[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Popular voting. Editor voting. Voter voting. If you’re in the US of A, you better have voted at least twice this week, once in your hometown and once here. We’re not into Red vs Blue, but we do have voting results today. Yours, to be precise.
Now, stay with me. During our November writing competition there are two (yes, two) votes happening every week. First, there’s the good old crowd favorite! Yay! If you scroll down and see your name in first place on the grid, grab your crowd fave badge! The next two? Grab your top three badge!
The other important vote this month is the staff vote. Our editors are elbows-deep in spreadsheets, rubrics and other important-sounding voting tools, picking out the best of the best for the November writing competition. After all, it’s not every day that we hand out $200 and a bunch of truffles (although don’t you wish we could).
Down below you’ll see each staff voter’s favorite three posts on her grid (in no particular order) and a quick note about something she found particularly memorable. So check out the top three picks, grab your staff pick badge if you see your name, and take a minute to check out what we think of our favorite posts this week.
For those of you who joined us for the very first time during this first week of our November contest: welcome! We wish we could say things aren’t always this hectic around here, but the fun never ends. Don’t forget to refer your friends to the contest to increase your chances of winning one of the prize packages. If your referral wins, so do you.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Yeah write #186 weekly writing challenge staff picks: nonfiction
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Snapper’s post is only 278 words long – including the headings – and yet I cannot stop thinking about it. Women treated unfairly, told that they don’t know what’s best for them and they are not capable of being responsible for their bodies is not a new concept. Groups of people have always and, sadly, probably will always attempt to tell other groups how they should live, think and feel. But when it’s written so simply and so starkly, it’s so easy to see just how wrong that practice is. 278 words is all it takes to show how awful some people can be to fellow humans.
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Beginning with the disorienting death of her mother when Nancy was seven years old, and ending in the kitchen run by her live-in maid, the narrative of Food Can Fix That leads us, quite obviously, through Nancy’s origin of her healthy love of food. Setting the appropriate tone and mood of a young child bewildered by traditional mourning rituals and the emotional disappearance of her father, Nancy places her readers right at the scene as we sit shiva, wander the house searching for explanation and understanding, end up at the kitchen table in comfort and relief. It’s a touching story, one very well told.
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This week I want to talk about perfect moments in writing. Perfect moments like “[a]s though shoes like that came around more than once in a lifetime.” That line marks the break in Megan’s post between a story about shoes and a story about her father; one that ends with the end of his life. The whole post wraps itself neatly around that line, buckled together like a pair of perfect pink strappy heels.
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Yeah write #186 weekly writing challenge staff picks: fiction challenge
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What struck me most with Asha’s “The Fortune Teller” was the incredible way she effortlessly generated a mood that is both mysterious yet pokes fun at itself. Descriptions of setting and character are fluid and evocative, and the style varies from punctuated to meandering with a captivating rhythm. In fact, the story’s atmosphere so effectively swallows the reader that we too are hypnotized, much like the protagonist, and we are all “hooked” by the end.
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Asha shares a burden experienced by daughters everywhere: a mom’s sly efforts to match-make. Told in first person, the daughter focuses on the heat, the fortune-telling priest’s body hair, and “languorous flies.” Whether intentional or not, she misses the reading entirely, leading her to concede her mother’s success in piquing her curiosity. Told with wit and fine detail, this lovely story captures the tension between mothers and daughters that is unbound by borders.
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Asha’s story of a visit with a fortune teller is a reader’s dream. I see everything perfectly as she describes it. I can feel the cool marble beneath my thighs and hear the chanting of the priest. One particular line really strikes me. My skin feels sticky just reading it: “Even the flies are languorous in this heat, buzzing fatly in creeping circles across the room.” On top of that, the transition of the girl’s thoughts concerning her arranged marriage flow seamlessly throughout the piece. Her mother is quite cunning. Well done, Asha, on a wonderful piece of writing.
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Yeah write #186 weekly writing challenge staff picks: microstories challenge
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Angie claims she was half-hoping for a love letter for this poem; I’m afraid we’re going to disappoint her. From the opening plea to the final line – “revise my marrow” – I was entranced. Many of us are familiar with the basic story of Moses on the mountain, but Angie’s short poem is more about the spirit of his journey, the idea that divine grace is not written in stone, but engraved on the heart. I am particularly mesmerized by her language – lush, passionate, but not overblown.
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Tina’s microstory spun a tale about unrequited love between an arrogant Sun God and Mother Earth. I loved the mythological nature of this piece, how Earth spurned Sun’s arrogant advances in trying to possess her instead of partner with her, and how, given enough time, all traces of his ugly behavior were erased. Really, it’s a fable with a moral that you cannot take that which is not given to you. It’s a simple message that applies to so many situations in real life. Such a great use of 42 words.
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Genna Claire’s micro story stood out for me with that fantastic image of gulls squawking over a fry. Not only did she help me imagine the scene, having her narrator describe her coworkers that way revealed as much about the protagonist as it did those she mocked. I really felt drawn into the moment. Her use of italics rather than quotation marks for “I said YES!” gave me pause, but I still thought that this story came out on top.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Congratulations to this week’s winners! If you earned the highest number of votes in either challenge, you are this week’s crowd favorite. If you came in second or third, you get top row honors along with the crowd fave. Grab your winner’s badge from our sidebar!
Looking for your badge? Now that all our writers are under one roof, we’re sharing our badges as well as our drinks. That’s right: fiction|poetry, nonfiction and microstories have the same badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours!
Everybody: before you go, please take some time to leave your favorites a little love in the comments.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time
When happy hour closes today, the moonshine grid opens. That’s right, at 6 p.m. today Natalie throws open the doors to the weekend bar for anyone that has the password (psst! the password is “ken sent me”) and you’re all welcome to belly up to the bar. Just don’t bring commercial posts, don’t worry (be happy), and don’t bring me down.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Drop by the coffeehouse for your double shot of espresso
Not in the mood for moonshine? Can’t think of an idea for next week’s post? Got a post that didn’t do as well as you thought it would, or one that needs some polishing? Drop by our coffeehouse where every weekend our friendly barista Nate serves up a double shot of espresso to get you started! He’ll discuss an idea or technique that worked well for one of our writers this week and give you some pointers for trying it out in your own work. Who knows, it might just be the jolt of caffeine that your writing needs.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Yeah write #186 challenge results
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Woohoo! Congrats to everyone, and thank you for choosing my poem!
I wanted to say thanks to everyone for your enthusiastic participation this week! You have really set the bar high for the rest of the contest.
On a personal note, many thanks for voting my tritina into the top three. I may have found a new obsession.
Congrats everyone! Now I can go and catch up on all the non- microstory posts. I need to take notes on how awesome your writings are!! 🙂
It’s all good. Congratulations to all the participants, arigatou gozaimasu to the editors and staff!
Thank you, Cynk. What an honor!! And I appreciate the feedback on italics vs. quotes. I’ll take that into account next time. 🙂 Love me some YeahWrite.
What a lot of winners!!! Congratulations to each and every one. I do not envy you editors!
And I’d like to give a special shout out to Nate for reminding me (and one or two others, haha) about filling in the entry form!
Yes, a special shout to Nate from me too!
Same here!! Apparently I still need a hall monitor to remind me what to do. 🙂 Thanks, Nate!!
me three!
I so enjoyed reading all the pieces in every category this week! Congratulations to all the winners, and Erica, and Rowan, I feel so honored that you enjoyed my story.
It’s great to find new writers to follow. My faves this week: Law#116, I will Never Stab a Bank Teller, and Red’s Wrap.
Hope to see everyone back next week!!
LOVE
Also, thank you for choosing my poem. I’m honored to be among so many great choices.
Congratulations everyone. Great entries as always. Very honored to be picked this week. Thank you all.
Congrats to everyone this week!
And a silly question…what if the top place is tied in votes?
Congrats on making the top row, Laura! The ties are all broken by the number of editors who voted for each piece. The grid order is then properly sorted.
Gotcha! That makes more sense! Thank you.