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Originally Posted by Savage Clone

Staff positions are also incredibly rare, and almost all work in this area is freelance scrambling for chicken feed, especially if you want to write about music that is actually good.

well staff positions are rare but not as rare as palahniuk's career. gmku is also a staff writer in a university, no? i hadn't considered his advice for journalism school, that's another option that certainly makes sense. i have 2 friends who are journalists (my brother in law & another guy i know through him) & they both work at major newspapers doing actually pretty good (boston globe & ny times). dude #2 actually got an MFA in non-fiction writing & is working on a book. however-- they both spent years at shit newspapers & news agencies working night shifts and developing migraines before they landed their cushy jobs.

since the chances are so slim anyway, an education actually improves your chances to be taken seriously, negotiate a good salary, etc. yes everybody needs clips no doubt but knowledgeable writing gets your foot in the door a lot faster than amateurish prose. yes there are "naturals" who need no education, but those are the mozarts of the writing world, and usually have huge amounts of self-discipline to educate themselves while they write.