There are two things we will always say about yeah write until it reaches its natural end. One: we never take a break even during holidays and when Internet traffic is at a seasonal low point. Two: we are committed to meeting the needs of our constantly changing, transient community. 

Some of our writers and subscribers have been around long enough to remember when the yeah write submission guidelines were trampled, abused or outright ignored. In offering those guidelines, we were doing our best to turn yeah write into a collection of the best writing bloggers on the Internet. Once the grid went quasi-viral and the 50 spots available each week were filled within 10 hours of opening, the grid was more of a free traffic hub than a collection of good or even decent writing. There were blogs for which yeah write social media was their sole source of hits, upwards of 1,000 page views and a significant number of comments—all for the simple ability of being able to stay awake until midnight U.S. eastern time and add a link to the grid.

After asking people to police themselves (bring us your best stuff, anyone?) we shut down the grid to those unwilling to learn how to write well, unwilling to be an active participant of our community. First came the summer series, then the moderated grid. Or was it the other way around? No matter: this space became a place for blogging writers working to accept their roles as critical readers and disciplined storytellers. We’ve not hit 50 on the grid since, but most of us who’ve stuck around now know when something we read (or write) is poorly organized and fairly awful. We also recognize good works and love to leave comments for that writer saying things like: “You should submit this to yeah write. Here’s the link. The readers over there would love you.”

Thank you for that.

In the spirit of encouraging and supporting those critical readers and disciplined storytellers, we are no longer moderating submissions. We will soon enough offer online writing classes for those who need the guidance and refinement Flood provided weekly. For now, we are removing the technical barriers keeping some of our writers off the grid from week to week. The submission guidelines and the FAQ are not going anywhere, but we feel this current group won’t betray those guidelines by churning out a big ball of awfulness then throwing it up on the grid. It’s open submissions, open voting, open everything, just like it used to be, but with a new twist.

Invitational grid

With the open grid returning, the yeah write editors are introducing the yeah write invitational grid. We will read the submissions on the challenge grid then select the ones we like the most and copy them to the invitational grid. While surfing the world wide web, if we run across a blog post we really really like, we may add it even if the writer has never heard of yeah write or the challenge grid. It’ll be random, and something our readers will enjoy.

A few other details:

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• If selected for the invitational grid from the challenge grid, the post will stay on the challenge grid to take part in the fun of the popular vote
• The invitational grid won’t be made public until the popular vote opens on Thursdays
• The vote on the invitational grid will be editors-only
• The jury prize winner will be determined from the invitational grid as all the editors choose one favorite
• The challenge grid will continue to produce the weekly crowd favorite and the top row five
• The challenge grid crowd favorite and top row five will be determined by popular vote
• The individual editor picks are no more

[/arrow_list]The submission guidelines and FAQ have been updated to explain better how it works, but it will all become clear soon enough.

Challenge grid and the speakeasy

The challenge grid is for personal essay, traditional blog anecdotes and creative non-fiction. The speakeasy is for fiction and poetry. For the next few weeks at the speakeasy, Flood is offering a $25 Amazon gift card for the winner as long as there are at least 10 submissions on the speakeasy grid. Help Flood spread the word of her fiction slam and poetry jam and you could pick up $25 to spend on your Amazon wishlist.

Welcome to this, our third calendar year of yeah write. Yeah write #91 weekly writing challenge is open.

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