<p>I want to be a novelist and I need as much writing and reading practice as I can get in college. My interests are extremely wide, so I’m having a terrible time choosing a major.</p>
<p>What would you say the 3 most writing and reading intensive majors are? (liberal arts majors only, no journalism, creative writing, etc.)</p>
<p>I have (had) similar aspirations. I took creative writing for awhile, but stopped. I feel just a plain, vanilla-flavored English or rhetoric major would be sufficient, but also double major in something else that interests you (to give you knowlege of what to write about). Publishers do not take into account your education when they decide to buy your story or novel.</p>
<p>Also, I believe there is a fair amount of reading and writing in humanities… and that could also give you much knowlege that could be put into stories that people feel are interesting and want to read.</p>
<p>Major in history–you’ll never stop reading and writing. Ever.</p>
<p>I guess I’m not really looking for a major (I already have one, which requires little writing), but rather a jumble of courses that require a lot of writing. In fact, I think a broad liberal arts education is better than a second major for a novelist. I’m just not familiar with the other fields; for example, I don’t know if anthropology, linguistics, and political science courses have as much writing as philosophy and history. So thanks a lot for the input!</p>
<p>may i ask, what’s your major currently? </p>
<p>if you’re looking for courses, you might want to consider mythology courses. many novelists like to incorporate mythology into their novels. if anything, it’ll help you understand novels better. but history and philosophy wins for the reading and writing intensive.</p>
<p>Humanities might be the main area where you study mythology… and by studying mythology, you’re also studying history and psychology.</p>
<p>Take a range of history classes, take philosophy, take religion. Anthropology/sociology might be interesting, to study how humans interact. Take classes in things you’re interested in. I’m not quite sure why the writing component means so much to you, because you’ll be writing essays in just about every course that isn’t journalism or creative writing (p.s., those classes would help you, too). The most important thing I think would be reading and analyzing what you read, particularly literature since you want to write novels, but personal essays, autobiographies, biographies, histories, etc. will help you explore different styles and different ways of telling the story.</p>
<p>Are you witty? There’s a huge barely tapped niche in children’s writing, in the genre (is humorous adventure a genre?) that Brian Jacques writes in. His Redwall series is the absolute best children’s fiction around, according to my d who read everything written for kids. Her younger brother read and re-read the Redwall series for 2 years, thereabouts, from 4th to 6th grade or so, and his reading comprehension just leaped by several years (to graduating senior reading level when he was in 7th grade) as a result. So if you can write in this style, you would be doing a big public service 
to all parents and their kids if you would do so!</p>
<p>I love the Redwall books. I used to read them all day long in a recliner.</p>
<p>Definitely English, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, Humanities, and History majors.</p>
<p>^great! thanks! i’ll add them to my reading list. i still love kid’s books.</p>
<p>I’m doing an interdisciplinary major that requires philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities. Doesn’t get much more reading-, writing-, and thinking-heavy than that. :)</p>