The invitational grid returns
The yeah write editors were delighted to choose our favorites! Much like the top row five of the weekly challenge grid, we usually end up congratulating around four to eight writers who exceeded our basic submission guidelines. This week, it’s four of you, so congratulations Ben, Bill, Samantha and Sam. Please grab your badges over in the sidebar!
Loading InLinkz ...“Climb On” by Samantha Shanley at famtasia
One of the missions here at yeah write is to help our writers finish out their blogging careers, whenever that may be, with a solid collection of essays, vignettes and snapshots of their personal victories, anxieties, laugh aloud moments, all those things shaping who we are as lovers of words on paper. Acknowledging how difficult it can be to get a phrase just right or convey a particular emotion or tweak the pacing, we recommend a certain type of writer’s discipline: start as closely to the beginning of the action as possible, use 600 words economically, twist all the elements—sympathetic characters, central conflict, some sort of change in the narrator’s way of thinking or behaving— into a compelling, final piece.
Some of our readers are learning this disciplined way of writing by competing each week in the challenge, adjusting and drafting and editing, figuring it out as they go along. Others have taken their learning offline and have enrolled in writing workshops and instructor-led courses, always returning to knock our socks off with a new way of looking at an old story. Then there are those who come to us with an intuitive understanding of what we are looking for, and yeah write turns out to be a good fit for their talents their very first time on the grid.
This week’s jury prize winner is part of that third group. A relative newcomer to yeah write, Samantha Shanley wins with “Climb On,” a wonderful amalgam of messes known mainly to the anxiety-filled parenting set. The what-ifs, the we-dids, the maybe-nots and the maybe-shoulds are all there with a little irrationality about cause and time of death thrown in because that’s how minds works around these here parts. We welcome Samantha to our humble little writer’s community and congratulate her once again on her editor’s pick and jury prize win.
“Twenty-five years after saying ‘I do'” by Jamie Miles at South Main Muse
Congratulations to Jamie Miles of South Main Muse for grabbing the top spot in this week’s challenge with her lovely post about the still-strong romance with her husband after all these years. Please grab your crowd favorite badge, Jamie!
Sitting with Jamie in the top row are Ben of Dad of the Decade, Bill of The Authentic Life, yeah write editor Natalie of The Cat Lady Sings, and yeah write editor Kristin Wald of That Unique Weblog. Congratulations, everyone. Get you a badge and we’ll see you next week.
Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time!
It’s the weekend, and yeah write contributing 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 may not meet our submission guidelines for the weekly challenge grid, but who cares, it’s the weekend! Do what you want: link up or just visit. Read silently or 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.
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…
Congratulate the winners in comments and pat yourselves on the back for getting it together in time to make the challenge deadline. We may not hand out participation ribbons around here, but we do share the comment love. If you ran out of time before voting began to leave a note for one of your favorite entries, do it here. Tell someone you loved that turn of phrase or how you, too, hate your brother-in-law. Reveal your office Secret Santa business. It’s all safe here with us.
Yeah write #141 weekly writing challenge grid opens Tuesday…
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Grats to all the winners! And to everyone who showed up and opened up the invitational.
Congratulations, you top row five, crowd fav and editor’s picks! There were a lot of fantabulous reads this week. 🙂
What an amazing write up, Erica. Thank you for that.
Such a great week of reading, all!
I was struck by how many people wrote about anxiety this week. ‘Tis the season for hand-wringing.
And, there’s nothing quite like congregating in the final, darkest weeks of the year at Yeah Write to make this writer feel right at home. Congrats, everyone.
What a fun surprise re Crowd Favorite. And I so agree with Erica’s words on Samantha’s piece. It was great to read something so unexpectedly wonderful (unexpected in that I had never visited her blog before). After reading my post, my husband laughed and said that was the most honest thing I had ever written. And he’s read a lot of my writing. So I’m thankful he’s still very much enamored with my messy, conflicted self. Thanks again.