School of Creative Communication

Sarah Hart

Sarah Hart is one of our creative writing graduates. Hear what she has to say about her degree, how she can 'meet a mean deadline'.

'Writing my way out of a tight situation' by Sarah Hart

Did my Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing (majoring in Law) and Honours in Communications get me to this desk on the seventh floor of the Commonwealth and ACT Ombudsman’s Office working as an Acting Outreach Coordinator? Well, yes, in a roundabout, peripheral sort of way. Employers like it when you have a classy, Honours infested degree. So they give you a job, and then a better job, and then you get yourself an even better one, and start to pick and choose, and end up earning quite a large amount of money (well, compared to your Mum and Dad) for someone your age, and that’s all pretty sweet for someone who can’t do maths or work Excel. I personally put it all down to my ability to write my way out of a tight situation (a job application, for example), which is a skill I developed and refined during my studies in Professional Writing. So, yes, I’d have to say my degree helped get me where I am now.
However, I need to point something out straight away – I did not choose to do Professional Writing in order to Get A Job. It’s not that kind of field. I did it because my writing was all over the place and I wanted to get some literary discipline, and because I felt it was the best way to broaden, consolidate and make sense of my reading. I liked the opportunity the degree offered of combined law studies, because I am into justice and whatnot, and I also realised that if discipline was what my writing needed, the linguistic straight-jacket of the Law was probably the best place to find it (and it was). I loved the balance of literary studies and creative writing subjects, and the several opportunities the degree offered of getting involved in a big project and seeing it through to the end. The course was perfect for what I wanted.
However, I did pick up numerous vocational skills along the way, which have translated well into every job I’ve held since. I can speak publicly with confidence (courtesy of giving a million oral presentations and hosting a campus radio program). I can relate well to different cultural influences and media representations (courtesy of extensive directed reading, diverse student body and relevant subjects). I can communicate effectively in changing cultural, technological and team environments (thanks to my involvement in several extra-curricular projects, including editing FIRST for three years). And I can meet a mean deadline.
I find the writing I do in the public service fairly soul-destroying, but I am still proud of my ability to do it better than most of the people around me. This hubris deserts me the minute I sit down to work on writing of my own, but thanks to my studies at UC I have the resources to cope with the odd writer’s block moment (or day, or week, or month…), the rejections, the endless rewrites and the constant, sometimes intensely depressing, creative itch. And it’s leading places. I currently have a regular column in a widely distributed local glossy and do occasional book reviews and freelance journalism for different papers. My stories and related ramblings are slowly finding homes out in the world. I am more often happy with what I write, and I can feel big things waiting in the wings – and what’s more, I know that when I start to write them, I won’t be let down by my own lack of skill.
If you want to be a well-paid public servant, which is what I mostly am at the moment, I recommend any course with a decent communications component. If you want the option to be a well-paid public servant and a good writer, and you love reading and communication, but don’t quite know what to do with it, then do Professional Writing. It’s fantastic. Going to UC and doing the writing degree has led, almost directly, to me finding a means of expression which is going to sustain me creatively as long as I live, earning enough money to flit off overseas, getting the greatest bunch of like-minded friends ever, meeting the love of my life and developing an addiction to study that is almost definitely going to lead me down a PhD path someday. And I reckon that’s a pretty good list to come out of a mere four years of effort.