Writing Challenge #19 - Mystery Office or Newspaper Home

Hi folks

Still scrambling to catch up to your output.

(Don’t slow down on my account,
keep going,
keep writing and sending it in by the deadline each day,
eventually I’ll draw even with you
- the day jobs are just making it a bit more challenging this year :)


Let’s get you that writing prompt…


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Challenge #19 - Mystery Office or Newspaper Home

Due: Monday, November 20th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


 

Speaking of the day jobs, one of the things I need to do a few times a week is walk the checks from donors over to the bank.

The bank is several blocks away.  This chilly season, I take the route through the skyways so I don’t have to fuss with a coat.

On my route through the skyway is a mysterious office.

I say it’s mysterious because it has no identifying markers on the outside.

And the glass is almost completely frosted from top to bottom.  There’s a small margin of unfrosted glass near the floor, and again near the ceiling.  So you can see little hints of office furniture and a filing cabinet for records, even a potted plant.

No sign identifying the office’s services.  No way to see inside.

Sometimes the lights are on, sometimes the lights are off.

I’ve never seen movement in the place.  No feet.  No shadows.

Further along the route is the office building which used to house the workings of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press newspaper.  There was a day when a newspaper warranted and could afford its own building.  Those days have passed.

So they converted the whole building into apartments.

I wonder a lot about how a building’s history stays with it over time, regardless of what people do to it.

They gutted the inside of that building.  I watched them do it over a period of several years, and saw the apartment spaces take shape.

Do you suppose people even know what the building used to be?

Or what a newspaper used to be, what place it used to hold in society and discourse over events?

What if the ghosts of the building’s past life as the home of the newspaper are still in the walls somehow?

How might the intersection of past and present manifest themselves.

These are the things I think about when I’m taking the checks to the bank at the day job, walking through skyways still nearly emptied out by the first two years of a pandemic.  So many people work from home now, even me a couple of days a week, the general life cycle of the business district is very different.

If any of that gives you an idea, great - go for it!

If not, as always, you can just write whatever you want, ignore the prompt.  Just keep on scribbling and typing.

Happy writing!


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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #19:

Random Phrase Generator part 3

Or try 2022’s challenge #19

Frogs

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 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
 

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How to submit your work for Challenge #19

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 #19
(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 20th, 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 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 11 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 door to the mystery office opens…

A character hears the distorted sound of an old printing press coming from an empty corner of the kitchen…

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)

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

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