Some Good Reading for Writers

Post-Medium Publishing
by Paul Graham

Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that consumers won't pay for content anymore. At least, that's how they see it.

In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either.

Read the rest of this provocative essay at


http://www.paulgraham.com/publishing.html

Writing Fast Equals Writing Better
by Dean Wesley Smith

I received a number of responses about my last blog here about being a ghost writer. And almost every one of the letters to me mentioned an off-hand comment I made about being able to write a book under three weeks to be a good ghost writer. To be honest, that being odd just didn’t cross my mind.

So, the fine folks who run this blog thought it might be a good idea if I stuck my foot in it again and talked about how to write a book in under three weeks. Or under two weeks. Or even under one week.

Take a deep breath and stop laughing. You actually could do a full novel in a week if you needed to and I’ll show you how. And it just might turn out to be one of your best novels, and I’ll explain why also. ...

Read the rest at:

http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/meet-dean-wesley-smith

100 Most Beautiful Words
A scintillating, quintessential elixir

This felicitous list can be a bit esoteric, but in the end it's an exuberant and mellifluous efflorescence of language. See if you agree with the words that were judged most beautiful by "Dr.
Goodword" at alphaDictionary.com. Happy peregrinations...


http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/100_most_beautiful_words.html

Funny Publisher's Glossary

If you take this seriously, you're in big trouble--but if you don't, you're in even bigger trouble.


http://www.rightreading.com/publishing/publishing-glossary.htm

Why Keep On Journaling?

Francis, one of my graduates writes to ask a question that many want answered:

Dear Jerry,
In PSL and then again in Becoming a Technical Leader, you challenged me to write in a Journal. BATLe suggests 5 minutes a day for 3 months.

I decided to give it a try and here is what has happened so far,

For the first 2+ weeks, I mostly recorded highlights of what has happened or what I was hoping to do in the coming day. One thing stood out for me so far. Most days have a mix of good things and bad things and the writing helped me not forget the good things. However, aside from that, I began to feel that I really was not getting much out of it and was giving up a valuable 5 minutes of reading time (Some days the 5 mins was my reading time!)

I went back to my PSL notes and found the idea of recording the things I've tried and why and decided I would try that. It didn't work for me because then I felt forced to think of something, drew a blank and ended up not writing anything for 6 days. This was compounded by my getting a cold and feeling down about my work situation (Yesterday my boss confirmed that my position is being eliminated. I can interview for another opening but won't know the result until the end of October.) There is probably an analogy to overeating when depressed. It seems harder to be disciplined when I feel emotionally weak.

Anyway, I started writing again today but have come up with some questions:

Am I just being impatient? Based on your experience, should I give the full 3 months before I expect to see the benefits?

Should journaling about "I tried X because of Y" be done more as a collected stone when you think of it instead of a regular set aside writing time? What is the goal? Do I understand it right that self awareness is the main one? How would you compare writing to meditation for that? My sense is that there might be numerous kinds of self awareness.

I would appreciate your insight.

Jerry's Reply

Here's some things to think about, possibly to write your thoughts about in your "five minutes a day."

1. You can't schedule inspiration. The 5 minutes is not to be taken literally, but as something minimal to get you to take out the journal every day. It could be one minuted Or one word, minimum.

2.For the first 2+ weeks, I mostly recorded highlights of what has happened or what I was hoping to do in the coming day. One thing stood out for me so far. Most days have a mix of good things and bad things and the writing helped me not forget the good things. However, aside from that, I began to feel that I really was not getting much out of it and was giving up a valuable 5 minutes of reading time (Some days the 5 mins was my reading time!)

But why have you budgeted merely 5 min/day "reading time"? That's seems to me the most important question raised by this experiment. Write about that for a while.

3. I went back to my PSL notes and found the idea of recording the things I've tried and why and decided I would try that. It didn't work for me because then I felt forced to think of something, drew a blank and ended up not writing anything for 6 days. This was compounded by my getting a cold and feeling down about my work situation (Yesterday my boss confirmed that my position is being eliminated. I can interview for another opening but won't know the result until the end of October.) There is probably an analogy to overeating when depressed. It seems harder to be disciplined when I feel emotionally weak.

Of course it's more difficult. Write that thought in your journal and devote your five minutes to writing about that and how you can make it easier.

4. And perhaps you could write about why you're so passively accepting having to wait until October to do anything about losing your job.

5. Anyway, I started writing again today but have come up with some questions: Am I just being impatient? Based on your experience, should I give the full 3 months before I expect to see the benefits? Should journaling about "I tried X because of Y" be done more as a collected stone when you think of it instead of a regular set aside writing time? What is the goal? Do I understand it right that self awareness is the main one? How would you compare writing to meditation for that? My sense is that there might be numerous kinds of self awareness.

Look at your list of questions in the previous paragraph. They are all journal subjects, current things you need to learn about. They will be more relevant to you than 5 minutes reading some trade journal or newspaper or book. That's true of all these puzzles.

6. And why write rather than simply meditate? (Remember that one doesn't exclude the other.) Meditation puts you into the here and now--what you're currently struggling with. Writing can do that, too, but also gives you a record of your patterns, which allows you to work on longer term stuff, like "Oh, I've done this before. Why am I repeating? Do I want to try something different?

[By happenstance, I've been looking through some of my past journals (good thing to do when you're sick). The page is open to July 31, 1986 (23 years ago) and one observation stands out for me, as I'm facing a long hard recovery process from kidney cancer and other ailments:

"(in advance of hard work) When you get some new information, will you be open to *considering* it, even though it may contradict other things, and knowing that I don't have to accept it in the end?"]

Seems a valuable thing for me to remember, 23 years a later (as well as being valuable to you, in your situation). That's the kind of thing a journal does for me: brings my own wisdom about myself forward to me, many years, or days, later, when it may be more timely.

Does this help?

Francis Replies

Thank you, that is very helpful!

Here's some things to think about, possibly to write your thoughts about in your "five minutes a day."

I will do that and see what happens. One thing that I really noticed from watching you was that you seemed both self aware and able to articulate your awareness very clearly. Those are both things that I aspire to beyond where I am right now. That is what drew me to try writing in a journal in the first place. Your challenge in BATLe was what got me doing it.

1. You can't schedule inspiration. The 5 minutes is not to be taken literally, but as something minimal to get you to take out the journal every day. It could be one minuted Or one word, minimum.

Thank you for the clarification. I was using the journal I got from PSL to write either in the morning before work or at night before going to sleep. During the day, if I'm in front of a computer, I've been typing notes into Evernote if I am "inspired". I also use Evernote to paste in interesting things that I find. I have many categories and I also have a Collected Stone category for just thoughts I want to save for future review or writing ideas saved for some day. If I am away from a computer, I usually just save a voice recording into my mobile phone and later either add it as an action to MLO or a note in Evernote. Sometimes, I use index cards and transcribe in a similar way.

I usually prefer to type because sometimes, I can't read my own handwriting, but I have been using the journal for mornings or evenings first as part of the experiment, but also because I heard that there are benefits to writing by hand (I think it was from Andy Hunt's *Refactoring your Wetware*) Hey! I just recorded an "I tried X because of Y!".

But why have you budgeted merely 5 min/day "reading time"? That's seems to me the most important question raised by this experiment. Write about that for a while.

OK, I will.

The short answer is that it's not easy for me to fit it all in:

1. Time with family
2. Normal household stuff
3. My regular job
4. Cub Scout Den Leader
5. Regular exercise (swimming, running mostly)
6. Sleep
7. Making time to meditate, stretch, read, write

I am not where I want to be with the items on line 7 but I am making progress there and the other items are doing fine at the moment. That was not always true. Overall, I'm getting better.

It seems harder to be disciplined when I feel emotionally weak.

Of course it's more difficult. Write that thought in your journal and devote your five minutes to writing about that and how you can make it easier.

Right. Will do. You make it seem so obvious! Why didn't I think of that? Are you sure your passion is not "Helping smart people to realize how stupid they really are."?

4. And perhaps you could write about why you're so passively accepting having to wait until October to do anything about losing your job.

Hey! Who said I was passively accepting...? I plan on working hard to do well at the interview. I believe that my chances are good, it's just stressful for me to be in limbo. I will continue to do some networking to see if other options surface. And maybe more importantly, I plan on spending time thinking about what I most want to do. I'll even write about it!

Anyway, I started writing again today but have come up with some questions: Am I just being impatient? Based on your experience, should I give the full 3 months before I expect to see the benefits? Should journaling about "I tried X because of Y" be done more as a collected stone when you think of it instead of a regular set aside writing time? What is the goal? Do I understand it right that self awareness is the main one? How would you compare writing to meditation for that? My sense is that there might be numerous kinds of self awareness.

Look at this list of questions. They are all journal subjects, current things you need to learn about. They will be more relevant to you than 5 minutes reading some trade journal or newspaper or book. That's true of all these puzzles.

I've been asking these questions in my journal. If I understand you, I could try to put more effort in answering them in the journal while I'm at it. If I get stuck, I can write that I'm stuck. Maybe when I review later, other answers will come to me.

And why write rather than simply meditate? (One doesn't exclude the other.) Meditation puts you into the here and now--what you're currently struggling with. Writing can do that, too, but also gives you a record of your patterns, which allows you to work on longer term stuff, like "Oh, I've done this before. What's repeating? Do I want to try something different?

I do struggle with staying in the here and now.

I also see how I have not given this enough time to see any real patterns.

BTW, you said you were "facing a long hard recovery process from kidney cancer and other ailments," but last I heard, you said that the cancer is gone. How is your recovery going? Long and hard are the strongest words I remember you using for yourself. The journal entry you revisited said:

"When you get some new information, will you be open to considering it, even though it may contradict other things, and knowing that I don't have to accept it in the end?"

This seems to touch on both self-blindness (Do I even see the new information in the first place?) and No-Problem Syndrome ("Will I consider the implications of this information when I think I really know what I'm doing?").

I wonder if these questions are the Windex to avoid cloudy judgment? If so, what is the paper towel? How do you know when your judgment is clear? This led me down a whole line of thought. Thanks!

Seems a valuable thing for me to remember, 23 years later (as well as being valuable to you, in your situation. That's the kind of thing a journal does for me: brings my own wisdom about myself forward to me, many years, or days, later, when it may be more timely.

Does this help?

It really does. Thank you!

I'll let you know how it goes.

The Next Exchange (Francis [italics] replies to Jerry's reply)

I really do appreciate (you for) your encouragement! I will take it to heart.

I've been thinking of writing as a "separate" activity and I get your point about making it more a part of the other things I am doing.

1. Time with family
Try a five-minute family writing practice.

2. Normal household stuff
3. My regular job

4. Cub Scout Den Leader
I used to do that. Have the Cubs write something about Cub Scouts at each den meeting.

5. Regular exercise (swimming, running mostly)
I used to take a scuba note slate to the pool. Now that I no longer swim, I keep mine by the shower. Water gives me lots of thoughts.

6. Sleep
Keep your journal by the bed, for when you awaken with an idea.

7. Making time to meditate, stretch, read, write

I am not where I want to be with the items on line 7 but I am making progress there and the other items are doing fine at the moment. That was not always true. Overall, I'm getting better.

Jerry, are you sure your passion is not "Helping smart people to realize how stupid they really are."?

I don't see it that way. It's just that smart people from time to time don't take the time to use their smarts. Writing and other forms of meditation help them change these habits.

I'm sorry. That was my poor attempt at humor. I really get that you are being helpful and that your suggestions will help me understand my habits in the first place and give me the opportunity to choose to change them.

So be in writing, rather than in limbo. The record will help next time you think you're in limbo.

That's the thing. I really do see a connection with actively responding to my circumstance as being an effective way to avoid bogging down in worry. Sometimes though I still feel the impact of underlying fear beyond what I think is constructive even when I'm trying to keep a positive perspective.

Your exercise about tracking the ups and downs of my work history also helped give me perspective and I'm sure there is more to write about there....

Why not a cloth?

Sure, I don't see why not. Some materials can streak on glass, but the new microfiber ones work pretty well. I think I was figuring that "paper towel" might appeal more to the senses.

How do you know when your judgment is clear?

You don't, not right away. But in your journal, you have a record you can study over time.

I buy that. I also have a sense that it's relative. Sometimes, maybe when I'm finally ready, I'll discover schmutz that was there all along, even when I thought my judgment was already clear. It's like when you've been driving by day for a long time and everything is clear. Then one night you discover all kinds of glare from headlights due to a thin layer of buildup on the inside of the windshield. Of course that makes you want to clean it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Excellent. I look forward to hearing.

Now I've got to!

Thank you for showing interest. I feel a little better already...

Francis

Saving Ink with Ecofont

Pati Nagle writes as a guest blogger:

As all writers know, the amount of paper and ink we consume is startling. A Dutch creative communications company has now released the Ecofont, which uses up to 20% less ink. It's done by making holes in the normally solid strokes of the letters. Example:



Using less ink means changing your toner cartridges less often. It's also better for the environment, which is the whole idea.

The font is a free download from this site: http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

Jerry comments:

What a terrific idea, terrific because it's so obvious--after you've seen it.

Terrific because it can be applied in an obvious way with almost any popular font, once someone takes the trouble to do it.

Terrific because it's good for the environment in which we live.

Terrific because it saves money for us starving writers.

And speaking of starving writers, this blog would welcome other guest contributions on how to help us eat steak (or tofu) instead of cat food.

FINDING YOUR VOICE

By Terry Hayman, Guest Blogger

If there's one thing that almost every editor on a panel at a conference will claim they look for, it's voice. Specifically, they want to hear a distinctive, fresh new "voice" coming out of the manuscript they've just picked up from their slush pile. If it's got the voice, maybe they can fix the rest.

What is voice, exactly, someone in the audience always asks. And the more experienced editors (who've fielded this questions dozens of times before) will talk about an author's world view, their life experience, their word choices and sentence structures, the things that just happen when the author writes, that he or she really has little control over.

Used to drive me insane. Why?

Well, the message seemed to be - you can't develop a good voice. You either got it and editors snap it up (which happens, maddeningly enough, with some first-shot-out-of-the-gate novelists), or you don't.

This gets driven home when editors bring up, inevitably, Stephen King. Look, they say. If someone reads you a passage out of any of King's books, you know it's King. His voice is just that distinctive.

Now I know for damn sure that my writing voice isn't Stephen King distinctive. It's been called "commercial" and "spare" but I doubt even my mother could pick my prose out of a pile of stuff by other authors if she only had a brief passage to go by.

And yet...

About midway through last year, I finally started to recognize my own voice. It came when I recognized that, for all the different genres and story types I've written and sold over the years, my stories tended to bend in certain directions and take on certain tones. For short stories, I could generally carry a cynical, humorous, pompous, genteel, you-name-it tone from start to finish. But give me a longer work and it all became...me.

That is, I might love to read complex character analyses or tongue-in-cheek humor, but it's not generally how I approach the world. I tend to see it as made up of a never-ending struggle between good and evil, love and hate, hope and despair, and it's never an easy thing for the good to win out. Ever. Yet it usually still does in my stories. After a lot of pain and sweat and damage, my characters usually come out affirming family, love, hope, truth. Straight-up. I just don't do cynicism well.

What did this realization mean for my writing?

Only this - choices about what to write about got easier. I went to a workshop where we were all assigned a story to write about the trouble with heroes. About a third (?) of them would be slotted into a paying anthology produced by Tekno Books. The pressure was on. First thing that came to mind were the sort of comic hero-bashing tales that stand fairy tales on their heads. And from the talented group of writers I was with, we got some wonderfully original ones along those lines. As I knew we would. And I knew they'd all be better than anything I'd come up with in that vein.

So I instead wrote a kind of quiet, intense little domestic drama that felt real and personally scary to me. No humor at all. (Except in the actual writing of the thing which had me sticking my head into the still-buzzing workshop common room at 1:30 am and crying "Help me! I'm violating every copyright law in the book!")

My humorless little story (with copyright issues fixed) made the final cut. Not necessarily because of my voice, but maybe because at least I wasn't strangling it.

And who know, maybe someday someone will point out how you can just read a few pages of this particularly humorless, intense guy and just know who it is...

Grant-writing Advice

There are many small grants (and some, not so small) available to fledgling writers (and some not so fledgling). One of my correspondents wrote the following question about a grant application:

The Question:

I'm asking advice. As some of you know, I'm a highly qualified, employed professional, so I have extensive educational experience and a few academic publications/presentations. My question is, would you downplay this on a grant app for writing because they might call you a rich professional and turn down your grant?

Jerry's Answer:

It is worth considering. Here's our experience:

When Dani applied for a grant to support her doctoral fieldwork in anthropology, she was awarded the grant--but it was a "dry grant."

What? You never heard of "dry grants"?

Dry grants give you the honor, but not the money.

Their "reasoning": "Her husband has a job, so she doesn't need the money."

That was many years ago, but there are still granters who think that way.

"Downplay" might be the way to go. You're a creative writer, so perhaps something like, "I can't afford to lose a week's pay unless I can get some financial support."

You might also point out that you have a child, so you have extra expenses and can't work extra hours or moonlight to earn more money. You are, after all, begging for money, so you have to have a tear-jerker story of some kind.

And good, good luck,

Another correspondent, Cindie Geddes, replied:

I've gotten a few grants for classes/workshop/etc and I pretty much just don't mention my day job (freelancer writer) unless I have to. I just explain that I'm an artist applying for an arts grant and then explain why the class/workshop/etc. is not only good for me, my craft and career aspirations but also that it's good for the community (simply because I'm willing to pass whatever I learn onto other writers) because that's what is important to this arts council. But this is Nevada, and arts grants like these are pretty easy to get. So long as you can show how and why it will help your artistic goals, the committee is not overly concerned with your finances. Most arts organizations have a mission of supporting artists, not saving them money, so that needs to be the focus of the application.

That said, I guess my advice would be

1) Don't put what you do in your day job unless they ask.

2) Give them exactly what they want on the grant application (perusing their web site to see their mission statement will help).

3) And one more tip: Most applications will ask for a budget for the workshop you are asking for help paying for. Always show all the costs of the trip, not just what they will cover. Here, they give up to $1,000 (I think it's still that), but I show all the costs of the trip anyway, so they can see I am willing to pay for quite a bit myself. Include air travel or mileage, meals, registration fees, paper, toner, books you need to read--anything you can. So if you show that the trip is going to cost $2000 and you're only asking for $1000, you are showing your commitment and not coming off as just another artist with her hand out.

And good luck!

A List of Granting Agencies

Later, Cindie wrote:

Here's the list of grants organizations I mentioned, starting with my local sources:

*Subject:* Commission/Granting/Residency resources

I'm grateful to Michael Ogilvie, who compiled a list of Commission granting and residency resources – see below*

Michael Ogilvie

City of Las Vegas

Office of Cultural Affairs

401 South Fourth Street

Las Vegas, NV 89101

(702) 229-5256

http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/lvac

http://www.lvartscommission.com/


*Commission/Granting/Residency resources*

*INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL, AND REGIONAL:*
http://www.nyfa.org/

http://www.nea.gov/

http://www.artsusa.org/

http://www.artistresource.org/

http://www.artcalendar.com/home.asp

http://www.getty.edu/grants/index.html

http://nasaa-arts.org/

http://www.zpub.com/public/

http://www.fundsnetservices.com/arts01.htm

http://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-001818

http://www.collegeart.org/opportunities/type/1/

http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/arts/

http://xericfoundation.org/

http://www.artheals.org/artist_support/grants.php

http://www.antiquesatoz.com/artatoz/grant.htm

http://www.burningman.com/installations/art_guidelines.html

http://www.midatlanticarts.org

http://www.cranbrookart.edu/library/research/grants.htm

http://www.watershedceramics.org/residency.php

http://www.pkf.org/

http://www.warholfoundation.org/

http://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/

http://www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/grantlist.html

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ForGrantSeekers/

http://www.lannan.org/lf/about/funding-areas/

http://www.frenchculture.org/

http://www.bunka.go.jp/english/index.html

http://www.asianculturalcouncil.org/programs.html

http://www.jusfc.gov/index.asp

http://www.toyotafound.or.jp/english/

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/csr/soc/activity.html

http://www.saison.or.jp/english/application/04.html

http://indianembassy.ru/cms/index.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=470

http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts.htm

http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/5139

http://www.oakfnd.org/

http://www.danisharts.info/20c000c

http://www.iro.hr/hr/info-servis/akademski-infoservis/obrazovni-programi/view-info-1354/

http://www.danishvisualarts.info/515000c

http://www.cultureireland.gov.ie/grants/applying.html

http://www.blakemorefoundation.org/art.htm

http://www.writersofthefuture.com/

http://www.nfaa.org/

http://www.judithrothschildfdn.org/index.html

http://web.mac.com/marciareidmarsted/Capelli_dAngeli_Foundation_Site/____2008-2009_Grant_Application.html

http://www.hluce.org/aagrants.aspx

http://www.lannan.org/lf/art/grants/view-all/

http://www.terraamericanart.org/exhibitions/index.asp?key=32&year=2008



Alabama

http://www.arts.state.al.us/council/index-council.html

http://www.cranbrookart.edu/library/research/grants.htm


Alaska

http://www.eed.state.ak.us/aksca/

http://alaska.cgweb.org/

http://www.jahc.org/grant.php

http://www.atwoodfoundation.org/grants.html


Arizona

http://www.azarts.gov/

http://www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org/

http://www.westvalleyarts.org/about/contact.html

http://www.sccarts.org/


Arkansas

http://www.arkansasarts.com/opportunities/


California

http://www.cac.ca.gov/?id=100

http://www.cac.ca.gov/othergrants/

http://www.culturecalifornia.com/culturecalifornia/about.asp

http://eldoradoartscouncil.org/

http://www.artscouncil.org/grants/

http://www.marinarts.org/html/apply_for_a_grant.htm

http://www.kernarts.org/stories/storyReader$470

http://www.artspca.org/grants.htm

http://www.getty.edu/grants/index.html

http://artleagueofnortherncalifornia.org/index.html

http://www.stocktongov.com/arts/SAC/index.cfm

http://www.city.newport-beach.ca.us/artsculture/arts&culture.asp

http://lacountyarts.co.la.ca.us/

http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.asp?nid=104

http://www.sbartscommission.org/about.html

http://www.sfartscommission.org/

http://www.plumasarts.com/

http://www.ci.brentwood.ca.us/boards/artcomm/art.cfm

http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/pr/ac/ac.html

http://pvarts.org/

http://www.chico.ca.us/Arts_Commission/Home_Page.asp

http://www.lagunabeachcity.net/arts/commission/ordinance2.23.htm

http://www.acgov.org/arts/html/home.html

http://www.artshare.org/

http://www.eureka-art-culture.com/

http://www.sandiego.gov/arts-culture/index.shtml


Colorado

http://www.coloarts.state.co.us/

http://www.coloradolinks.net/Colorado_Arts_Organizations.htm

http://www.colofolkarts.org/

http://www.adolphcoors.org/index.html


Connecticut

http://www.cultureandtourism.org/cct/site/default.asp

http://www.tremainefoundation.org/Default.asp

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&q=320834

http://www.artsnwct.org/newsletter_detail.php?ID=13&mo=7&yr=2007


Delaware

http://www.artsdel.org/

http://artsci.case.edu/hba/doku.php?id=public:fellowships


Florida

http://www.florida-arts.org/grants/

http://www.flheritage.com/grants/

http://www.pinellasarts.org/

http://www.keysarts.com/new_site/pages/grants.html

http://www.sarasota-arts.org/grant_programs.cfm

http://www.artcentersf.org/

http://www.filminflorida.com/ifi/g.asp

http://www.moneymatters101.com/grants/florida.asp

http://www.knightfoundation.org/grants/



Georgia

http://www.gaarts.org/

http://www.maconarts.org/grantsFunding.htm

http://www.romearts.org/artsresources/georgiaartsresources.html

http://www.uga.edu/gamuseum/collections/seagrant.html

http://www.georgiahumanities.org/grantmaking/info.html



Hawaii

http://hawaii.gov/sfca/



Idaho

http://www.arts.idaho.gov/grants/indoverview.aspx



Illinois

http://www.state.il.us/agency/iac/

http://artscouncil.uchicago.edu/



Indiana

http://www.publicartindianapolis.org/

http://www.artswin.evansville.net/grants.htm



Iowa

http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/funding/artist-project-grant/index.shtml


Kansas


Kentucky

http://artscouncil.ky.gov/guide/prog4/fa_gdl.html


Louisiana

http://www.crt.state.la.us/arts/

http://www.artscouncilofneworleans.org/index.php?topic=grants.generalinfo


Maine

http://mainearts.maine.gov/artists/fellowships/index.shtml


Maryland

http://www.msac.org

http://www.mdhc.org/

http://www.wdchumanities.org

http://dcarts.dc.gov


Massachusetts

http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/

http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/programs/lotgrant/index.html


Michigan

http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-18833_18834-57660--,00.html


Missouri

http://missouriartscouncil.org/


Mississippi

http://www.arts.state.ms.us/grants/for-individuals.php

http://www.jacksonartscouncil.org/home.html


Minnesota

http://www.arts.state.mn.us/grants/artist_initiative.htm

http://www.plrac.org/grants.html

http://www.nwrdc.org/artsgrants.htm

Montana

http://art.mt.gov/artists/artists.asp

Nebraska

http://www.arts.nebraska.gov/index_html?page=content/GRANTS
/Categories/CatGrants.htm
www.nebraskahumanities.org

http://www.bemiscenter.org/about_us/index.html

Nevada

www.lvartscommission.com

http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/arts/


New Hampshire

http://www.nh.gov/nharts/grants/index.htm


New Jersey

http://www.njartscouncil.org/


New Mexico

http://www.nmarts.org/

http://www.rair.org/


New York

http://www.artsrochester.org/artscouncil/cag.htm

http://www.artscouncilofrockland.org/


North Carolina

http://www.ncarts.org/

http://www.intothearts.org/grants/available.asp

http://www.theartscouncil.com/index.shtml

http://www.darearts.org/grants.cfm

http://www.uacgreensboro.org/grants/index.html


North Dakota

http://www.nd.gov/arts/grants/grants.htm


Ohio

http://www.oac.state.oh.us/grantsprogs/

http://www.orbi.org/

http://www.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/ohio_arts_council_grants.html


Oklahoma

http://www.arts.ok.gov/grants.html


Oregon

http://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/commission_grant_programs.php

http://www.racc.org/


Pennsylvania

http://www.pacouncilonthearts.org/

http://www.philaculture.org/about/pressarchive/09.21.07_5CAF.htm


Rhode Island

http://www.arts.ri.gov/grants/index.php


South Carolina


South Dakota

http://www.artscouncil.sd.gov/grants.htm


Tennessee

http://www.arts.state.tn.us/grant_categories.htm

http://www.jacksonartscouncil.tn.org/


Texas

http://www.arts.state.tx.us/

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/redevelopment/cad.htm


Utah

http://arts.utah.gov/funding/artists_grant/index.html


Vermont

http://www.vermontartscouncil.org/Default.aspx?tabid=212


Virginia

http://www.arts.state.va.us

http://www.virginia.edu/vfh


Washington

http://www.arts.wa.gov/

http://www.artisttrust.org/grants


West Virginia

http://www.wvculture.org/arts


Wisconsin

http://www.newartscouncil.org/index.htm

http://arts.state.wi.us/static/programs.htm


Wyoming

http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/WACGrants2006.htm


*GUIDES TO GRANT WRITING:*
http://writingfiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/applying_for_state_art_grants
http://www.npguides.org/

http://www.svsu.edu/sponsoredprograms/grant-writing-services-guides.html
http://www.mcdaniel.edu/3891.htm

A Final Word

There are so many possible grants that grant-writing itself becomes a danger. As another correspondent writes:

"Also, put a fence around the time you spend on grants, market research, submissions, and the rest of the office work. You're probably a lot like me. The office busywork will be easy -- it WILL want to expand. Don't let it. Set your timer and walk away when your daily allocation for that stuff is over. Remember, you're doing a full-time writer week, not a "catch up" week for office work that may have been piling up. That means a lot of your time needs to be spent at your writing table putting together NEW WORDS that you can sell."

Why We Fear Agents

By Christina F. York

Because the question has come around several times. I have been thinking about the reasons we, as writers, invest so much emotional power in the agent relationship.

First, of course, is accepting the fact that this is an emotional issue, not a logical or business issue. Logically, practically, most of us know the proper response to the agent issue. But when we actually face the issues, emotional responses often block that practical knowledge.

With that in mind, I have been trying to figure out what those emotional responses are, why we have them, and how to get over or around them. As we have discussed so often, the root cause seems to be fear, in a multitude of forms.

We talk about fear of failure, a common one. And fear of success, which may be less common, but still shows up often.

But I have another one that I realized applies directly to the agent relationship: the fear of being alone.

Now, I know that an agent is an employee, and no one should be afraid of losing an employee, especially one that isn’t a good fit. But we have learned – from somewhere – the attitude that the agent has to love their job, to be enthusiastic about the product they are selling.

By extension, we then assume they have to love our work. Which makes them our ally in selling our work. At last, we have someone on our side! Someone who will champion us, our work, our creations.

Writers, by their very nature, are solitary creatures. We work alone, often in isolation. Most spouses, families, co-workers, classmates – most of the other people in our lives – just don’t get it. I hear time and again from people whose husband or wife resents the time spent away from the family, from the day job, from housework, and children and family gatherings. We don’t get support from the people who are supposed to be in our corner.

Besides, if our family is supportive, we dismiss their opinions. They are not professionals, they don’t know if what we are doing is good. They say “Good job!” even if it isn’t, because they love us, and want us to feel good. We listen to them, and remember every time someone else said “I don’t care if your mother loves your work, what did the editor say?” And we discount every compliment that comes from someone who likes us, or loves us. They aren’t the people whose opinions “count.”

So, when an agent offers representation, when they volunteer to be in our corner, to be part of that support system, we’re thrilled. Someone gets it. They believe in us, and want to be our partner in our business. They provide outside validation that we are good. They give us our Sally Field Moment.

They want to help us, and that is a huge feeling of relief. At last, we don’t have to do it all ourselves. Someone else will take on part of the load. This is particularly seductive for a writer with a day job and a family, with commitments that leave little enough time for writing, much less all the other things that go with it. We can offload some of the tedious work we don’t enjoy.
Yes, writing is a business, and we shouldn’t put this emotional load on the business. But perhaps, if we understand the cause, we can learn to lessen the effect.

So now, we think, we have an enthusiastic employee to share the load. Someone who believes in the product we are selling (and, our emotional self says, us). Someone who will take some of the burden off of us, freeing us to spend our precious time writing. Finally, we have someone to help.

Then, sometimes without even a warning, that help disappears. The agent isn’t returning your calls, or answering your email. They don’t respond as quickly as they should, or they aren’t submitting things when they should, or they start “suggesting” changes, and refusing to do their job unless you do what they want.

As a boss, the answer is simple. If they don’t do the work, they lose the job. Your logical self has no problem with this, and probably thinks it is the best thing to do, and as quickly as possible.

But the emotional self, the overwhelmed individual who felt he or she was building a support system, doesn’t see it that way. The emotional self sees that support system evaporating, sees herself losing that help and assistance. The emotional self sees herself once more alone, without the enthusiastic employee to share the load.

Of course this isn’t the reality. Of course the support system is already gone, often long before the rational, practical, self realizes how bad the situation is. But the rational self often isn’t in control. I agree that it should be, but I realize that it isn’t.

I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t have a magic formula for transforming our emotions, or putting the rational self firmly in charge. I can’t solve this for myself, much less anyone else, in the course of an afternoon’s thought.

What I do know is that asking the question is the first step toward finding an answer, and that awareness is the first step toward change.

Writerly Fear

by Annie Reed (invited guest contributor)

Chris York's post on agents and fear got me thinking. That can be a scary thing in and of itself, but this time what I was thinking about a different kind of scary.


Writerly fear. Something I know well.


I'm not talking about the cower in the corner kind of fear, which I get when I see a spider or discover a six-foot snake coiled in my kitchen cabinet where a five-pound bag of flour should be. Or when I read a really oogy Stephen King story. No, I'm talking about the kind of debilitating emotion that's more a simple lack of self-confidence combined with fear of the unknown.


As an adult, which I sometimes think I am, I can go confidently about my daily life and routine without a second thought. But put me in a situation that's out of my routine, tell me I have to do something I don't know how to do, something that might be hard, and the part of me that's still five years old wants to run and hide. Routine is easier. Routine is comfortable. Routine isn't scary.


Routine also doesn't let you grow. Or learn. Or achieve your dreams.

Eight years ago I took a step outside the routine. It helped that I had a partner in crime.


On Mother's Day weekend of 2001, Louisa Swann and I took our first in what would be many, many trips to the Oregon coast, this one for a Saturday get together of professional writers hosted by Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.


At the time, I had no story sales. I barely submitted anything anywhere, my writerly ego having taken a battering on a response to a story submission I sent to the Nevada Arts Council literary fellowship grants program. What was I thinking, going to a gathering of professional writers? Was I nuts?


Thank goodness for Louisa. Between the two of us, I worked my way through an iceberg size case of cold feet.


I think I spent most of that night sitting quietly and just listening, wide-eyed, to the stories being told around me. Not only the stories read and commented on, but stories of other writers and their escapades, the kind of oral history about writing that only comes out when writers get together and talk. Inspiring? Oh yeah.

If real life was a Hollywood movie, I'd be able to say that my life completely turned around after that one eye-opening night. Well, not really, but it was a start.

I still have my moments of fear, and there are more days than I probably want to admit where I stick to routine instead of pushing my own personal envelopes. I'm very much a child of "it has to be done right or not at all!" and that kind of life-long indoctrination takes a long time to overcome. It took a lot of workshops and lunches and get-togethers before I felt less of a pretender and more like I belonged in a group of professional writers. I'm still very much a work in progress, but I'm a lot farther along the road than I was eight years ago.

Louisa and I are heading back to Oregon for a workshop next month. I can't wait.

There is a little slice of Hollywood happily-ever-after to this story: Four years after Louisa and I went on our first Oregon coast adventure, I won a Nevada Arts Council fellowship literary grant.


Writer - 1, fear - 0, at least for that day.