The Frustrations of a Broke Ass Writer
A Compilation Story
“Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction”- F. Scott Fitzgerald
When my family and I moved from a gigantic city in Arizona to a teeny, tiny town in Iowa I didn’t know much about the town other than we had greatly reduced our chances of getting shot by 80%.
As time went on I learned more about farming, and Rural America, and families living paycheck to paycheck.
I fell in love with Iowa. The land and all it’s beauty, the hard working farmers that put food on our nation’s tables and the small towns filled with history and culture.
One day I had an awesome idea! It came to me like a wave rippling in the ocean. My body temperature rose with excitement. I grabbed the map of Iowa and ran upstairs to share my awesome idea with my husband.
“Hey husband, this is the scoop,” I said.
“Yes, that is an awesome idea,” he responded. “I love it. Tell me what you need from me and I’ll support you in any way I can.”
(My husband is the best guy ever, for real.)
I began planning and calculating. I needed to crunch the numbers to see exactly what it would take to make my project happen. I called a family meeting to plan a route on the map together and do some research on Iowa.
My son discovered that Iowa is home to the world’s largest popcorn ball. Who knew? However, it does make sense since Iowa is the largest corn producer in the United States.
Three hours later our tour across the state of Iowa was planned.
Next up, funding. I applied for grants. Yeah, no. I started a Kickstater. Three weeks later at only 3% of the goal it felt like a knife through the heart. My husband’s efforts to be supportive have been endless. One day he emailed me this link:
This would be helpful if I were just writing a book but this is more than a book. It’s virtual journalism, and a book. It did spark our curiosity though. He and I stayed up most of that night and researched crowdfunding websites and local and statewide government websites. Someone must want to support my project, right? Maybe they just didn’t know it yet.
Our research concluded that my best option was to start an Indigogo Generosity campaign. Generosity is focused on social awareness, charitable causes and medical expenses. My project fell into the requirements for social awareness so they won’t charge any fees.
Once my campaign was set and ready to go I shared it everywhere on social media and to thousands of people. I sent an announcement of my project to the press with no response of any kind. I went a step further (and somewhat stalker-ish) and posted it on local and statewide newspaper’s Facebook pages. After three days I have one contribution (I’m grateful for).
I can’t help but to think I’ve just got to get my foot in the door. I need to step up my game with promotion and marketing.
I also thought about how to earn the money to put toward my project. I freelance but any writer knows that unless you make it to the New York Time’s Bestseller list or sell the movie rights, being a writer is a broke ass, struggle of a profession.
I’m frustrated, but I will reach my goal.
Ironically, there was an opening for newspaper delivery in the town I live in. It pays only $600 a month but I called. $600 a month would still fund my project, it would just take years to complete instead of my goal of ten months.
I’m going to start out close to home, with bagged lunches and gas money. We’ll be traveling to Pella, Iowa this weekend. Pella was settled by the Dutch in 1847 and to this day the Dutch heritage is celebrated with the annual Tulip Time Festival. See you there!
You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter and The Huffington Post. You can follow my cats on the “Crazy Cat Lady Photoblog.”
