Challenge #1 - I Love You, I Hate You, I Love You

Hi folks

Thanks for signing on for the fun this coming month.

This was our first shot at hosting a writing challenge this year, so I was setting my expectations low.  Honestly, I would have been happy with just about half a dozen writers scribbling or typing away this time around.

We’re currently a group of almost 40, and we still have today for other folks to sign on and join us (people love a deadline) so… expectations well exceeded. Thanks!

And while there’s a respectable contingent from where Threshold Theater resides in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, we are a far flung group.  I don’t have all the contact information quite yet but so far I know we’ve got representation from  Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and even up north in Canada. Phew!

So, let’s  dive in, shall we?

Challenge #1 - I Love You, I Hate You, I Love You

Due: Tuesday, November 2nd, 8am
(whenever 8am arrives in your time zone; we’ll do the math here in the Central Time zone, no worries :)

The only guideline for this challenge is to include three lines of dialogue, in this order:

“I love you”
“I hate you”
“I love you”

You can insert the punctuation you wish - period, question mark, exclamation point, etc.

The same person doesn’t have to say all three lines.

The lines can be as far apart or close together as you want - all three up front, at the very end, stuck in the middle, spread out over the entirety of what you’re writing (one near the beginning, one in the middle, one near the end).  

If you’re feeling really creative, you could find a way to use them as stage directions to describe what someone is doing - or an instruction for the way in which someone is supposed to say a completely different line:

BARRETT:
    (I love you)
Please put that knife down.

However you use them, they just need to stay in that order - I love you, I hate you, I love you.

Everything else to create a context for those lines is up to you.

How to submit your work for Challenge #1

You have options.  They are:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and send as an attachment to an email sent to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com

OR

Copy and paste your script in the body of an email and send it to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com

OR

Post your script online (as a Google doc, or in a blog post, on your own personal website, etc.) - email a link to this script to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com
(If you’re going to Google doc route, just make sure to have the document public, or give permissions to our email address to open it)

When emailing us, make the subject line of your email - Challenge #1
(That just helps us sort through the email more quickly)

OR

Post the link for the online document option above in the comments section on this very blog post for the day's challenge.

Again, this is: Due: Tuesday, November 2nd, 8am
(whenever 8am arrives in your time zone; we’ll do the math here in the Central Time zone, no worries :)

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 8am on Tuesday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

We had a question about the overall goal of the month, are we supposed to write a full-length play, or two one-act plays, etc.?  The short answer is no.  The longer answer is here if you’re curious:

https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/10/question-do-we-have-to-write-play-short.html

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 make sense to you.

It just needs to be something.

And that something can be:

Lights up.

“I love you”
“I hate you”
“I love you”

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.