Writing Challenge #10 - Song Lyric Contradictions (Write Nov. 10th)

Hi folks

The first seven days are complete!

RAW NUMBERS

For Day 7, the end of our first week, we had:

85 playwrights, submitting 308 pages of writing
(Or the equivalent of two full-length plays, plus another long one-act of 68 pages, or about another hour and ten minutes of stage time.)

Overall for the week:

The average number of playwrights submitting daily was 92
(The high mark was the first day with 97, the low mark was day 7 with 85)

A total of 641 separate submissions, totaling 2,240 pages

That’s the equivalent of 18 full-length, two-act plays, plus another long one-act of 80 pages, which these days passes as another full evening of entertainment

Phew!

That’s a lot of writing for one week, and we’re only getting started :)

Congrats to all who’ve been cranking out the pages and prioritizing your own writing a little bit (or a lot) each day for a whole week.  Well done.

And, as always, if you miss a day, don’t waste any time beating yourself up about it.

Just write again the next day.

On with week two!

Let’s get you the next writing prompt…

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Challenge #10 - Song Lyric Contradictions

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



This one’s another offering from Threshold Theater company member Jenna Mady.  This time around it’s audio rather than visual.

Jenna said, “Here are some various lyrics from songs I’ve had stuck in my head lately.”
 
A passage from “Haunted” by Phoebe Bridgers, off of her new album “Lost Weekend”

“I have no secrets, only feelings
And I know those go away
There is a difference
Between lying and deciding what not to say”

And a passage from “Brotherly Hate” by Hayley Williams

“Brotherly love
Brotherly hate
Don’t it sometimes feel like the same thing?”

Now I can go in two directions from a starting place like this.

I can ignore the music entirely and just go with the words of these bits of the song lyrics, both of which inspire contemplation of different ideas.

Or I can fold the music into it because, of course, the music fills in under and around the words in ways with a power that the lyrics all by themselves don’t have.

So if you pull up the lyric video for “Haunted” you have a bluegrass thing going on.

And if you pull up the official visualizer for “Brotherly Hate” you get hit with a indie pop/rock vibe.


I can sit in the music for a couple of repetitions of either song, hear the lyrics in context of the larger song, and get a different hit.

Also, it’s easy to mishear lyrics, so a good lyric video or liner notes will help you out - because, for instance, “deference” and “difference” will turn a whole sentence around, depending on which one you’re using.

Misheard or misunderstood lyrics, also a classic of the genre - so you can go down that side road if you want, turning something inside out by swapping words around to give yourself a whole other jumping off point.

So there’s a lot to muse on there.

Any variation on that (or one of your own that just sparked in your head) intrigue you enough to write about it?

Go forth and write.

Or, as always, just ignore me and Jenna and go write something else.


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

try 2021’s challenge #10: Cars

Or try 2022’s challenge #10: Food Vs. Humans

Or try 2023’s Challenge #10: Inevitable (from Threshold Theater co-founder and Technical Director Nick Mrozek)

Or try 2024’s challenge #10: Nurse (from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Kate Cosgrove)

Or try 2025’s challenge #10: Little Guys, Jump Scares, Coffee and the Apocalypse (from Threshold Theater company member and stage manager June Haider)

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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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 26th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2026 edition


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How to submit your work for Challenge #10

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 10 :) 
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 10th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Wednesday, November 11th, 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 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 20 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.

JACOB stares down JUSTIN.

JACOB: Well, do you have an explanation for all that?

JUSTIN doesn’t respond immediately, having decided he needs to choose his next words very carefully.

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)