One full scholarship is granted each time the class is held, five times per year. Please read this post completely and double-check your application before submitting. The recipient will be announced on Tuesday, December 11th in this blog.

Please feel free to spread the word about the scholarship, even if you do not intend to apply. This is a full scholarship. The recipient commits to participating fully in the class and delivering all six assignments on time.

Please do not apply if you cannot make the commitment to participate in the class, which involves reading the weekly workbook, completing your assignments, and learning from your classmates work. (To learn about what you will get out of the class, please read the full class description.)

No additional time or special coaching is offered with the scholarship. It’s up to the scholarship recipient to make the most of the class.

Please note that this is a scholarship, not a giveaway. This scholarship is only for moms and is offered by class instructor, Christina Katz (that’s me).

One scholarship is available per WPSS class. The scholarship is not transferable if you fail to complete the class. The scholarship is also not transferable in the case of illness, family emergencies, a move, etc. If you have already paid for the class, you do not qualify for the scholarship. If you have already taken the class, you also do not qualify.

What is written in your application is private and your personal information will never be shared or sold beyond announcing the name of the recipient. The only way to qualify is to apply each time. No one else will view your application.

The application questions are below. Copy and paste them into a Microsoft Word document (to take the class you must be able to create and read Microsoft Word documents—no exceptions). Attach your application as a Word doc to your e-mail. Please answer each question concisely and completely.

Send your application to: “christina at christinakatz dot com” – this the only email address for the scholarship. If you do not receive the scholarship, save your application for future scholarships and re-apply. Always add in your most current publication credits, since they are important. Put “WPSS Scholarship Application” in the subject line.

The scholarship recipient will be chosen based on the following criteria: demonstrated effort, need, and enthusiasm. The most important consideration is demonstrated past effort, so please don’t skimp on details of your past writing efforts. Applications accepted from U.S. residents only at this time.

Please Note: The Writer Mama Scholarship is only for moms who legitimately cannot afford class tuition for whatever reason. So if you work at home, earn money, receive money, or your spouse or partner earns enough money for you to afford the class, please expect to regular pay price. My classes are kept affordable specifically so moms can afford them!

To register for the class as a non-scholarship candidate, please visit the registration page. Space in the class is limited.

Here’s the application:

[Copy and paste the following application form into a Word doc >>>]

Name

Address

Email

Phone

Have you read the book, Writer Mama? How about my other books?

How long have you been reading my blog(s)?

What version of Microsoft Word software are you currently using?

Have you applied for The Writer Mama Scholarship before?

Write a short response to each of the following questions:

1. Please write one short paragraph about why you want to take the class, Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff.
2. Please list by publication name and date only, any publication credits you’ve accumulated thus far. Briefly list any other experience you think is relevant.
3. Please briefly state why you are unable to afford the tuition for the class at this time (see note below).

[<<<Stop copying this application form]

Thanks for applying for The Writer Mama Scholarship!

When it comes to holiday spending on ourselves, most writers are fairly frugal.

But what if you were so prosperous that you afford anything you wanted?

And what if all of your purchases complimented your business?

Just think of the tax write-offs!

This year, just for fun, let’s pretend the sky is the limit.

Here is what I wish for every writer to receive this holiday season.

Happy holidays, writers!

Gifts for Prosperous Writers:

A Macbook Air with an enormous auto back-up drive

Unlimited backup space in the cloud

The best iPhone for you (for me this is not always the latest)

The latest iPad This one is the latest

The latest Kindle

Adobe Creative Cloud

Creative confidence-building online courses

A huge gift certificate to your favorite office supply

Another huge gift certificate to Costco for bulk items

Folding elliptical exercise machine

Membership in all of your favorite writing organizations

Unlimited writing magazines and writing books

Trips to all of your favorite writing conferences

All the literary magazines your heart desires

Monthly coaching with someone who encourages you

A spa trip weekend with your favorite writing buddies

An office decor makeover (brainstorm at Pinterest and study share yours when you are done!)

A huge gift card to an IKEA store within driving distance

A Starbucks Gold Card

A vacation to a beach-side destination or a place in the city so you can feel like a local (see what’s available)

Get on top of your game and stay on top of your game, and decide you are deserving of everything on this list.

You deserve this and better, writers.

I hope you know that you deserve the best. The best quality professional life and lifestyle. Start by giving the best to yourself today in any way you can.

Make it a habit and one day soon, you will never doubt that you deserve the very best that life has to offer.

I am a veteran journalist, author and coach with over a decade and a half of experience and a wealth of techniques to share. I am focused on making the world a saner, more expressive place. I help folks become more creative for personal enjoyment, professional development and transformational growth. Whether you are a professional creative or hope to become one some day, I can help you embrace your personal strengths, explore your creative possibilities, and evolve incrementally into your most inspiring self. If you are ready to achieve creative consistency in your life and career, email me about monthly coaching calls. To learn more about increasing your creative confidence, please check out my online school. Stay tuned for ways to save money by becoming a Beta User for my next new course by subscribing to The Prosperous Creative. And don’t forget to get these blog posts delivered to your inbox, so you never miss a post. If you appreciate my work—school, products, blog and social media posts—you are welcome to make a contribution of any size at any time. Thank you for your support!

~ Photo by eperales

I am very satisfied with the year I have had. I will tell you more about it later in the week. 🙂

The reason I am so thrilled with all of my hard work, is not just because of the successes I have had, but also because of the successes I have shepherded in the careers of others. I have worked hard. They have worked hard. And we are creating writing careers we love without a concern for any of the doom and gloom predictions that have been coming down the pipe over the past few years.

Why are we so successful? Because we get it. We are responsible. We are not looking for shortcuts or expecting anyone to do our work for us. We learn skills and we use them. And we use those skills more wisely each year. We lean into our strengths and address our weaknesses. We enjoy the process and share our success. This is how you build a lasting business no matter what you do.

When I look around the Internet, I see many other moms doing what we are doing and I feel very proud to have played a small part in setting a good example of how to nurture a thriving creative career.

You can be a creative mom and start and grow a business, even in this economy if you are patient, focused, and wise.

If this sounds appealing to you and you want to express your authentic self through writing, I would love to work with you.

These are my winter offerings. Please contact me at “christina@christinakatz.com” if you would like to discuss the best way to work together and, if you are a returning student, to claim your discounts. Or you can simply go ahead and sign up for a class or Dream Team.

I have an exciting new offering for folks I don’t typically work with that I will announce tomorrow. Suffice it to say that I should have something for every writer in 2013. I am thrilled to expand the ways I  work with eager writers to include writers in every genre. Come back Wednesday and I will tell you all about it.

And don’t forget, if you can’t afford to get started working with me, you can apply for The Writer Mama Scholarship. You have until Sunday at midnight to apply.

In the meantime, here are the ways I can coach you and your career towards greater success in 2013. Hope to work with you!

Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff

60 Ways To Flex Your Content & Prosper in Your Niche

Back By Popular Demand!

Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform

Pitching Practice: Write Six Queries In Six Weeks

Micro-publishing For Mom Writers

Last Time At This Price!

Dream Teams: Ongoing Coaching For Five Months

For Returning Students Only!

Have you ever thought about your writing career in terms of seasons?

If you haven’t, this way of thinking can really help put things in perspective.

If I had to describe three qualities that all aspiring writers share, I would choose the words: eager, anxious, and impatient. These three words probably describe every writer I have ever met, and I’ve met thousands of writers over the years.

Eager is good. But anxious and impatient? What can a writer do to put all the work of a writing career into a more manageable perspective?

Last year, I shared a summary of the seasons of a writing career, which are the organizational structure for The Writer’s Workout. This year, I thought I would round them up for you:

The Spring of Your Writing Career

The Summer of Your Writing Career

The Autumn of Your Writing Career

The Winter of Your Writing Career

We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of my third book. Do you have your copy of The Writer’s Workout yet? If not, why not gift yourself with one this holiday season? If you are feeling eager, anxious or impatient about your writing career, then this is the book for you.

And if you already have a copy, thanks for sharing your impressions in a book in a review or social media message. I think you will be surprised to find out that measuring your progress against a bigger picture is actually comforting, rather than discouraging. And a sense of comfort is what every writer needs in order to be able to focus and be productive.

• • •

The Writer’s Workout, 366 Tips, Tasks & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach is written by Christina Katz for Writer’s Digest Books. For sale everywhere quality books are sold, including: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, IndieBound and Writer’s Digest. Listen to the introduction. Download an excerpt from Scribd. Get motivated by The Writer’s Workout Motivational Poster. Ready to get your career into shape? Let’s write the future…together.

We are cleaning house. The outgrown clothes must go. The old, abandoned toys are in boxes. One load of stuff has already gone to Goodwill and another will follow as we finish up the annual purging of things that we no longer need that might benefit someone else.

And I am not only purging physical items from our home. I am also conducting an annual cleansing of my professional life. I am an extremely creative person, so without an annual purge to assess what to keep and what to let go of, there would be no room for growth next year. And things do tend to pile up in my creative wake.

I need some serious room to grow next year. And I bet you do too. So take a look at your stuff. What have you got? What do you want to keep and what needs to go?

Sometimes letting go is bittersweet. I let go of The Northwest Author Series this year after creating it and re-creating it for five consecutive years. Letting “my baby” go was hard. I didn’t want to do it. I dragged my feet. Ultimately, I simply knew that it was time to let go, whether I liked it or not.

So gradually, I took the steps to shut it down. And what do you know, I survived. I also got some very nice compliments about the quality of all of my hard work and lots of appreciation from those who were speakers or regular attendees.

Keeping in mind that I would not be able to grow my business the way I wanted if I didn’t let go, helped me summon up the courage to shut The Northwest Author Series down. It also helped me to acknowledge a truth that had emerged — I did not want to continue giving up the time with my family on Sunday afternoons.

Now that my daughter is ten years old, I don’t have that many Sunday afternoons left before she is all grown up and I want to enjoy every moment of her tween and teen years. I am sure if she was your daughter, you would feel the same way.

So I let it go, and it’s gone. May it rest in peace. I am glad that I was able to stop while I still loved doing it.

Are you feeling like it’s time to clean out your professional house? Here are some angles to consider before you proceed:

1. Work you get paid to do
2. Work you don’t get paid to do
3. Work you do that you could delegate to someone else
4. Household work you do that you could delegate to someone else
5. People who drain your energy and resources
6. Online offerings that no longer work for whatever reason
7. Any offerings that consistently demand too much of your energy
8. Whatever you do habitually that dissipates your energy
9. Whatever you do consistently that hinders your personal power
10. Whatever you do that interferes with your connection to your intuition
11. Patterns of relating that no longer serve you and others
12. Any pattern of behavior that consistently tears you down, bites you in the butt, or blows up in your face

When you read these considerations, some ideas may immediately jump to mind of things you want to consider cutting from your future to-do list. Listen to these impulses. Don’t be surprised if you feel scared or anxious about making changes.

Change makes many people anxious. But if you are not willing to gradually change, then you can’t gradually grow.

Once you have determined the kind of changes you need and want to make, go about making the changes gradually and with sensitivity to others. Remember that you can’t make others feel good about your decisions to change. You can only commit to change, follow through on it, and communicate as clearly and kindly as you can.

You might go for years without making changes. You might be the picture of perfect consistency. And you will be surprised to hear me say that there is something seriously wrong with perfect consistency.

Because life wants to evolve. And if you are not evolving with life, then you may be fighting life.

So get brave. And face the music of change, if you feel have changes to face.

Change will come gently, if you let it. And change can happen gradually, once you surrender to it.

And if you stubbornly refuse and consistently resist, change will likely turn on you one day and soundly kick your butt.

If this has ever happened to you you, don’t hate change for coming. Just remember that change is always coming and get yourself and your career ready.

Being a friend can transcend greeting card sentiments.

I try to be a good friend to my readers, students, and fans by providing a steady stream of helpfulness, instruction, and inspiration.

And you, in turn, inspire me with your hard work, camaraderie, and success.

It’s a virtuous cycle and I am so grateful for it.

Thank you, very much, for being a friend, not only to me, but to your writing, most of all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And thanks to Andrew Gold for this sweet song from the seventies…

Guess what time of year it is, writers?

That’s right. It’s Oscar season, for movies and for writers.

And the best part is, you get to be the Academy.

Therefore, if you appreciate my work, I would appreciate your votes!

And, thanks to all that is holy, it’s not nearly as hard to do this kind of voting as it once was.

I have three campaigns going on right now. Can you take a sec and chime in?

Vote For Me As One Of Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites For Writers

How did I get to be such a smarty pants about all things writing and publishing related? I wrote three books for Writer’s Digest in seven years, while teaching, speaking, blogging, and writing gobs of articles and curricula.

Every year, Writer’s Digest pulls together a list of best websites. I can assure you, this list is not rigged. You actually have to be nominated and praised in glowing terms to ever garner consideration for the list.

So what do you say? If you would like to see The Prosperous Writer on this widely read list, please e-mail them with “101 Websites” in the subject line. Anything you have to briefly say about why I’d be a valuable addition to the list is appreciated.

Click here to e-mail Writer’s Digest Your Nomination

Vote For Me Daily At Circle Of Moms Until December 7th at 4 pm PT

This list is to recognize The Top 25 Book Author Moms.

Click here to vote. You can vote every day if you like. But I’ll take any day you can!

Share the badge, if you like:

Nominate Me At Write To Done Until December 3rd

This list is to nominate the 7th Annual Top Ten Blogs For Writers Contest.

Click here to nominate me. The more times the merrier!

I am hoping for more than two nominations to up my chances. Please describe what you like about my blog. Here’s one example of what they are looking for in a nomination:

“I nominate the Prosperous Writer (Mama), Christina Katz. https://christinakatz.com/ Her advice is always spot-on and full of gratitude. She supports other writers and helps keep us all motivated, as well as encourages us all to find balance, no easy task in the life of a freelancer.” ~ Vanessa Nix Anthony

All of this vote and nomination -seeking is making me feel very humble. Thank you for your support! I appreciate your time and votes of confidence.