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YeahWrite Super Challenge #1

Welcome to the YeahWrite Super Challenge!

Welcome to YeahWrite’s very first Super Challenge. If you’re already familiar with our weekly challenge grids, you know they’re a great way to learn, grow and connect with our community of writers, but the super challenge is where it all comes together, where your hard work and practice pays off – literally pays off, I mean, with prizes! If you’re finding YeahWrite for the first time, welcome aboard. We hope you’re along for the ride.

YeahWrite has been a vibrant community of writers for over five years, and we’ve never missed a week in all that time – 270 and counting, as I write this. Now we’re adding the next level of writing competition, and we couldn’t be more excited to start at number one! Let’s kick this thing off with a bang as for our first Super Challenge we go back to where it all started in the dark ages of, er, the early 2010s: creative nonfiction.

About

The YeahWrite Fiction Super Challenge is a prompted challenge where writers compete to complete the best work of short fiction in a single weekend. Prompts are released on Friday, and the completed work must be turned in by Sunday night.

The competition is run in three rounds. Half the writers will move to the second round of competition, and approximately ten writers will advance to the final round of competition. All competing writers will receive feedback on their work from the judges at the end of each round. The final ten writers will compete for cash prizes for first, second and third place.

Schedule

Each round of the challenge starts at 10pm Eastern US Time on a Friday and closes at 10pm Eastern US Time on the Sunday immediately following, giving you 48 hours to complete your entry. Each round will have a different genre and prompt style. Writers will be separated into groups and each group will receive a prompt. All groups will respond to that prompt in the genre assigned for each round. The rounds are scheduled as follows:

Dates Prompt Combination
October 7-9 Emotion + Event

Writers will receive a combination of a mood or emotion and an event to include in their story. While neither needs to be the main focus of the story, both must be included in such a way as to be integral to the plot. There are no genre restrictions.

October 21-23 Character + Event

Writers will receive a description of a character (this may be in words, images, or a combination of the two) and an event. The character does not need to be the main character, and as in round one the event does not need to form the plot arc of the story, but both must be included in such a way that the story would not function without their presence. There are no genre restrictions.

November 4-6 Two Genre Mashup

Writers will receive two genres and must tell a story that is a combination of the main tropes of both genres. Some genres that may be included are: romance, mystery, horror, fairy tale, fantasy, science fiction. There are no character or topic restrictions, but elements of both genres must be clearly identifiable in the finished story.

Fees and Registration

Registration is now closed for the YeahWrite Super Challenge #2. Miss out? Sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss any important announcements. For all our participants, good luck this weekend!

Prizes

The amount of the prizes will be announced after all entries have been received.

Why? Because just like your sibling, we’re gonna split the money with you. That’s right: the total cash prizes for first, second and third place will add up to half of the entry fees*. You know what that means? The more folks enter, the bigger the prize gets. Sign yourself up and then go share this news with your friends and community! Make the competition bigger, better and tougher for all of us!

* Unless a prize in that amount would trigger provisions of US law relating to transfer of fees; in that case we reserve the right to split the money in such a way that we award more prizes (i.e. first through fifth place).

UPDATE: It’s official! The money’s been counted and the splits have been split. The Super Challenge prizes are:

First place: $225
Second place: $150
Third place: $75

FAQ and Rules

For full text of the rules of the competition, go here. By entering the competition you agree to abide and be bound by these rules, so go actually read them. Besides, they contain really useful information about how to submit your work and in what format, in case you get tired of reading this FAQ.

Who can enter?
Anyone 18 or older can enter the competition, as long as it’s not void where you live. YeahWrite editors are, naturally, not eligible. If we had actual employees they wouldn’t be eligible either, and it goes without saying that our competition judges are not eligible.

How many writers can work on a story?
A story is considered the work of the registered writer. We won’t split up the prizes. That said, you can show your work to others during the course of each round, receive feedback, and make revisions.

When will I get my assignment and when is it due?
Assignments will be posted at 10pm Eastern US Time on the opening Friday of each challenge, and it is due by 10pm on the Sunday immediately following. That means you have exactly 48 hours to write your story!

How do I submit my story?
Email your essay in .doc/docx, .rtf, or .txt format to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me before 10pm on the closing day of each round. Use the subject line “YeahWrite Super Challenge Round [x] Group [y] submission.” Make sure the filename is as specified in the official rules.

How do I format my story?
Your story (including the title page) must be in 12 point font – either Arial or Times New Roman. The first page should be blank except for the Title Page information described in the rules. If you don’t know how to insert a hard page break in your writing, this is a great time to learn! The title page does not count toward your maximum word count of 1,000 words. Make sure your name does not appear anywhere in your story or on the file. The name of the file must be as follows: [group number]-[title]. For example, if you are in Group 2 and the title of your story is “Daisy Petals” then the filename will be 2-Daisy Petals.doc (or .rtf, etc., as applicable).

What if I need to make changes to a story I’ve submitted?
Sorry. We don’t accept revisions or changes to your work. Once you hit send that’s it, game over. The only exception will be if you forgot to attach your story to your original submission email. We’ll send you a confirmation email when we get your story. Submitting two stories can be grounds for disqualification.

Who owns the copyright to my work?
You do. For a more complete explanation of what rights you are granting to YeahWrite by entering your work in the Super Challenge, see the official rules.

So can I post my work on my blog?
Not until after you receive feedback from the judges, please. Don’t make your work available in a forum where the judges might run across it until the judging is done. After each round of the challenge is over, we’ll also create a special grid to link up your work, since it’s not eligible for our regular challenge grids.

What feedback will I get on my work?
In every round you participate in, you’ll get an email telling you what the judges liked about your work, and what you need to work on. We’ll make sure to get you this feedback before the next round, so that it’s useful to you as you move through the competition!

What kinds of story are acceptable?
While YeahWrite does not place restrictions on use of strong language or on genre, our editorial standards respect the diversity and dignity of our audience. YeahWrite does not and will not accept works which insult or demean any person based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other similar traits. This doesn’t mean you cannot write a story about or containing racism or homophobia between characters or as part of the plot, but it does mean that your story itself shouldn’t be racist or homophobic. It comes down to this: always remember that people who are not like you will read your stories. What do you want them to think about you as a person and a writer?

Who are the judges?
A staff of professional writers, educators and editors. We’ll have a couple celebrity guest judges for each competition, usually in the final round, so stay tuned and keep checking our Announcements section on this page!

What if I have more questions?
Please send questions about the Super Challenge to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me only, and not to our Facebook, Twitter, or other email addresses. We will not be reviewing other email addresses or social media for Super Challenge related questions, and we want to make sure you hear back from us!

Round One Results

A big thank you and congratulations to all our entrants! It was a tight field in every group, and in most cases just a few points separated those that made the cut from those that missed it this time. We hope everyone’s still having fun, and that the feedback you got this morning from our judges was helpful.

It’s time to move on to round two of our competition, so stay tuned on Friday for this round’s prompts. Writers, just like last time, you’ll be getting an email at 10pm US Eastern time with your group and prompt assignments. The top five writers from each group will advance to the final round!

In the meantime, let’s give a hand to the following folks, in alphabetical order, who’ll be moving on to round two this week:

Jolene Belorgey Kelli King
Donna-Louise Bishop Nancy Lowell
Melony Boseley Tamara Oliver
Tara Davis Sampada Raje
Danielle Dayney Kay Roof
Grace Fetterman Lisa Shaw
Stacey Gengel Linda Tharp
Catherine Keaton Janice Wilberg

All writers are now free to share their round one essay. Just to make it easy, we’ve made a sharing grid. If you want to put your essay on your blog (or anywhere on the ‘net) and link it up here, click the submission link below and enter the URL where you’ve posted your essay. Please use the same email you used for the Super Challenge and don’t worry if you don’t see your post right away: we’re moderating entries to prevent accidental linkups.

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Round Two Results

The email lemur has finished its work, our writers have their feedback, and now it’s time to see how those positives and negatives stacked up, and who will be advancing to the final round of the Super Challenge.

Final round prompts will be posted on Friday at 10pm EDT, and as always, writers will receive an email with the prompt and some helpful tips for how to interpret and use it to give us a personal or persuasive essay.

Congratulations this week go to, in alpha order, our top ten writers:

Jolene Belorgey Kelli King
Donna-Louise Bishop Tamara Oliver
Melony Boseley Lisa Shaw
Danielle Dayney Linda Tharp
Catherine Keaton Janice Wilberg

All writers are now free to share their round two essays here or elsewhere. We’ve made a round two sharing grid for your convenience, but as always your work is yours; do what you want with it! If you add your work to this grid, please use the same email you used for the Super Challenge and don’t worry if you don’t see your post right away: we’re moderating entries to prevent accidental linkups. Remember your essay isn’t eligible for our regular grids, but you’re welcome to link it up to the weekend grid as well as here.

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Final Round Results

I keep saying it’s a tight field, but apparently I didn’t know what that meant until this round, when fractional points separated most of the top entries. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did with this new challenge, and that you’ll be back for the next one, and to visit our regular grids in the meantime. We’re working on ways to get your feedback and give you ours (AMA? live chat? we’re wide open to ideas at this point) and we’ll be opening registration for – shameless plug – the Fiction Super Challenge in just a few weeks.

Fanfare, please, for our winners:

First Place – $175

Linda Tharp, Brave

Second Place – $100

Donna-Louise Bishop, Amy

Third Place – $75

Lisa Shaw, Room 157

Winners, and the rest of our final round writers, should feel free to share or submit their essays elsewhere, or right here on the Super Challenge sharing grid:

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Announcements

7.Oct

It’s official! The money’s been counted and the splits have been split. The Super Challenge prizes are:

First place: $225
Second place: $150
Third place: $75

(That’s United States money. Insert obligatory US/Canada dollar joke here. Insert apology to all other countries using the dollar as currency here.)

9.Oct

The first round ended at 10pm US Eastern Time. Judges, keep an eye out for your packets tomorrow! Writers, we’ll be scoring your stories over the next week; we’ll let you know who’s advancing during the week of the 16th (and we’ll give you a more accurate estimate of that date as soon as we have it but right now it’s “before Friday,” ok? Thanks!).

19.Oct

Writers, you should have received your feedback last night/this morning (depending on where and when you live!). If you don’t have it, send us an email at superchallenge@yeahwrite.me and we’ll re-send your email. Round One winners will be announced at noon US Eastern time today, so stay tuned for the post or follow this link to check out who’ll be advancing to Round Two this weekend!

Come meet the judges for our Super Challenge!

17.Nov

Writers, check your email! Your round 3 feedback is waiting. We’ll announce the overall first, second and third place winners right here on Friday, November 18, at 10pm US Eastern time, so stay tuned!

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