Lia Mills said the study of subjects other than literature does not have to be a negative thing. Mills said it can be hard to make a living as an author and even if you are a full-time professional writer, you may still need another job to supplement your income.

Not only can having another job or a degree in another area provide financial certainty, it will also allow you the freedom to live and explore different aspects of life.

“The work that you do will feed your writing,” she said.

“It means you’re in the world, you’re doing things, you’re getting to know things, you’re around other people and you’re understanding how the world changes. So your work feeds your writing and your writing feeds your work,” she said.

This doesn’t mean that literature is a dying art or that it has become less important in the life of Irish citizens.

In fact, you don’t need to study English, arts or literature in university in order to pursue a career in it. Books can be written between classes and poems can be crafted at lunch or dinner time.You can educate yourself in the world of writing and you can hone your creativity in your own time rather than in a class room or lecture hall setting.

For anyone who questions the relevance of literature in modern Ireland, deputy librarian for Dublin Brendan Teeling told those gathered at the same event of the appetite that still exists for the written word:  “Literature, by which I mean the writing, publishing and reading of literature, remains a huge part of the cultural life of Ireland.”

“In Dublin, for example, we welcome over 2 and a half million visitors to our libraries every year and those visitors borrow around 2.8 million books,” he said.

The 2010 designation of Dublin as a Unesco City of Literature encourages and promotes young writers but Teeling believes the project is about more than just promoting the city’s historic writers.

It is also about the modern, contemporary writers who need to write dangerously in order to maintain a city that is so rich in writing.

In the last six years Dublin has hosted festivals such as ‘One Book, One City’ and has helped run competitions such as the Hot Press ‘Write Here, Write Now’ competition.

There are plenty of opportunities for budding writers to promote their work.

So when you’re considering what degree to study don’t rule out pursuing a career in writing outside of the course you choose to undertake.

There is obviously still a profound adoration and respect for all things literature present in Ireland and young minds definitely have a large role in that.