Category Archives: writing

You’re Old and You Write Too Much

Yes, someone actually said that to me. Well, not exactly. What I was told was that I need to think younger in order to market to a younger audience and that my blog posts should be shorter.  Short. Pithy. Fun.

Apparently, being myself is no longer the best way to succeed.

As for being old, I’m not quite sure when that happened.  Of course, I’m not elderly by any stretch, but I know what the person who said it meant. There was a time when I was the youngest and  smartest (or so I thought) person in the room.  Not anymore. And believe it or not, I find sometimes that I get stuck on old ideas or old ways of doing things (“It works; don’t fix it.”) just like the old folks I used to criticize did.  Ouch.

So, I’m actively trying to open my mind to new ideas and to “think young.” The “think young” part isn’t easy because my brain keeps chiming in with thoughts like, “That’s messy!” or “That’s not professional.” I have to make myself push aside that first thought and take a new look.

As for writing too much, yeah, I’m guilty. I’ve always had the bad habit of writing more than anyone wanted to read. In elementary school, the other kids got minimum length requirements and the teachers always gave me maximum limits. I’m the writing equivalent of someone who talks too much, and no one likes the person who hogs the conversation.

So, I’ll be more brief.

Starting now.

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Want lots of grant writing tips?  Take a look at 101 Tips for Aspiring Grant Writers.

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Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Writing is My Fascination

Excellent writing fascinates me because it is so powerful. I believe that writers are born. But even born writers must be trained. I was a writer from a young age. I made comic books for my brother, and I told him stories at night about my stuffed animals to make him laugh.
My training has mostly been outside the classroom. I was educated in California where grammar wasn’t taught. It was considered an unnecessary encumbrance to the creative process. I drive my editors insane.
“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.” Ernest Hemingway


I write a lot. I write almost all the time. I write on the bus. I write at the coffee shop. I write at home. I write for a living.
When I am not writing, I am usually reading. I read on a Kindle, a smart phone, and an HP Netbook. I also have shelves of books I haven’t time to read yet. But the collection grows because I can’t help collecting interesting titles.
“Read everything–trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out.” William Faulkner


The written word is no less magic for me within a grant proposal than it is within a fictional book about goblins and faeries. Description and beautiful arrangement of words, phrases, and sentences stands out when you read it no matter what it’s about. There is a flow to excellent writing that is simply wonderful. Achieving that flow is mastery. Every once in a while I’ll write something that comes close to achieving the flow. But it’s hard work and I don’t do achieve that level as often as I aspire to do.
“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.” Ray Bradbury


Writing a fine narrative is hard work that requires hours of revising, polishing, and editing. There’s no way around the work, there are no shortcuts.
“God sells us all things at the price of the labor.” Leonardo da Vinci 


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Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Writer Recharged and Writing

Derek, our non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, is back from his vacation and ready to get back to work:

My vac’s and hol’s* are over for now and I definitely feel recharged by the beauty of the Faith Valley where I was fortunate enough to spend a few days. People not from Northern California may think that beaches, surfers, bikinis, and Hollywood are an accurate representation of California. Many people outside California do not know that Northern California exists at all, or if they do, they may think that San Francisco is representative of our little piece of Paradise.

I know it’s probably irrational to let you in on the truth, mostly because you may want to come here to live, thereby overpopulating the place with ATV’s. But I trust your ability to comprehend the value of the place pictured here, and the rarity of being able to experience such an unspoiled environment and to care for it properly.

If you do plan to come visit the places pictured here, please treat the place with the reverence it deserves. By that I mean, pack out your trash, be careful with camp fires, don’t shoot anything, catch and release what you can’t eat, don’t strip limbs off trees to cook marshmallows with, etc. In other words, just be a good human please, and if you don’t, my mother will probably be castigating you publicly in the meadow with a fury known only by the few who have survived it.

Here are a few pictures:

Faith Valley, Alpine County, California, USA – (One of three connected valleys, Hope, Faith, and Charity – Interestingly, this picture looks a lot like the one that Veronica chose for my previous post and strangely, she has never been there!)

A coyote – (Wiley-looking ¿qué no?)

A Faith Valley sunset – (ahhhhh…)

I’ll be using these pics for my desktop background for a month or two so I can quickly go back in my mind to the peace and serenity of that place, the breezes blowing the sage, the Chickadees chattering while busily cleaning insects off the pines, and the screech of the Marsh Hawks chasing away the Bald Eagle who dared to soar through their territory.

Back to grant writing now – and happily so – recharged as only Faith Valley can make me (well, maybe Kauai too).

*Canadian for vacation

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Looking for some rgeat grant writing resources?  Become a member of GrantGoddess.com!

Grant Writer Recharged and Writing

Derek, our non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, is back from his vacation and ready to get back to work:

My vac’s and hol’s* are over for now and I definitely feel recharged by the beauty of the Faith Valley where I was fortunate enough to spend a few days. People not from Northern California may think that beaches, surfers, bikinis, and Hollywood are an accurate representation of California. Many people outside California do not know that Northern California exists at all, or if they do, they may think that San Francisco is representative of our little piece of Paradise.

I know it’s probably irrational to let you in on the truth, mostly because you may want to come here to live, thereby overpopulating the place with ATV’s. But I trust your ability to comprehend the value of the place pictured here, and the rarity of being able to experience such an unspoiled environment and to care for it properly.

If you do plan to come visit the places pictured here, please treat the place with the reverence it deserves. By that I mean, pack out your trash, be careful with camp fires, don’t shoot anything, catch and release what you can’t eat, don’t strip limbs off trees to cook marshmallows with, etc. In other words, just be a good human please, and if you don’t, my mother will probably be castigating you publicly in the meadow with a fury known only by the few who have survived it.

Here are a few pictures:

Faith Valley, Alpine County, California, USA – (One of three connected valleys, Hope, Faith, and Charity – Interestingly, this picture looks a lot like the one that Veronica chose for my previous post and strangely, she has never been there!)

A coyote – (Wiley-looking ¿qué no?)

A Faith Valley sunset – (ahhhhh…)

I’ll be using these pics for my desktop background for a month or two so I can quickly go back in my mind to the peace and serenity of that place, the breezes blowing the sage, the Chickadees chattering while busily cleaning insects off the pines, and the screech of the Marsh Hawks chasing away the Bald Eagle who dared to soar through their territory.

Back to grant writing now – and happily so – recharged as only Faith Valley can make me (well, maybe Kauai too).

*Canadian for vacation

————————-

Looking for some rgeat grant writing resources?  Become a member of GrantGoddess.com!

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

How Positive Writing Makes a Better Grant

Yesterday on my Twitter account (Grant_Writer if you want to follow me) I received a tweet from someone I won’t name and the gist of the tweet was that this person was watching a single Mom struggling on a teacher’s salary to put a child through college – “sigh”.

Well, I thought this warped perspective must have some relevance or I wouldn’t have been meant to see it. Before pondering the significance of this to grant writing, I replied to the person’s tweet something to the effect that the person is indeed fortunate to be “struggling” with a “salary” (of any kind in this economy) and a “child in college” (what a great burden). Life could be so much worse.

Grants must be written from a perspective of abundance and positive energy. While there may well be some difficult circumstances that caused the grant to be needed, like extremely low reading levels among 4th grade students, or hunger and homelessness, or whatever the need may be, the reader wants to hear about the hope the grant provides for overcoming those circumstances. The reader wants to believe that your grant will resolve those issues, and that you are confident and competent to accomplish the objectives.

Writing that presents a “woe-is-me” attitude simply makes me want to jump off a bridge. I may well sympathize with the needs presented, and usually this is the strongest section of even a bad grant because most everyone can point out what’s wrong. But pointing out what is right that will lead to a positive outcome is the key.

Take my twitter “followee” as an example. This person could have tweeted something like, “So proud of my friend putting her child through college on a teacher’s salary-hurrah!” – Or – “My friend’s struggle to put her child through college on a teacher’s salary will pay off! She’s my hero!”

It’s all in the perspective, so choose to write grant narratives in a positive tone, one that promotes your energy, that clearly illustrates your fresh ideas, and that forcefully expresses confidence in your competent ability to overcome the current reality and create a better tomorrow!

By Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer Derek Link

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Check out some grant samples at http://grantsample.com/ .

How Positive Writing Makes a Better Grant

Yesterday on my Twitter account (Grant_Writer if you want to follow me) I received a tweet from someone I won’t name and the gist of the tweet was that this person was watching a single Mom struggling on a teacher’s salary to put a child through college – “sigh”.

Well, I thought this warped perspective must have some relevance or I wouldn’t have been meant to see it. Before pondering the significance of this to grant writing, I replied to the person’s tweet something to the effect that the person is indeed fortunate to be “struggling” with a “salary” (of any kind in this economy) and a “child in college” (what a great burden). Life could be so much worse.

Grants must be written from a perspective of abundance and positive energy. While there may well be some difficult circumstances that caused the grant to be needed, like extremely low reading levels among 4th grade students, or hunger and homelessness, or whatever the need may be, the reader wants to hear about the hope the grant provides for overcoming those circumstances. The reader wants to believe that your grant will resolve those issues, and that you are confident and competent to accomplish the objectives.

Writing that presents a “woe-is-me” attitude simply makes me want to jump off a bridge. I may well sympathize with the needs presented, and usually this is the strongest section of even a bad grant because most everyone can point out what’s wrong. But pointing out what is right that will lead to a positive outcome is the key.

Take my twitter “followee” as an example. This person could have tweeted something like, “So proud of my friend putting her child through college on a teacher’s salary-hurrah!” – Or – “My friend’s struggle to put her child through college on a teacher’s salary will pay off! She’s my hero!”

It’s all in the perspective, so choose to write grant narratives in a positive tone, one that promotes your energy, that clearly illustrates your fresh ideas, and that forcefully expresses confidence in your competent ability to overcome the current reality and create a better tomorrow!

By Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer Derek Link

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Check out some grant samples at http://grantsample.com/ .

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Happily Slogging On!

Here are some thoughts from Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, on focus and perseverance:

Doing something difficult is always a trial of wills. You must enforce your will over the task, and over all other competing tasks. You must make a commitment that the task at hand is the one that matters most, and devote your focus on it entirely through the inevitably arduous march toward completion.

I’ve experienced this happy slog over and over in my life. Fortunately I got good advice about the slog along the way, and actually before I even began my first one (the university). I had a wonderful teacher in high school named Norm Barker. He was an architecture teacher and a terrifically talented person. He could do anything with his hands. I admired him because of those skills, and he was actually in my neighborhood so I got to see some of his handiwork first hand. He rebuilt a 1961 Porsche from paint to engine to upholstery, he built his own stereo speakers, he took an old wood-burning pot-bellied stove that he’d found in a field and welded up all the bullet holes and recast the missing parts and it was a thing of beauty when he finished.

What Mr. Barker taught me, in addition to some drafting skills, was that dedication to an endeavor produced good results. I recall that he was inspiring me to become an architect at one point as a student and he showed me a list of the courses at Cal Poly I’d need to take to become an architect. I remarked to him that I wasn’t good at math (truth be told, in high school I didn’t do my homework which mostly accounted for my poor math scores). He told me a valuable thing that sustained me throughout my Bachelor’s and my Master’s degrees: Mr. Barker said, “Derek, there’s nothing you can’t get through for one semester”. BRILLIANT ADVICE, Mr. Barker.

So, this is a long bird-walk to get to my topic of the Happy Slog. When you are in the midst of writing a grant and you’re feeling like you’ll never slog through it, just keep Mr. Barker’s advice in mind (with a little twist) “There’s nothing you can’t get through in three (fill in your deadline) weeks.” The deadline will come and go, so keep your mind focused and ignore all the competing distractions that are bound to come your way.

Slog on grant writers, slog on!

———————————-

Happily Slogging On!

Here are some thoughts from Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, on focus and perseverance:

Doing something difficult is always a trial of wills. You must enforce your will over the task, and over all other competing tasks. You must make a commitment that the task at hand is the one that matters most, and devote your focus on it entirely through the inevitably arduous march toward completion.

I’ve experienced this happy slog over and over in my life. Fortunately I got good advice about the slog along the way, and actually before I even began my first one (the university). I had a wonderful teacher in high school named Norm Barker. He was an architecture teacher and a terrifically talented person. He could do anything with his hands. I admired him because of those skills, and he was actually in my neighborhood so I got to see some of his handiwork first hand. He rebuilt a 1961 Porsche from paint to engine to upholstery, he built his own stereo speakers, he took an old wood-burning pot-bellied stove that he’d found in a field and welded up all the bullet holes and recast the missing parts and it was a thing of beauty when he finished.

What Mr. Barker taught me, in addition to some drafting skills, was that dedication to an endeavor produced good results. I recall that he was inspiring me to become an architect at one point as a student and he showed me a list of the courses at Cal Poly I’d need to take to become an architect. I remarked to him that I wasn’t good at math (truth be told, in high school I didn’t do my homework which mostly accounted for my poor math scores). He told me a valuable thing that sustained me throughout my Bachelor’s and my Master’s degrees: Mr. Barker said, “Derek, there’s nothing you can’t get through for one semester”. BRILLIANT ADVICE, Mr. Barker.

So, this is a long bird-walk to get to my topic of the Happy Slog. When you are in the midst of writing a grant and you’re feeling like you’ll never slog through it, just keep Mr. Barker’s advice in mind (with a little twist) “There’s nothing you can’t get through in three (fill in your deadline) weeks.” The deadline will come and go, so keep your mind focused and ignore all the competing distractions that are bound to come your way.

Slog on grant writers, slog on!

———————————-

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Rediscover the Joy in Writing

I have a son in kindergarten who is just learning to read and write.  In spite of his lack of technical skill, almost every evening he joyfully grabs some paper, pens, and colored pencils or crayons and sets out on the task of creating a book.  Lately, all his books are about Bakugon (a kids’ TV show), his current favorte obsession. He creates new characters, agnonizes over their characteristics, painstakingly “writes” his narrative, and creates elaborate illustrations to bring his ideas to life. Then he asks his father or me to staple or tape his book together.

No author on the New York Times Bestseller List is prouder than he is each time his new creation is complete.

Then he “reads” it to me (usually more than once) and he makes plans for how he’s going to share it with his class the next day. And his eyes gleam with excitement the whole time.

Now he’s after me to help him start a blog because he’s convinced that the whole world needs to hear what he has to say, and he has a neverending supply of imaginative stories to tell.

The sheer joy he experiences when he writes inspires me every day.

I wonder when that creative joy of writing turned into “work.” I think we rip the joy out of writing for children in school by constant focus on conventions and the writing process (including endless editing and rewriting),  rather than on content and creativity.  In his book, Readicide, Kelly Gallagher writes about how schools are killing reading through an over-focus on analysis.  I think we are doing the same thing to writing.

As adults, we have bought into the idea that writing has to be perfect or it’s bad, and that only those with a particular gift can or should write. Non-fiction and technical writing (including grant writing) have been relegated to a level below fiction and determined (by whom???) to be less creative, less deserving of praise than fiction.

I have already written about the real payoff to grant writing – the opportunity to see the grants you have written as they are brought to life and really change peoples’ lives. I have the honor of witnessing that over and over again.  I saw it again last night as I attended a public meeting and heard people talk about a very powerful program that made a difference in their lives – and I knew that two years ago, at about this time of year, it was all just a jumbled bunch of ideas in my head.  I put it on paper.  The government thought it was good enough to fund, and now it’s real. Wow!

But even for those that are not funded, is there value in their writing?  Absolutely!

My son has discovered the sheer joy that comes from having an idea and using writing as a means of preserving and sharing it. The idea of tempering that joy with criticism or correction never enters my mind when he is sharing.  There is a time for analysis, and focusing on the conventions of writing, but that time is not when an author is in the flow – or experiencing the joy of creatvity.

Can you remember that joy?  Did you lose it?  When? How about trying to get it back?

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Get some grant writing tips — GrantGoddess.com

Rediscover the Joy in Writing

I have a son in kindergarten who is just learning to read and write.  In spite of his lack of technical skill, almost every evening he joyfully grabs some paper, pens, and colored pencils or crayons and sets out on the task of creating a book.  Lately, all his books are about Bakugon (a kids’ TV show), his current favorte obsession. He creates new characters, agnonizes over their characteristics, painstakingly “writes” his narrative, and creates elaborate illustrations to bring his ideas to life. Then he asks his father or me to staple or tape his book together.

No author on the New York Times Bestseller List is prouder than he is each time his new creation is complete.

Then he “reads” it to me (usually more than once) and he makes plans for how he’s going to share it with his class the next day. And his eyes gleam with excitement the whole time.

Now he’s after me to help him start a blog because he’s convinced that the whole world needs to hear what he has to say, and he has a neverending supply of imaginative stories to tell.

The sheer joy he experiences when he writes inspires me every day.

I wonder when that creative joy of writing turned into “work.” I think we rip the joy out of writing for children in school by constant focus on conventions and the writing process (including endless editing and rewriting),  rather than on content and creativity.  In his book, Readicide, Kelly Gallagher writes about how schools are killing reading through an over-focus on analysis.  I think we are doing the same thing to writing.

As adults, we have bought into the idea that writing has to be perfect or it’s bad, and that only those with a particular gift can or should write. Non-fiction and technical writing (including grant writing) have been relegated to a level below fiction and determined (by whom???) to be less creative, less deserving of praise than fiction.

I have already written about the real payoff to grant writing – the opportunity to see the grants you have written as they are brought to life and really change peoples’ lives. I have the honor of witnessing that over and over again.  I saw it again last night as I attended a public meeting and heard people talk about a very powerful program that made a difference in their lives – and I knew that two years ago, at about this time of year, it was all just a jumbled bunch of ideas in my head.  I put it on paper.  The government thought it was good enough to fund, and now it’s real. Wow!

But even for those that are not funded, is there value in their writing?  Absolutely!

My son has discovered the sheer joy that comes from having an idea and using writing as a means of preserving and sharing it. The idea of tempering that joy with criticism or correction never enters my mind when he is sharing.  There is a time for analysis, and focusing on the conventions of writing, but that time is not when an author is in the flow – or experiencing the joy of creatvity.

Can you remember that joy?  Did you lose it?  When? How about trying to get it back?

————————-

Get some grant writing tips — GrantGoddess.com

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com