yeah write #285 weekly writing challenge is open for fiction|poetry

A happy conviction

My seven-year-old son has recently discovered the Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson. And by “discovered” I mean: I have been shoving them in his face for months and he finally consented to read one. I couldn’t be prouder.

There are a hundred reasons I love the Moomin books: their gentle, almost gloomy whimsy; the multitude of fantastical characters; the humor that is never mean-spirited. (Well, almost never. I’m looking at you, Little My.) But the thing that sticks in my head the most comes from a story called The Spring Tune, in which my favorite of all Jansson’s characters, Snufkin, goes searching for a melody.

“It’s the right evening for a tune,” Snufkin thought. A new tune, one part expectation, two parts spring sadness, and for the rest just the great delight of walking alone and liking it.

He had kept this tune under his hat for several days, but hadn’t quite dared to take it out yet. It had to grow into a kind of happy conviction. Then he would simply have to put his lips to the mouth-organ, and all the notes would jump instantly into their places.

If he released them too soon, they might get stuck crossways and make only a half-good tune, or he might lose them altogether and never be in the right mood to get hold of them again. Tunes are serious things, especially if they have to be jolly and sad at the same time.

It turns out that I chase stories and poems the way Snufkin chases tunes, and I think sometimes the pursuit itself is what frightens them away, like a butterfly or a little Creep into the underbrush. Eventually, though, eventually, on the best of days, I am rewarded with that happy conviction that what I have written is right.

Whether you have your story well in hand or you are still coaxing it closer, be sure to read the submission guidelines before you press post. Have a favorite yeah writer or two? Why not ask them to be your writing partner? Everyone needs another set of eyes to point out the typos, content errors, and ungainly phraseologies in our posts. Stop by the coffeehouse and meet some of the people behind the words!

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Yeah write super challenge for fictioneers!

You have one more week to register for the yeah write super challenge at our special discounted early bird rate, and two weeks to register overall. The contest starts October 7. Don’t miss out!

Prompt up!

Prompt up is our optional weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works: we choose a sentence prompt from last week’s winning nonfiction post and announce it in the kickoff. It’s your job to use that prompt in your poem or story and then run with it. The prompt is just a springboard, though: feel free to use it as your first sentence, move it, change it, or float down it to other territories.

Kay told us how her Februarys got a little Kung-Fu magic added to them. This week’s prompt up, taken from her essay is: A crowd gathered.

Nonfiction know-how and poetry slam are back!

This month, Rowan offers up some advice on how to know when enough is enough in your writing, and let’s stretch our rhyming and scansion muscles with a short form of poetry called the triolet.

Yeah write #285 fiction|poetry writing challenge is open for submissions!

Basic yeah write guidelines: 750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; fiction or poetry only.

How to submit and fully participate in the challenge:

1. In the sidebar of this week’s post, please grab the code beneath the challenge grid badge and paste it into the HTML view of your entry
2. Follow the InLinkz instructions after clicking “add your link” to upload your entry to this week’s challenge grid
3. Your entry should appear immediately on the grid if you don’t receive an error message
4. Please make the rounds to read all the entries in this week’s challenge
5. Consider turning off moderated comments and CAPTCHA on your own blog

Submissions for this week’s challenges will close on Wednesday at 10pm ET. Voting will then open immediately thereafter and close on Thursday at 10pm ET. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.