Creative Writing Seminar for Lit Students: Yea or Nay

[1Q84]

So I have the option of taking a creative writing seminar in my first semester (flash fiction!) along with two other required courses. My logic in registering for it is that I want to balance out rigorous, theoretical courses with something designed to flex my creative muscles, especially because I haven't been able to schedule time in my personal life for as much creative writing as I would like. I think it'll be good to have that balance in order to keep myself sane when I plunge into grad school after 5 years away from academia. It's actually the course I'm most excited about taking.

 

But now I'm having nagging doubts about it. Do you think some schools might look down on me seeing a creative writing seminar on my transcript? This isn't meant to belittle creative writing specialists; as I stated above, I have great love for the craft and practice. I'm more worried about what some schools might think about it. Will it look like a "bird course" or fluff on my transcript? I don't generally like to dictate my life based on what schools will think of me, but I also don't want to jeopardise my chances at a top tier program because of something avoidable like this.

 

Thanks!

[ProfLorax]

So I have the option of taking a creative writing seminar in my first semester (flash fiction!) along with two other required courses. My logic in registering for it is that I want to balance out rigorous, theoretical courses with something designed to flex my creative muscles, especially because I haven't been able to schedule time in my personal life for as much creative writing as I would like. I think it'll be good to have that balance in order to keep myself sane when I plunge into grad school after 5 years away from academia. It's actually the course I'm most excited about taking.

 

But now I'm having nagging doubts about it. Do you think some schools might look down on me seeing a creative writing seminar on my transcript? This isn't meant to belittle creative writing specialists; as I stated above, I have great love for the craft and practice. I'm more worried about what some schools might think about it. Will it look like a "bird course" or fluff on my transcript? I don't generally like to dictate my life based on what schools will think of me, but I also don't want to jeopardise my chances at a top tier program because of something avoidable like this.

 

Thanks!

 I think if we avoided opportunities that were outside of our realm of study, we'd all be pretty boring scholars! I definitely do not think this experience will hurt you; worst case scenario, it will have no impact on your future applications either way. Do it!

[1Q84]

I was hoping someone would say this! Thanks.

 

I mean my initial instinct is to just take it and make myself happy. But I know that there are harsher market realities out there too...

[ProfLorax]

No problem! Thinking about it, I realize that most of my favorite lit professors had creative interests outside of the classroom. The Americanist sang and performed opera. One professor was initially a Shakespearean actor before he was a Shakespearean scholar. Another early modernist professor plays guitar in Hawaiian music festivals. I honestly think that having an artistic pursuit outside of their field has made them even better scholars and teachers! 

[danieleWrites]

Well, I got my MA in poetry writing. I'm starting my PhD in literature in the fall. One of my LOR profs talked about professorship and broke it down into two categories: generalists and specialists. Big universities want specialists because they have a lot of faculty. Small universities want generalists because they don't have the budget for several tech writers, several creative writers, several linguistics, several comp/rhet, several Brit Lit, several Am Lit, and so on. I'm not on the hunt for a job (yet), so I don't know how accurate this is. However, it makes a lot of sense, logically speaking. That, and I watched two search committees hire people at my rinky dink U and they were both generalists. One is Brit Lit and one is Creative Writing, but the Brit Lit guy teaches tech writing and the CW guy teaches Am Lit.