If I were an undergraduate today, I think I would not be working to become "a writer." On the contrary, I would be repulsed by the current literary world because of its emphasis on "self-promotion." All the current advice for establishing a career -- making websites and Facebook pages and tweets (which I call twits), doing readings and all the rest -- was not the advice I heard in the sixties at the beginning of my career.
The advice I heard was write as well as you can and get a job teaching because there is no market writing literature that will sustain you, never has been, never will be, which remains true. But you were not expected to make a living if you wrote literary novels. You were advised to make your living some other way.
This was perfectly fine because it was an accurate description of the world. Literature was not a commercial commodity. It was a mirror to the culture's soul. Writing this was a badge of honor. At best, you might get enough critical recognition to win some grants that could sustain you. (Indeed, through much of the 1980s, this late, I lived on grants.) The point is, your calling was not a commercial activity. Period, end of story.
How different today! Writers are told to become hucksters. This is what it amounts to. I find the advice repulsive and would run from it.
Today I'd probably become a math teacher and make free digital films on the side to satisfy my storytelling energies.
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