If you’re a keen writer, whether you are a published author or not, you will find great career satisfaction from becoming a lecturer in Creative Writing. By making this your professional goal, you would put yourself in a position of being able to give back to the writing community through the work you’ll do with the up-and-coming writers of the day. Also, you’d never have to worry about being out of work because, as this is such a specified profession, your services would always be sought after by institutions of higher education.

If the role of being a lecturer in Creative Writing sounds appealing to you, check out the advice on how to become one below.

Get your degrees

A degree in English allows you variety when it comes to applying for jobs. While English is not as niche as, say, a degree in medicine, an English degree depicts that you are well-read, great at communication, creative and are something of a wordsmith. A degree of any kind also shows that you are determined, passionate, organized and able to see something through.

First, you’d need to get yourself enrolled on a bachelor’s course in the subject of English as a whole — on such a course, you will get the chance to study everything from creative writing to literature. Once you have obtained your degree in this subject, you would then have to get yourself onto an MFA in Creative Writing program, such as that offered by SFC College. At this point in your journey, you’ll learn the specifics of not only what it takes to be a successful creative writer, but also how the subject is linked to the world of academia. Depending on the country that you live in, you may then need to get yourself a Ph.D. in the subject — in the U.S., an MFA is deemed enough.

Get published

You may not have had any work published in the past, but you’re going to have to in the future if you want to become a lecturer in Creative Writing. You have to get your work out there and into the public eye. Regardless of how many copies you sell of it, the idea is that you will be hired as a lecturer to impart knowledge to students about how to go about getting their work published, and they’re not going to believe you if you haven’t done it yourself.

Present at conferences

To make yourself stand out to employing university and college English departments, presenting at conferences and writing programs is very much advised, particularly at events that deal with one specific genre of writing. When you can prove your ability to talk confidently about not only the art of writing, but the genre that you are deemed to be an expert in, you will give the employing department cause to believe that the pressures of such high-level teaching will not see you leave a term into your first academic year.

If you have a particular proclivity for storytelling, whether you’ve previously been published as an author or not, you could find lecturing in Creative Writing to be your career calling. If you resolve to in fact make it your end goal with your career, make sure to remember all the advice that you’ve read above.