Writers' Card Lottery – paid writing weeks

The second Writers’ Card Lottery Fund is now open for applications until midnight on Weds 13 August!

Twice a year, we’re running a free-to-apply lottery for Writers’ Card Members – anyone for whom a small payment would help buy time and space to unlock their next steps as a playwright. Recipients, selected at random, will be offered at the same rate we offer any writer – currently £621 for a week paid in advance as a one-off fee – with no strings attached and no expectations, evaluation or reporting requirements. (Though if you do finish your draft, we’d love you to share it via our Open Submissions).

A minimum 50% of lottery awards are reserved for playwrights from backgrounds currently under-represented in our sector, including Black & Global Majority, Working Class, and D/deaf and disabled playwrights. Applications will be light-touch, with quick decisions and no hidden criteria, value judgments or requests for personal information we don’t need.

Enter via the application form here.

If you would like view the guidance and questions offline before submitting, you can download a Word document version here.

Please note, all applications must be submitted on the portal and we cannot accept hard copies or emailed attachments.

If you have any other access needs to support your submission, please contact us on writerscard@royalcourttheatre.com.