Writing Challenge #2 - What Haunts You?

Hi folks

As of this morning, there are 33 writers signed on for the challenge.

Almost a third of us are in Minnesota, but we have writers from 14 other states as well - California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington - and one from Canada!  Welcome, one and all!  Thanks for joining us in this little daily exercise in flexing your writing muscles for a month.

I am going to continue to endeavor to get you all the challenges a day early, so you have plenty of time to write, but you’ll also have the option that way to move on to the next one if you finish a challenge early.

And so…

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Challenge #2 - What Haunts You?

Due: Thursday, November 3rd, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


Since Halloween’s just behind us, the prompt is the question, “What haunts you?”

First things that come to mind for me:

I’m haunted about everything that surrounds my mother’s quite unexpected illness and death from a brain tumor - the places, the travel to and from the places, the medical staff, the visitors, the mail, the procedures, the pets that needed tending to, the daily rituals, the house to be cleaned out - but a random example would be what turned out to be the last phone call where I heard her voice. We didn’t know it was the last phone call at the time, of course. It seemed fairly normal under the circumstances. We were making plans for what we thought would be the next six months or so of her continued treatment and decline, all the paperwork and changes ahead. Trying to stay upbeat, crack a few jokes in the gallows humor genre.  It was a sunny day and I had taken the phone call outside the grocery store - I was just headed in to buy food for the week but I saw the call was from Mom and so I stopped and took the call and just talked as long as she wanted to talk. Thank God I took that phone call and didn’t think, “I’ll just call her later.”  Less than 24 hours after that phone call, she was dead. I still go to that grocery store. Every time I approach the store from that part of the parking lot and step onto the sidewalk… I think about that phone call.

I’m haunted by memories of the last person I was intimate with.  He came up from another state to visit, see my play, spend time over the weekend just being together.  I remember the look on his face as the lights came up at intermission.  He’d never seen a play of mine before.  He just looked at me with a kind of wonder, as if to ask, “Who ARE you?”  Probably one of the nicer non-verbal reactions to my work I’ve ever had.

I’m haunted by the sudden end of a friendship in junior high school.  One minute the group of us is talking and laughing together, the next minute a friend is smacking me across the face and my glasses fly off my face and go skittering down the school hallway.  I wasn’t the only one in the group that was stunned into silence.  Don’t remember what caused the shift, but I still remember the moment.

What haunts you?

Doesn’t need to be anything extreme or traumatic (in fact, probably best not to, this isn’t therapy, it’s supposed to be fun :)

What are some random happy things that stick with you?  That works, too.

The things that linger, follow you around through your days, making you smile or giving you pause.

Take one of those things as your jumping off point and write.


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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #2:

Fire Escape

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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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 :)

Don’t Forget To Vote: Tuesday, November 8th (or If You Can, By All Means Vote Early)

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 Thanksgiving

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


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How to submit your work for Challenge #2

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 #2
(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: Thursday, November 3rd, 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.

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 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 make sense to you.

It just needs to be something.


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And that something can be:



Lights up.

Someone wakes up in bed next to someone else.

They choose just to let the other person sleep a while longer.

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