Challenge #5 - Random Phrase Generator

Hi folks

Just wanted to say everybody’s doing great.

You may think just having a page or two is nothing special, but any writing in a day is more progress than no writing.

And it doesn’t have to be perfect, that’s what rewriting later is for.

For now, just push through.

And if you aren’t feeling it one day here in November, remember that at the end of every one of these emails there’s an escape hatch option:

“Lights up
(Something happens)
Lights down.”

I change them every day to match the day’s challenge.  I particularly liked the one yesterday for the sci fi/fantasy prompt, where an elf and a robot board a spaceship and take off for another planet.

So feel free to use something like that on a tough day if you need to.

Thanks for prioritizing your own creativity, whether you’re responding to a prompt, or just writing your own thing and using the daily submission deadline to keep yourself moving forward.


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

Challenge #5 - Random Phrase Generator

Due: Saturday, November 6th, 8am
(whenever 8am arrives in your time zone; we’ll do the math here in the Central Time zone, no worries :)

My playwright friend Dan Bernitt first crossed my path quite a few years ago now when as a young fellow (with a full head of hair) he was touring a solo Fringe Festival show with the charming title, “Thanks for the Scabies, Jerkface!”  One of his many creative projects since then has been to create a random phrase generator, to give his writing students a jumping off point for free writing at the beginning of the day - stream of consciousness response to a prompt, just to get the brain, pen, keyboard moving.  He has since incorporated this random writing prompt machine into his own personal website.

Periodically, I would visit it and generate five random prompts to pass on to my writing group for a change of pace for our biweekly writing challenge for each meeting.

For today, here’s five phrases to get you started from Dan:

- What you’re seeing now
- Combine and serve
- Left the best of all husbands
- It wasn’t your fault
- For whenever I look at you even briefly

Use any or all of them.  See where they take you.

Or visit his writing prompt generator to get completely different phrases to play with

Or, you know, just do your own thing.  That’s always an option, every day.



How to submit your work for Challenge #5

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 past 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 #5
(That just helps us sort through the email more quickly)
(Or, you know, just reply to this email if you want :)

OR

Post the link for the online document option above in the comments section on this very blog post for this challenge on our writing challenge blog.


Again, this is: Due: Saturday, November 6th, 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 Saturday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

A friendly reminder - you don’t have to write to the prompts if they don’t inspire you.  You can ignore them and just write whatever you want, just as long as you’re writing (that’s the main thing, not what you write)

Someone had a good 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 (unless you want to).  The longer answer is here if you’re curious.

For those concerned about format, we’re pretty liberal about that, too - just as long as it’s legible and in English.  More on that here.

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 25 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.

A person, a dog, a flower.
Each faces the audience in turn and proclaims,
“It wasn’t your fault.”

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 (and a half).

Just write.