Writing Challenge #18 - Phrases That Could Lead You Anywhere (Write Nov. 18th)

Hi folks

We’re over two weeks in, and over halfway completed overall, so keep on writing!

And if you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up, just get up the next day and start writing again :)

Initial numbers on yesterday’s submissions, for Challenge 15, look like this:
77 playwrights, with material totaling 260 pages
(So, yet again, the equivalent of two full-length plays, plus an extra 20 page short play this time)

Let’s get you that writing prompt…


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Challenge #18 - Phrases That Could Lead You Anywhere

Write Tuesday, November 18th - or earlier if you like
Due: Wednesday, November 19th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


This is our final contribution for the year from Threshold Theater’s Managing Director and co-founder David Schlosser.  The one thing these three phrases from his list have in common is I read them and each on could have gone in literally any direction in my head as I pondered scenarios.

Back when I was helping to run the Playwrights’ Center’s previous version of the Roundtable weekly new play reading series (a whole other story…), we got in the habit of having a ten minute play festival at the end of each year before we took a little break for the summer (vacations, Minnesota Fringe Festival season, etc.)  

And part of the challenge was that we would collectively vote on what the common elements would be, ingredients that everyone had to fit into their play somehow.  It was always fascinating to see the wildly different takes playwrights could come up with all starting with the same ingredients.  Often one of the common elements we all had to include in our plays was a line of dialogue.  So imagine that you have to find a way to include one of these lines in your writing pages for the day somehow:

“I’m sorry I just can't believe how nervous I am to do this with you.”

“I don't know what happens to us when we shed the mortal coil that binds us to this life…”

“I was there. It was more than some bullshit slogan on a T-shirt or a blurb in some book.”

You can try to use more than one of the three lines if you want to but don’t create too big a hurdle for yourself.  One line will do.

What would you write if you had to include one of the three lines above in the dialogue of your characters?

Take any one or all of these and conjure up some pages for a potential play you can work on after November is past.  Just get something rolling over the next 24 hours and turn in whatever you have by the noon deadline on 11/19.

Or if any of them bring a completely different idea to mind, go with that instead.

Just write something.

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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can 

try 2021’s challenge #18: Words With No English Equivalent

Or try 2022’s challenge #18: Games

Or try 2023’s Challenge #18: Snapshots 3 (from Threshold Theater’s co-founder and Managing Director David Schlosser)

Or try 2024’s challenge #18: The Ending Is The Beginning (from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Kate Cosgrove)

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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How to submit your work for Challenge #18

We’re streamlining the process this year with a Google form, 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header

but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.

After you enter the required fields of 
email, 
name, 
challenge number (for today, that’d be 18 :) 
and page count, 
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.

OR

Post your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.

OR

Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form

OR

Type directly into the Google form.

(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)




Write Tuesday, November 18th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Wednesday, November 19th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


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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 “Succeeding” or “Failing”

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

Don’t Stress about November 27th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2025 edition

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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 Wednesday 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 12 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 makes sense to you.

It just needs to be something.

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And that something can be:



Lights up.

Three people, each carrying homemade protest scenes and/or wearing T-shirts with similar sentiments, appear in different quadrants of the stage in isolated pools of light.

They each begin to speak their stories to the audience:

PROTESTER 1
“I was there. It was more than some bullshit slogan on a T-shirt or a blurb in some book.”

PROTESTER 2
“I don't know what happens to us when we shed the mortal coil that binds us to this life…”

PROTESTER 3
“I’m sorry I just can't believe how nervous I am to do this with you.”

They turn and look at one another onstage.  It is clear that somehow their stories will intersect.

But for now…

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.

And take good care of yourselves, and each other.

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