Being a successful writer

Alot of successful writers went to universities such as harvard, or oxford or cambridge. Does this make you feel like you won't succeed in the litrary world, as in no one will take you seriously? It sure makes me feel that way! Are there any successful writers who maybe didnt go to such a prestigious uni or maybe didnt even go, i think this gives them more of an edge, as opposed to being institutionalised!

what do you think?

Are there any successful writers who maybe didnt go to such a prestigious uni or maybe didnt even go, i think this gives them more of an edge, as opposed to being institutionalised!

I agree. I think it gives them more of an edge because they didn't go to a university, too. If they didn't go to take classes, and their writing is above university standards, then they are REALLY good at what their doing. However, going to university doesn't hurt .

I don't think it matters where you go.

School only teaches you, but you can be a good writer no matter where you came from. Where you went to college doesn't influenced your writing, or how much you enjoy to write and want to succeed so it shouldn't matter.

There are several authors who never went to school or went to a "less prestigious" school. Writing can be a self taught art. I don't believe Fredrick Douglass went to school. Look at how far he got educating himself.

That's the good thing about writing (and art in general). You don't have to go to some fancy college to be successful. It can help, yes, but so can reading the classics and writing for yourself. That's what they're doing after all.

Don't worry yourself with all these people who went to Ivy League schools. If you truly have a gift for writing, it shouldn't matter. Good luck.

Ray Bradbury dropped out of high school.

smaur wrote: Ray Bradbury dropped out of high school.

He did?! Well, could've fooled me. Guess that shows that you don't always need to slave through the last four years of the mandatory education system to be successful after all.

Correction: He dropped out after high school. That wasn't very clear, sorry.

Life is a classroom. A writer with talent who takes what they do seriously will make it a point to educate themselves on an ongoing basis, classroom or no classroom.

There are things an editor is paid to fix. And then there's shoddy work done by someone who didn't care enough to educate themselves enough to fix it. Talent isn't something they can sell you in a classroom. On the other hand, classroom or no, talent doesn't equal knowledge by osmosis. Some things you need to know, whether or not you get a degree in it. But just because you don't get the degree, doesn't doom you to failure. Neither does having one promise you success.

Education is vital. Where and how you get it is not important, so long as it's an education in truth.

I think the general consensus with writers like this is that all great writers went to an ivy league school. This is so untrue though...and a lot of celebrities are this way too. Mostly you only hear about the ivy-league-school-goers because they are boasting about their schooling. The writers who didn't go to a very prestigious school or maybe didn't go at all are most likely not going to stand up and say "I am a highschool dropout". It would be bad publicity.

Gotta love the mass media.

Hmmm look at J.K Rowling not so succesfull before she started writing now was she... I'm not sure if she went to college but she didn't quite have a nice living. And as for the poets, I right now idolize my next door neighbour from Aruba she had a book published and well she just finished her high school, who knows what in store for her. Ah well I DO think you receive a better reputation as you evolve as being a writer if you've been to one of those University's