Writing Challenge #6 - Mascots
Hi folks
Someone emailed me the other day to say that they were writing every day, they just didn’t feel comfortable submitting things and asked if that was OK.
Absolutely.
The “competitive/money payout at the end” part of the November playwriting challenge is the least important part. It’s just extra incentive if people need that to encourage them to keep at it.
Someone else emailed me saying that what they were sending in they didn’t want to be public - not that I was going to make it public but it was the kind of writing that they’d probably have to redo down the line if it was ever going to see an audience. That could be a masking of identities thing, that could be an unpopular opinion thing, who knows? Doesn’t really matter.
Basically don’t feel weird about turning in writing. All it’s doing right now is going into a folder associated with the challenge on my computer (it’s not even on a shared Google drive for the theater company or anything). It’s just so I can track the day to day of how many people are turning in writing and how many pages it all adds up to (still cleaning up totals on the first three days at the moment, statistics probably tomorrow). And I’m scrambling to keep up with you all at the moment so I don’t even have time to read anything either. So it’s quite literally a judgement-free zone right now sending me an email with your writing.
If you don’t care about the payout at the end, if you don’t care about the “competitive” part of writing every day, if you’re not comfortable sending me pages, that’s absolutely fine. The important thing is that you write. That’s the main reason I started this, it’s the main reason I hope we’re all doing it, so you come out on the other end of November with the beginnings of new scripts to work on for the next 11 months until November of 2023. And it sounds like from the results of last year, that’s what a lot of you did get, which makes me very happy.
The deadline and submission part of it is mostly just to give you a way to hold yourself accountable. There is a time at which a person is expecting to see some writing from you. So you write.
Do what you’re most comfortable with. Don’t let anything get in the way of the daily writing. We’re all good at finding excuses not to write (me very much included). This is all about stripping those excuses away.
And if you miss a day, no worries. Don’t beat yourself up. Just write again the next day.
Now, let’s get you that writing prompt…
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Challenge #6 - Mascots
Due: Monday, November 7th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
Team mascots are a strange thing.
I am reminded of this because a couple of my hometown teams in the Philadelphia area are surprisingly on a roll recently. The Phillies baseball team is in the World Series (though currently down by a game with only a potential two left to turn things around). The Eagles football team is inexplicably undefeated this season so far (which my late mother would have LOVED - she was a huge fan and even had an Eagles headdress of sorts with a beak and tiny wings on the side that would flop up and down). The 76ers and the Flyers aren’t doing so great this season, but you can’t have everything. And every team, of course, has a mascot.
I grew up on the Phillie Phanatic, of course.
And it was easy to quickly learn to love newcomer Gritty.
The Eagles mascot is just, well, an eagle - I didn’t even know he had a name (Swoop) until a couple of minutes ago.
And I was completely unaware of poor Franklin the Dog’s existence until just now (sorry, 76ers).
But in the case of every team mascot, there’s a human being in there.
And is the mascot’s personality also the person’s personality? Or are they two very different things? Do they have permission in a costume behind a mask to do things they would never consider doing as a regular human being in public? What’s that dichotomy all about?
And for every mascot there’s people that love them (and people that don’t) - both personally and professionally, on and off the clock.
And what a strange thing to say you do for a living.
So I guess, in a way, this is a variation on the “family of professional clowns” prompt earlier this week.
But these strange creatures fascinate me, and they must be good for some kind of inspiration.
Doubtless you all have home team mascots from school as well as professional sports.
Give them a thought, and write something.
Or, as usual, ignore me and write whatever you want.
Just write something.
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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #6:
Bigfoot By Moonlight
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 Forget To Vote: Tuesday, November 8th (or If You Can, By All Means Vote Early)
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 #6
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 #6
(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: Monday, November 7th, 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 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 24 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.
The team mascot walks onstage.
They take off their mascot head.
The human underneath is sweaty but proud.
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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