My Philosophy

Many literary writers struggle with grants because they don’t realize grant writing is a new genre.

Be patient with yourself. It may have taken you years to learn to excel at your genre of choice, be it poetry or fiction or creative nonfiction. Why should grant writing be any different? Maybe you learned a lot about your chosen genre on your own, but likely there was a point at which you wanted to work with a teacher, whether that meant affordable webinars or a more intensive mentorship. 

You’re a literary writer who has never applied for a grant, or you have but you’ve never been successful. You feel overwhelmed with where to start, how to find grants, or what steps to take. Or you feel frustrated that you don’t know how to make your grant applications stronger. Is there some secret sauce some people know that you don’t?

Many writers think they should be able to sit down and know how to fill out an excellent grant application. They’re writers, after all! But if you’re a fiction writer, would you expect to write award-winning poetry on your first try? Learning anything for the first time takes practice. Grantwriting is no different, even for writers.

Some writers get a grant the first time they apply—that was me! But I also had access to this free grant guide, which I followed step-by-step. To be honest, it was a part-time job I dedicated myself to for three months, so maybe it’s not surprising that I received a grant for my first-ever application. 

However, coming across my old resume recently, I remember that I was a paid grantwriter in my 20s! Twice I was a paid assistant who put together applications for groups of history professors in a summer job. My boss coached me on grant writing skills. Surely I fell back on these learnings when I worked on my first literary grant proposal! I’m sure my confidence that I could do the thing was based on this job experience and knowledge. 

Do you have any grantwriting experience in your background? What about scholarship writing? A recent client pointed out to me that these types of writing are fairly similar! If you’ve ever filled out a scholarship or bursary application for any level of schooling, you already have experience in making a case for why you deserve financial support for your art or science or whatever your discipline!

If you don’t, that’s okay too! The first step to learning anything is discovering what you don’t know. And knowing that putting together a grant application will take time and effort. Which is, by the way, usually a lot more involved than the ‘grantwriting’ part, i.e. answering their questions. 

Like riding a bike, you may fall down and gain the bruises of rejection, but with the right guidance and support, eventually you will get it: either how to write a strong application, and maybe even get a grant. And then you will have those copywriting skills for the rest of your life!

If you don’t learn the new genre of grantwriting before submitting a grant proposal, you could become frustrated if you get a rejection and don’t know how to improve your odds. You may grow jaded and stop applying for grants altogether. Without grant funding, you may have less time to work on your manuscript or may not get the professional development training you need. 

But you also might be perfectly fine! Following the free grant guide like I did, you may get a grant on your first try. Maybe your writing sample and CV are super strong, or you instinctively know what the grant jury is looking for. There’s no harm in trying! As long as a rejection won’t get you down too much and you’ll try, try again!

If you want to improve your chances, then I recommend you try thinking about grantwriting as a new genre that you need to learn. How much do you know already? Maybe it’s a lot! Then seek out resources and support to help you along the way. 

If you have lots of free time, you may want to stick to free resources and study them closely. 

If you have limited time, you may want to invest in some additional guidance to help speed up the learning curve, saving yourself months of time and effort, and increasing your chances. 

Remember, there are no guarantees: the success of a super strong grant application will still depend on the preferences of the jury, the amount of funding available in that particular round, and how many people have applied in your cohort, and how your application stacks up amongst them. Grants are very competitive.

The best advice I can give is to keep going! Keep applying over and over again, as many times as you can. To the same grant, and to different ones. Keep improving your application materials and your writing sample.

I highly recommend seeking out resources and support that can help you learn how to put together a strong grant application. Again, here is the free guide that got me started! Here are some other free resources. I suggest carving out 1 hour each week to work through the grant guide and the other free resources and to do the exercises they suggest.

For my first successful grant application, I began working through the free grant guide three months in advance for a couple of hours a week, then 6 weeks in advance I increased that to 1 day per week. Then in the final 8 days before the deadline, that’s all I worked on, even through the weekend. It was a lot of work! Again, I got the grant. You can try this too!

You may reach a point where you want to move beyond free resources, or you want to speed up that timeline.

Whether or not you work with me, I recommend working with someone who has a history of receiving grant funding—ideally in the very same grant you’re applying for! 

You can ask them: 

• When did you last receive a grant?
• When did you last receive this exact grant? Or a similar literary grant?
• How many times have you received this grant, or a similar grant?
• How many grants have you received in total, over how many years? 
• And anything else you’d like to know about their qualifications and experience!

Literary writers often struggle with grantwriting because they don’t realize it’s a new genre and skill they need to learn. 

You can go it alone and see what happens! Or you can put in some time and effort to explore this new genre well ahead of any grant deadline, and gain copywriting skills that will help with other writerly tasks such as your book proposal, query letter, and back-cover copy!

If this resonates, you might want to book a free 15-minute call with me. You can also check out my services page. (Please note that my availability is seasonal; I take August and December off.)