The Writing Platform has partnered with Arts Council England to run an advice session about funding for digital writers.

The event is taking place on Wednesday 8th April, 6.30pm – 8.30pm at
Arts Council’s London offices 21 Bloomsbury street, London, WC1B 3HF

Places are free but limited to 20. To book your place email Charlotte Aston on charlotte[dot]aston[at]artscouncil[dot]org[dot]uk

Have you pressed pause on an ambitious multimedia writing project while you work out what comes next? Are you a writer experimenting with digital technology and need some time to really delve in? Are you exploring the intersection of story, narrative, technology and design? Did you know that you could apply to Arts Council England for financial support?

As a Relationship Manager in the literature team, I advise individual writers at all stages of their careers to develop funding proposals for Grants for the arts, our open funding programme.

I’ve heard all the excuses. The application form is too long. The questions are too confusing. The likelihood of success is too small. In response I say the funding process is incredibly competitive so you will have to spend time developing a strong application and there is a chance your bid will be rejected. On the other hand, Grants for the arts exists to help artists and arts organisations of all kinds realise their ideas. So why not your idea? Why not you?

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. Achieving great art for everyone is our 10-year strategic plan, which contains priorities for supporting artistic talent at all stages of an individual’s career.

Writers can apply for a range of literary projects, including artistic collaborations, forays with digital technology, mentoring, research and development, storytelling and time to write. We focus primarily on funding activities relating to original fiction and poetry. We also consider activities with creative approaches to literary non-fiction.

Over the years, writers have asked for funding to enable them to complete poetry collections, pamphlets, stories and novels. Many have been published and printed, some have been projected and performed, a few have existed fleetingly or only ever online. We’ve funded spoken word artists to develop brand new multimedia shows, poets to undertake residencies within digital worlds and authors to deliver innovative writing and technology projects in schools, libraries and galleries.

We want readers in England to enjoy the multiplicity of voices that reflect the society we live in. So we want to support a diverse range of writers and genres of literature including children’s authors and illustrators, editors, graphic novelists, new media writers, novelists, poets, producers and translators to develop their skills, explore ideas, showcase their talents and reach new audiences. From our research, we know that writers experimenting with new forms of writing that make use of digital platforms need support to understand the possibilities in this dynamic area. We particularly welcome applications from these kinds of writers.

What else can we tell you? Grants for the arts funds projects, rather than ongoing activity. You’ll need to frame your idea into a well-argued project proposal, with a distinct time frame and outcome. It is a rolling programme with budgets spread across the year, so when you apply should not affect your chances of success.

Your track record will be taken into consideration when we decide whether to support your activity, so writers who have delivered successful writing projects or who have been traditionally published are often in a better position to demonstrate artistic quality. We fund organisations like Arvon, The Literary Consultancy, the Poetry School, The Writing Platform and regional literature development agencies to offer a range of services for writers early on in their careers.

One question you should ask yourself is whether now is the right time. It is important that you demonstrate how the activity will lead to significant artistic or professional development. You need to show that the funding will support you at a crucial point in your writing life.

Public engagement is another important consideration, even for time to write and research grants. Applications can be rejected if it is not clear how the work will be available to readers or audiences. You should think about ways in which the project will reach members of the public during the funded period and also beyond the life of the grant. This might be through publication, live events or an online showcase. Be clear on this, and as specific as possible.

Grants for the arts aims to be light touch, which means that you are assessed on what you’ve submitted in your application alone. Make sure you have provided enough information, as you won’t be chased for clarification!

Ready? Your next step is to browse the Grants for the arts pages of Arts Council England’s website, which includes an information sheet about literature projects.

If you need further inspiration, you can read about Martin Jackson’s work, Resident in Maps, which was supported by Grants for the arts; and you can watch spoken word performer, Polarbear, talk about how Grants for the arts has enabled him to develop his work in this video:

If your project has an international element then you might like to consider the Artists’ international development programme which offers opportunities individual artists, writers and producers to build links with creators and cultural organisations in another country.

And if you’re interested in technology in the arts you can keep up to date with trends and opportunities over on  The Space, a website for artists and audiences to create and explore new digital arts projects, set up by Arts Council England and the BBC.

The Writing Platform has partnered with Arts Council England to run an advice session about funding for digital writers.

The event is taking place on Wednesday 8th April, 6.30pm – 8.30pm at
Arts Council’s London offices 21 Bloomsbury street, London, WC1B 3HF

Places are free but limited to 20. To book your place email Charlotte Aston on charlotte[dot]aston[at]artscouncil[dot]org[dot]uk

Someone suggests a theme – perhaps the way a person’s tone shifts when talking about a loved one – and Daljit Nagra instantly writes a poem, keystroke by keystroke.

the warmth o-

f a blush

on his

eve-

r

so lightly altered voice

The words appear on two large projector screens in the Royal Festival Hall, linked directly to his laptop, which sits between.

Writer Sarah Butler is tucked behind a desk between the literary gift section and the shop counter. Prompted and encouraged by a family of booklovers eating cake and browsing the shelves of Woolfson & Tay, she writes a tale of four bunnies named Rose, Rabby, Snowflake and Nibbles.

Following an afternoon in the Jewish Museum’s archive and a quick review of his social media feeds, novelist Joe Dunthorne lists possible subjects to use as prompts. His tale of a miserable old man who steals the football from a game played next door is written for a Twitter user who watches online from home. “They have an instinct for weakness, children,” Joe writes. “It’s admirable, really, the accuracy with which they exploit human imperfection.”

Over seven weeks, David Varela and I managed a programme of events, each exploring writing as performance and also how digital technology can impact on the way writers write. For the Live Writing Series, we used technology developed by Alex Heeton and Riccardo Cambiassi to show every tap of the keyboard by seven writers, live online and in public. We put poets, scriptwriters and novelists in busy venues where they came face to face with the people they were writing for and about. Over 4,000 people engaged with the project, either in person or online, and almost 100 musings, poems, lectures, jokes, anecdotes, stories and other new pieces of writing were produced.

We had ambitious creative goals. Our aim was to offer writers taking part in the LWS project a chance to develop their improvisational skills, finding new sources of motivation, reaching new audiences in new contexts, and hopefully achieving a new mindset of openness regarding their writing practice. We were keen to see the range of work produced by writers under pressure and whether literature formed live, for screen rather than page, resulted in a new kind of text. We enjoyed seeing how the stories and poems had a fluid quality, how narrative and structure were looser, and that many of the pieces had a sense of immediacy and urgency.

Our plan was to produce technology for writers with fairly modest digital expertise. The live writing platform we have developed is functional and accessible. We don’t think that writers need to be well-versed in the digital world to develop an exciting online literature project. Rather, it’s a case of switching a writerly mind away from its traditional focus on the printed page towards the possibilities of a screen and real-time performance, and enjoying playing with the way text and stories can be presented and experienced online.

Since its conception in 2011, when Heeton and Cambiassi created the website and technology behind David Varela’s online writing project 100 Hours of Solitude, the live writing platform has been refined with a photo gallery, an area to highlight the most interesting pieces of work, and improved navigation. Our long-term aim is to keep developing it further with writers of all genres.

That includes writers who are keen to perform and those reluctant to; writers in the UK sat in venues with enormous screens; writers in other countries, their words beamed online to readers. We want to provide a tool that can be grabbed by other writers and used easily as part of a live production.

Technology has given us a chance to forge new relationships between readers and writers, turning conversation into inspiration, fans into patrons, and the act of writing into performance. By cultivating this skill in a generation of writers and opening up this possibility to new audiences, we hope the live writing platform could be a major step towards making the possibilities of digital literature available to all.

GS, DV 23.02.14

—

We interviewed Gemma and David in back in October at the start of the project. Read the interview here.

Last year David Varela wrote for 100 hours straight to raise money for the Arvon Foundation. Readers could watch every keystroke David made as he composed the commissions that people pledged for.

Now he has teamed up with writer, Gemma Seltzer, to produce a new Live Writing Series. Seven writers will be live writing at seven London venues between 25th October and 4th December. Visitors to the venue will be able to interact with the writers and once again readers will be able to watch them crafting the stories keystroke by keystroke.

We caught up with David and Gemma about the Live Writing Series and what it means for writers and readers.

Can you tell us a bit about how Live Writing works. What will the writers be doing and how will visitors and readers be able to interact with them?

David Varela: We’ve built a website – well, the wonderful Riccardo Cambiassi, Alex Heaton and Spela Strukelj have built a website – that shows every keystroke the writer makes, instantaneously, both online and on a big screen in the venue. Each writer is figuring out a slightly different way of deciding what to write. I’m going to be in a crowded gallery, so I’ll be asking people to write ideas down on paper and hand them to me, so I don’t get too overwhelmed. Sarah Butler is writing in a bookshop, so she’s asking visitors to hand her a book as a form of stimulus. We’ll also be inviting ideas online through the website and via Twitter (we’re @LiveWritingSrs).

Gemma Seltzer:  Members of the public  – in the venue and online – can ‘commission’ a short literary work or influence the writing in some way. They could write down an idea, a word or a provocation. It would then be up to the writer to choose how to respond: a continuous narrative or individual pieces that somehow incorporated the suggestions.

What inspired you to launch the Live Writing Series?

DV: After my 100 Hours experience, I was buzzing and ready for more. That sense of improv and having a live audience is a serious thrill – and I thought other writers would enjoy it too. I was struck by how much people enjoyed watching a story unfold as it is crafted, so I’m confident that there’s an audience for this new form of work. We’ll see.

GS: David and I put our heads together and came up with a plan that we hoped would bring live writing to a bigger audience, challenge authors and poets, and encourage venues to think differently about how writers can work within their buildings.

You’ve got a fantastic line-up of writers and venues. It’s a pretty new, not to mention nerve-wracking concept, did you have to do much convincing?

GS: We’ve scared off a few writers with the very idea of sharing their work in front of readers, but mainly we’ve had a great response from everyone. Venues are interested in how to programme literary activity in their spaces in new ways, and writing can be a form of entertainment for their audiences. We’re exploring the impact of technology on how writers write and the new possibilities of bringing writing into real life.

DV: It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure. The writers who’ve chosen to take part are very open about their process already or have some element of performance in their work, but this is still a new experience for all of them. I think no less of those writers who demured…

Gemma, you’re off Live Writing around London on 7th November, what are you most looking forward to? What’s your biggest fear?

GS:  We wanted to find a way of making the project genuinely London-wide, bringing together iconic buildings, the red buses and the night foxes. Our venues cover north to south London, so I’m travelling east to west and writing in places I find along the way. I had a go at live writing at Jewish Book Week in 2013, producing a series of stories for audiences. I watched how people interacted, and the scenes that unfolded in front of me, as a stimulus for my work. It was great fun, and I can’t wait to have another go … but this time I’ll be on the move! I always like writing in real time, from real life. My only fear is unreliable wifi.

What’s next for Live Writing?

GS: We’re so excited to see how writers and readers respond to the project, and have high hopes for the next phase. For me, this project is about the fleeting nature of words, how moments come and then they go – a writer can capture in words, but still the instant has passed. We’re not intending to publish the writing – once it’s written it’s gone – showcasing a selection of work on the website instead. In the future, we might consider how to share the writing in print. That’s phase two…

DV: Each of the events in the Series is something of an experiment to see what format, style, venue and audience works best and in which combination. We’re going to learn a lot, and that will influence our planning. But there are definitely plans. Oh yes.

The Live Writing Series is taking place at venues all over London between 25th October and 4th December 2013.

You can watch the stories unfold online here. Or visit the writers in situ at the following locations:

25th October: David Varela at the National Portrait Gallery

1st November: Sarah Butler at Woolfson and Tay bookshop

7th November: Gemma Seltzer around London (spot her out and about or watch online)

13th November: writer tbc at The Jewish Museum

20th November: Jacob Sam-La Rose at the Deptford Lounge

30th November: Molly Naylor at the Roundhouse

4th December: writer tbc at the Clore Ballroom at the South Bank Centre