Are you a creative who promises themselves to start writing, but can never find the time to put pen to paper?  

Don’t worry yourself, we all have this issue. After all, we have to put bread on the table and writing is, let’s be honest, tedious.  

So, we’re going to help you with tips toward sorting out your time management and start playwriting more often.  

Let’s start. 

Time Management Techniques  

Time management techniques are where someone plans and organises their efforts towards a particular task within a certain time period.  

Yes, we know, we’re going back to the dull obvious days of when we were in high school and your teachers would pester you about “failing to plan, plan to fail and what not”.  

But, we do need a reminder from time to time and it doesn’t hurt to take the time to organise yourself.  

One technique 3 Days to Stage always implements to get some writing done is:  

Set Deadlines 

How you do this is your business. You can set your own ones or look through the BBC Writersroom page to work toward an opportunity.  

Without deadlines, we give ourselves the chance to hold off doing something until another time.  

What we recommend, if you want to write something outside of the constraints often found when doing a competition or opportunity from the BBC page, ask a friend or another writer to read something at a certain date so you have to then physically submit something.  

What 3 Days to Stage’s James Humphreys did when writing Blue Scar was to aim for five pages a day to have a finished rough draft long before the first deadline so he could make as many re-edits as he could.  

Also, during the time of ScriptDawg, he wrote a really helpful blog on the principles of playwriting.  

Although, writing for deadlines can only be a simple solution if you have the time readily available. However, some of us aren’t students or retired. Some of us have families or work commitments, and finding the time (and energy) can be difficult. 

Delegating Time 

This might sound very childish, but can be a simple solution to a problem.  

Draw a big circle or long line and plot out your whole day (all 24 hours).  This way you can have a visual representation of your days so you can figure out where you can free up time to do some writing.  

Here’s a quick example for you: 

0000-0700 – Sleeping 
0700-0900 – Breakfast and travelling to work 
0900-1700 – Work 
1700-1800 – Travelling and dinner 
1800-2100 – FREE TIME 
2100-0000 – Bed 

By doing this you can see that you have three hours during the weekdays in which you could be more productive.  

Though we wouldn’t recommend filling up your entire three hours with writing, this could burn you out, you still need to rest.  

Try spending an hour watching an episode of your favourite TV show, or reading a book. Basically, try to ‘reset your creative palette’. Taking the break will give you the boost of energy that you need to write or be in the mood to write. 

Essentially, find time to get inspired!  

You might be asking what gives us the authority to speak on this subject? Well, let us explain!  

What is 3 Days to Stage? 

3 Days to Stage is a playwriting challenge organised by the two former directors of ScriptDawg, James Humphreys and Sam Rees, which is heavily inspired by the writing challenge ScriptDawg used to organise. 

The event is characterized by selecting writers to take part in the challenge, where they’re given two days to produce a short 5 – 10-minute script under a certain criteria (for example, a secret theme or topic) under the guidance of our script editors. 

The opportunity is open for anyone, regardless of skill level and the three days consist of: 

Day 1 

The writers congregate to receive their instructions and are given tips on how to proceed. 

Day 2 

The writers submit their first drafts, which go through script editing and the writers take part in a table read. 

Day 3 

The writers submit their final drafts, for actors to perform a script-in-hand performance in front of a live audience.  

We’re not a theatre company, but an experience. 

We organise these events on request. If you’re a theatre company, community or function who is interested in something like this, please feel free to drop us a message. 

Alternatively, why not pop along to our next show on February 13th with Avant Cymru to get a better understanding of what we do.  

What About the Non-Playwriters?  

We love chatting and doing things with the creative community online, so be sure to like our Facebook page to keep up-to-date with upcoming shows, free online events, blogs, activities and other theatre companies you should be interested in! 

Who Are 3 Days to Stage? 

3 Days to Stage is based in Wales (Sam Rees) and Estonia (James Humphreys). 

We’re comprised of two former ‘Dawgers’, who felt as though it’s unfair that writers should be punished from the closure of one of the only theatre companies which worked exclusively with a focus on New Writing and improving writers' content.  

Through ScriptDawg we have collaborated with Avant Cymru, Reality Theatre, Theatre Spectacle Theatre and Cardiff Fringe Theatre Festival (we organised and were on the judging panel with Bad Wolf Productions for the 2018 Best Writer Award).  

James Humphreys offered his pearls of wisdom, speaking from the perspective as a post-grad scriptwriter finding his way in the industry after graduation. However, we’ll be providing our own useful material, to try and give you playwrights and creatives the leg up you need.  

Need a hand, a proofreader or a reliable script editor? Drop us a message and we can arrange something with you.  

The Future 

We’ll be collaborating again with our old friends at Avant Cymru during February, for the 72 Hour Writing Challenge for Under 24’s, for the 80th Anniversary of How Green is My Valley. 

After the performances, there’ll be a screening of the film adaptation at the venue, Park and Dare, Treorchy.  

Afterwards? We’ll continue to offer a helping hand to any creatives who need it, and strive to make playwrighting a little less miserable and lonely.  

Thanks, 

3 Days to Stage