yeah write virgins

Welcome yeah write virgins to our supportive community for bloggers who focus on the craft of writing. This week, we had one newbie on the challenge grid and two selected by the editors for the invitational grid. Subscribe to our weekly email blast so you can join us again and again and again. I’ll just put it out there: We’re awesome.

jury prize winner—invitational grid

“Fortuitous Forty” by Kristin at Kristin Has Two Eyes

You brought us stories this week! A strong challenge pool resulted in our largest invitational grid yet, with four posts getting first place votes from our editors. When it all tallied up, our winner this week was Kristin Has Two Eyes with her piece about a random act of kindness, “Fortuitous Forty.” Spoiler alert! My commentary tells the ending. Stop here if you haven’t read yet. It was a post packed with tons of great descriptions that I found myself jotting into my own little notebook to steal—I mean, use for inspiration—later. Had it been longer, I might even have called it a page-turner—a suspenseful vignette with a happy ending.

When we read things that are well-written, a little movie plays in our head. Sure, it’s a different movie for each of us, but evocative descriptions immediately render into imagery in our minds. Kristin wins this week with damn good writing that spoke to all five senses. My nose tingled when I read of her “[s]melling like french fries and sticky with snow cone flavoring that, no doubt, speckled my t-shirt.” I could see her as she “leaped around the library property with such enthusiasm for reading.” I felt the “plastic book cover” that “occasionally held fast to [her] damp skin and crinkled upon release.”

And the emotions? Only a good writer could wrench so much feeling out of 586 words. I panicked with younger Kristin as her desperation rose. I felt the camaraderie as the author, patrons, and staff scoured the library for her lost bills. I released my breath as the precious $40 was located — coincidentally — next to the Good Samaritans’ car. And I “froze” with her at that moment of realization: These were not the twenties she was looking for.

Kristin reminds us that simple moments of heart can make surprisingly dramatic, readable, and shareable topics too. It was a feel-good piece that made us believe in the kindness of a sometimes hard world around us.

Congrats, Kristin, on your first jury prize win. The winner’s badge to display on your blog is in the sidebar.

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crowd favorites—challenge grid

“Stuck in the Middle With[out] You” by Dana Verdoorn at The Chrome Phase

“Landline” by Michelle Longo at The Journey

I’m tossing Erica’s “most-clicks-tie-breaker” rule out the window and going rogue by awarding two—you heard me: TWO—challenge grid prizes this week  to our top vote-getters Dana Verdoorn and Michelle Longo. Their posts earned the same number of yeah write community member votes, and both were selected by the editors for the invitational grid. Both brought in the phone as a major character.

Dana’s post, “Stuck in the Middle With[out] You”, brought out the hollowness of unrequited love in two powerful scenes of contrasting 2:00 a.m. visits, ultimately leaving the author alone, facing a coffee cup as empty as her arms.

Michelle’s post, “Landline”, stood out as a story without dialogue that broadened the simple act of checking one’s messages into a story of a lifetime without her father — absent in her life and her heart. Stark in its rawness, it is hard to read, as painful truths often are.

Congrats, Dana and  Michelle, on the wins. Feel free to grab your winners’ badge in the sidebar.

Win-win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. Part of the top row five? Please grab a winners’ badge from the sidebar and display it proudly on your own blog. Congrats!

Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; it is always a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and in the spirit of competition as incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Thanks again, everybody, for linking up, for reading, for accepting the weekly writing challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

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