Writing Challenge #25 - Mood Music

Hi folks,

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Again, sending you two prompts from the future again today, so you can work ahead for the holiday weekend if you wish.

This prompt is the one you would be writing Saturday to be turned in on Sunday by noon Central Time, but just label your email for prompt 25 and you can turn it early and I’ll credit it ahead.

And of course, you can always use the mini-play at the bottom of the email and blog post as an escape hatch for the day’s writing.

Let’s get you that writing prompt…

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Challenge #25 - Mood Music

Due: Sunday, November 26th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)



Find some music you can play in the background for yourself and just write.

Music from a film soundtrack will, of course, remind me of a film.  But if I listen to it long enough, it just kind of becomes a mood, and that mood can sometimes give me ideas, or set me loose to keep plugging away at an idea I’d already been working on.

At the end of one of my favorite movies from last year, Aftersun, (don’t worry, no spoilers, go watch it, it’s gorgeous), there’s this beautiful shot that rotates all the way around and takes you from the present into the past, and you watch a character walk off into darkness, and then this music plays, an actual orchestral soundtrack for the first time in a movie that had been for most of its run time just old pop and rock tunes from the late 20th century.  Even without the context, it’s haunting…

“One Without” - Oliver Coates



On the other end of the mood scale, I can’t listen to the bouncy Belle & Sebastian tune “There’s Too Much Love” without thinking of the end of the charming little Brazilian coming of age comedy-drama “The Way He Looks” (now almost 10 years old, eek, 2014).

Two high school boys, one blind, one sighted, become friends and then fall in love.  It’s almost unbearably cute.  They dance to the tune in the midst of the film, as their friendship is blossoming.

Also in the middle of the film, the sighted boy, Gabriel, takes the blind boy, Leonardo, out for a ride on the back of his bicycle - Gabriel pedaling and Leonardo standing/sitting behind him, holding onto his shoulders.  At the end of the film, Gabriel has Leonardo do the pedaling while Gabriel is behind him, holding onto his shoulders.  Leonardo, blind but still in charge of steering, is a little freaked out, but Gabriel is encouraging him and smiling broadly, and the song plays again here and takes the audience into the credits at the end of the film.

You can see the two bicycle scenes at 2:21 and 2:40 in this video edit, set to the song.

The full-length feature grew out of a 7 minute short film with the same actrors

Film trailer



In the early 2000s, I took a playwriting class and one of the exercises both fascinated and eluded me.  The instructor told us to pick a song or piece of music and break it down structurally, sort of like diagramming a sentence, and then to take that structure and build a scene out of it instead.

I like music, but I’m sort of dumb about it.  I don’t have an ear that can separate out “This is that instrument, this is that instrument, etc.”  But I gave it a shot with Goo Goo Dolls’ song called “Black Balloon” (very 2009 of me)

If your brain or your ear works better for that kind of thing, choose a song or piece of music and play around with structure that way.



Two instrumental soundtracks I have frequently listened to as background music, depending on my mood, are:

For a somber, dramatic turn - The Hours, by Philip Glass
(huge fan of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Michael Cunningham, fascinated by the movie adaptation by David Hare)

The title track is all of it condensed into one eight minute burst of sound

But the whole thing is suitably evocative

There’s also a piano solo version


For a jauntier, bubblier mood - Amelie, by Yann Tiersen

Particularly fond of the waltz track

But the whole thing is very “French with accordion”


You may have noticed I’m trying to keep a lot of these holiday week ones light and playful, because we’ve all got a lot on our plates (no pun intended).  So I don’t want to add any more drama than you care to add to the proceedings

Go as light or as dark as you want, depending on what’s inspiring you.

Or, as always, just ignore me, write whatever you want, and turn it in by the deadline.

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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #25:

Unstageable

Or try 2022’s challenge #25

Fun With Homophones

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 #25

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 #25
(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: Sunday, November 26th, 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 Sunday 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 5 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 cranberry runs for its life across the stage.

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 Soon:
The video recording of 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.  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