Writing Challenge #5 - 56 Seconds Into Your Favorite Song (Write Nov. 5th)

Hi folks

A first look at the numbers for challenges 1 and 2 show that you all are cranking out the pages.  Well done.

96 playwrights submitted for challenge 1, writing 372 pages

If you consider a standard two-act play is around 120 pages, you all wrote three full-length plays plus another ten-minute play.  Not a bad way to kick things off!

Challenge 2 had 93 playwrights turning in 324 pages, which is two full-lengths, plus another 90-minute play that might as well be a full-length.  Nicely done.

 - and that’s just your first two days of output for the month.  Very impressive.  

Well done, everyone!  Keep up the good work.

Even a page or two or day definitely adds up.

You may think just having a page or two is nothing special, but any writing in a day is more progress than no writing.

And it doesn’t have to be perfect, that’s what rewriting later is for.

For now, just push through.

Thanks for prioritizing your own creativity, whether you’re responding to a prompt, or just writing your own thing and using the daily submission deadline to keep yourself moving forward on an existing script idea.

And if you aren’t feeling it one day here in November, remember that at the end of every one of these emails and challenge blog posts there’s an escape hatch option:

“Lights up
(Something happens)
Lights down.”

I change them every day to match the day’s challenge.  

So feel free to use something like that on a tough day if you need to.

(Over the past five years, playwrights have put their own spin on the mini-play option, often in very amusing ways, so feel free to have fun with that as well - I am.)



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Challenge #5 - 56 Seconds Into Your Favorite Song

Write Thursday, November 5th - or earlier if you like
Due: Friday, November 6th, 12pm noon Central Time 
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)


The challenge comes from Threshold Theater Literary Associate Kate Cosgrove.

“Think of your favorite song (could be all-time favorite or current favorite). Pull it up on your app of choice and go to 0:56 seconds. Use that lyric (single word or full phrase) and/or soundscape (if there are no words) to inspire a scene.”

As an experiment, I did a random sampling at the 56 second mark of either my most played or most recently in rotation songs and found the following

“Melancholy beasts at the gates of the zoo.”
(Plaintive sad piano)
(Side note: song from a truly weird and lovely musical romantic experiment by the French filmmaker Christoper Honore, called “Love Songs (Les Chansons d’amour)” which for a while was my entire personality after I first saw it and kept rewatching it - and yes, it’s the sad song I keep on repeat for some reason.)

Trailer (which doesn’t tell you the half of it, the film is bonkers)


“Good times, they’re still good
But the bad times, so much worse than they should feel”
(Old-style rock)

“If you find me sleep walking
I want you to be the one to bring me home.”
(Singer-songwriter, folk)

“It’s only making me feel smaller,
All the hidden love beneath.”
(Country music via Iceland)

“Give advice to my friends about their problems
But when they’re mine I forget how to solve ‘em.”
(Latino singer-songwriter)

“I know your skin.
I know the way these things begin.”
(Songwriter, her chanteuse era)

“Look at the mess you made of…
Just choose to stay for once.”
(Indie rock)

“Do you get lonely sometimes?
Do you want one more goodbye?”
(Pop)

So, hit your own music collection and see what you trip over.  I’m intrigued by mine and intend to mull them over a bit.  Nice to have a musical soundtrack you like playing in the background and sparking your muse.

Use whatever you find interesting as a jumping off point and get writing.

Or ignore me and Kate and write something completely different.


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

try 2021’s challenge #5: Random Phrase Generator

Or try 2022’s challenge #5: “This Guy Told Me He Was A Centaur…”

Or try 2023’s Challenge #5: Snapshots 1 (from Threshold Theater co-founder and Managing Director David Schlosser)

Or try 2024’s challenge #5: Dismantled Piano

Or try 2025’s challenge #5: Hands (from Threshold Theater co-founder and Managing Director David Schlosser)

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 #5

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 5 :) 
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 Thursday, November 5th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Friday, November 6th, 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.

We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days.  No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)

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 Friday 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 25 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.

CLAIRE sits at a keyboard, headphones on.

The music playing guides her fingers in a little dance over the letters creating…?

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.

(After you vote, of course :)

And take good care of yourselves, and each other.

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