Writing Challenge #8 - Weird Dialogue, Dreams, and Red Herrings (Write Nov. 8th)

Hi folks

More words of encouragement for artists from Erica Elan - https://www.instagram.com/ericaelan/

If you’re questioning the significance of making art right now…
Creating art right now is loving because it can give witness to humanity, and hope for a shared future.

Please keep making art because…
It can activate our moral imagination: encountering beauty has the potential to shift us towards empathy, and understanding.
Thank you for creating.

Remember, you can also always find all the challenges (from this year and years past) posted on the blog
https://thresholdwritingchallenge.blogspot.com/

Raw numbers from challenge 5 being turned in yesterday (11/6) are:

88 playwrights turning in work, total pages 255 (more than two full-length plays’ worth of material)

Well done, everybody!

And of course there are some folks who are writing and just not turning something in.  That’s fine.  
Write, whether I get to see it and tally it up or not :)  
Your writing is the most important thing, not any number crunching I do on this end.

And if you miss a day’s writing, no worries.  
Don’t beat yourself up.  
Just write again the next day.

And now, the day’s challenge…


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Challenge #8 - Weird Dialogue, Dreams, and Red Herrings

Write Saturday, November 8th - or earlier if you like
Due: Sunday, November 9th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


The suggestions for this challenge come once more from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Maren Findlay:

Among the options on the list she offered me were a trio that I thought would be good for giving everyone a variety of options to choose from:

“Think of the weirdest off the cuff thing someone’s ever said to you— write a situation in which it would fit in”

OR

“Write a scene based on a dream you had”

OR

“A scene with the most aggressive red herring you can accomplish”

This last one got me poking around to figure out, “Where exactly did the phrase ‘red herring’ come from?”

It comes up in the context of mystery stories, clues leading people off in the wrong direction, making the wrong assumptions, guessing incorrectly as to the culprit.

And it comes up in discussion of people who argue in bad faith, bringing up things that have nothing to do with the argument at hand.

So where do fish come in?

Well, if you cure and smoke a herring, the flesh can turn red, and it makes it especially smelly.

And humans would use these really pungent fish to train hunting dogs, first to get them to follow the smell, which the dog is enticed by, and then to help get them to focus on different smells, like a fox or a badger, and learn to tell the difference.  The red herring was used to distract the dogs from their prey, and then to each them how NOT to just be distracted by the smelliest thing in front of them, but to concentrate and zero in on the scent of the intended prey they were hunting.

And so, red herring - something used to lead one astray from their intended target or goal.

You can do the weird thing someone said, the dream or the red herring individually, or any combination of those that appeals to you.

Or you know, today and every day, just ignore this and write something else.

Just write - something…

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

try 2021’s challenge #8: Series and Cycles

Or try 2022’s challenge #8: Chance Encounters

Or try 2023’s Challenge #8: Breakup Songbook (from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Kate Cosgrove)

Or try 2024’s challenge #8: Museum of Broken Relationships

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 #8

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 8 :) 
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 Saturday, November 8th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Sunday, November 9th, 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 till 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 22 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.

The architecture of the stage makes no logical sense.  

The stairs don’t lead anywhere, doors and windows open onto solid walls rather than other rooms or the outdoors.

Someone walks on.

Someone else crosses their path with a large fish flopping around on their shoulder.

The first person follows the other person out the only doorway that leads offstage, nose first.

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)