Hi folks
Another milestone behind us - 10 days in - we’re a third of the way there!
Well done, everybody!
Hang in there and keep going.
As much as anything, we’re just trying to establish a new habit of writing, even if it’s just a little bit, every day.
If you miss a day, no worries. Don’t beat yourself up. Just write the next day.
Now, I have the day job, plus I’m overdue to get a review of a show posted for a theater company, so let’s get you that writing prompt…
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Challenge #11 - Background Music
Due: Saturday, November 12th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
One day job thing I regularly have to do is walk checks to the bank to be deposited.
And though it’s a more circuitous route to go through the skyways, I also don’t need to worry about street traffic and can get a good uninterrupted walk in if I go that way, so I frequently do.
There’s one stretch of skyway by a deserted office block where they play classical music over the loudspeakers. And every time I turn the corner into that part of the skyway, I’m struck by how my mood changes. Even though I’m still just walking the skyway, this grand orchestral accompaniment makes everything seem a bit more significant, changes the way I stride down the hall. Suddenly there’s a movie soundtrack, it’s very peculiar how one’s brain responds to it.
In years gone by, getting the theme from The West Wing stuck in my head meant a different thing to my walk and my mood than, say, getting the St. Elsewhere theme stuck in my head (yes, I’m old, I thought we established that).
Paul Thomas Anderson listened to his friend Aimee Mann’s music while writing the screenplay for Magnolia and ended up incorporating her work into the final film as well (and his cast into her music videos).
Then there’s this weird little (sort of) musical French film I’m obsessed with from director Christopher Honore called Les Chansons d’amour (Love Songs) from back in 2007 that he did with a bunch of actors who weren’t trained singers, and they’d just randomly break into song in the middle of what would otherwise be a standard, odd French film about tangled romantic relationships between a bunch of 20somethings in Paris. Talking with another playwright friend of mine one time, I described it as “it’s like if a play I wrote and a play you wrote had a baby, and then it could sing” (which if you knew both of us and our work, is actually a weirdly accurate description of the film). When it starts out you think it’s going to be about this threesome relationship between a guy and two young women. Then partway through one of the women unexpectedly dies, and then it’s about the guy, the dead woman’s family, and the remaining woman navigating grief and their suddenly quite awkward interrelationships. And then the guy discovers his bisexual side and embarks on a new relationship with a very eager younger guy. And in the middle of it all, the sister of the dead woman has this heartbreaking solo about how everything and nothing is the same with her sister gone so suddenly, which features in translation one of my favorite random lyrical descriptions:
“Melancholy beasts at the gates of the zoo.”
Sometimes I find music distracting while I write. Other times it occupies or stimulates a certain part of the brain that allows the rest of my brain to crank away at the writing in a way just sitting in silence would not. Back in the pre-pandemic days when I would sit down in the food court to eat my lunch surrounded by other people, music was a way I drowned out the background noise of humanity and helped my mind to focus on doing some writing on my lunch break before heading back upstairs to work.
After writing earlier full drafts of my play “TV Boyfriend” (birthed from a previous November playwriting challenge run by another theater), I started to hear songs and think, “Oh, that’s a good song for the character of Jake, or Ken. That one’s definitely going on the pre-show music playlist one of these days.” And now sometimes when I’m working on rewrites for that script, I’ll turn on those songs and listen to them to warm myself up and get in the mood. Thanks in advance to Anthony Ramos and Ben Platt (among others) for getting me through the next draft.
What music inspires you? Are there lyrics from a favorite song that nag at you and you want to try using as a jumping off point for a character or story or atmosphere or world to build? Is there music that’s just good company for your brain and spirit while you go about the work of writing? (In that regard, my thanks always go out to Chris Koza lately - a random sampling: The Rutting Moon, The Rain Collector, Last Tuesday, and Hush)
Who’s your go to musician?
Throw on some music to go with your writing today. See what happens.
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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #11:
Punk Monkey, Film Noir and Ride The Pink Horse
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 :)
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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 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 Thanksgiving
Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”
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How to submit your work for Challenge #11
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 #11
(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 very challenge on the writing
challenge blog below
Again, this is: Due: Saturday, November 12th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
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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.
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 Saturday 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 19 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.
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And that something can be:
Lights up.
A person is writing.
A song enters their head.
They dance.
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.
Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his)
Coming Up:
Threshold Theater’s New Play Reading Series
A reading of “Leviathan” by Bethany Dickens Assaf
Saturday, November 19, 2022 - 7pm
The Black Hart of Saint Paul - 1415 University Avenue West in St. Paul
Our video recording of our third live play reading in the New Play Reading series, Sam Walsh's "The Visible," is up on our YouTube channel (available to stream through the end of November) -
Support Threshold Theater on Give to the Max Day, November 17th
(Or feel free to give early, any time between November 1st through 16th)
Here's the link: https://www.givemn.org/story/Kssucf
"Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say."
- James Baldwin
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