I received grant funds to learn short story writing from a mentor and for feedback from Writer’s Odyssey. The grant was from the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council.
(This is their logo)
Meeting all of the requirements for this has been a challenge.
The work was great. I ended up with over ten short stories this year ranging from 1500 words up to 6000 words each. Working with my mentor was a lot of fun.
However, ensuring I don’t have to repay funds for accidental missteps was a frustrating part of the process. There were so many little requirements that I didn’t understand or remember when I first read them.
Also, one person stated that a venue presentation was not necessary while others said it was. My issue with the venue isn’t just my introversion, it’s in that learning doesn’t always produce quality work that I am comfortable printing and sharing. It produces drafts… and drafts need a lot of work. I’d love to see them in the world someday, when they are ready. And not before.
However, I am grateful for the chance I had to learn from a fantastic mentor, Fran Wilde, who is an extremely accomplished and extremely kind person.
I may end up having to repay the grant because I missed a step, which is a bummer. Writers don’t make money unless they have been successful with publications, and that is much harder than it seems. This year I have had over twenty-five rejections and zero acceptances. Three stories are on submission now, but it might be months before I hear back from them. This is just a reality of being a writer.
Even if I end up having to pay the grant back, the experience was worthwhile. Fran and I looked at a lot of short stories, investigating and studying them. I wrote drafts and sent her pages for feedback. Each month we spoke on the phone for an hour or two. That was by far my favorite part and already I miss these super encouraging talks. She’d follow these with a note about the things we covered, learned, and discussed. While sometimes I wished the feedback was more extensive, getting to connect with a successful writer was such a neat experience. I also learned techniques to draft stories faster, learned the value of studying other stories to inform my own choices, and about the power of revision and feedback.
I have not received my feedback from the Writer’s Odyssey yet, but I sent three short stories to them with an expected feedback return day of October 11th, 2025. The stories are in the hands of my assigned reviewer already.
I’ve messaged the local library to see about giving a talk or talking to people there and may also set up a table at the arts and crafts sale Mid-November in my hometown.
I’ll try to update after the feedback comes from Odyssey.
Until then,
Thanks for reading!
laurenvoeltz 