Jonathan's Writing Project
Donation protected
Dear friends, family, and anyone else,
My name is Jonathan Strain. I am 25 years old, and graduated from Whitworth University in 2013 with a bachelor's in communication and some minors in theology and psychology. After graduating, I spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps NW helping create and manage a high school internship program in Aberdeen, WA, and when that finished, I returned to Spokane to fulfill my entelechy as a barista. Despite the joy of early mornings and the Herculean challenge of explaining (once) the difficulties of making an iced cappuccino, the time came to look for the next step.
That’s when the opportunity to be a mountain guide with Young Life’s Beyond Malibu camp opened up. This coming June-August, I will be serving my second summer of dragging people around mountains and telling them about Jesus.
But naturally, my eyes are inclined to the following autumn, and the impending arrival of a tabula with a little too much rasa. A fresh start. A blank slate. Yet another transition. Ya feel?
THE PROJECT:
I am raising money for a writing project. The goal is to complete an artful collection of essays (pensees? reflections? tidbits?) using my experiences of serving with Beyond Malibu as a meta-narrative. This collection of essays will be professionally printed in a colorful zine-style booklet (designed by myself and printed locally) and mailed to you, my supporter.
I don’t know exactly what it will be about. That is part of the fun of the project. But it will likely involve the following themes: the nature of faith journeys; being part of creation and our decision to care for it (or not); the hard work of community; psychology and biology and their relation to story-telling/meaning-making/life-living; the journey of discovering if and why it’s worth discovering who Jesus is, and if that matters, and how, and what could look like; how hard it is to do things, generally.
I know, real specific here. But that's what the writing project is for, right? This is the fundraising page, yeah?
Ok!
To get a feel for what the writing might look like, here is a link to a piece I wrote after last summer. I imagine the writing and content for this proposed project will be similar.
That being said, I also expect the writing and content to be totally different.
FUNDRAISING BREAKDOWN:
My goal is to raise $2,000. I am suggesting a $20 donation per booklet, but will happily accept any amount—I’d love to send you a finished product regardless of what (or even if) you donate. The point of the project is that Jonny writes things, and then he gets to share them with people who care and are interested. Money is a conduit, not an endgoal.
Here’s the breakdown of how I arrived at that number:
· 100 donations at $20/donation per booklet = $2000
· Printing = $5/booklet
· Shipping = $5/booklet
· The remaining $10/booklet is to compensate the time I spend working on this project. The goal is to remove obstacles that might normally prevent me from finishing a project like this. One of those obstacles is abstract financial worry (that the time spent on this project is time I “could/should” be spending on a “real job”). An extra $10/booklet on top of printing/shipping is small way (mostly symbolic) for me to assuage that fear and to be motivated to work.
I will be working a "real job," I imagine, when I return in the fall, but hopefully this will free me to work a few less hours to create more space for writing if necessary.
TIMELINE:
The printed booklet will be in your hands before Christmas of 2016. I am initiating the project now as a primer going into this summer, so that I might be engaged in my experiences on the mountain and return in the fall ready to write, print, and mail. This isn’t all I’ll be doing when I return—I’ll be working and normal-lifing, so I’m giving myself plenty of time to finish.
I hope to have all funds received by the end of October 2016. But, honestly, the sooner you are able to commit a donation, the better. Donating sooner will give me a better appraisal of what I’m accountable to.
I’m using this whole fundraising campaign primarily as a tool of encouragment and accountability. I’m committed to sending you a finished product, and I know I will finish it if my friends and family are actually expecting a finished product, one that they've "paid" for.
WHAT THIS PROJECT MEANS TO ME:
This project is a tangible, achievable, yet challenging way for me to put my La Sportiva Trango mountaineering boot-clad foot into the wilderness-territory of professional writing (see what I did there?). And I need your help.
The future is murky in regard to career possibilities and future work. Don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying that the prospect of being a lifelong barista isn’t tugging at my adventure heartstrings—but you can only redo so many drinks that the customer insists doesn’t “taste” like decaf, even though you are SURE you made it decaf, you know?
I aspire to write. The prospect of writing speaks to my soul as meaningful, difficult, and worthwhile work. But it’s also something I have tremendous room to grow in. When I return in the fall, I hope to research and apply to master’s programs for creative non-fiction writing. Perhaps I can use this project as an application submission piece.
WHY I NEED YOUR HELP:
As Steven Pressfield says in his book The War of Art, “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t and that secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”
The goal of this project is to get myself to sit down and write. With real friends donating real money and expecting a real product, there is no way I’m NOT going to do it. If you have read any of my writing in the past and enjoyed it and wish to see it continue to grow and develop, would you consider donating to this project?
Not only will your donation help the project happen in terms of physical cost (and provide you with a neat book of thoughtful writing), but it will signify your support of my dreams and your belief in me as an aspiring writer. I would be so grateful for your support.
Will you consider joining me?
HOW?
1) Donate via this gofundme campaign (suggested $20, but will accept any amount!)
2) Fill out your contact info through THIS LINK (CLICK). This is how I will efficiently track who donated and where to send completed booklets. Logistics, yo.
Thank you for your interest and support!
-Jonathan
My name is Jonathan Strain. I am 25 years old, and graduated from Whitworth University in 2013 with a bachelor's in communication and some minors in theology and psychology. After graduating, I spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps NW helping create and manage a high school internship program in Aberdeen, WA, and when that finished, I returned to Spokane to fulfill my entelechy as a barista. Despite the joy of early mornings and the Herculean challenge of explaining (once) the difficulties of making an iced cappuccino, the time came to look for the next step.
That’s when the opportunity to be a mountain guide with Young Life’s Beyond Malibu camp opened up. This coming June-August, I will be serving my second summer of dragging people around mountains and telling them about Jesus.
But naturally, my eyes are inclined to the following autumn, and the impending arrival of a tabula with a little too much rasa. A fresh start. A blank slate. Yet another transition. Ya feel?
THE PROJECT:
I am raising money for a writing project. The goal is to complete an artful collection of essays (pensees? reflections? tidbits?) using my experiences of serving with Beyond Malibu as a meta-narrative. This collection of essays will be professionally printed in a colorful zine-style booklet (designed by myself and printed locally) and mailed to you, my supporter.
I don’t know exactly what it will be about. That is part of the fun of the project. But it will likely involve the following themes: the nature of faith journeys; being part of creation and our decision to care for it (or not); the hard work of community; psychology and biology and their relation to story-telling/meaning-making/life-living; the journey of discovering if and why it’s worth discovering who Jesus is, and if that matters, and how, and what could look like; how hard it is to do things, generally.
I know, real specific here. But that's what the writing project is for, right? This is the fundraising page, yeah?
Ok!
To get a feel for what the writing might look like, here is a link to a piece I wrote after last summer. I imagine the writing and content for this proposed project will be similar.
That being said, I also expect the writing and content to be totally different.
FUNDRAISING BREAKDOWN:
My goal is to raise $2,000. I am suggesting a $20 donation per booklet, but will happily accept any amount—I’d love to send you a finished product regardless of what (or even if) you donate. The point of the project is that Jonny writes things, and then he gets to share them with people who care and are interested. Money is a conduit, not an endgoal.
Here’s the breakdown of how I arrived at that number:
· 100 donations at $20/donation per booklet = $2000
· Printing = $5/booklet
· Shipping = $5/booklet
· The remaining $10/booklet is to compensate the time I spend working on this project. The goal is to remove obstacles that might normally prevent me from finishing a project like this. One of those obstacles is abstract financial worry (that the time spent on this project is time I “could/should” be spending on a “real job”). An extra $10/booklet on top of printing/shipping is small way (mostly symbolic) for me to assuage that fear and to be motivated to work.
I will be working a "real job," I imagine, when I return in the fall, but hopefully this will free me to work a few less hours to create more space for writing if necessary.
TIMELINE:
The printed booklet will be in your hands before Christmas of 2016. I am initiating the project now as a primer going into this summer, so that I might be engaged in my experiences on the mountain and return in the fall ready to write, print, and mail. This isn’t all I’ll be doing when I return—I’ll be working and normal-lifing, so I’m giving myself plenty of time to finish.
I hope to have all funds received by the end of October 2016. But, honestly, the sooner you are able to commit a donation, the better. Donating sooner will give me a better appraisal of what I’m accountable to.
I’m using this whole fundraising campaign primarily as a tool of encouragment and accountability. I’m committed to sending you a finished product, and I know I will finish it if my friends and family are actually expecting a finished product, one that they've "paid" for.
WHAT THIS PROJECT MEANS TO ME:
This project is a tangible, achievable, yet challenging way for me to put my La Sportiva Trango mountaineering boot-clad foot into the wilderness-territory of professional writing (see what I did there?). And I need your help.
The future is murky in regard to career possibilities and future work. Don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying that the prospect of being a lifelong barista isn’t tugging at my adventure heartstrings—but you can only redo so many drinks that the customer insists doesn’t “taste” like decaf, even though you are SURE you made it decaf, you know?
I aspire to write. The prospect of writing speaks to my soul as meaningful, difficult, and worthwhile work. But it’s also something I have tremendous room to grow in. When I return in the fall, I hope to research and apply to master’s programs for creative non-fiction writing. Perhaps I can use this project as an application submission piece.
WHY I NEED YOUR HELP:
As Steven Pressfield says in his book The War of Art, “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t and that secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”
The goal of this project is to get myself to sit down and write. With real friends donating real money and expecting a real product, there is no way I’m NOT going to do it. If you have read any of my writing in the past and enjoyed it and wish to see it continue to grow and develop, would you consider donating to this project?
Not only will your donation help the project happen in terms of physical cost (and provide you with a neat book of thoughtful writing), but it will signify your support of my dreams and your belief in me as an aspiring writer. I would be so grateful for your support.
Will you consider joining me?
HOW?
1) Donate via this gofundme campaign (suggested $20, but will accept any amount!)
2) Fill out your contact info through THIS LINK (CLICK). This is how I will efficiently track who donated and where to send completed booklets. Logistics, yo.
Thank you for your interest and support!
-Jonathan
Organizer
Jonathan Strain
Organizer
Spokane, WA