Writing Challenge #4 - Two Missed Calls at Midnight (Write Nov. 4th)

Hi folks

Still playing catch-up on the flurry of input from all you very prolific playwrights.  It’s fun to have so much content to play around with the different sorting options on the spreadsheet the Google form creates, and see the number of lines for each submission grow and grow and grow.

I’m hoping to have some fun statistics for you starting tomorrow, once I’m through all the initial sorting of the last couple of days.

Keep up the good work, keep writing, keep submitting your playwriting output through that Google form.




A BRIEF VOTING ASIDE…

The day I’m sending this out, Tuesday 11/3 is Election Day for everybody in the U.S.

Again, to those who’ve already voted, thank you.

And if you haven’t voted already, please do vote.  

Deadline amnesty due to time spent voting is still in effect.  Just let me know you were out voting, and you’ve got more wiggle room to get that latest submission in the door :) Details on that here:

https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/2026/10/deadline-amnesty-for-voting-and-other.html

And now, let’s get you that writing prompt for the day…


**************************


Challenge #4 - Two Missed Calls at Midnight

Write Wednesday, November 4th - or earlier if you like
Due: Thursday, November 5th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


This challenge comes from Threshold Theater company member, and costume designer, Aella Rose-Hill.  It’s the simple phrase:


2 missed calls at midnight


Now, that could be your title.

That could be something that actually happens.

Are those two calls being seen from one side or the other or both.

Are those two calls coming from the same person or going to the same person, or are two different people involved in one case or the other.

Normally calls in the middle of the night are bad news.

Or someone needs help.

But if someone’s a real night owl, maybe calls at midnight, either making or receiving them, aren’t that big a deal.  But of course if one side or the other of the call isn’t a night owl, then things are out of balance.

Given the bedtime vigilance of smartphones these days, does a call at midnight even go through?

Is this something from another time entirely?

What does that phrase do for you?

Play around with any or all of that.

Or the exact opposite of it. 
(Two missed calls first thing in the morning, two missed calls in the middle of the day?)

Or ignore it entirely and do whatever you like on the page.

Just write something.



********************

If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can 

try 2021’s challenge #4: Science Fiction and Fantasy

Or try 2022’s challenge #4: Smackdown

Or try 2023’s Challenge #4: Wonderland (from Threshold Theater co-founder and Technical Director Nick Mrozek)

Or try 2024’s challenge #4: Asteroid

Or try 2025’s challenge #4: Mirrors, Discovery, Leaves and Lizards (from Threshold Theater company member and stage manager June Haider)

 Or, you know, just ignore the prompts altogether and write whatever you want - as long as you’re writing and turning it in by the deadline, that’s all that matters for the challenge :)


**********************

And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month:

Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)

Deadline Amnesty for Voting (and other handy challenge tips) - 2026 edition

Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play

Don’t Stress About Format

Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

No.  Really.  I Mean It.  Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)

Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”

Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day

Don’t Stress about November 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2026 edition


**************************

How to submit your work for Challenge #4

We’re streamlining the process this year with a Google form, 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header

but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.

After you enter the required fields of 
email, 
name, 
challenge number (for today, that’d be 4 :) 
and page count, 
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.

OR

Post your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.

OR

Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form

OR

Type directly into the Google form.

(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)



Write Wednesday, November 4th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Thursday, November 5th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


*********************

And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.

We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days.  No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)

Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 12 noon Central Time on Thursday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)

Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later. 

You have 26 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want. 

Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it makes sense to you.

It just needs to be something.


*************************

And that something can be:



Lights up (just barely).

The phone rings in the dark.

A person fumbles around in bed.

Turns on the light.

Fumbles for the phone.

Too late, it stopped ringing.

The person looks at the time.

Turns off the light.

Slumps down in bed.

The phone rings again.

The person stares at it.

Lights down.

The End




That’s always your escape hatch, every day.

That’s your base line.

Build on it.

Have fun.

Don’t stress.

Make an impulsive decision and run with it.

Breathe.

You’ve got the day.

Just write.

(After you vote, of course :)

And take good care of yourselves, and each other.

Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his) 

Writing Challenge #3 - Art Decays Over Time (Write Nov. 3rd)

Hi folks

QUICK TIP

We used to interact a bit more with the challenge blog in the early years of the challenge.  But it’s still there.

So if you’re waiting on the next challenge in your email inbox, or for some reason it hasn’t showed up, you can always hop over to the challenge blog because all challenges will be posted there before I send out the emails for the day.

https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/

And if you’re not seeing the challenges in your email, and you have Gmail, we sometimes get curated over to the “All Mail” setting so check there.  Don’t think we’ve ever ended up in Spam but that’s another place to check.

 

The first collections of electronic pages are already coming in.

So exciting to see you all so productive.

Hope you're having fun.



SIDE NOTE, AGAIN, ABOUT VOTING…

Minnesota playwrights, you have one last day of early voting yet today, Monday 11/2, when I’m sending this challenge out.
You can find early voting location information, and Election Day polling place information at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website - https://www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/

Deadline amnesty for taking time out to vote is still in effect for the next several days. Full details on that in this post:


Happy writing to you all!

Let’s get you that writing prompt…


******************************

Challenge #3 - Art Decays Over Time

Write Tuesday, November 3rd - or earlier if you like
Due: Wednesday, November 4th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones) 



This challenge comes from Threshold Theater company member, and set and props designer, Jenna Mady:

“One of my favorite photographers is Andy Goldsworthy. He is a nature sculptor and photographer. Many of his works eventually die as nature does, but live on in the stunning photographs he takes of them. Leaves start to disintegrate, ripples and waves move pieces around, rocks crumble, but the photograph of the piece is forever.”

Here is his archive of works: https://andygoldsworthystudio.com/archive/



First, what kind of structure on stage would mimic time lapse photography? What little snippets might build a character, a scene, a set, a relationship, or the detonation of any of those examples?

Second, Goldsworthy’s visual archive is stunning, or haunting, depending on how you look at it.

Some projects take place over a couple of hours, a couple of days, a few weeks, a few months, or even a few years.

And the combination of video records and still images are fascinating.

Also, just the titles of some of the works, even before you click the links to look at them, can be evocative enough to set the mind going so.

With some of the visual monthly archives come behind the scenes photos or video of how the work was constructed, as well as notes, some clinical, some more poetic.

There’s a lot here, but I have 27 other challenges to write so I can’t spend any more time on this particular rabbit hole right now.  I’m going to loop back later.

Peruse all these threads and see which one strikes a chord of inspiration in you…

Here’s links to the work posted monthly over the course of the last several years.  (At this time he hasn’t yet posted for October 2026)

2026

Fleece Laid in Lines

Sticks, Stone, River

Dead Hazel Sticks

Wool Cast Off by Sheep

Grass Laid on a Gravestone

Two Lines

Stones Drawn Through a Tree

Fireweed Stalks

Barbed Wire Icicles


2025

Boulder Field

For Olle

For Andrew McKinna and Job’s Well

Wave and Thirty-Six Kelp Throws

Seaweed, Grass and Ferns

Fifty Years

Stone Edges

Two Dandelion Works

Dock, Nettle, Oak

Fleece

Twelve Sheep Paintings

White Pines


2024

Nine Fireweed Drawings

Red Flag 2020-2024

Sand Edges

Three Sand Works

Preparing for “Fifty Years”

Four More Wool Works

Four Wool Works

Nettle Stalks

Nettle Stalks Wall

Stone Sea Passage

Colebrook Quarry Rain Shadow

Icicle Wall


2023

Ice Laid On Fallen Oaks

Hedge Walk

Two Shadows

Rockweed

Road Line

Hands

Split Oak Wood

Two Lines Made with Wool

Three River Works

Passage, Hawaii

Drawing Mole Hills

Two of Twelve Shadows


2022

Thorn Stone

Stone Dust

Standing Still at Dawn

Ebenezer

Blackberry Hand

Five-Ten

Iron

Red Flags

Firehouse

Yellow and Blue



Totally up to you.  Take any of these visual or philosophical jumping off points, or write something completely different.

Just write.


********************************

If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can 

try 2021’s challenge #3: Start With A Title

Or try 2022’s challenge #3: Clown Family

Or try 2023’s challenge #2: Place Names for People

Or try 2024’s challenge #3: Nazi Dildo Lady

Or try 2025’s challenge #3: Closing Time, a Rivalry, and a Car Accident (from Threshold Theater company member and costume designer Aella Rose Hill)

 Or, you know, just ignore the prompts altogether and write whatever you want - as long as you’re writing and turning it in by the deadline, that’s all that matters for the challenge :)


*****************************

And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month:

Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)

Deadline Amnesty for Voting (and other handy challenge tips) - 2026 edition

Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play

Don’t Stress About Format

Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

No.  Really.  I Mean It.  Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)

Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”

Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day

Don’t Stress about November 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2026 edition


*****************************

How to submit your work for Challenge #3

We’re streamlining the process with a Google form, 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header

but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.

After you enter the required fields of 
email, 
name, 
challenge number (for today, that’d be 3 :) 
and page count, 
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.

OR

Post your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.

OR

Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form

OR

Type directly into the Google form.

(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)



Write Tuesday, November 3rd - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Wednesday, November 4th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


**************************

And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.

We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days.  No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)

Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 12 noon Central Time on Wednesday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)

Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later. 

You have 27 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want. 

Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it makes sense to you.

It just needs to be something.


************************

And that something can be:



Lights up.

A man stands in the middle of the room at sunset.

The color of the square of light casting his shadow changes over time.

The light fades until there is no shadow, there is no light.

Just a man, standing in a room, in the dark.

The End



That’s always your escape hatch, every day.

That’s your base line.

Build on it.

Have fun.

Don’t stress.

Make an impulsive decision and run with it.

Breathe.

You’ve got the day.

Just write.

(After you vote, of course :)

And take good care of yourselves, and each other.

Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his) 

Writing Challenge #2 - Great Things To Set On Fire (Write Nov. 2nd)

Hi folks

I’m going to continue to try and get these challenges to you all a day early if I can, so if you finish one you can just move on to the next.

This challenge is one that you don’t have to start writing until tomorrow, Monday, November 2nd, and isn’t due until 12 noon Central Time on Tuesday November 3rd.  But if you want to get started early, go for it.


QUICK TIPS

If you’re wondering when to write and turn in which challenge, check the subject line of the email :)
You can also check the top of the challenge description section after the intro section of each email.
You can also check the bottom of the section about how to submit your challenge writing about two-thirds of the way down each email.

If you’ve got a different question, read the full email.
Most of the answers to your questions are either in the email, or there’s a link in the email to a post with the answer to your question :)

If you still have a question, you can reach out in the note section of the Google form when you submit your challenge writing, or send an email to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com



VOTING

If you haven’t already voted, please do.
Vote early if you have the option.
And if it’s long lines on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd or nothing, then we do have deadline amnesty for whenever you vote, be it that day or the days prior.
We don’t want writing to get in the way of voting, or vice versa.
https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/2026/10/deadline-amnesty-for-voting-and-other.html

If you’re looking for information on how and where to vote, your Secretary of State’s website is a good resource - Minnesota, here’s yours: https://www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/
If you want to work off some nervous energy, volunteer opportunities can be found here, among other places: https://votesaveamerica.com/



And now, back to playwriting…

As of this morning, there are 103 playwrights signed on for the challenge!

(For comparison, last year’s total was 111 playwrights - 2024 was 101 playwrights, 2023 was 57, 2022 was 40, 2021 was 45)

As it is every year, it was a good-spirited competition between Minnesota and New York as to which state was going to end up with more playwrights signing on.

In the end, New York has a total of 16 playwrights
Minnesota ended up a respectable second with 12 playwrights

Other locales added on as well yesterday.  We ended up with the following:

7 from Massachusetts,
6 from California,
6 from Colorado,
5 from Georgia,
5 from Ohio,
4 from Illinois,
4 from Indiana,
4 from Virginia,
3 from Pennsylvania,

2 each from
Connecticut, 
Florida,
Michigan,
Tennessee,
Texas, and
Washington state.

There’s also a single representative hailing from each of the following: 
Kansas,
Kentucky,
Maine,
Maryland,
Nevada,
New Jersey,
North Carolina,
Oregon,
Wisconsin,
Washington, D.C.,
And new this year, even one from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In all, we have 103 playwrights from 26 states across America, plus the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as 4 from Canada, 1 from Malaysia, 1 from Scotland, and 1 from Spain.


Welcome, one and all!  Thanks for joining us in this little daily exercise in flexing your writing muscles for a month.

And on we go…


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Challenge #2 - Great Things To Set On Fire

Write Monday, November 2nd - or earlier if you like
Due: Tuesday, November 3rd, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)



The suggestion comes from our newest Threshold Theater company member, Anya Naylor - who has participated in the November Playwriting Challenge themselves in the past, and has both acted in Threshold Theater productions and acted and directed for our New Play Reading series.

Anya’s suggestion was:


Great Things To Set on Fire


Now that phrase alone may be evocative enough to get you going, so if it does, just take that idea as a jumping off point and get going.

Here’s some random things it conjured up for me:

You could write a scene about things that are literally good for burning - like wood in a fireplace or campfire or bonfire, or charcoal in a grill, or any other kind of handy fuel.

This also makes me think of the ridiculous witch burning tribunal scene in “Monty Python and The Holy Grail”

“What do we burn apart from witches?”
“MORE witches”
“Wood.”
“So why do witches burn?”
“Because they’re made of wood!”

When I was working with a financial advisor to get my credit cards paid off, my mother said that she’d probably be getting the mortgage on the house paid off at the same time I completed my own payoff, and we could have a little party to burn the mortgage and credit card bills when we were free of them.

Someone might have a party, or just a personal ritual by themselves, to burn their marriage license when they get a divorce.

People have been known to burn keepsakes left over from failed relationships (photos, gifts, things the person accidentally left behind).

You could probably think of any number of reasons to burn buildings or cars, I don’t have to give you any ideas there, do I?

All kinds of sacrifices have been used as burnt offerings for a variety of reasons.

Some folks would argue we’re setting the whole planet on fire.

Maybe there’s no symbolic reason at all.  Maybe somebody just needs a fire to keep warm or to prepare their food.  For comfort, or just basic survival.

All kinds of things are great for burning.

What would you like to set on fire?
(On the page only, of course.)

Write about that, or choose one of the other challenge options from past years on day 2, or just write whatever you like.

Just write - something.


****************************

If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can 

try 2021’s challenge #2: Fire Escape

Or try 2022’s challenge #2: What Haunts You?

Or try 2023’s challenge #2: Fox and Rabbit (from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Kate Cosgrove)

Or try 2024’s challenge #2: RIP: HUGE improv theater

Or try 2025’s challenge #2: O Superman (from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Maren Findlay)

Or, you know, just ignore the prompts altogether and write whatever you want - as long as you’re writing and turning it in by the deadline, that’s all that matters for the challenge :)


**************************

And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month:

Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)

Deadline Amnesty for Voting (and other handy challenge tips) - 2026 edition

Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play

Don’t Stress About Format

Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

No.  Really.  I Mean It.  Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)

Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”

Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day

Don’t Stress about November 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2026 edition


***************************

How to submit your work for Challenge #2

We’re streamlining the process with a Google form, 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header

but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.

After you enter the required fields of 
email, 
name, 
challenge number (for today, that’d be 2 :) 
and page count, 
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.

OR

Post your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.

OR

Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form

OR

Type directly into the Google form.

(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)


Write Monday, November 2nd - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Tuesday, November 3rd, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


**************************

And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.

We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days.  No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)

Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 12 noon Central Time on Tuesday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)

Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later. 

You have 28 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want. 

Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it makes sense to you.

It just needs to be something.


**************************

And that something can be:



Lights up.

GLADYS sets fire to a teddy bear.

GLADYS (to no one in particular): Bye bye, childhood.

She watches it burn.

Lights down.

The End



That’s always your escape hatch, every day.

That’s your base line.

Build on it.

Have fun.

Don’t stress.

Make an impulsive decision and run with it.

Breathe.

You’ve got the day.

Just write.

(After you vote, of course :)

And take good care of yourselves, and each other.

Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his) 

Writing Challenge #1 - Random Bits of Dialogue (Write Nov. 1st)

Hi folks

Thanks again for signing up for the November Playwriting Challenge with Threshold Theater!

People still have until midnight tonight to sign on but as of right now (8am Central Time in Minneapolis) we have 90 playwrights from 26 states across America, plus the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as 4 from Canada, 1 from Scotland, and 1 from Malaysia.

Welcome to one and all, both far and near!

At the moment, we’ve got the usual cluster from Minnesota (10 playwrights) 
(Threshold Theater is based in Minneapolis so that’s not a huge surprise :)

There’s 13 from New York state thus far, 
7 from Massachusetts,
6 from California, 
6 from Colorado,
4 from Illinois,
3 from Georgia, 
3 from Indiana, 
3 from Virginia,

2 each from
Connecticut, 
Florida,
Michigan,
North Carolina, 
Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
Tennessee,
Texas, and
Washington state.

There’s also a single representative hailing from each of the following: 
Kansas,
Kentucky,
Maine,
Maryland, 
Nevada, 
New Jersey, 
Oregon, 
Wisconsin,
Washington, D.C.,
And new this year, even one from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

All this alongside the aforementioned four in Canada, and our returning individual friends in Glasgow, Scotland, and Malaysia.




A quick reminder to start - for those who have early voting or mail-in voting options available to them in the U.S., please avail yourselves of them if you haven’t already 

Then Tuesday is Election Day.
Make your voice heard.

And if voting impacts your ability to write and make the deadline for one of these first few days of writing, amnesty is availability for the deadline - just let me know via a note on the day's Google form submission you were out voting (we’re not gonna penalize anyone for something that important)





We actually decided to give everyone a head-start on the first challenge just to get things rolling, so read on, and you can begin writing as soon as you like...

You have today and tomorrow to play around - this is Sunday, November 1st’s challenge, showing up a little early, but still not due until noon Central Time on Monday, November 2nd.

So, let’s  dive in, shall we?


***********************************

Challenge #1 - Random Bits of Dialogue

Write Sunday, November 1st - or earlier if you like
Oh, and just to complicate things - daylight savings time is also in the mix on Sunday :)

Due: Monday, November 2nd, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


There’s been a bit of a tradition that the first challenge of the month is a prompt with an assortment of random potential bits of dialogue to use as a jumping off point.  So this is the 2026 version.

The lines of dialogue come from two Instagram writer accounts.

The first batch of options come from an account that is sadly no longer active, SophieMPoraykoWrites - however it was also the favorite of another account that is still active - The Writer’s Garden (https://www.instagram.com/thewritersgarden/), so you can look there to find other potential fodder if you like, now or later.  Here’s Sophie’s lines:

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Who said I was a mortal?”

“Don’t say that.  You can’t do this, not now.  Please.”

“We’ll settle this like real men: a dance off.”

“Don’t ever say that name again.”


The other account that offered up some fun potential dialogue options is still currently active, the Instagram for Emily Pedroza (https://www.instagram.com/penstopalms/).  Emily’s assorted dialogue prompts include:

“Keep an eye on the door, but whatever you do, don’t open it.”

“Pass the binoculars. Hurry!”

“I can’t stand small talk, but it was all he could offer.”

“That animal can’t possibly be a bird.”



Choose any one, or more, of those lines of dialogue to include in your scene for the day.  (If you’re an overachiever, or like to punish yourself, you could try to use all of them, but I wouldn’t advise it - we want to inspire, not tie you up in knots.)

Just pick some material that sets off an idea in your head and run with it.

Or ignore this challenge entirely and just write whatever you want.  It’s totally up to you.

This is just an offering to potentially get you started on something. (And there are others just below this.)

Doesn’t matter what you write, just as long as you write.  

Just get something going and have fun with it.


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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 

2021’s challenge #1: I Love You, I Hate You, I Love You

Or try 2022’s challenge #1: Assorted Dialogue

Or try 2023’s challenge #1: More Assorted Dialogue

Or try 2024’s challenge #1: Still More Assorted Dialogue

Or try 2025’s challenge #1: Not Love/Too Late

Or, you know, just ignore the prompts altogether and write whatever you want - as long as you’re writing and turning it in by the deadline, that’s all that matters for the challenge :)

**************************

And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month:

Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)

Deadline Amnesty for Voting (and other handy challenge tips) - 2026 edition

Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play

Don’t Stress About Format

Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

No.  Really.  I Mean It.  Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)

Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”

Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day

Don’t Stress about November 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2026 edition

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How to submit your work for Challenge #1

We’re streamlining the process this year with a Google form, 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header

but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.

After you enter the required fields of 
email, 
name, 
challenge number (for today, that’d be 1 :) 
and page count, 
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.

OR

Post your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.

OR

Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form

OR

Type directly into the Google form.

(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)



Write Sunday, November 1st - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Monday, November 2nd, 12pm noon Central Time 
And again, just to complicate things - daylight savings time is also in the mix that day :)
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)

***********************

And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.

We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days.  No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)

Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 12pm noon Central Time on Monday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)

Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later. 

You have 29 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want. 

Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it makes sense to you.

It just needs to be something.


************************

And that something can be:



Lights up.

CAROL and REGGIE are hiding behind a bush.

CAROL: Pass the binoculars. Hurry!

REGGIE fumbles but eventually gets the binoculars from around his neck and hands them over to CAROL.

She looks out into the distance.

Then slowly passes the binoculars to REGGIE, and points.

REGGIE looks.  Then slowly lowers the binoculars and looks at CAROL

REGGIE: That animal can’t possibly be a bird.

Lights down.

The End



That’s always your escape hatch, every day.

That’s your base line.

Build on it.

Have fun.

Don’t stress.

Make an impulsive decision and run with it.

Breathe.

You’ve got the day (almost two days this time).

Just write.

(After you vote, of course :)

And take good care of yourselves, and each other.

Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his) 

Deadline Amnesty for Voting (and other handy challenge tips)

Even more important than writing - VOTING in the election this year.

As I type this, my voting’s done - Minnesota (which Threshold Theater and I call home) is great with early voting options, so I reviewed my ballot online ahead of time and hit the early polling location for Minneapolis on the first day of early voting September 18th.

A great many of you live in states where early voting is already available.  Please take advantage of it.

However, if you haven’t voted by the time November 1st rolls around, the November Playwriting Challenge is not going to be standing in your way.

Any day from November 1st through November 3rd, if time spent voting prevents you from having the time you need to write, just let me know that and the noon Central Time deadline doesn’t apply to you for the day’s writing which is impacted by your going to the polls.

This will also apply the day after the election (November 4th), since I know the lines are liable to be longest on Election Day on November 3rd and that could snowball through that day’s writing, due by noon Central Time on November 4th.

So, please make your voices heard and VOTE.

Even though it’s the midterm election this year with all of the House and a chunk of the Senate up for grabs, some states also have governors up for election, and many cities have mayors and city councils on the ballot.  School boards and city and state government have an even greater impact on our day to day lives often than the federal government does.  Choose the people exercising power over you.  That’s your power.  Choose people who are going to address issues that matter to you.  I have.

Your Secretary of State’s website will have voting information for you.  For instance, here’s Minnesota’s where you can find out how to register to vote, where you can early vote or where your polling place is on Election Day, and what’s on your ballot:
https://www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/

Good national resources include:

I Will Vote - https://iwillvote.com/

Vote Save America - https://votesaveamerica.com/
VSA can help you figure out how to vote - https://votesaveamerica.com/be-a-voter/
Where you can volunteer to help campaigns - https://www.mobilize.us/vsa/?utm_source=web_vsa_menu
How you can donate to make the biggest impact - https://votesaveamerica.com/donate/
How to build community - https://votesaveamerica.com/action-hub/

In addition to getting out there and voting, because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month, handy tips gleaned from the three previous years of the challenge:

Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)

Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play

Don’t Stress About Format

Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

No.  Really.  I Mean It.  Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt

Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)

Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”

Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day

Don’t Stress about November 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend)


Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his) 

"Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say."
- James Baldwin

"Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way."
- E.L. Doctorow

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak."
- Audre Lorde

Don’t Stress about November 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend)

This question always comes up eventually, so… about Thanksgiving (2026 edition):

Yes, there will still be a writing prompt.

However, the plan that week is to send you writing prompts in advance for the holiday weekend, so you can write ahead and bank them if you want.

The last few years, what I’ve done is sent out 
Tuesday and Wednesday’s prompts on Monday, 
Thursday and Friday’s prompts on Tuesday, 
and Saturday and Sunday’s prompts on Wednesday.

November 30th falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving this year, so that prompt will go out to everyone on Sunday of the holiday of weekend, and you’ll have all day Monday to write and turn it in by 12 noon Central Time on Tuesday, December 1st - and the challenge will be completed.

And, as always, there will be an escape hatch prompt that you can copy, paste and embellish as your submission for the day, such as…

“Lights up

A turkey runs for its life across the stage.

Lights down”

So don’t stress the holiday.  There are ways around it.

The Return of Threshold Theater's November Playwriting Challenge (Year 6)

And after our standard nine month hibernation, we're back for round six!

November is traditionally a month when all sorts of writers sign up for challenges to finish the Great American Novel or that unfinished screenplay - why shouldn’t playwrights get in on the fun?



The goal is simple: to get you to prioritize your own playwriting, even if it’s just for a little while each day, every day, for a whole month.



Even if you only manage it every other day, or a couple of days a week, that’s still progress.

If you’re like me, you can sometimes be so good at putting off your writing until another day that you can look up and find weeks have gone by without you writing a single line of dialogue.  We want to get out of that habit and replace it with a more creative habit.



And if you manage to write every single day of the month of November, then there’s an extra little prize for you at the end (read on for more details on that…)



Our challenge was created as a bit of an homage to a similar writing challenge that my friends at Red Theater in Chicago ran for several years in which I took part (so far I’ve mined the material I developed there for two full-length plays and a ten minute play).  Since they’ve sadly discontinued the event, and Threshold Theater is devoted to the development of new work and creating a community of writers for the theater, we thought, “why not revive that November playwriting challenge idea and do it here?”



How it works:



Everyone who wants to participate in the challenge can sign up on the Threshold Theater website, where you “purchase” the November Playwriting Challenge for $15.

https://www.thresholdtheatermpls.com/store/p27/Threshold_Theater%27s_November_Playwriting_Challenge.html#/

(That $15 is sort of like putting money in a pool for March Madness or an Oscar party, but this time, you're betting on yourself as a writer.)



(If the payment is a problem for you, contact us at ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com - we don’t want money to be a barrier to people participating in the challenge - we’ll make something work to get you in.)


Threshold Theater will take 20% off the top, which will go towards supporting the artists in our ongoing New Play Reading Series and future productions.  The remaining 80% of the money collected from the $15 entry fees will go into the pot to create that prize at the end I mentioned before.

After purchasing the challenge with your entry fee, drop us an email at ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com to let us know you’re in.

PLEASE NOTE: Since Gmail is being aggressive about curating people’s email inboxes the last year or so, if you don’t see emails from the Challenge in your inbox, and you have a gmail account, be sure to check on the “All Mail” option, which will reveal all the emails you receive, not just the ones Gmail thinks are important.  Since we have links in the challenge emails and since you either have never received emails from us before, or haven’t since last November, Gmail may not be as interested in the playwriting challenge as you are :)

 

**************

Formal Rules: 

Paid participation is only available to those residing in the United States.

Contest (aka, November Playwriting Challenge) entry period ends October 31, 2026 at 11:59pm Central Time. 

The contest will run from 12:00 a.m. (midnight) Central Time on November 1, 2026 to 12:00pm (noon) Central Time on December 1, 2026

Participants must submit work by 12:00 p.m. (noon) Central Time each day to be considered eligible for winnings on December 1, 2026. 

Winner(s) will be announced no later than December 8, 2025

Winnings will be sent out (from Threshold Theater’s Venmo account) no later than two weeks after winners are announced (December 22, 2026). 

Winnings of $600 and over will require a form W-2 to be issued by Threshold Theater. 

All payments received and sent out are in U.S. Dollars.

By paying the entrance fee and submitting the email you agree to the rules set forth from Threshold Theater and all disputes will be settled directly between Threshold Theater and participants.


***************

The writers who manage to write something every single day for the 30 days of November will split the money at the end.  That, of course, is an extra reward on top of the main reward, which is that you prioritized your playwriting and wrote a whole bunch of new material in November.  (And everyone, whether they write all 30 days or not, will get that “new play material” prize.) 

(Every year I did this challenge through Red Theater, I wrote all 30 days and ended up getting my $15 back at the end as part of my share of the kitty, so it was basically free writing encouragement :)



First rule of the challenge - it doesn’t have to be good writing, it just has to be writing.



Part of the point of the challenge is to get you to just make decisions and run with them, blast past your internal censor and just put something on the page. One participating writer has likened it to doing improv with your keyboard.



Everything you write will, by the circumstances of its creation, be a first draft.  You can always go back and “fix it” later :)

Each day you will have a writing prompt.



I will post the writing challenge on our challenge blog at https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/



I will also email everyone participating with the text of that day’s challenge and a link to that blog post (for future reference)



(The plan is to give you two or three days’ worth of prompts in advance, so if you want to keep writing or get a head start on the next day’s work, you can.  The more writing the better.)



You can write to the prompt, or ignore it and write something completely different.  Up to you.  As long as you’re writing.



The point is just to give yourself the space and time to write something new.  

Doesn’t even need to be a complete scene, you could just have the beginning and the middle and not have any idea how to end it, the rest of the idea may come to you another day down the road.



As long as you have something written, that’s a good day.



If you’re just not able to get anything going one day in November, and all you can come up with is:


“Lights up



CAROL dances across the stage and disappears



Lights down



The End”



That’s fine



(Obviously we want to avoid 30 days of that but that’s enough of a placeholder to count for the day’s writing: Lights up, Something happens on stage, Lights down, The End - that’s the baseline we all start with as our escape hatch for the day, challenge yourself to do more)



The daily check-in to keep us all honest and for me to be able to track who’s writing each day will go like this:



You’ll get the prompt for November 1st in advance of that date.  You’ll have all day on November 1st to write.

By 12 noon, Central Time, on November 2nd, you’ll share your work with us through our new Google form in one of the following ways:

Last year, in order to streamline the process on our end, so we could be more responsive, we’ll be using a Google form for submissions rather than logging everything manually coming in via email response (which was manageable at 40 to 60 playwrights, but quite a bit less manageable the fourth year of the challenge when it ballooned to more than 100 playwrights - and stayed there :)

You can still do all the things with the Google form that playwrights previously did with email responses.  There are three potential ways to share your work for the day:

You can attach your script pages as a pdf or Word document to the Google form.



You can also post your script online on your own blog or website (or post it as a Google doc) and then post a link to it on the Google form.



You can also copy and paste your text for the day directly into the Google form, or type directly into the Google form.

Also, there’s a place on the form where you can leave me a note if you have questions, concerns, technical difficulties or just random greetings you want to share.  Since the Google form will be doing a lot of the stuff I used to do manually (logging the day and time of receipt, the number of pages, confirming receipt, etc.), I’ll be freer to respond in a more timely fashion to other inquiries, if all goes as planned.

Whichever option you choose in order to submit your writing each day, once you submit your work through the Google form, you will receive a copy of your submission, confirming we’ve received it, to your email address.

If you’re having issues with the Google form, no worries.  Since this is still just our second year implementing this element in the process, we’re going to be flexible with folks, working with you to get things to work smoothly.  No need to fret about this change in the process.  We don’t want it to be a barrier to folks participating.  (For starters, when you send us an email telling us you’re in on the challenge, we’ll do a test run with you on the Google form, prior to the challenge starting, just to be sure it all works well and there aren’t any additional bugs lurking in the system that we hadn’t caught yet.)



You can always turn your writing in early, but 12 noon Central Time will be the cutoff each day, and that way no one has an unnaturally early morning to make the deadline, regardless of what time zone they might be in.

So, submit your writing of the day for November 1st no later than 12 noon Central Time on November 2nd.

Then get working on the writing for November 2nd, to be turned in by12 noon Central Time on November 3rd.

And so on...



And we’ll all go through that process daily until 12 noon, Central Time, on December 1st, for the November 30th challenge.



(And don’t panic the first couple of days when we’re all getting up and running.  We’re not going to be sticklers while we’re all fighting technology and working out the kinks on November 1, 2 and 3… Just post as you’re able and keep us in the loop by email on what’s going on if you’re having trouble, need tech support, etc. :)



Then December 1st, I’ll sit down and make a list of all the people who logged in with writing work every day of the month, and I’ll double check it with you all, to make sure I didn’t miss anybody.



And then we’ll split the collective 80 percent of the entry fees for the challenge between those prolific writers who all remain standing at the end of the month.  We'll confirm contact details at that time for the best way to get you your money.

I have always had a tremendous amount of fun doing challenges like this as a writer myself, and my aim is to make this one fun and inspiring for all of you as well.

An overview of how things turned out the past five years:

Honestly, I was expecting maybe half a dozen writers from the Twin Cities metro our first time out in 2021. Instead, we got 10 writers in Minnesota, plus 33 other writers from 20 other states, 2 from Canada, and 2 whose location was unknown. 27 of the 47 writers wrote every single day.

In 2022, due to a technical glitch, we got a late start getting the word out, but we still ended up with 12 writers in Minnesota, plus 23 other writers from 15 other states, 1 from Canada, and 4 whose location was unknown.  22 of the 40 writers wrote every single day.

In 2023, we had 57 writers, 33 of whom wrote all 30 days. 19 of the writers were from Minnesota, the rest came from 16 other states around the U.S. and the District of Columbia, plus we had another Canadian representative for the third year running.

In 2024, we had an unexpected explosion in the number of participants, from 57 to 101. By the end of November, 64 playwrights wrote all 30 days (which, yes, is more total playwrights than we had in any of the previous three years :) We had 17 writers from Minnesota, plus 84 other playwrights from 25 other states, plus the District of Columbia, with 4 of them from Canada, and 1 from Scotland! 

Last year, in 2025, we hit a new high with 111 playwrights, 70 of whom wrote all 30 days (another record). 13 of the 111 playwrights were from Minnesota, plus 91 other playwrights from 23 states, plus 1 in the District of Columbia, another 4 hearty representatives from Canada, 1 from Scotland, and 1 from Malaysia!

SPECIAL NOTE FOR OUR FRIENDS FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S.:
First… apologies for… well, everything.  As you’ve no doubt noticed, the U.S. is a bit of a mess at the moment in terms of the way it’s interacting with the rest of the world.
Quite apart from all that, we are unable to process financial transactions outside of the United States.  We don’t want to leave you out, though, so if you’re still interested in participating, even though there’s no payout at the end, contact us first directly via ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com and we’ll discuss how you can participate (Don’t purchase the challenge on our website or pay the entry fee)

For everyone else, playwrights in the United States of America, if you’re interested in participating, go purchase the November Playwriting Challenge in the Store on the Threshold Theater website (www.thresholdtheatermpls.com) (which will put your $15 in the prize pot) and send us an email at ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com to let us know you want to take part in the challenge. 

Deadline to sign up is October 31, 2026 - 11:59pm, Central Time

(Donation needs to be entered no later than 11:59pm 10/31/26; but if you don't get around to the email part of it to notify us until later, that's fine - I just need your email address so I know where to send you the prompts with the link to the Google form every day :) 

The fun (and writing) begin November 1, 2026.



Happy writing to you all!



Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(He/him/his)