Writing Scholarship Drive + Some Changes Here for Next Year

+ We have $7,000 in Scholarships for Writers that are open for application now

Hello, Protagonists! In this post, you’ll find:

🤓 What I’m Reading This Week

💗 Scholarship Drive - Help other writers!

🙈 Things are Changing Here on November 1

🎓 Reminder: We have $7,000 in Writing Scholarships that are open for application now

🎓 Preview: Upcoming 2025 Scholarships for Writers

💛 A short thank you video from me!

---

🤓 What I’m Reading This Week

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan - (novel) - A widower collects all the lost things he finds—teacups, hair bobbles, a ruby, and more—in hopes of restoring them to their rightful owners some day. I just started reading this charming, quiet novel about the things that hold meaning in our lives and how they bind us to each other.

“Octopuses are Now Punching Fish in the Face” - (article, BBC Wildlife) - A new study shows octopuses hunting together with fish, but like the bossy group leader in a school project, the octopus sometimes has to get the fish back in line and paying attention to the task at hand through “persuasive” methods.

• Fun fact: the plural of "octopus” is “octopuses” or “octopodes,” not “octopi” (which is what I originally thought).

“Kristen Bell and Adam Brody Will Do This Till Their Faces Fall Off” - (article, Rolling Stone) - I loved Veronica Mars and The O.C. back in the early 2000s, so when I heard that Kristen Bell and Adam Brody had teamed up for a Netflix rom-com, my first reaction was, “Yes, please!” I also love reading about other art forms, and this was an interesting article about how much of themselves actors bring to their characters and why chemistry between actors is so important for the success of a show or movie.

---

💗 Scholarship Drive - Donate what you can to help other writers!

This year, you raised $3,500 for writing scholarships, and I personally matched those donations for 2024 (bringing the total to $7,000).

Now, let’s raise more funds for 2025 writing scholarships! (See later in this post for details about all our scholarships.)

***I’ve set up discounted donation tiers so you can contribute what you can.***

• options from $1.50 to $150

• 100% of your donation goes to our Scholarships for Aspiring Writers

+ Your donation gets you a 1-year paid subscription to our community, which includes full access to our Book Club for Writers & Curious Readers

• There are more than 7,000 of you in our CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY community.

• If everyone donated even $1.50, we’d have over $7,000! (a $1.50 contribution = approximately $1 after Stripe and Substack fees)

Think how many scholarships for aspiring writers we could fund next year…

Please join me in helping other writers!

» Give what you’re able:

$150 contribution (Philanthropist tier - aka founding member):

$30 contribution (regular amount):

$22.50 contribution (25% off):

$15 contribution (50% off):

$7.50 contribution (75% off):

$1.50 contribution (95% off):

Thank you!! 💛

note: These discount links and the donation drive end on October 31.

note 2 (if you’re reading on an iPhone):

The discount links will work from computers and Android phones. However, they are not currently accessible on iPhones, because iPhone payments on Substack are currently in pilot phase, so discounted rates are technologically possible yet. If you have an iPhone, though, you can still get any of the discounted rates above by using a regular computer. Apologies for the inconvenience but thank you for your understanding and for helping other writers!

---

🙈 Things are Changing Here on November 1

(Scholarship logistics, better serving our community with new scholarships in 2025, etc.)

I have loved your incredible enthusiasm for our writing scholarships! At the same time, I’m learning along the way how best to support our community, and boring things like accounting were not on my radar when I first began. 😆

It turns out that it’s a little difficult to keep track of contributions to the scholarship fund when contributions come in on a rolling basis with no end date. It’s also very important to me that this fundraising is transparent and that you know where your money is going.

So I’m going to set October 31, 2024, as the end date for 2025 scholarship fundraising (hence our scholarship drive above). That way, it’ll be clear cut for accounting purposes how much money is earmarked for our writing scholarships. Any money collected after October 31, 2024 will go toward my operating expenses for running this community, like my podcasting software, podcast editing, etc. If we want to continue offering scholarships in 2026, we’ll run another scholarship drive next fall like the one above.

Once all the contributions from our current Scholarship Drive are in, I will update this post with the totals, so that you know how much we’ve raised! This amount will reflect paid subscriptions to CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY from June 14, 2024 (when I first opened fundraising) through October 31, 2024.

TOTAL YOU RAISED FOR SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ASPIRING WRITERS:

$7,408.11 total - WOW!

$3,500 have gone to our 2024 Scholarships

The remaining $3,908.11 will go to our 2025 Scholarships next year.

💛 THANK YOU FOR BEING SO AMAZING! 💛

---

🎓 We have $7,000 of Writing Scholarships that are Open NOW

Summary of 2024 Scholarships for Writers:

2024 Ryan Stripling “Words Create Worlds” Scholarship for Young Writers ($2,500)

Established to honor my brother-in-law, Ryan Stripling, an English teacher in Bentonville, Arkansas who passed away from cancer in 2019. Ryan was a fierce believer in young writers and always encouraged them with the motto, “Words create worlds.”

CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY is honored to continue Ryan’s legacy by awarding a $2,500 scholarship to each of two (2) high school seniors who are promising young writers, for use toward tuition at a U.S.-based college or university (in any major).

The students do not need to major in writing. I just want to support writers in any way, even if it’s writing on the weekends or evenings, while they major in something else.

• Applications OPEN NOW!

2024 CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY Mid-Career Writing Scholarship ($1,000)

A $1,000 award for each of two (2) aspiring writers (age 18+) not currently in a professional writing career, for use toward furthering their education through writing classes, continuing education, etc.

This is open internationally (subject to each country’s own laws). However, U.S. tax law requires that the scholarships be used at educational institutions based in the United States (this is so that the recipients can use 100% of the scholarship award without paying taxes on it. I don’t know why the law is this way, but this is how it was explained to me.)

The winners may use their scholarships for things like writing classes at a community college or continuing education courses at U.S.-based educational institutions, including, I think, virtual/online classes like this.

• Applications OPEN NOW!

---

🎓 Preview: Upcoming 2025 Scholarships for Writers

Next year, I’m going to change things up a little for the Mid-Career scholarships (this is part of my learning curve.) In 2024, I used the Bold Foundation’s scholarship platform because there are a lot of tax rules in the U.S. if you want to give away more then $500-600 dollars. However, complying with the U.S. tax laws meant that the scholarships parameters were stricter (i.e., can only be used towards approved courses at U.S.-based institutions.)

So for 2025, I’d like to make it a little easier to support writers and let you use that money toward anything you like:

• maybe it’s a writing conference,

• maybe it’s notebooks or writing software,

• maybe it’s childcare so you can buy some time to actually write.

That means that we’ll have to lower the scholarship amount to $500 (for tax reasons), but it also means that we can give away more scholarships while also giving you more freedom in how you use it.

I haven’t decided yet whether we’ll do the Mid-Career scholarships just once a year or at multiple times during 2025. It depends how much money we raise with our current Scholarship Drive.

However, I do plan to continue using the Bold Foundation platform for the high school senior scholarship, since that’s a lot more straightforward—they’re putting their money directly toward college tuition.

Therefore, here’s an overview of 2025 Scholarships for Writers:

2025 CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY Mid-Career Writing Scholarship

$500 awards for aspiring writers, for use toward whatever you need to support your burgeoning creativity: writing classes, writing conferences, software, childcare, etc.

• Applications coming in 2025

2025 Ryan Stripling “Words Create Worlds” Scholarship for Young Writers

$2,500 scholarship to a high school senior who is a promising young writer, for use toward college tuition.

• Applications coming in Fall 2025

---

💛 THANK YOU video from me 💛

(It’s still warm in California, hence the tanktop in mid-October).

xoxo,

~evelyn

CREATIVE.INSPIRED.HAPPY is a friendly, vibrant community of thousands who believe that EVERYONE can spark creativity and build an inspired, happier life.