Sub Spree – Day 9

Do competitions count?

I took a look at the BBC Writersroom and saw that there are a two competitions I could enter.

That in itself was somewhat of a shock. There are few competitions that are open to everyone, and I have blogged about this before (see Label ‘Submission Competitions’).

I think that I am going to enter the Drama Association of Wales’ and King’s Cross’ competitions. But there is one tiny thing that makes me nervous.

Both of these competitions require payment of an Entry Fee!

Every bone in my writing body says that I shouldn’t pay these things and I’ve ranted on about it before. But this spree is making me reconsider…

Let me make this clear, I will never submit a manuscript to an agent, theatre or literary professional that charges a reading fee. But competitions…?

I think in this case, I might be tempted… These things cost money to run, and there is no real mechanism for them to make money out of your writing. The other’s I have listed cannot morally charge reading fees, as they aim to make money out of your writing.

What does still concern me however is the disparity of the charges.

King’s Cross are charging £5 per full-length play, but the Drama Association of Wales is charging £10 per one-act play (20 to 50 mins). That hardly sounds right…

But this time, I’ll think I’ll risk it. That means that I will be forking out £30 in entry fees (2 full-length, 2 one-acts… And before your ask, yes that does mean that I am working on a one act at the moment).

Returning to the Sub Spree…

By lunch I managed to fire of 8 pitches to various theatre groups. But as I said yesterday, I ended up with two emails being returned. I've also mailed to myself a list of 10 other companies to pitch this evening (I wonder how many of those have redundat emails?).

I also managed to email the organisers of the two competitions that I mentioned. I received a very pleasant email from the Welsh connection… I guess that’s what has turned me to say that I will enter these competitions, even though there is an entry fee.

Submitting Scripts!

So I’ve decided that tomorrow has to concentrate on sending scripts to professional theatres. My only problem with this, is sending a manuscript without the magic words ‘requested material’ on the envelope.

But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Hence tomorrow I can post off to three theatres. Those being, The Bush Theatre, The Royal Court and The Soho Theatre.

The question I will ponder this evening is which play to send.

I guess the only way to play with that question is to resume the writing.

As I mentioned earlier, I want to send the Welsh lot two one-act plays. So I’ll resume writing the second this evening, placing me back in the writing mode and being able to better assess what to submit to these guys…

So on to writing and calculating what play to send!