Writing Challenge #1 - More Assorted Dialogue

Hi folks

Thanks for signing up for the November Playwriting Challenge with Threshold Theater!

People still have until midnight tonight to sign on but as of right now (as of 6:30am this morning) we have 39 playwrights from 12 states, plus the District of Columbia, and one from Canada - so far, we’ve got a cluster from Minnesota, as well as writers from California, Florida, Georgia (3), Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts (3), New Jersey (2), New York (6), Texas (5), Virginia, Washington state (2), and Washington, D.C.

We actually decided to give everyone a head-start on the first challenge just to get things rolling, so read on, and you can begin writing as soon as you like...

You have today and tomorrow to play around - this is November First’s challenge, showing up a little early, but still not due until noon Central Time on November 2nd.

So, let’s  dive in, shall we?


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Challenge #1 - More Assorted Dialogue

Due: Thursday, November 2nd, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


Something random with multiple options always seems to be a good jumping off point, so here are seven completely unconnected lines of dialogue for you to consider:


“We both know this will be the first time and the last time we ever attempt this.”

“So you’re saying this all started in El Paso?”

“That animal can’t possibly be a bird.”

“Keep an eye on the door, but whatever you do, don’t open it.”

“He flubbed his very first line, and the play only got worse from there.”

“I can’t stand small talk, but it was all he could offer.”

“Promise me you’ll never tell anyone what you just saw.”



Take one of those and run with it to get an idea started.

Or if you like two or more of them, feel free to use as many as you like.

If I was being a show-off, I’d try to include all seven of them, but I only have a day to write so… I can always come back and use more later for another day.

And if you hate all these options, you can check out the source, Emily Pedroza’s Instagram account, www.instagram.com/penstopalms (Pens To Palms), for other handy writing prompt material for the day.

Doesn’t matter what you write, just as long as you write.  

Just get something going and have fun with it.

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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #1:

I Love You, I Hate You, I Love You

Or try 2022’s challenge #1:

Assorted Dialogue

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 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”

Don't Stress About What You're Turning In Each Day

Don’t Forget To Vote: Tuesday, November 7th (or If You Can, By All Means Vote Early)

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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, you know, just reply to this email if you want :)

OR

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

Again, this is: Due: Thursday, November 2nd, 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 12pm 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 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.


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And that something can be:


Lights up.

Two people stare at a strange-looking animal.

Person 1 - I think it’s a bird.

Person 2 - That animal can’t possibly be a bird.

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.

Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his)

Now Playing:
The video trailer for Threshold Theater's first virtual play reading in the New Play Reading series (back in May/June 2021), our reading of “Spellbound” by Matthew A. Everett - Thanks to his mischievous friend Jeffrey, who’s begun dabbling in witchcraft, Micah has accidentally dosed his best friend Auggie with a love potion. Which might be fine, if Auggie wasn’t straight, and married, or if Auggie’s wife Sarah wasn’t pregnant, or a practicing witch. With the help of Duncan, who runs the local metaphysical supply store, the race is on to whip up the antidote before anyone does something they’ll regret.  Now on our YouTube channel

Support Threshold Theater on Give to the Max Day, November 16th
(Or feel free to give early, any time between November 1st through 15th)
Here's the link: https://www.givemn.org/story/Kssucf


Coming Monday, November 20, 2023 at 7pm:
If you’re local in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, come and join us for Threshold Theater's seventh live play reading in the New Play Reading series. Like all good LGBTQ+ theater companies, we begin our new season of programming with "Mediocre Heterosexual Sex" - which is a play by Madison Wetzell.
Location: The Black Hart of Saint Paul - 1415 University Avenue West, St. Paul, MN - Doors at 6:30pm, Reading begins at 7pm, Audience discussion to follow the reading -
About the play: Four hours after her girlfriend dumps her, Erin switches her Tinder setting to dudes because she hates herself. She quickly meets Aaron, who is straight, conveniently nearby, and only too happy to indulge her masochistic fantasies. To translate this deeply ambivalent first hetero experience, Erin seeks the advice of the only straight people she knows, a couple in a Dominant/submissive relationship. A vexed exploration of gender, sex, power, and kink.

Coming Spring 2024:
“4Play with Threshold Theater”
Dates and venue still TBA
Featuring:
Amsterdam, by Collette Cullen
Bluetooth, by Liz Dooley
Hurry Up and Wail, by Anna Ralls
Just for Context, by Bethany Dickens Assaf
The Weird Ellen Prom Queen Trendsetters, by Elizabeth Shannon

Coming for Pride Month 2024
Monday, June 3, 2024
Monster Girls at Sunshine Donuts, by Dani Herd
A vampire, a werewolf, and a Frankenstein's monster walk into a doughnut shop... Meet Louise, Tally, and Elsie: the crew behind Sunshine Doughnuts! The ghouls have fallen into a pretty pleasant spooky routine for themselves; pouring coffee, baking doughnuts, arguing over Scooby-Doo cartoons, having crushes on their regulars. Along comes an unexpected late night visitor to throw everything into question. Sometimes it really sucks how much your past can come back to bite you!

 


"Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say."
- James Baldwin

"Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way."
- E.L. Doctorow

 

3 Anonymous Writers?

Hi there, Anonymous.

If you want to remain anonymous, that's fine.

But it's possible to have your gift show up as anonymous on the public GiveMN page, while also still giving us at Threshold your name and email address in the background where no one else but us can see it.

And we kind of need to see it if you want to be part of the larger challenge this coming month.

(We've never had this problem in previous years so it's a bit of a head-scratcher why it's happening this year, three times so far.)

Of course, if you're not interested in having the prompts emailed to you,

And if you're not interested in being part of the potential payout at the end if you write all 30 days of the month,

Then, that's fine.

You can look at the prompts daily here on the blog.

But if you do want to get the messages every day in your inbox, and if you do want the potential to get some of your money back, perhaps more, at the end if you write all 30 days and turn in pages daily by the deadline - then we need to know who you are and how to contact you.

Part of the sign-up process for the challenge is also that after you put in your $15, you also send an email telling us you're on board to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com.  That would be a way to give us your name and email address as well, if you didn't do it at the GiveMN page when you made the donation.

But three folks haven't done that.

We have one anonymous entrant from Hudson, Wisconsin, who applied on 10/27/23 at 11:10am

We have two others from Minneapolis, Minnesota, just today:

One applied on 10/30/23 at 6:58am

The other applied on 10/30/23 at 8:17pm

So, again, if you just want to do the writing on your own and don't expect anything in return, that's fine.  But if you want to be part of the competition part of things, we're going to need you to reach out.

Just putting it out there.

Happy writing to you, regardless.

Hey there, Anonymous in Minneapolis, MN

Yes, you.

You can mark your gift as Anonymous and still give us your name and email address in the background.

It won't show up for the public on the GiveMN page.

But if you just write Anonymous in the spaces for First Name, Last Name and Email Address, we have no way of knowing who you are or how to get in touch with you.

That's OK, if you remember to follow the last of the instructions for signing up, which is:

"After putting in your entry fee, drop us an email at 

ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com 

to let us know you’re in."

If you give us no information, and then also don't send an email to unmask yourself to us, we can only hope that you look at this blog for your writing prompts, because we have no way of sending them to you.

Also, see this post for a fellow cypher in Madison, WI.

Let us know who you are, so we can let you in on the writing challenge each day when we're emailing everyone else.

Thanks!

 

 

Don't Stress About What You're Turning In Each Day

Here's a new wrinkle that occurred during the 2022 challenge:

One day during last year’s challenge, someone emailed me to say that they were writing every day, they just didn’t feel comfortable submitting things and asked if that was OK.

Absolutely.

Now, if you want to be part of the competition to write every day and get a payout at the end, then you DO need to submit something every day by the deadline - even if it’s just the fake little placeholder play I send every day at the end of the challenge post/email.

But 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.

If you don’t care about the payout at the end, then you can just write for yourself every day and not turn anything in.  We’ll still send you the prompts to keep you going each day.

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 for a final rundown to show you all how impressive your output has been in the month of November.

And I’m scrambling to keep up with you all most days in the rush of it all 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 2024.

(And it sounds like from the results of the first two years, 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.

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And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some other words of reassurance on the basics of the month ahead which we laid out last year:

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 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”

Don’t Forget To Vote: Tuesday, November 7th (or If You Can, By All Means Vote Early)


 

Hey there, Anonymous in Madison, WI

Yes, you, Anonymous :)

It's fine if you want to remain Anonymous on the public list of donations to Threshold Theater on our GiveMN page.

But if you want to be part of the November Playwriting Challenge, which you indicate you do, you can't remain completely anonymous in the background as well.

One way to get around that is to follow the last of the instructions for signing up:

"After putting in your entry fee, drop us an email at ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com to let us know you’re in."

Or submitting at least an email address through GiveMN when you made your donation, rather than make that anonymous, too. (But at this point, that ship has sailed.)

The only thing we know about you is that you're in Madison, WI and you signed up at 11:10am on 10/27/23.

We have no way of contacting you to send you writing prompts.

Now, the prompts will also be posted on this blog on a daily basis, so if all you want to do is follow the blog and have no contact, and you don't want to be part of the competition for the payout at the end, that's fine.

But if you're expecting us to reach out to you, this here (saying hi on the blog, so you'll reach out) is all we can do.

We have no contact information for you.

Someone else anonymous did sign up from Dallas, TX, but they sent an email to let us know who they were, so we could contact them with the daily prompts.

So if you want us to contact you, you need to contact us.

(If others want to make anonymous donations to join the writing challenge, too, don't forget to email us if you're not going to share your email address through GiveMN.)

Deadline for signup is 11:59pm on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.

Writing starts Wednesday, November 1, 2023.

Thanks!