As you may know, we’re currently redesigning our website and cooking up some exciting new content! As part of this, we want to feature more of your voices on the site and hopefully, this project will be the first of many chances for us to do exactly that.
So, what’s the idea? Well, we’re developing a blog series which aims to dispel myths about how playwrights earn their money. When trudging to an unrelated day job, it’s easy to believe that every other playwright in this world earns their money from writing plays; this can make said day jobs feel like a beacon of a lack of success in the playwriting world.
In reality, this just isn’t true: even the most “successful” playwrights tend to supplement their incomes with other jobs, from teaching to other types of writing to different careers altogether! And whilst it might not be ideal that writing plays isn’t the most lucrative of jobs, it’s sometimes good to know that you’re not alone. We hope that by uncovering your stories, we’ll be helping to promote equality in the Arts, albeit in a small way.
What we’re looking for: We want to know how you make your living! Tell us about your ‘day job’, how you squeeze in your writing around it, whether you make any money from writing, or whether it ends up costing you money, along with the challenges that all of this brings. Tell us if you’ve all but given up on writing because of a lack of money, or if having money allows you to write or, if you’re somewhere in the middle! We’re looking for straight up honesty! However, you don’t need to share any specific details about the amount of money you earn/ have though – unless of course, you want to.
Who do we want to hear from? YOU! Lets be clear here, our definition of ‘playwright’ doesn’t mean you need to have had twenty plays published and productions at the National (although, of course, that’s ok too!). We’re looking to feature stories from all kinds of writers – from those with agents to complete beginners to those who only write when the kids are in bed and everyone in between! We would also like to be able to publish your name, age and a photo along with your story, if you’re comfortable with it.
How to apply: if you’re interested in having your story featured, please send us a short email telling us about about how you earn a living and how it’s all going for you. If we decide to publish your story, we’ll contact you with a short list of questions that we’d like you to write the answers to, which will then be published as a blog post. Send your email to londonplaywrightsblog@gmail.com
Please note, this series is not about casting judgement on anyone’s situation, it’s about opening up a conversation which we know can often be awkward! Any inappropriate comments on the blog posts will not be published.
Deadline: ongoing