Writing Challenge #27 - The Ex Files

Hi folks

We are 26 days in!

Including this daily prompt, there are only four left to share with you before our work is completed for the month.

Well done, everybody!  

We can all see the end of November dead ahead on Thursday,

with the last work to be turned in by noon Central time on Friday, December 1st.

And I don’t want to jinx things, but I think I may finally be on the verge of catching up with everyone’s daily output here at the challenge at last.

Best not to dwell on it too long or it shall escape me.

For a frame of reference on the end of the holiday weekend:

I’m sending this out the morning of Sunday, November 26th.

By noon Central Time today, you’re turning in the writing you did (potentially yesterday or earlier, perhaps this morning) for Challenge 25.
https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/11/writing-challenge-25-mood-music.html

Then you get to work today on writing something for Challenge 26, to turn in by tomorrow, Monday, November 27th, noon Central time.
https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/11/writing-challenge-26-impossible-set.html

And the writing prompt you’ll be reading below is what you'll be working on Monday, to turn in on Tuesday morning before noon Central Time.

Let’s get you that writing prompt…

 

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Challenge #27 - The Ex Files

Due: Tuesday, November 28th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


One final offering this year from our co-founder and technical director Nick Mrozek:

“You're on a first date
and their most recent ex walks into the bar.
You end the date leaving with that ex.”

Obviously this is the scenario for at least a long one-act, perhaps a whole full-length play.

And you could approach from any number of angles.

Don’t try to do the whole thing in a day.

Pick an angle, pick a piece of the puzzle - beginning, middle or end - and play around with that.

Nick is asking that we center the person between the first date, and their most recent ex, not either of those other two people.  So try putting yourself, or your protagonist, in the middle of that.

And don’t make it easy.

Play with how weird and conflicting and messy the whole thing might be, for all three involved.

(I didn’t ask Nick if this ever happened to him
or someone he knows,
or if he just made it up,
but anything’s possible.)

It’s an outline with a lot of potential.

Personally, I’m more inclined to go the “My Dinner With Andre” route than a Saturday Night Live sketch, but your mileage may vary.

RE: My Dinner With Andre (a film from 1981)
Trailer
Description

If you’re having trouble coming up with a way in, imagine how your favorite playwright might attack the scenario.

What would Shakespeare,
Larissa Fasthorse,
Harvey Feirstein,
Sarah Ruhl,
Anton Chekhov,
Annie Baker,
Oscar Wilde,
Suzan-Lori Parks,
Tony Kushner,
or August Wilson do?  
Or what might a local playwright you like and admire that the rest of us might never have heard of do with such a plot line?

Mix it up.  Have fun with the thing.

And if that doesn’t do it for you, you can always ignore this prompt and do whatever you want, just like every other day in November.

Just write.  Something.


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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #27:

She Blinded Me With Science

Or try 2022’s challenge #27:

Code Words

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 #27

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 #27
(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: Tuesday, November 28th, 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 Tuesday 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 3 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.

Your first date is going well.

Then that date’s most recent ex walks in.

Both you and your date start to realize you might be having a drink with the wrong half of that former couple.

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