[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Please hold: we are currently experiencing technical difficulties.

I’m writing this in a Notepad window (yeah, whatever, you can keep your fancy programs, this one pastes without trying to add formatting. I’m looking at you, MS Word) because the website is up and down and up and down right now and I don’t darn well trust it.

I’m also the kid you want on your side while you play video games, the one who says “did you save it?” before you walk into the room and the monster kills you. I guess with the rise of console games and rolling autosave that’s less important, but STILL.

Anyway, just a reminder: save your work. Save early, save often. Set your autosave to as “frequent as you can stand to have it happen.” (yeah, there’s a setting for how frequently that happens. Depending on your writing speed, you may need to set it for every couple minutes instead of every hour.) Power outages, internet outages, and just plain technical hiccups can happen. Don’t lose your work on accident. Save it so Amy March can burn it on purpose later to spite you.

Speaking of work that didn’t get lost in production, however, thanks for three pretty darn good grids this week! You wrote some great stuff and I’m excited to pass out staff picks on all three grids. But first, just like every Friday, I’m going to give you the results on all three of our grids – nonfiction, fiction|poetry, and microfiction – right here!

But like I said, it’s not all about the popular vote, folks. We also have our editorial staff picks to hand out. Every week our editors comb through your submissions looking for their favorites. Picks are based on writing quality, how successful the author is in conveying information, and just plain style. If you got a staff pick this week, grab your badge from the sidebar and wear it with pride!

Once you’re done reading through the staff picks (and congratulating the winners in the comments), keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on all three grids. If you earned the highest number of votes in any challenge, you are this week’s crowd favorite! If you came in first, second or third, you get “top three” honors. Grab your badge from our sidebar!

Looking for your badge? The fiction|poetry, nonfiction and microstories challenges all have the same winner, staff pick, and top three badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Yeah write #250 weekly writing challenge staff picks: nonfiction

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who is stacey dash? by lovely curses

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In this week’s nonfiction opening post, I wrote about rants and why they don’t work on yeah write. What’s the difference between an essay and a rant? Look at some synonyms for rant:  fulminate, bluster, spout, pontificate, vociferate. Each word suggests an unrestrained, out of control barrage of verbiage. To make a distinction between a rant and an essay: one has a “so what,” and the other is usually, well, a hot mess. (A more dignified analysis of what comprises an essay can be found here.)
In her post this week, “Who is Stacey Dash,” Nortina offers an essay that informs and persuades. She directs our attention to Stacey Dash, the Fox news host who suggested that ending segregation somehow rests in getting rid of awards and events celebrating people of color. The “clueless” Dash serves as the fulcrum to talk about why Black History Month or the BMAs exist in the first place, why #OscarsSoWhite is more than a hashtag, why recognizing the creative achievements of POC is so important. Nortina sets up the argument, picks it apart, and persuades us of the importance of the counterpoint. She writes, “Our creations tell us we is kind, we is smart, we is important. They assure us that we matter in this world.” That, my friends, is a “so what.”[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”21950″ style=”vc_box_circle” title=”michelle”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Yeah write #250 weekly writing challenge staff picks: fiction|poetry

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boggy by jennifer k

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]It doesn’t take many words to create a poem loaded with significance, and Jennifer demonstrates this in “Boggy.” Carefully selected words like “henges,” “stone,” “loch,” and even the title itself give the poem specific historical implications, and through this the speaker explains how humanity gets “rooted in [these] forgotten landscapes.” By ending with an invitation to “step out onto the loch,” we feel inspired with the possibilities of place, while at the same time feeling grounded in the meaningful location. This lends the poem deft emotional and intellectual weight.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”22651″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle” title=”natalie”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Yeah write #250 weekly writing challenge staff picks: microstories

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the weiner stone by charlotte

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I love microstories. I love the poignant ones, the aching ones, the ones that capture huge spaces in short sentences.

And I love this one. Partly because I, too, couldn’t unsee this week’s prompt image. But also because Charlotte does several things very well in an incredibly compact space. First, she sets the scene with careful dialogue: the phonemes and sentence structure and slang all show us exactly where we are in the world, without having to use a single description. Next, she keeps the story from becoming too eye-roll-y (is that a word?) by shoving in a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement: it’s pronounced way-ner. This admonishment to take an extremely not-serious story seriously is effective because it shows the reader that yes, she knows exactly what she’s doing. Finally, she wraps up with a little advertising section like a circus tout or snake-oil salesman, bringing in rhythm and rhyme to “sell” the story to the reader as well as to the character the narrator is speaking to.

Any one of these ideas could have been a complete microstory; managing to balance all three in only 42 words is a masterstory. Also, I laughed my rocks off.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”22659″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle” title=”arden”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]

That’s it for our staff picks this week! Remember, we don’t always give out a pick on every grid; if we were impressed by several posts on one grid, we’ll give them all picks, and if nothing really stood out for us on another grid, we’ll hold off.

If you’re lost in the middle of the grid and wondering how you can get a little more feedback on your posts, check out our membership perks!

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

Come celebrate our 250th consecutive week (omg really?) of writing competitions down at the moonshine grid. Drive that post-apocalyptic car right through the wall if you want, just as long as you don’t have a commercial post riding shotgun. Otherwise, it’s come as you are: headbands, shoulderpads and all.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Congratulations to the crowd favorites at yeah write #250

The thumbnails are now sorted in order of most votes to fewest. Ties in the overall number of votes are broken by number of editor votes.

Congratulations if you’re at or near the top! Writing well is hard work, and we’re honored you’ve chosen us this week to showcase your entry.

If you’re at or near the bottom, don’t be discouraged. You’re in the right community for learning and growing as a writer, and we are always available with resources for those who ask nicely.

To our readers and voters: thank you! See you next week.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

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