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Lots of my students do a CW degree to have a structure to help them develop their (often uncertain) writing ambitions; so they can get support, feedback, a community; so they can learn & improve, & get confident. Seeing writers dunk on that is a bit grim.
Of course a CW degree is not a *requirement* for writing. But for some people, it's precisely what they need in order to nurture and develop their ambitions, hopes, talents.
Should CW degrees be sold as vocational degrees which guarantee a path to being published? Of course not. Should people's hopes be instrumentalised for fees? Of course not. Education should be free.
I didn't do a CW degree. I had a privileged education, and I already knew, because people had told me, that I could write. Before writing my first book, I knew, more or less, what I wanted to write; the question was exactly how, what form, would it work.
I had friends who were readers & writers; who I could talk about books with, to whom I could show my writing. I also had friends who worked in publishing. I had a network of sustenance & conversation. Many do not have any of that! A CW degree, a university, gives them that.
If you are able to write (& publish) without any of that support, good for you! If you aren't able to see the support that you have had, please look! And don't make sweeping generalisations about systems that some people *really need* in order to pursue their creative desires!
also, I want to add: I love teaching writing. I love working with people to figure out what they're trying to say and how. People have things they need to say, they have a language that needs articulating.
Seeing them respond to suggestions, to the things they read--things that are close to their aims, or wildly different--and expand into their own work, can be really exciting & lovely. This is what 'established' writers often already have with friends, partners, editors, agents.
It's also what 'established' writers need as they go on, too, & perhaps can take for granted. I have an agent, editors, friends, colleagues, a partner; a whole ongoing conversation in my life about ideas & books & what I'm trying to do. I need them all, often quite desperately!
Writers need community of some kind. A CW degree is not the only means to do that, of course; it's not the necessary way to get it, and for some it's not an option. But I'm very tired of the snobbery around CW learning and teaching.
