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EMERGENCY RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
By C. Hope Clark
A week doesn't sprint by me without someone crying out for help.
"How can I make some quick money writing? I can't pay my
(fill in the blank)." My heart goes out to them. I have to
tell each one that writing isn't swift, nor is it lucrative.
Quick money is almost an oxymoron.
Emergency carries different levels of interpretation. An
emergency to one person is not meeting the rent. To another it's
not being able to drive to a job. And yet someone else cannot
work due to illness or physical impairment. None of those are
quick fixes.
But some emergency resources come available on occasion. A few
of them are grants. All of them are competitive because the
number of people needing assistance always outnumbers the
funds available.
Funds for published writers
To receive aid as a writer, you have to have a history as a
writer. This concept is painful to half the people I speak to.
They know they can write, but they have not published. Therefore,
they do not qualify for "writer" assistance. But if you have
been around the track a few times as an author, consider these
resources:
CHANGE EMERGENCY FUNDS
Change, Inc., P.O. Box 54, Captiva, FL 33924
Phone: (212) 473-3742
Awards of up to $1,000 for medical, living, or other emergencies.
Open to artists of all disciplines, with no U.S. geographical
restrictions; students are not eligible.
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PEN AMERICAN CENTER WRITERS' FUND
http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/251
The PEN Writers' Fund is an emergency fund for professionally
published or produced writers with serious financial difficulties.
The fund gives grants or loans of up to $1,000.
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AUTHORS LEAGUE FUND - EMERGENCY FUNDS
31 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016
Main Phone: (212)268-1208 / Main Fax: (212)564-5363
Helps career authors and dramatists in the United States and in
financial distress due to an urgent situation. The Fund makes
interest-free loans to professional writers in need.
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CLAYTON MEMORIAL MEDICAL FUND
c/o OSFCI, P.O. Box 5703, Portland, Oregon 97228
http://www.osfci.org/clayton/index.html
The fund helps professional science fiction and fantasy writers
living in the Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and
Alaska deal with the financial burden of illness.
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AMERICAN POETS FUND - EMERGENCY FUNDS
The Academy of American Poets
584 Broadway, Suite 1208, New York, NY 10012
Assists poets of demonstrated ability who are in a state of urgent
financial need. Grants cannot be used to promote or otherwise
enhance literary talent or reputation.
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WRITERS EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FUND
1501 Broadway, Ste. 302, New York, NY 10036
Tel: (212) 997-0947 / FAX: (212) 768-7414
http://www.asja.org/weaf.php
Financial relief assistance to established, professional
freelance writers of nonfiction books and magazine articles.
Must be 60 years of age or older, disabled, or who face crisis.
=====
WRITERS' TRUST WOODCOCK FUND - EMERGENCY FUNDS
90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1
416-504-8222 / F- 416-504-9090
http://www.writerstrust.com/
Provides emergency funding for established writers in mid-project
who are facing financial crisis. Since its inception, the Woodcock
Fund has supported 103 Canadian writers in financial difficulty.
=====
JOHN ANSON KITTREDGE EDUCATIONAL FUND.
c/o Key Trust Company of Maine, P.O. Box 1054, Augusta, ME 04332
Travel Application Address, P.O. Box 2883, Cambridge, MA 02138
Grants awarded to artists in very special circumstances.
$1,000 - $10,000. Initial contact by letter.
Advice for novice writers
Grants don't happen unless you can acquire financial assistance
through churches, charitable organizations or The United Way.
You are not able to use your writer status to acquire writing
funds if you are not published. It's like asking for funds to
build a career as an accountant when you used to be a plumber.
Experience dictates your qualifications.
If the wolf isn't at your door, and the rain isn't pouring
on your head, sit down at the keyboard and start typing your
stories. Read Writer's Market and every other resource that
strikes your fancy. Join online list groups and read the forums.
Subscribe to Writer's Digest or at least read it in the library.
Become a sponge. Make writing what you do when you aren't
eating, sleeping, working the 9-to-5 or tending to the family.
Then submit like there's no tomorrow. Submit online and to print
publications. Expect 90% rejection and learn why it happened.
Submit even more than you did before. Expect 80% rejection and
learn why again.
Believe it or not, while you are fanatically submitting, your
writing is improving. That 80% now becomes 75%, then 60%. Soon
you've learned how to write better and target your work to the
markets that suit your voice and style. It's almost an
unconscious occurrence. You get smarter, plain and simple.
Checks surprise you in the mail. Contracts happen more often.
Emails arrive in your box from editors that know you asking you
to craft another column. You become a writer.
Emergencies happen. Everyone has a crisis at some time in his
life or he hasn't lived. Sometimes grants are available, but more
often they aren't. But you are a writer which means you know how
to research and deal in deadlines. No one can take away your
means and ability to write.
Instead of wringing your hands about your plight, consider
putting them to better use on the computer. Pound out your
worries and shoot the results to editors. A few of them just
might respond in a matter of days. You'll never know unless
you submit like a fanatic, giving editors the option of
paying you.
BIO
C. Hope Clark knows from firsthand experience that writing is
slow income. But spending one day submitting to fifteen pubs
can result in serious income weeks and months downstream.
Spend one day a month doing it, and you have a better
source of funds. Spend a day a week performing this
routine and you have a career. Make your goal the number of
submissions, not the money you hope to make. The money will
happen. www.fundsforwriters.com
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