Editor picks and invitational grid
November’s days are stacking up behind us and y’all are still bringing your best stuff to the challenge grid, even as many of you slog through NaBloPoMo’s daily blogging. Color us impressed at your output. Our challenge grid hit the magic mark and the editors moved five bloggers to the invitational grid to compete for the yeah write Jury Prize, the most coveted trophy in all of the internet — NAY, the universe. Congrats to the five writers whose posts struck the editors as a cut above: Christie, Marcy, Samantha, Quinn, and Bill. If you visit the sidebar, you’ll find your editors’ pick badge to display on your blog.
Jury prize winner
“Dispensing ‘career’ advice with minimal maniacal laughter” by Quinn Read at Qphase2
What’s cool about this week’s jury prize winner, “Dispensing ‘career’ advice with minimal maniacal laughter” by Quinn Read, is its inventive structure, which proves that you can, in fact, tell a story with a list. Framed at the top and bottom by a college student interviewing the author about her career for a class project, Quinn humorously sets out a timeline of jobs and relationships piling up behind her in under 600 words. Her hilarious asides after each vocational detour sum up in a few words entire eras: “I’m a young Rachel Carson!” “I’m a young Clarice Starling!” Could she be any more hilariously efficient in describing the naiveté of the young adult setting out on a projected professional path?
Interviewers might ask us for five year plans but anyone of (ahem) a certain age knows that the world typically has other ideas. The writer spares the bright-eyed student the full brunt of reality, letting her keep her dreams of Jane Gooddall- or John Muir-dom alive for another day. But we know better, those of us on the other side of experience. The post is so much more than just a funny scene, it’s a tribute to the awareness earned from a life lived outside the box.
Hey! There’s a jury prize badge for you in the sidebar.
Crowd favorite
“Growing Up Girl” by Samantha Shanley at famtasia
Samantha takes crowd favorite with her post “Growing Up Girl.” There are oh-so-many posts and blogs about the trials and joys of parenting, but it takes a rare author to add a fresh look at what can be a tired subject. At times both poignant and sublime, the author relates what happens when you really stand still and listen to your children. Congratulations! You’ll find your crowd favorite badge in the sidebar.
Congrats also to the rest of our top row 5: Bill, Quinn, Michelle, and Christie! We have top row 5 badges for each of you—grab one if you earned one.
Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time!
It’s the weekend, and yeah write guest editor Natalie D is setting up her moonshine grid and bathtub gin just for you. Show us the other side of your blog – those posts that might not meet our submission guidelines for the weekly challenge grid but are awesome nonetheless. Link up or just visit, read, and comment. We’re serving drinks, hard and soft. Catch up with Natalie starting at 6 p.m. eastern time today. Closing time is midnight on Monday. You don’t need to go home, but you can’t stay there.
Whew. We’re in the home stretch: BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo at yeah write
Can I count this post for NaBloPoMo? I just might. Daily writing is one thing; you can lazily pen journal entries without a care in the world, writing whatever strikes you. But writing publicly for thirty days in a row? That takes stamina and more than a little inspiration. Congrats on making it to Day 22. Next week you can write all about gratitude or Thanksgiving with the in-laws (assuming they don’t read your blog). You’ve got this.
There’s a story inside you too. One that’s about, oh, 500-600 words? One that has some kind of conflict? A beginning, a middle, and an end? Bring that one back to the challenge grid next week. Check out our submission guidelines and link up for yeah write #137.
We’re blogging every day here at yeah write too. Visit our growing NaBloPoMo archives.
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.
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…
We (and by “we” I mean “I”) started a new ritual here at yeah write a few weeks back. For sure congratulate our winners, editors’ picks, and the top row 5. But I bet some of your picks ended up at other places on the grid. That’s not always a great feeling as a writer, so let your favorite bloggers know that their posts meant something to you this week.
And come back next week for the challenge grid and every day in November for our special NaBloPoMo guest post series.
Congrats everyone! In addition to our winners and top row 5, I want to give a shout-out to two of my co-editors here at yeah write. Erica’s post was about much, much more than a folk song, and Courtenay spoke volumes with a signature.
This is basically the coolest community ever. I love that my required reading list keeps getting longer! Thanks for supporting this beginner blogger.
Ahem. “Choosing favorites,” that was.
This was such a tough week for choose favorites. So many on the challenge grid totally smoked it! Nice work, all, and thanks for the great reads.