A person is a fool to become a writer.
His only compensation is absolute freedom.
— Roald Dahl
I like Kristopher Reisz. He is a funny man:
So the question is why am I more comfortable telling people I�m an unemployed deadbeat than a writer? I think it�s the same Puritan voice that makes me so excited about investing. Even if I�m making money at writing, it doesn�t really feel like a job. A job means you�re down in the coal mines or out irrigating the back forty. It does not mean that you spent yesterday in your pajamas fine-tuning a joke about chest hair.
I understand this. I feel his pain, have encountered—maybe not the same internal Puritanical voice—but certainly the piercing external eye of actual Puritans. And I, too, have walked through the fire of Writer’s Guilt—that guilt induced by spending yesterday in your pajamas fine-tuning a joke about chest hair while your poor brothers and sisters slave away digging ditches. Which, if you’ve never suffered from it, is much like surviving a plane crash, or avoiding a boil on your lip, or driving in heavy Chicago traffic on a hot summer day when everyone inside the car except you is suffering from a violent case of diarrhea and it’s rush hour and the next exit is still ten miles away. Good times.
So now I like the Writer’s Guilt. I embrace the Writer’s Guilt. I raise my fist to the sky and say, “Hail, Writer’s Guilt!” Because I really, really, enjoy being gainfully unemployed. And a deadbeat. I feel like such a rebel.
PBW discusses plot development:
It’s not how you plot as much as it’s that you get into the habit of thinking about plot from the start of the novel concept. Doing that trains you to think in story versus detail.
And from Funds for Writers:
INTERNSHIP
Jane Goodall Foundation
http://www.idealist.org/en/internships/85493-203/102535-256
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The Communications Department plays an integral role in the organization, working to convey and promote the mission of JGI to the public and the media. Interns gain valuable, hands-on experience in all aspects of the department and get a behind-the-scenes look at a small, but growing, nonprofit organization. The internship requires a three-month to four-month commitment and includes a $1000 monthly stipend. This is a full-time position at JGI-USA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia (across from the Ballston Metro station).
Duties:
1) Writing and editing content for the JGI website
2) Maintaining media lists
3) Writing press releases, etc.
4) Organizing and maintaining the clips archive
5) Supervising the merchandise program
6) Managing the schedule and work of Communications Department
volunteers.
ATLANTA TRIBUNE
http://www.atlantatribune.com/writerguidelines.html
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Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine is Georgia�s leading minority source for thought-provoking, relevant news and information on business, careers, technology and wealth-building. Our audience is progressive, community-involved, culturally aware and family-oriented executives, professionals and entrepreneurs. Pays up to $600 for up to 2,500 words.
PENNSYLVANIA INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS
http://www.midatlanticarts.org/funding/artists_programs/pa.html
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Deadline online – August 1, 2006. Awards are either $5,000 or $10,000. Categories offered every other year. Current disciplines being offered are: dance-choreography, folk and traditional arts, literature-poetry, media arts – documentary and experimental, music – classical composition – theatre – scriptworks, and visual arts – painting or artist books or new technology.
And for the playwrights:
Working Title Playwrights, Atlanta – http://www.workingtitleplaywrights.com/
Chicago Dramatists – http://www.chicagodramatists.org/home/index.html
Playwrights Platform, Boston – http://www.playwrightsplatform.org/
Gary Garrison (a leading playwright, teacher and resource center) – http://www.garygarrison.com/etc.htm
The Playwrights’ Center, Minneapolis – http://www.pwcenter.org/
Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights – http://www.laplaywrights.org/
Austin (TX) Script Works – http://www.scriptworks.org/index.php