VOLUME 25, ISSUE 22 | MAY 30, 2025 |
WHEN YOU CAN'T Many people have daily or weekly writing goals. A friend of mine who is a freelance writer and novelist, strives for a weekly word count. I attempt 1000 words a day on any novel in progress. Some days I
make 3000. Others I make 250. The truth is, I hate missing a day so even if I miss my daily goal, I try to move forward at least a little. I keep a spreadsheet when a novel is in progress. On one side is each chapter, with the current word count in each. It tallies at the bottom, and that tally then goes into the daily progress. If I miss a day, I highlight that date in gray, making it almost scream at me. I hate those gray days.
They make me want to see how long a streak I can write without missing a day. That's why even if I cannot write 1000 words, I write something. Just to avoid a blank, gray day. Numbers instead of gray mean I'm still moving forward. Sounds silly, but hey, it makes me sit in the chair at the keyboard and create. And the more days in a row I do that, the easier the story becomes. . . and the faster it comes together. |
Stories are all around us. We hear them. We read them. We tell them. What stories are in you? Have you ever thought about exploring your past, resurrecting childhood memories or bringing your family history to life? Join published author and writing coach Kate Meadows on May 31 for a one-hour webinar, "Telling Our Life Stories." Together, we'll explore the power of story, learn how to preserve and share memories of the past and think critically about why stories matter. We tell stories for many reasons. From this webinar, you'll walk away with the tools and the game plan you need to bring your story to life. DATE: Saturday, May 31, 2025 TIME: 9 a.m. MT (11 a.m. ET) COST: $15 Kate Meadows is a published writer, proven editor and passionate writing
coach with an MFA in Professional Writing. Learn more at www.katemeadows.com. WRITTEN BY A HUMAN OR AI?
I follow a site/newsletter titled Plagiarism Today. Jonathan Bailey ( @plagiarismtoday \ @mastodon.world \ mastodon.world \ plagiarismtoday.com ) has managed this site for decades, and he knows his stuff
about AI, copyright, and plagiarism. I receive many newsletters. His I read. Recently he composed a piece entitled How Can I Prove That I'm Human? As we all know, it has become challenging in schools and business to identify who is the legitimate author of a
piece and how much AI they used to create it. The range can mean little more than using Grammarly to check grammar all the way to plugging a topic into ChatGpt and submitting the whole piece as your own. When I receive article pitches for FundsforWriters, at least half are pure AI. The authors argue with me when I claim their piece reads like AI. They are insulted, they say. My response is that if the piece reads like it even might be
AI, I don't want it. When I (or any other editor) purchases a piece, they want it to be original. They also want it to have a voice. They want a fresh idea presented in a fresh manner. If there is no voice, if the material sounds canned, or there isn't unique personal experience written into the piece, they don't want it. This piece I posted the link to states that AI will
slowly creep into human creativity, but I believe it's still going to be a while before it performs optimally and can claim to be original in thought, word, and deed. Just know, however, that if you ever get caught submitting AI, your name has a high probability of being forever black-listed with that publication and that editor. Speaking from experience.
In need of editing for your manuscript? Looking for an experienced beta reader to offer feedback on your work-in-progress? Need another brain to bounce ideas off of in a dedicated workshopping space? Look no further! Story Therapy offers editing, beta reading, and workshopping to all writers of all backgrounds. Whether you're working on a script or a novel, I'm here to help with the writing process. Visit taylorlouiseblog.com
for more information!
"I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could."
– James Taylor
<<If you have a success story you believe was prompted by FundsforWriters, please share with us! Send to hope@chopeclark.com >>
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Could a Writing Residency Be Right for You?
By Christina Nifong Imagine waking up in a beautiful setting where meals are provided, and your only expectation is to create. Or maybe you dream of using your writing to connect with a community, leading a journaling workshop or introducing readers to a piece of artwork or historic happening. Or perhaps you have a
special project that you're trying to figure out how to fund. A writer or artist residency might be one way to turn these musings into your job (at least for a little while). I live in a small city in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, and for the last three years, the Roanoke Arts Commission has named and funded several
artist-in-residence programs for a variety of city agencies and organizations. There have been neighborhood groups with artists-in-residences, the housing authority has an artist-in-residence, our zoo has an artist-in-residence. The term "artist" is defined broadly and usually includes writers of all kinds. Additionally, regional leaders have (off and on since 2015) sought a writer who is paid to ride our city bus system and produce a book of poetry, essays, or stories from their residency. Our region's hospital also pays visual artists, dancers, and writers to serve as "resource artists." Maybe your local hospitals, museums, city or county arts
programs, or regional planning commissions also offer some kind of artist-in-residence program. In the past, the National Parks System, the Bureau of Land Management, and Amtrak have offered
writers residencies, though many of those programs are currently paused. The website Artist Communities Alliance provides a directory of a wide range of artist residencies in the US and across the world. Nearly all of them include writers. This newsletter lifts up residency opportunities each week in its Grants/Fellowship/Crowdfunding section. There are lots of online resources to find residencies and help in the application process, but it can be time consuming to sift through the opportunities. A word of warning: Read residency descriptions closely before undertaking the work of applying to make sure you qualify for the residency and that the details of what is required suit you. Not convinced that applying for residencies is worth the
effort? Try thinking outside the box to create your own writer's residency. Recently, Portland, Oregon-based writer Amy Stewart detailed how to appoint yourself an artist-in-residence of anywhere you like for as long as you like. The response was so overwhelming, she ended up writing more than a dozen posts with further examples of artists of all kinds who had created self-made residencies.
Here's another idea. If there's a museum, nonprofit, or garden that aligns with your writing subject or style, you could propose a writer's residency to that organization's leaders. It could benefit you both.
What's it like to be an artist-in-residence? Residencies can be very unique. Carilion Clinic's Healing Arts program has included selecting and printing poems that are left in hospital waiting rooms; staging spoken word performances at the hospital;
and simply spending time with patients, creating alongside them to help pass the time. One project paid for by the Roanoke Arts Commission was the creation of a book called Our Green Spaces, Our Stories, where writers and artists worked together to document a neighborhood's parks through history, photographs, paintings, poems, and
more. The secret to a successful writer's residency is to have a clear set of goals and a creative idea, plus, the persistence to keep searching for a way to bring your residency to life. BIO - Christina Nifong is a freelance writer based in Roanoke, VA. Find more of her work at christinanifong.com.
(5393092 © Rene Drouyer | Dreamstime.com)
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WRITE OR DIE MAGAZINE FIRST EVER FICTION CONTEST
https://writeordiemagazine.submittable.com/submit/326253/write-or-dies-first-ever-fiction-contest
$18 ENTRY
FEE. Deadline July 1, 2025. 1st Place: $1000. 2nd Place: $400. 3rd Place: $200. Winning stories will be published in Write or Die Magazine. Your short story must be no more than 4,000 words. Submissions are open internationally to anyone writing in English. The story must be unpublished at the time of submission (this includes blogs, newsletters, and personal sites). LITERAL LITERARY POSTCARD STORY CONTEST
https://www.geist.com/contests/the-20th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline June 30, 2025. Send us a story and a postcard. The relationship can be as strong or as tangential as you like, so long as there is a clear connection between the story and the image.
The story can be fiction or non-fiction; maximum length is 500 words. First Prize: $500. Second Prize: $250. Third Prize: $150. All winning entries will be published in Geist and on geist.com. RYAN HUDAK LGBTQ+ WRITING AWARD
https://www.nyfa.org/awards-grants/the-ryan-hudak-lgbtq-dramatic-writing-award
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline June 17, 2025. The Ryan Hudak LGBTQ+ Dramatic Writing Award is an $8,000 cash award to one New York State-based playwright or screenwriter who self-identifies as LGBTQ+. Work samples are a representation of your artistic work created within the last five years. This is not a project grant; therefore you should be submitting work that is completed. BOOKSIE POETRY CONTEST
https://www.booksie.com/contest/booksie-2025-poetry-contest-36
$6.95 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 17, 2025. Grand prize winner (Booksie Gold Poet Laureate). $1,000 cash award. Gold winner badge. Promotion across Booksie in the contest
winner sections of the site. Two runners-up (Booksie Silver Poet Laureates). $100 cash. Silver winner badge. Promotion across Booksie in the contest winner sections of the site. You must be a Booksie member but membership is free. If you are not a member, you can easily become one as part of the entry process.
GRANTS / FELLOWSHIP / CROWDFUNDING INDIE PUBLISHED PRE-PUBLICATION GRANT - SCBWI
https://www.scbwi.org/awards-and-grants/for-independently-published/independently-published-pre-publication-grant
Submissions OPEN from November 1 through November 30. You must be a current SCBWI member when your work is submitted. Money from the grant must be used to self-publish your book. Provides $2,500 to help offset the price of self-publishing. A brief cover letter with the name of your proposed book, a 1-2 paragraph synopsis, your publication
timeline, a short bio, a 1-page business plan of how the grant money will used, and 2-3 sentences about why you have chosen to self-publish this book. BARBARA DEMING MEMORIAL FUND
https://www.demingfund.org/awards
Grants from Money for Women give encouragement and recognition to women writers and
visual artists whose feminist-centered work is often undervalued by other funding sources. Money for Women especially encourages applications from writers and artists in the early and middle stages of their artistic development. Support grants ($500 - $2000) to individual feminist women in the arts with primary residence in the US and Canada. Fiction & Visual Arts Awards - Apply January 1-31, in even years. Non Fiction and Poetry Awards - Apply January 1-31, in odd years. Does NOT award to
film, video, theatre, dance, music, or performance projects. Scripts and musical compositions are also not eligible. We do not award work which is or will be self-published, or work that is generated by AI without acknowledgment or artistic rationale. We do not give loans or provide money for educational assistance, work on dissertations, or research (except research to be used in writing a book). We do not provide funds for the cost of editing services, business projects, or emergency money for
people in need. ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PADUCAH
https://airstudiopaducah.com/apply/
Rolling deadline. Writers: No more than ten (10) pages of prose (fiction, non-fiction, or creative non- fiction). No more than five (5) poems. Residency Fee is $1000 per month, or $700 for two weeks, inclusive of
utilities. For those who plan ahead and want to self-fund their residency you may want to consider a community funding campaign using either: fracturedatlas.org or gofundme.com or indiegogo.com. The residency affords the artist time and space for focused, independent work, the development of new ideas and experimentation. A.I.R. Studio Paducah, now in its 20th year as an artist residency program, is situated in the heart of the LowerTown Arts District, Paducah, Kentucky. AWESOME FOUNDATION
https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en
The Awesome Foundation is an ever-growing worldwide community devoted to forwarding the interest of awesome in the universe. The Foundation distributes $1,000 grants, no strings attached, to projects and their creators. At each fully autonomous chapter, the
money is pooled together from the coffers of ten or so self-organizing “micro-trustees” and given up front in cash, check, or gold doubloons. Seven countries and 65 chapters. STOVE WORKS RESIDENCY
https://www.stoveworks.org/residency
Deadline June 15, 2025. From February
through November of each year, Stove Works’ Artist Residency invites eight Artists to live/work for one to three months at a time. Our residency serves as a moment away from the rigamarole of life and an opportunity for Artists (for you) to take advantage of the dedicated time, space, resources, and community we have to offer. Residents are responsible for their travel, materials, and food/beverages during their stay. Location Chattanooga, Tennessee.
CURRENT AFFAIRS
https://www.currentaffairs.org/writers-guide
If you have an idea for an article, please fill out our pitch form. You will be asked to link one or more samples of your previous work (published or unpublished), and/or a few
paragraphs of the proposed piece, so that we can get a sense of your writing style. We have two publication formats: our print edition and our online edition. Main articles for the print edition are usually around 3000-4500 words, while online articles are usually 1200-2400 words. (The print edition also contains lots of boxes, sidebars, etc. with short interstitial pieces, which can run anywhere from 100-500 words.) When you subscribe to the Current Affairs print magazine, not only are you
supporting a left media institution with credibility and influence, but you’re also giving a cheerful middle finger to wealthy corporations, subservient state propagandists, and joyless buzzkills across the world! Standard $250 for online articles and $350 for print. TRAILS
https://trailsmag.net/pages/contributor-information
The focus of Trails is on backpacking and other human/naturally-powered means of sleeping outdoors: bikepacking, canoe camping, even things like rafting or mountaineering are fair game (feel free to be creative with those criteria—we covered “skatepacking” in Issue One). But remember: Human-powered, and overnight are the important pieces. Activities like RVing, backpacking in the “backpacking around hostels in
Europe”-sense, and mountain biking won’t be good fits. Features range anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 words or longer and we pay anywhere from $0.50 to $2 per word, depending on the difficulty of the story, the writer's experience, and the commitment required. Not all of the magazine is made of features. We have a large section towards the front of each issue made up of smaller, more regular rubrics and columns. If you're a newer freelance writer, you're much more likely to land a story here. We
pay our writers a minimum of $0.50/word for these rubrics—that climbs based on the story and your experience. THE MAPLE
https://www.readthemaple.com/pitch-us/
The Maple welcomes pitches for long-form news stories and explainer pieces that shed new light on the top political issues of the day.
We are interested in original stories that dig deep beneath power-serving narratives and enrich public understanding of key political issues. The Maple pays $275 CAD for news stories that are typically 1,500 words in length. When work is assigned and rejected without request for revision, we pay 50 per cent of the agreed upon fee. (NOTE: This is a Canadian publication.) THE NARWHAL
https://thenarwhal.ca/work-for-us/
We look to work with reporters who have strong journalism backgrounds and in-depth knowledge of the energy and environment beat. Our reporters are wary of dogma and care about helping readers make sense of complex issues. We welcome pitches for stories up to 2,000 words, as well as video and photo proposals. Please note The Narwhal’s reporting is primarily focused on
the extractive industries — mining, forestry, fishing and oil and gas extraction — and large-scale conservation. (NOTE: This is a Canadian publication.) Our rate is generally $1 per word for professional journalists. ENTWINED PUBLISHING
https://totallyentwinedgroup.com/submissions/
Founded in 2006, Entwined Publishing delivers top-tier romance fiction with over four hundred talented authors and releases around a hundred books per year. Novel – 50,000 –
69,999 words. Super Novel – 70,000 – 99,999 words. Super Plus Novel – 100,000+ words. We prefer series over single releases. KIDS CAN PRESS
https://www.kidscanpress.com/writers/
We are committed to developing and promoting literary and artistic talent in all its diversity by amplifying
underrepresented voices from across Canada, and by inviting kids into books that capture different experiences and open their minds to new ideas and perspectives. Kids Can Press is currently accepting the following: Non-rhyming picture books for ages 3–5 / 3–7 / 4–8
Nonfiction for ages 5–8 / 7–10 / 8–12 / 10–14
Fiction for ages 6–9 / 7–10 / 8–12 /10–14
Graphic novels (fiction and nonfiction) for ages 5-8 / 6-9 / 7-10 /
8-12 PAW PRINTS PUBLISHING
https://www.pawprintspublishing.com/pages/about
Paw Prints Publishing brings original content to market for young readers in both physical and eBook formats. Our mission is to share stories that inspire and enlighten children from all walks of life, and we
have a particular goal of publishing work featuring underserved or underrepresented communities. Books that focus on pillars of social emotional learning and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Books that are fun and informative and vital to today’s kids. Books that will inspire readers to leave their own beautiful and unique paw prints on this world. FAIR WINDS PRESS
https://www.quarto.com/ourimprints/default.aspx
Fair Winds Press offers readers authoritative and accessible guidance for living a healthy life, both physically and spiritually. Its books cover a range of practical categories, including nutrition and cooking, fitness, parenting, beauty, mental and spiritual health, treating sickness, and using new medicine. Please forward the newsletter in its entirety. To reprint any editorials, contact hope@fundsforwriters.com for permission. Do not assume that acknowledgements listed in your publication is considered a valid right to publish out of ours.
C. Hope Clark
E-mail: hope@fundsforwriters.com
140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036
http://www.fundsforwriters.com Copyright 2000-2025, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326 Our subscriber list is NOT made available to others. Use information listed at your own risk. FundsforWriters gives no warranty to completeness, accuracy, or fitness of the markets, contests, and grants although research is done to the best of our
ability. FundsforWriters finds open submission calls, contests, and markets from a wide variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer
newsletter, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Poets & Writers, Duotrope, Winning Writers, Write Jobs Plus, LinkedIn Jobs, Emily Stoddard, and other newsletters and online sites. Many announcements are submitted directly to FundsforWriters. All must be paying opportunities. Contests must pay a minimum of $200 first place. Submit potential listings to hope@chopeclark.com **Note that FundsforWriters.com places paid advertising in this newsletter. ALL ads are related to writers and the business of writing, screened by FundsforWriters to make sure the information is suitable for writers and their endeavors to improve their careers. While the mailing list is
not sold to third parties, other parties do advertise in the newsletter, to include the occasional solo ad. You will not receive this newsletter without your permission. It's physically impossible since recipients must opt-in, giving us permission to send the newsletter. If at any time you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, click the UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of each newsletter. We want you to enjoy this newsletter at your pleasure, not be forced to read anything you do not wish to
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