Hi again folks
Though this is the last of the challenges, I’ll still be emailing you daily through December 1st, reminding you, if you’re going day to day and not working ahead, which challenge you’re turning in that day by noon, and then which one you work on next :)
(2 of 2)
Again, I’m 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 Sunday 11/30 to be turned in on Monday 12/1 by noon Central Time, but just fill out the Google form and tag it for prompt 30 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.
Always remember, if you miss one day, don’t beat yourself up, just write again the next day.
Here it is.
At long last, the final challenge, #30, the finish line for both the month of November and this year’s November Playwriting Challenge.
Whether you wrote just one day, or all thirty, congratulations! You’ve got some new material to play around with and refine during the other eleven months of the year. Well done!
For those of you who were new this year, thanks for finding us.
For those of you who enjoyed it enough last year to come back and do it again, we were happy to see so many familiar names.
You have more writing in hand than you did on the last day of October, and that’s the primary goal of the challenge. The habit of writing, the creation of more plays, prioritizing your creativity just a little bit every day.
After the last of the submissions come in on December 1st, I’ll put together a list of all the writers who wrote all 30 days, as well as a list of writers who seem like maybe they only missed one or two, do a little research on that second batch and if I’m still coming up short, I’ll reach out to those writers to see if something got lost in the pipeline somehow and they actually hit all the challenges. (That’s happened in all years past for one or two writers, so it’s not just a this year thing with the new Google form.)
Once I’ve got a confirmed list of those of who wrote and turned something thing all 30 days, I’ll be reaching out to let you know what the payout is going to be (how many writers are splitting the money we accumulated at the beginning, and what everyone’s share of that is) and communicating the process for getting you that money.
Also, I’ll crunch the numbers one last time and have some fun statistics on how this whole month shook out.
And though It’s dicey making pronouncements about anything a year out, the plan is to definitely do this again next November. So if you found it useful, mark your calendars. And spread the word to anyone you think might be interested. If it is indeed happening as planned, an announcement should go out in the first half of October.
One last tangent for this preface of mine…
One November, someone in my playwriting group (who shall remain nameless) was… pestering is a negative word so let’s just say enthusiastically and repeatedly suggesting… that “you should let all those writers know about the writing group and see if they might be interested in attending.”
Which wasn’t a bad idea.
But I did remind the person that the majority of the writers doing the challenge often aren’t local, and are situated in states all across the USA, or in some cases even completely different countries. So the time zones don’t always perfectly align. (Sadly our friend who moved from Minneapolis to Norway for a graduate program isn’t going able to join us - it’s always the middle of the night for her when we meet. Less extreme time zone differences may be workable.)
In the playwriting group’s time being fully online in 2020-2021 because of the pandemic, we had a number of playwrights and actors in different states sitting in - but sometimes it was challenging because they were either an hour ahead or behind of the Central Time zone meeting hours of 7pm to 9pm. Still, we did make it work. Even now, in hybrid mode, with some folks meeting in person, there’s still a number of (even local) people who prefer or need to attend via video conference on the computer. So we have the capability of including folks wherever there’s internet connectivity.
A handful of people did join us over the last couple of years after the challenge concluded and a few became regulars, which is fun.
Here’s an overview of how the group works
https://swfringegeek.blogspot.com/2024/09/seeking-writers-and-actors-for-biweekly.html
If you think you might be interested, just drop me a note.
Thanks again for participating, everybody!
Again, well done, one and all!
Now, let’s get you the second, and FINAL, writing prompt of the pair for the day, and for end the of November 2025…
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Challenge #30 - “Don’t Drive Angry”
Write Sunday, November 30th - or earlier if you like
Due: Monday, December 1st, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
I saved this one for last because it involves a potentially negative emotion.
Anger.
Most of the time, I have the mantra in my head of Bill Murray imploring the groundhog which takes over the steering wheel in the pickup truck during a particularly memorable sequence from the movie “Groundhog Day”
“Don’t drive angry. Don’t drive angry.”
(The groundhog takes the wheel around the 2:00 minute mark in the clip)
(Don’t worry about the conclusion to the scene. The man just keeps waking up in the same day over and over again - even this time is no exception.)
But every now and again, “writing angry” can be cathartic for both you and your audience.
Sometimes it’s just cathartic for you and makes your audience uncomfortable. That’s OK, too.
I recently ran across this little list of advice from Arcana Poetry Press
I feel like it applies to plays as much as it does to poetry.
5 Feral Pieces of Poetry Advice
Write like something’s chasing you.
Because it is.
1. Write the thing you’d never admit in a room full of friends
The secret will rot until you rip it open.
2. Stop protecting the people who hurt you
Let your poem be the wilderness, not their shelter.
3. The metaphor you keep reusing is your avoidance technique
You’ve written a beautiful cage.
Time to break it.
4. You’re not obligated to heal on the page
Not every poem needs to be the medicine.
Some are meant to be the scream.
5. Write for the version of you that didn’t survive
Write the words they needed, not the ones they go.
An example that springs to mind is a poem shared by my actor friend Will, first posted by a queer Palestinian woman from the Instagram account WatermelonBrigades
The words are from the poet Noor Hindi.
It’s entitled, “F*ck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying”
“Colonizers write about flowers.
I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks
seconds before becoming daisies.
I want to be like those poets who care about the moon.
Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons.
It’s so beautiful, the moon.
They’re so beautiful, the flowers.
I pick flowers for my dead father when I’m sad.
He watches Al Jazeera all day.
I wish Jessica would stop texting me ‘Happy Ramadan.’
I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies.
Metaphors about death are for poets who think ghosts care about sound.
When I die, I promise to haunt you forever.
One day, I’ll write about the flowers like we own them.”
What makes you angry?
What makes your characters angry?
Let some of that anger spill out over the pages today.
Take a big swing for our final outing.
Or don’t.
Like always, write whatever you want.
Just write. Something. For one last day in November (this year).
Again, folks, well done.
Happy (or angry) writing to you all!
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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can
try 2021’s challenge #30: Magical Realism
Or try 2022’s challenge #30: Storytelling Obsessions
Or try 2023’s Challenge #30: I Don’t Believe In Ghosts, But…
Or try 2024’s challenge #30: Random Things On The Path
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 #30
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 30 :)
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 Sunday, November 30th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Monday, December 1st, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
************************
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 November 27th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2025 edition
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
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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 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 another 11 months (until the next November writing challenge) 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.
*************************
And that something can be:
Lights up.
A person sits in front of a typewriter, or laptop, or pad and paper.
The write or type the words “End of play” or perhaps it’s “Lights up” on a whole new scene or story.
They look up.
They wave goodbye 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)
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