Editor picks and invitational grid

Wow. You guys are awesome. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and yet you STILL came out in droves to set us up for another invitational grid. No downtime for yeah writers who love to blog! We welcomed three virgins and two bloggers returning after long absences  to the grid this week. Thanks to everyone who wrote, read, commented, and voted—all while navigating our new, improved website like champs.

Special recognition goes the seven writers who made the invitational grid, moved up by the yeah write editors to compete for this week’s jury prize:  Samantha, Christie, Arden, Linda, Kristin, Janelle, and Cheney. Congratulations! Pick up an editors’ pick badge in the sidebar to display on your blog.

Jury prize winner

“The Final Picture” from Samantha Merel at This Heart of Mine

One of the late Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing is this simple gem:  “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” I don’t know how long it took Sam to write and edit her jury prize-winning post The Final Picture, but she achieved this goal—it doesn’t sound like writing. It sounds like thinking. It sounds like what’s in our heads before we write, the stuff we wish we could capture in words on the page but often cannot. It’s so simple, and this simplicity makes its poignancy that much more powerful. And as most writers know, the simple is always, always harder to write well.

It’s agonizing to read the post as Sam mourns the loss of a friendship from afar, observing her glaring absence at a wedding she always thought she’d attend. There’s little physical action in the story—the author clicks on Facebook updates as pictures of the big day taken by the invited flood her timeline, highlighting her uninvitedness that much more. And, yet, the author keeps us riveted as the milestone event unfolds for a life she once was an essential part, but in which she is no longer welcome.

With short sentences, everyday words, and one-sentence paragraphs interspersed for emphasis, the post’s structure makes it easy to read and that much more compelling. It ends not with a bang, but with a stark emptiness, as she realizes there is no space left for her in the picture.

Crowd favorite

“The Final Picture” from Samantha Merel at This Heart of Mine

It’s Sam again! Congratulations on also taking crowd favorite as you were selected by your peers as the best of the week. You get to grab another badge from the sidebar and cram that one onto your blog, then have cake. I mean, we’re not making it for you or anything, we just think celebratory desserts are in order.

Congrats also to the rest of our Top Row 5: Linda, Cheney, Erica and Christi.  You know what? We’re gonna give you badges, too. Also, we think you deserve cakes. Except Erica. She can have a shake, freeing up her hands to code and type while she opens up another week dedicated to building a writer’s community for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time!

I bet you have more posts you can share with your yeah write family, don’t you? Come to our weekend no-pressure party and link up to the moonshine grid, hosted by yeah writer Michelle Longo. You can share just about any post, unless it’s commercial or sponsored. Grab a badge in the sidebar and join us!

The moonshine grid opens at 6 p.m. eastern time each Friday and will close by 12:01 a.m. each Monday.

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; especially if it was a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and, in the spirit of competition, an incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Thanks again, everybody, for submitting, 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.

Before you go, please congratulate the winners in comments

Or, give encouragement to those who come out and support us all week after week. A good word is always nice to share with others.