Today we have a wildcard episode for you! We are talking about all the different ways you can sustain your writing career. Our host, Erin Roberts, has done an incredible job of applying for grants, fellowships, and residencies. So, we put her on the spot and got her to dole out advice and insights to help you sustain and develop your writing. 

Thing of the Week: “Extreme Economies: What Life at the World’s Margins Can Teach Us about Our Own Future” by Richard Davies 

Homework: Write a one-paragraph personal artistic statement.

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Tension! Starting September 1, we’ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers! 

Liner Notes: 

Resources related to grants and fellowships:  

Creative Capital’s monthly list of Artist Opportunities: https://creative-capital.org/category/artist-opportunities/

Philanthropy News Digest’s lists of RFPs, which can be filtered to just those for Arts & Culture: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfps 

→ Link to the filtered list here: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfps/(search)/?tags_interest[]=arts+%2F+culture

The Create Daily’s Opportunity Roundup Newsletter (requires a sign up at the link below):  https://www.thecreatedaily.com/community

For residency opportunities, the Open Calls list from Artist Communities Alliance: https://artistcommunities.org/directory/open-calls

Profellow list of fellowships: https://www.profellow.com

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, and Erin Roberts. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Transcript

As transcribed by Mike Barker

Key points: Grants, fellowships, residencies. 3 types. Fellowship, Money to support your work. Project fellowship, money for a specific project. Residencies, go somewhere and write. Alone or in a community. Who’s paying? Governments, foundations, individuals. 4th type, prizes! What do you have to apply? It depends, but the core is usually a writing sample (25 pages). Also a personal artistic statement. How do you research these opportunities? Check Creative Capitol and Philanthropy News Digest. It’s a long timeline! Impact. Who are you as an artist?

[Season 19, Episode 34]

[Mary Robinette] This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.patreon.com/writingexcuses.

[Howard] You’re invited to the Writing Excuses Cruise, an annual event for writers who want dedicated time to focus on honing their craft, connecting with their peers, and getting away from the grind of daily life. Join the full cast of Writing Excuses as we sail from Los Angeles aboard the Navigator of the Seas from September 19th through 27th in 2024, with stops in Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, and Mazatlán. The cruise offers seminars, exercises, and group sessions, an ideal blend of relaxation, learning, and writing, all while sailing the Mexican Riviera. For tickets and more information, visit writingexcuses.com/retreats.

[Season 19, Episode 34]

[Mary Robinette] This is Writing Excuses.

[DongWon] Grants and Fellowships.

[Erin] I’m Erin.

[Mary Robinette] I’m Mary Robinette.

[DongWon] And I’m DongWon.

[DongWon] So we wanted to do an episode talking about how to get grants and how to get fellowships. We’ve been getting a lot of questions on our Patreon about this over time. Erin has mentioned this on the podcast a couple times. And it’s a thing that I think about a lot. Unfortunately, not as informed about it as I would like to be. So this is a little bit of us grilling Erin about how to do this. But because of what I do and the friendships I have, I know a lot of people in the literary world as well. Right? Who do more literary fiction. I’ve noticed that many of them seem to sustain themselves going from residency to residency, going from fellowship to fellowship. They’re being able to fund their creative work through a lot of money that’s coming through arts organizations, from the government, from a variety of sources. So… I’ve never seen science fiction writers applying for these fellowships, even though clearly they would be able to get them. Until I met Erin, who’s very good at this. Every time I talk to Erin, she’s off in Alaska or some other beautiful location writing in a cabin, because somebody is sponsoring her to be there and to do that work. So, I was hoping you’d tell us a little bit more about the grants and fellowships ecosystem and how to do your research and how to start applying for some of these.

[Erin] Sure.  Well, let me start by sort of d… Grants and fellowships is like a kind of broad term for this whole ecosystem of get money from people for being art…

[Laughter]

[Erin] Doing art. Whatever. I think… I tend to think of them as having sort of three… There’s three main types. One is where people give you money, a fellowship, that’s just about supporting the work you’ve done so far. So, this is the type of thing where they’re like, “Send us your writing. You’re a great writer. We just want to give you money to continue to produce art.” There is no… You don’t have to give it to us. You don’t have to, like, turn it over. You could, literally, like sit and stare at the wall. We just want to make sure that you don’t have to spend time working or doing other things. We will just give you that money generally. That is honestly, the best kind…

[Chuckles]

[Erin] There are people who do that. Then, you’ve got your project fellowship, project grant. That’s where you go to somebody and say, “I’m going to write this book,” or “I’m going to do this short story collection. Please give me money for this specific purpose.” They usually then expect you to then deliver that thing. They want you to have the book or the short story collection or some explanation of what you did with the time, if you don’t give it back to them. Then, the third is residencies, which is when you go stay somewhere. Sometimes, usually, ideally on somebody else’s dime or for free. There are residencies that you can pay for, and it’s like you get a discounted rate. So, it’s like you can go stay in the south of France for like 300 dollars a week which is much less than you would normally spend to stay there. Basically, residencies are a wide variety. Sometimes, it’s like you alone in the Mojave Desert. I literally just saw an application for that yesterday. Just in a hut. I hope you like yourself. You just…

[DongWon] I’m gonna get that one. That sounds like my dream, to sit in the desert by myself. No one bothers me.

[Erin] Exactly. Then there are the ones that you do where you’re in a community. Like, I was in Alaska for a few months ago for Storyknife, which is one where you go up to Homer, Alaska. It’s for women and women identified writers. Each person is in a cabin, and there’s six of you at a time. You get fed, which is lovely. So that you just focus on the writing. Often, residencies don’t ask you to produce something specific. Occasionally, they want to see your work. But a lot of times, they just want to put you in a location where you’re away from your life and your normal responsibilities and you can just go and write. So those are the kinds of things that you can get.

[DongWon] Who is giving you money to do these things? Who’s paying for this?

[Erin] It really depends. So’s sometimes it’s the government. As we like to say. The government has money for creativity because a country, city, state, province without art is not as cool, and people want their jurisdiction to be cool. So they put some money into arts funding. So what they will do is they will say you have to have lived in this state. So, like, there is usually a residency requirement. You can’t get in a van and just drive from state to state taking their arts money. I mean, that would be great, but you can’t. Instead, usually, you have to live there for anywhere from a year to five years, depending on the place. Then, you say, “I have been doing so much to enrich the artistic life of insert your location here. Please give me money so that I may continue to do so.” So, sometimes it’s the government of wherever you are. Then, sometimes, it’s foundations of people who just love the arts. People who have made it in the arts and want to like pay it forward to the next generation. And they will want to give you all the money.

[Mary Robinette] My mom was an arts administrator. That was one of the big things that she did was fundraising. Mostly for grants, but also in order to be able to give fellowships to people. So they were getting money from the government, from things like the National Endowment for the Arts. But also from a lot of individual donors as well. Individual donors will sometimes then also set up their own little programs. Because either they are genuinely philanthropic or they need a tax break. Giving to the arts is one of the ways you can do that.

[DongWon] If you watch a lot of PBS programming, you’ll see a lot of names that will come up in these spheres over and over again. Certain foundations, certain arts organizations, and certain private donors give a lot to support the arts in this country. If it sounds crazy that the government will give you money to make art, please know that this is a recent change in that that has become less common now than it used to be. The NEA used to be a really amazing sponsor of a lot of artists, both visual arts and written arts in the country for decades and decades. Right? It was an important part of how our government operated and how we made great art in the country. Many, many countries overseas… I know if you’re in the UK, if you’re in other parts of Western Europe, there’s just an enormous amount of funding available for creatives who are trying to make art, and that the government will sponsor you to do that. So, that still exists in this country. It is not as robust as it once was, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. Getting any money has become a little bit more difficult over the past few administrations, but it’s still out there.

[Mary Robinette] Well, these organizations, the ones that give you the fellowships or the grants, kind of exist to serve as a bridge between people who are creating the arts and the fancy people who have the money. Because, like, I can’t go to a fancy person and say, “Hello. You need to do this.” But I can go to an organization, and that organization has a fundraiser whose job is to go to places to get money from fancy people.

[Erin] Also, whose job it is to, like, evaluate. Because maybe you’re like, “I want to give money to great writers,” but you’re like, “I don’t really have time.”

[DongWon] Yup.

[Erin] “To determine which… Who those great writers are, and I don’t want to just give to the three people I know. So, I’m going to give money to an organization that has, like, a panel of people who will judge the writing,” and that actually is probably a good segue into, like, what do you even have to do?

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] What are these people asking for?

[DongWon] Well, before we make that [jump] though, I wanted to point out there’s a fourth category, which is prizes. Right?

[Mary Robinette] Oh, yeah.

[DongWon] These organizations also run awards, usually annually, of who are the best writers? Who’s making the best work in this area, in this category, in this identity group? Whatever it is. There’s plenty of organizations, and those often have money attached to those prizes as well. So, that’s another thing you can look out for to submit your name for certain prizes, either locally or nationally, whatever it is.

[Erin] That is very true. It’s funny, because I’ve gotten prizes, but in my mind I still think of them as [garbled chips] so I always forget that it’s an actual thing.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Poetry is also a field that has a lot of prizes, so including speculative poetry, so, for my spec poetry people out there, there are a lot of poetry prizes where they actually publish your poetry, and then they also often give you money.

[DongWon] It is, unfortunately, the primary way to get a collection published these days is to win a prize. It is very hard to publish a collection of poetry through a press directly. Most poetry presses are funded in some way, and are picking what their publishing through these prizes.

[Erin] The funny thing is, I know that a little bit because of going to residencies. Which is… This could run plug for sort of group residencies which are lovely, is that a lot of times they go across genres. So there’s not really like many like speculative fiction only residencies. But I was in residency with poets and then with literary fiction and with people who write essays and do academic writing. So you learn a lot about other kinds of writing. Then you can use it to kind of inform your own creative life. Which is one reason that I absolutely love it. And… Is it time for the book?

[DongWon] It’s a little early, but we could do it

.

[Erin] No. We will not break. Instead, we will talk… Just take a second to talk a little bit about what do people actually ask you for when you’re going for a fellowship? It really depends. I actually keep shockingly no one a whole table that has all of, like, what each person needs. But… A lot of times, a writing sample is going to be the core of what you have to give. So you’re going to have to give your best 20 pages, 25 pages is usually the limit of what you’re going to have to do. Which, luckily, is about the length maybe of a short story. Or, if you used to submitting your novel, you’re used to sending… It’s like, here, this is my great work, that’s the same type of thing that you can actually send on to a grant or to a fellowship to let them know this is who I am, this is what I like.

[DongWon] So, when you’re submitting a query, we always say first 10 pages. Right? When you’re doing a grant application, does it have to be the first 10 pages, or should it be a selection somewhere else that you think is particularly… Like, what are they looking for in that case? Do you know?

[Erin] They’re looking for something that’s going to make them go, “Wow, this is great writing.” So I think that it can be a section from anywhere in your novel. You can even, like, give a little bit of an explanation of where it comes from. But if it’s really contextual, if you have, like, a piece where it’s like you really have to have read the first 50 pages to truly understand the genius of this moment, I would not send that…

[Chuckles]

[Erin] Because they’re not going to do it.

[DongWon] Right.

[Erin] So you really want something that’s going to grab people, almost the same way that when you pick something for a reading, you really want to pick something that kind of starts strong, brings people in, and ends at a really great point where people are thinking, “Oh, I’m really wondering what happens next,” or “I feel like I’ve had a really satisfying experience.” So that they’re like, “Oh, I got this great bite-size sample of this person’s work, and I just want them to produce a thousand more bites, and I will pay them for that.”

[Mary Robinette] All right. Let’s take a quick break, and when we come back, we’ll talk about some of the more nuts and bolts of this process.

[Erin] Let’s do it.

[Shawn] Hey, it’s Shawn Nelson, founder and CEO of Love Sack and host of the Let Me Save You 25 Years podcast. Curious how successful people really made it? Tune in to hear from guests like Travis Mills, a true American hero, and Nate Chexits, cofounder of Rone. We dive deep into their stories and lessons that shape them, so you can skip the trial and error and get straight to the good stuff. You can find me wherever you get your podcasts. That’s Let Me Save You 25 Years with Shawn Nelson. Listen now.

[Mary Robinette] This week, I want to tell you about a nonfiction book called Extreme Economies by Richard Davies. This book looks at what happens to economies at the margins of the modern world due to circumstances ranging from tsunamis to incarceration to the world’s first digital state. Davies challenges conventional economic thinking, offering a glimpse into how extreme circumstances molds societies. For writers seeking inspiration, but who are scared of economics, this is an easy and engaging read. I highly recommend extreme Income Economies by Richard Davies.

[DongWon] Okay. Now that we’re coming back from the break, I have a question for you, Erin, which is how do you begin to research these organizations? How do you know what’s out there and what’s your process look like to build your incredible spreadsheet that I know you have?

[Erin] I will tell you that, but before I do, I just wanted to note that the… Sadly, the writing sample alone is not the only thing that you may have to do if you are applying. The other thing is a personal statement. Now this is… Can be terrifying for people. This is where you try to sum up you are as a writer, as an artist, in a page that will really go along with your writing sample, ideally two things that complement each other. Like, in your personal statement, you don’t want to be, like, “I use comedy to really like_the hilarity of life.” Then it’s like a story about eight ducks dying.

[Chuckles]

[Erin] That’s… In a not funny way. So there’s like… You want the two things to sort of complement each other.

[DongWon] [garbled]

[Erin] And create like a really nice picture of who you are. We can talk a little bit about techniques about that later. But, how I research them is I believe in really cheating off of other people’s work. Not when I write, but when I apply for things. There are some great organizations. We’re going to make a resource heavy liner notes for this, so that you can have all the links and apply to all the things. But, Creative Capitol is a place that gives money to experimental artists. But something they also do is they actually publish every two months here are opportunities coming up for artists and writers to get money from people who are not us. So they do that. Philanthropy News Digest sends out RFP lists, like, these are places you can send proposals to, and under arts, they have a lot of the big residencies and arts places that you can get money from.

[DongWon] An RFP is a request for proposal.

[Erin] Yes. Sorry, I used to work in funding…

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] So, this is how I found out about a lot of this stuff. So, yeah, Philanthropy News Digest has stuff. There is a person, a lovely person named Felicia, I can’t remember her last name, who sends out every other week opportunities for people, both jobs and fellowships, for something which I cannot remember the name of. But she’s a lovely person, and we’ll put her newsletter in the notes as well. There’s a lot of people who are out there compiling these lists for you and just sending them out to you. The main thing is just keeping track of what you want to do, what can you do, and when are the deadlines. I will say that a lot of… For some reason, especially on the residency side of things, there’s a big deadline usually in March and October. These tend to be the seasons, like, September October, and like February March, when a lot of people want stuff at the same time, so it’s good to sort of think about that and try to be as ready for it as you can be.

[DongWon] That’s pegged to the reporting schedules that they have to give back to the NEA because they’re… If they’re getting money from the federal government, they need to tell the government, “Hey, we fulfilled our grants.” Right? So, generally, they’re taking those applications so that they can report back, “Yes, we’ve given out X dollars.” Right? So when you’re looking at applying for these things, keep in mind that they want you to apply. They need you to apply. Otherwise, they have to give that money back to the government, and they don’t want to do that. Right? Because that’s also a part of their operating expenses. So they are very eager for you to apply. They want you to do that. So, I’m really encouraging you to take this very seriously and throw your hat in the ring.

[Mary Robinette] One of the things to also recognize about this is that there’s an extremely long… There’s a long timeline.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] So this is also one of the things when I was applying for grants when we were doing theater… Puppet theater, that you’re applying for a grant now for a show that you’re going to do in two years often, there was this really long cycle. Frequently people… I will see people in science fiction and fantasy who are just trying to get a grant for, like a convention. They’re like, “We’re going to do something next week.” I’m like, “No. There’s no window there.”

[Erin] Even with project proposals, for the ones that will say, like, “I want to get money to, like, write my short story collection,” I wouldn’t say, “and I’ve got 10 of the 12 stories done today.” Because by the time they give you the grant, they figure you’re done. A lot of times, what you’re pitching them is the project after the one you’re currently working on. But you can pitch it like a dream, like they’re not actually going to hold you to it, and be like, “You didn’t put this specific element in.” It’s really about painting a picture of what it is that you do think that you would like to write. What could you do if you had unlimited resources, what could you do if you had time to do it? Then, just put that dream on paper. Because a lot of what you’re trying to do… Like, I know, guys… I know you all like grants and fellowships can sound really dry. But what you’re doing is you are building a dream of what you wish your creative life could be and then giving that dream to somebody else, selling it to someone else, and saying invested in my dream. Dream this with me. So what you want to be doing when you’re writing up these things is saying, like, “It’s not just I want to write a story about a robot. It’s that I want to explore the way that robots really make us understand our humanity in a different way.” That’s something that moves me and it’s something that should move you. So that even if I wrote a different story, you know that it’s coming out of this place that’s really exciting and really makes you think differently about the world.

[Mary Robinette] One of the things that grant givers will often be looking for is what I call impact. Which is, what are the ripple effects from giving this grant to someone? So, if it’s like we can give this grant to this person and it’s going to make their life better. That’s great. But if there’s someone who’s writing caliber is the same and you can see, oh, this is going to have these ripple effects where it’s going to affect these different communities, that person is going to weight higher, because they have more impact. That… Because they do have a limited amount of money, so they want the most impact for the dollar.

[Erin] It can be a little scary. Because I think we’re used to thinking about the next story and the next book and not thinking about you as like a product and you as an artist. I actually think whether or not you apply to a grant or fellowship, it’s really nice to think about what are you doing? Like, look at the stories that you’ve written, the things that interest you, the media you’re looking at. What is it about storytelling, the way that you tell stories, that’s different than everybody else? What is it that draws your eye?

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Or that would draw other people to you? I think that’s a beautiful thing that you get a chance to do in an artistic is to think about self that way.

[DongWon]. Totally. It’s really interesting, because for publishing, we don’t ask for an artist statement, we don’t ask for that kind of personal statement. But it’s what I’m looking for, it’s what I’m trying to figure out when I’m reading your query, when I’m reading your work, is what your whole deal? Why are you doing this? Right? That’s an important question for me is understanding what is your impact? Why are you trying to do this? Right? So, learning to articulate that in an explicit way will help you communicate that when you are approaching the publishing process. Because that’s a big part of your story. So much of publishing well is being good at telling your story in addition to here’s what the book is. Right? So, learning to pitch pitch yourself for the grants process is very similar to learning to pitch yourself for the publishing process.

[Erin] And for the convention process. I was thinking, like, the other time that your asked to write a paragraph of who you are and what you can talk about is a lot of times if you’re trying to be part of a convention. They’ll ask you for, like, what could you speak about, like, where should we put you on panels? Being able to do that in a compelling way can help you get selected for panels and for things. [DongWon] Absolutely.

[Erin] Which is just a great part, if that’s something that your into in your career.

[DongWon] So what are some red flags to look for when you’re looking at considering applying for a grant, or especially applying for a residence what are things that make you go, “Oh. Maybe not this one.” Right? Or maybe they’ve all gone well? Right? Maybe this isn’t a big concern as much as it can be when you’re trying to find an agent or a publisher. Right? But I have to imagine not all arts organizations are created equal. Right?

[Erin] See, I would say… First of all, just like know yourself a little bit. Like, I don’t know that I want to spend three months in the Mojave Desert alone. And applying for things just because they’re there is, like, not the best. You can always challenge yourself, but if you’re like, “I don’t know how I would do with solitude in a residency.” Maybe apply for a one week alone residency and see how it goes. Or spend a week in your house alone without talking to anybody, and say, “Did that work for me?”

[Chuckles]

[Erin] There’s one residency that I’m afraid of called Back to Basics in Finland where for two months, you just hang out and you’re not allowed to use your phone or Wi-Fi at all. I know many people…

[DongWon] I’ll see you guys in two months.

[Chuckles]

[Erin] Who are like, “Yes.” I’m like, “Nah. I think I’d want to check my email.”

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. I’m like… I can’t even imagine you without constant access.

[Erin] Exactly. So part of it’s like know the type of experiences that you want to have. I think one of the things that can happen, same thing with publishing, is you’re so used to asking. You want to ask, that when somebody says yes, you think I’ve got to go. But sometimes it’s like, no, you don’t.

[DongWon, Mary Robinette chorus] Yeah.

[Erin] So, I also Google it, I try to look at, like, other people who have gone. Do they seem depressed after? [Garbled]

[chuckles]

[Erin] Afterwards, other Instagram pictures, are through a sad filter? But what does it look like to be there? Is it something that seems reputable? Is it… Are you going to be alone or with other people? What are they asking you for? Is there money involved that you have to turn over? Then, also trying to find them through reputable places. I’ll also list in the liner notes, there’s like an alliance of residential programs that kind of is like an overshooting body of a lot of these organizations. So they sometimes know, like… Somebody writes you an email, like, “I’ve got a cabin, come stay for free.” Check, maybe, if they’re on that…

[Chuckles]

[Erin] Ax murderer? Or philanthropist?

[Laughter]

[Mary Robinette] Hard to tell sometimes.

[Erin] [garbled] same coin. So, check to see if they’re on the list, or if anybody else has ever done it that you know. That’s also a way to tell, by the way… Sorry for the slight ramble… If you qualify. Because sometimes they use confusing language. For example, early career artist. There’s a fellowship out of Princeton and one out of Radcliffe where they basically give you 90,000 dollars and a year to just be an artist. Sounds great. It’s for early career. But, if you look at who’s gotten it, it’s like so and so, who’s on their third book. Which is still early, but, like, maybe not as early as you might have thought.

[Mary Robinette] Yes.

[Erin] When you went to apply. So it’s nice to see who’s gotten it, what kind of writing they’re doing to see are you falling into sort of the realm of what the other people are doing. You can throw as many applications as you’d like in, and a lot of them are now waiving their application fees if you don’t have money for. But I think it’s always good to like line up your application with the general idea of what they’re looking for, which I think is really a good thing to do.

[Mary Robinette] I do actually want to mention application fees, because that can be another red flag. If you look at their funding model and they’re not getting any funding from outside sources and it’s all coming from application fees that’s a scam and do not apply for it.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] An application fee, in and of itself, is not a red flag. Because there is administrative expenses, and, honestly, sometimes people have application fees just to keep people from applying. It’s a form of gatekeeping so that they are not inundated. It’s like, oh, are you serious about this or are you just filling it out because it’s a form on the Internet? So… But, if their funding model has no donors, if there’s no… Like, they don’t have any other income source, uh uh. Or if the amount of prize that they’re going to award is like… Look at the ratio between how big the fee is… It’s like you have to pay 100 dollars to apply for this prize, and we’re going to give out a 500 dollar prize.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Scam.

[DongWon] Exactly.

[Erin] Yeah.

[DongWon] What is your best experience with this process? Right? Whether it was a grant or a prize or a residency. What was the thing that when you think about it, you’re like, yeah, this was worth it, I loved doing this?

[Erin]It’s hard, because… Honestly, in all truth, they’re all great. I love money from everyone. Thank you.

[chuckles]

[Erin] Don’t hate me, people who aren’t mentioned. But I think that the residential experiences that I’ve had, one at Hedgebrook and one at Storyknife, have been amazing. Hedgebrook is just off Whidbey Island near Seattle. Storyknife is in Alaska. I think for me, there’s something amazing about being in a community with other writers in a really… I mean, there’s no expectations and they also feed you. Like, the food alone is a good reason to go.

[Chuckles]

[Erin] But I think it’s also a way to get away from your life and also say to yourself, “I a writer,” in a very concrete way. I think you can get a grant, or fellowship, or a prize, and it’s amazing. But there’s something about living the I am a writer life with other people and saying, like, “Oh, we’re all creatives living together,” and talking about the things that you’re interested in. I mean, it’s the same reason I love Writing Excuses, getting a chance to talk about writing with other people who are knowledgeable and smart and amazing, and also for food.

[Laughter]

[Erin] So that is… I mean, those have been standouts for me. I will say, like, I’m going to just acknowledge right now that there’s a lot of privilege in being able to take that time away from your life and participate in a residency. Some of them are a week or two weeks, a month. There are some that are whole years long, if you really want to get away from your life. So it’s not for everyone and everyone can’t do it. But, for me, it’s been really beneficial and I would say that if you get money from someone and you might be able to create your own residency, like, for yourself, maybe you could get a grant or a fellowship, and then say, what I’m going to do is rent a cheap AirB&B…

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] In my town or… And then get away and, like, use that to get a babysitter so that I can write at this period of time. So I do think there’s something nice about taking those types of opportunities and using them to, say, “I am a writer and I write.”

[DongWon] Thank you so much for explaining all this to us, walking us through the process. That has been really helpful for me, just understanding a little bit more. But… Before we go, I believe you have a little bit of homework for our listeners?

[Erin] I do have some homework. It’s not going to be a shock. I want you to write a personal artistic statement. Just a paragraph of who you are as an artist. Actually, I’m just going to throw this out there without getting permission from anyone like our producer. But, I would love to see some of these. Like, if you all want to share with us on social media or through our Patreon, like, share who you are as an artist and let us celebrate you and celebrate the artist that you are and the artist that you will continue to be.

[DongWon] I would love to see those. Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. Me, too. I’m like, “Oh, let’s put some of those in the newsletter.”

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] All right. Thank you so much.

[Mary Robinette] This has been Writing Excuses. You’re out of excuses. Now go write.