Returning to our writing roots

With the return of a moderated challenge grid, yeah write got back to its roots this week as a place for writers to hone their craft in community. That community includes both those who made it past Obed, our new submissions editor, and those who received a love letter from him explaining why their submissions didn’t meet our guidelines.

If you received a note from Obed about your submission, take his suggestions to heart and submit again. Being a writer is not for the faint of heart, but we really do want to help you bring your best stuff to the weekly challenge. Spend some time clicking around and read some winning posts to get a sense of what yeah write is all about.

Welcome to the two virgins who joined us this week! Congratulations on finding your way around the grid. Come back next week!

Crowd favorite

“The Art of Holding Back” by Natalie DeYoung at The Cat Lady Sings

With 15 posts making it onto the challenge grid, y’all had one precious vote for your very favorite. Although yeah write editors aren’t eligible for the invitational grid when it opens, if they make it onto the challenge grid they compete like anybody else. This week, yeah write’s contributing editor Natalie DeYoung of The Cat Lady Sings takes crowd favorite for “The Art of Holding Back,” a post about a challenge to her identity, regaining her sense of self, and the things she left unsaid.

Let’s look at what Natalie does here, because it’s a master class in writing flash nonfiction, which is sort of the whole point of yeah write.

She chooses a single scene and jumps right in. There is an art form to knowing where to start your story. You want to get to the crux right away without wordy exposition. Here’s Natalie: “Looking back, I’m not sure why I was so nervous.”

She uses a variety of storytelling techniques. Conversations that ring true. Characters created out of a few choice lines and, in one case, a crude gesture. An internal dialogue that wrenches the heart.

And the closing? Well, that’s the other hard part of writing – the knowing when to end. We let our stories lose steam and trail off, draining any emotional impact. We can’t resist the urge to tie everything up in a too-neat bow, sabotaging our credibility. We feel the need to summarize with a paragraph telling the reader how the story made us feel, or what we think they should feel. Natalie avoids that. Her scene ends with a single sentence paragraph that relates back to her title and the central conflict of the post: “I’m glad I didn’t waste my words.”

Natalie’s got all the elements of a yeah write-worthy post. But what makes a winning post is that extra dose of literary magic – the part we can’t deconstruct so easily. Here, that’s Natalie’s authentic voice, sharing a raw story that resonates close to the bone. Go grab your crowd favorite badge!

Because of the smallish size of the grid, we’re honoring our top 3 this week. Congrats to Joe and Christie! You get badges too! 

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

It’s the weekend, and Natalie D is setting up her moonshine grid and bathtub gin just for you. In addition to a full bar, Natalie has brewed up a special batch of kombucha for the pregnant, the sober (holla!), and the designated drivers among us. The moonshine grid is the flip side of our weekly challenges: a no-pressure link-up where we accept anything except commercial or sponsored posts. You can 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, and 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.

Take a moment…

Before you go? Congratulate this week’s winners in the comments, and let your favorites know their work meant something to you. Yeah write #148 opens Tuesday.
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