It’s been a while since we’ve had a good old-fashioned Q & A session here at yeah write and, with the recent changes, it just feels like the right time. So here we go.
Fiction and poetry? Now solely at the speakeasy
We’re moving fiction and poetry to the speakeasy because those two genres of writing are judged much differently than the personal essays and humorous blog anecdotes yeah write was created to showcase. Separating our writers and readers into creative non-fiction and fiction makes sense as the community continues to grow.
Flood will likely provide good examples of what flash fiction looks like. I’m gonna stay over here on my side of the fence.
Personal essay
For personal essay, here’s a blog I stumbled over during a Twitter chat a few weeks ago. Called Skeskali, it’s written by Cecily Walker, a writer in Vancouver and, although each one of her posts reads like the perfect example, I do have a favorite: So Damned Unpretty in which Cecily examines her insecurities about her physical beauty. Written in plain language, Cecily’s essay covers one thing—her self-perceived vanity—instead of attempting to drive her readers across an entire life in 1,000 words.
Personal anecdote
The blog anecdote is a little more broadly defined. This is what I’m usually referring to when I plead for bloggers to just tell the damn story. No dark and stormy beginnings, no philosophical revelations, no self-indulgent plot twists and turns while I just wanna know how your family’s Thanksgiving went. Although he’s mellowed quite a bit since he first started blogging in 2005, Neil Kramer’s Citizen of the Month is a good place to browse for well-written personal anecdotes. Start with The End of Blog Niches as We Know It.
Five easy pieces of a yeah write submission
I’ve said it before and let me say it again, this time with a catchy title and colorful graphic:
Voting on the grid returns
Voting is closed to the general Internets, but it’s open to yeah write editors and to any readers who submit a completed yeah write vote-o-rama tracker by the given deadline. Depending on the number of entries on the grid, you may want to download the tracker and fill it out as each entry hits the grid. Waiting until the grid closes to submissions likely means you won’t have time to complete the tracker and you’ll run out of time to vote. This will also teach you to become a more critical reader as you make the rounds in the blogosphere. Not everyone out there should be using the “publish” button as liberally as others. Yeah, I said it.
Yeah write #77 opens Tuesday. Additional questions for the Q & A in comments…
I really, really love this change to “yeah, write.” Life is getting a bit life-y on me right now so I might not submit for a while but these changes make me so enthusiastic about submitting again.
I’m really glad the popular vote was brought back in some form, especially with respect to fiction and I’m glad lines between the speakeasy and the challenge grid have been more clearly delineated. No offense, challenge grid, but often times the speakeasy had some seriously awesome posts. It’s good to see it given some props.
Yeah, yeah editors! Yeah, yeah writers!
No offense taken! I’m glad we’ll have awesome on both grids now. Come back soon!
So if we submit creative nonfiction on the challenge grid, are we allowed to also submit fiction on the speakeasy? (Which I will probably never actually have time to do – you see how long it has taken me to get a post that is written and uploaded badged and submitted to the challenge grid this week, but this does not stop me from being curioso.)
You can write two different posts, suitable to each grid, for the current week. We should have some cool prize for the first person to win both grids in the same week!
You rock, Erica. I will not be hitting the “publish” button this month at all and I hope I’ll be the better for it! Meanwhile, looking forward to yeah write #76 as a reader.