How I got the government to pay me to write stories
Yes, really.
Please excuse the clickbait-y title; that’s really not my style. But, writer, you HAVE to know about this. It sounded too good to be true when I first heard about this, but not only was it a real thing, but I got to benefit from it. I’m talking about Arts Council grants. If you’re in the UK, there’s an Arts Council for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and they regularly give out free money to creative practitioners. If you’re elsewhere in the world, search online for ‘grants for writers’ — you may be surprised what is available.
So, what’s the catch? There isn’t one — IF you get awarded a grant. The catch (if you can call it that) is that these grants are competitive. For the British Arts Council grants, you’re competing against artists, musicians, dancers, actors and all kinds of other creative practitioners, and the pot of funds is limited. The Arts Council itself states that they can’t support every good project they’d like to. So, if you’re going to apply, do your research, read the application forms carefully, and make your application the best it can be.
The grant I was awarded was a DYCP grant from the Arts Council England. These are the most accessible grants for individual writers. DYCP stands for ‘developing your creative practice’, which does what it says on the tin. The aim of this grant is for any creative practitioner to have the time to develop their creative practice, which they would struggle to do without the grant. For me, this meant I was able to salary myself part-time for the year, which meant I didn’t have to take up freelance writing work for others and could devote those hours for my writing. It also meant I could pay for courses, workshops, books, and a creative mentor.
You can imagine what a boost to my writing journey this was, not only did it feel like a great accolade to have been awarded this grant, but my writing developed and improved so much over that year. I was focusing on flash fiction during that time, and was able to put together a flash collection and collate my novella-in-flash.
You may as well give it a go — apply for a grant and see what happens. If you don’t ask, you don’t get! If you’re interested in me posting more about exactly who is eligible for the DYCP grant and/or how to apply, do drop a comment. I’ve run interactive Zoom workshops three times on how to apply for this grant (once for the wonderful Writers’ HQ community). I can run that here, if there’s enough interest. Maybe offer a chat option for you to answer your questions. And, don’t forget, I offer editing and feedback services to writers, and I can happily look at grant application forms as part of that. Find out more on my website.
Do let me know how you get on!
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