Time to refocus
It feels like a never ending winter where I’m sitting here in the northeastern United States. Winter is always a time of hunkering down and just trying to maintain until the sun starts to shine again. And, now, with spring fewer than three weeks away, my focus is on rebirth, renewal, and refocus.
The season for soups and casseroles, warm blankets and knitted sweaters can give us a sort of complacency. Maybe you’ve been watching the same old shows on Netflix or playing that same board game for the umpteenth time. Are you ready for something new? Are you aching to mix things up a bit?
Try something new
Two years ago, I took a writing class designed to kick the backside of the flailing writer, providing a jump start. One assignment was to get out of our comfort zone to experience something new.
It’s often a difficult thing, trying something unfamiliar. Who among us actually enjoys discomfort? But think back to a time when you did step outside of your happy place. Regardless of what you did or how it turned out, I’d guess you learned something from the experience and grew as a person.
And what is spring but a time when the plants and flowers and trees come back to life? Maybe now is the time, your time, to push just a little farther, just a little harder, and branch out in new ways.
Are you new here? Have you been lurking here all winter, reading and voting silently? Maybe submitting to the challenge grid for the first time is your big leap. Welcome!
Maybe it’s just time for a new experience. Take a class, find a new hobby, go on an adventure. Opportunity awaits! You may find you have a new topic to write about or maybe you will take your writing off into a whole new direction. Whatever you do, don’t stagnate. Keep learning, keep growing and stretching. What are you waiting for?
Moderated grid and scaled voting
We’re looking for you to bring your best work when you know it’s going to be the best on the grid. After you submit your work, our submissions editor will review it to be sure it meets our guidelines. If it does, you’ll see your thumbnail appear below. If not, it will be returned to you with a love letter letting you know how you could improve it. Take those notes and keep at it. We love to see writers who don’t give up.
When we get to 30 or more entries on the challenge grid, the invitational grid opens and the yeah write editors select their favorites.The jury prize is chosen as the best submission of the week. Invitational or not, we will host a popular vote where you’ll be able to select your favorites from the grid. The number of votes allotted is determined by the number of submissions on the grid:
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- 01-10 submissions: one vote
- 11-20 submissions: two votes
- 21-30 submissions: three votes
- 31-40 submissions: four votes
- 41-50 submissions: five votes
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The more submissions, the more votes. Now’s the time to tell your writing and blogging friends about our friendly little competition. Write a blurb beside your yeah write challenge button inviting them. Send a personal email. Stumble over a blog post you think would be perfect for the challenge grid? Email us the link, and if it’s a good fit, we’ll add it ourselves.
Spread the word of yeah write weekly writing challenge
Are you a member of a writing forum or a literary blogging community? Please leave a link with your friends over there telling them all about us. If you don’t have another writing home online, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook where you can easily share or retweet us. The more we grow, the more we can learn from one another. Your endorsement of what we’re doing here is invaluable.
Odds, ends, reminders
- The badge you will need to add to your planned submission is over in the sidebar
- This immediate past Sunday is the earliest your submission can be dated
- Your post can be no longer than 600 words
- Personal essays or traditional blog anecdotes only
- There are no weekly prompts; the topic is yours. Be compelling
- The grid is open from Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. to Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.
- There is voting. Voting will take place Thursday from midnight to 10:00 p.m. US eastern
- The challenge grid is limited to 50 bloggers
- The winners’ post will be published by noon on Friday
- No self-promotional posts are allowed on the yeah write grid, including those containing links to other blog events and Internet contests
Yeah write #151 is open…
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Hi everybody!! What a wonderful blog!
Hello everyone and welcome Obed! It’s been awhile but I finally got a new computer and my husband’s done his MA apps so I can start blogging more regularly again. Long time no see, looking forward to reading everyone’s stuff this week! (*^o^*)
Glad to have you back, Janelle!
I know it’s not so new anymore, but I keep forgetting to tell you guys that I love the new logo’s. 🙂
So sweet, thanks! I like them, too!
It is very kind of you both, Michelle and Erica, to give attention to this, Thank you! I will review the link, Erica, and resubmit this piece again next week with a touchup.
Respectfully
Aisha
Dear Michelle, I’m really not trying to make a fuss, but I’d like to know if there is an appeal process for Obed’s ‘love letter?’ My submission is completely compliant according to your published rules, and his reason for rejecting it is at best arbitrary, by suggesting that I didn’t tell enough of a personal story. The entire post is a personal story! It wasn’t funny enough, maybe?
This is his email to me:
Hello Kathleen,
Thank you for your yeah write submission this week. I’m enjoying the etiquette lessons on your blog.
Last week’s entry was a fine example of a post that incorporates storytelling with the lesson. This week, the post lacks a little bit of that storytelling that brings the reader into the world of this culture. Perhaps framing the piece with a story that exemplifies the lesson you’re teaching us this week, like you did last week, it will engage your audience a bit more.
Please continue to educate us. I love learning about other cultures, but try to incorporate some of these suggestions. They will bump up your post to a winning post. In the meantime, we encourage you to re-submit this post to our weekend moonshine grid, which opens this Friday at 6 PM EST.
See you next week!
Obed Medina
Please, Michelle, review my post, because I feel I’m being treated unfairly for some unknown reason.
My post is titled, Egyptian Culture, Part 4: Powdered Sugar Mustaches. It is a light hearted attempt to illustrate my struggles with learning proper etiquette to use with social visitors in my Egyptian home. It is under 600 words, with careful attention given to spelling, grammar, and a ‘so-what’ factor.
My post is at: http://aishasoasis.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/egyptian-culture-part-4-powdered-sugar-mustaches/
And I will respectfully abide by his decision if you will please give me assurance that this is not a case of discrimination or other equally offensive prejudicial nonsense.
Respectfully
Aisha (Kathleen is my birth name, still applicable for email, but I go by Aisha)
Good morning, Aisha,
Typically if a post is not accepted onto the challenge grid, we suggest the writer make changes (or no, her call) and resubmit to the weekend moonshine grid. We also suggest that eligible supporting subscribers make use of the “quick and dirty” reviews available to them and submit in advance for suggestions.
Please give me a little time to review your post and the the letter and I will email you back.
Best,
Michelle
Aisha, there is no real need for a formal appeals process here at yeah write. Although rejection is a part of a writer’s daily life, we do not technically reject submissions. Your entry may not be accepted for the current challenge grid, but you do have the option to add it to the weekend moonshine grid in whatever final form you decide. You can also rework it as a future submission.
I encourage you to read through the page why yeah write works, especially the admittedly cheeky section titled “Gaw. What’s the big deal? It’s just a link-up. Calm down.” The submissions process for any publication will lean toward the subjective; writing can never be considered an exact science. You may not agree with our decisions each week, and we do welcome your feedback, but our ultimate goal is to create a competitive challenge grid with entries that not only meet the bare minimum requirements, but exceed them.
In no way would Obed’s decision be discriminatory or otherwise offensively nonsensical. But his decision is the prevailing one.