Challenge grid and speakeasy badges

For Tuesday’s challenge grid and speakeasy, there are badges in the sidebar for you to grab by copying the code from the box below the graphic then pasting it into the HTML view of your post draft. It’s better if you not only paste into the HTML view, but hit publish while still in the HTML view. That should solve some of the difficulties some of you have been having getting the badge to show in your published post.

Challenge grid v. the speakeasy

The challenge grid is primarily for blog anecdotes, personal essays and creative nonfiction pieces. Quick primer: for yeah write purposes, the personal anecdote is the well-told blog story we love to read, the personal essay centers around the person writing the essay and should reveal a new perspective on the original topic before the essay concludes. Creative nonfiction, though it may contain a personal story, has more of a global focus with a subject matter requiring research.

The challenge grid is moderated by our submissions editor checking for all of the yeah write storytelling elements. Check all the helpful links further down in this post for details if you need them. Another micro-primer: 1,000-word limit, no fiction or poetry but it still must tell a story. 

The speakeasy is reserved for fiction and poetry. It’s open submissions with Flood checking only if your post meets genre requirements.

$100 Amazon gift card challenge

We’re in the second week of the $100 Amazon gift card challenge courtesy of John Lunt Design, and there are two weeks to go. There is plenty of time for you to join in even if you’d never even heard of us until today. If you bring us not just your best stuff, but the best stuff on the grid, the points from a couple of editors’ picks will throw you right into the thick of it.

On the challenge grid, you can earn from one to five points depending on your final grid row once voting closes, plus, if you win an editor’s pick, you get 10 extra points.

At the speakeasy, you can earn from one to five points depending on your final grid row, plus an extra 10 points for finishing in the top three. The speakeasy grid qualifies for the challenge only if it has at least 12 submissions, so please tell you fiction writer friends and poetry friends about it.

Gift card leaderboard

Although it’s an impetus for A-game bringin’ when the yeah write editors join the grids from time to time, they are ineligible to receive points in the gift card challenge. Their being on the grid and at the speakeasy makes things more interesting as you’re competing against professional writers, but they do not earn points and cannot earn the $100 gift card. Keep in mind, however, their presence can affect your final grid position, so write hard, write well, this ain’t no slouching contest.

Don’t forget, you can always enter this contest for charity or a school classroom or a family in need just in time for the holidays. If you earn the card and plan to give it away to someone who could put it to better use than your downloading the past 50 years of Willie Nelson covers, I’ll add $50 to the amount and forward the card to your designated recipient on your behalf (anonymously if requested).

You can view the entire challenge results through yeah write #79 by clicking here for the public spreadsheet. Halfway through, combining the challenge grid (votes determined by readers and editors) and the speakeasy (votes determined by popular vote), our top five point totals belong to:

[arrow_list]

• Simply She Goes         29 points     challenge
• Snaps and Bits              18 points     challenge/speakeasy
• IA Soup Mama             16 points     speakeasy
• Ashley Etc                      15 points     challenge
• Does Anyone Care      15 points     challenge
• The Authentic Life      15 points    challenge
• In the Tesseract           10 points     challenge
• Pesky Pippi                    10 points     challenge 

[/arrow_list]

Helpful links

[bullet_list]

• FAQ
• a blogger’s guide to writing a yeah write post
• what yeah write is, what yeah write isn’t
• vote-o-rama tracker
• weekly winners’ posts

[/bullet_list]

Optional supernatural prompt

Just as the speakeasy is joining us for the gift card challenge, we are joining the speakeasy in its Broken Magic promotion with an optional writing prompt for our blog anecdotes, personal essays and creative fiction. Here’s the photo prompt if you’d like to follow it into a supernatural black hole:

october tree

Yeah write #80 opens Tuesday. Bring us your best stuff. Bring us the best stuff on the grid.