Let’s do some mathin’

Real quickly, let’s put your editor scores into perspective. There were five scoring editors this week. So if you take your total score beneath your thumbnail and divide it by five, you’ll get an idea of where you landed in the yeah write criteria. Lemme help.

[check_list]

• 12         The author meets all of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission
• 10-11   The author meets most of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission
• 7-9       The author meets more than half of the criteria for a yeah write submission
•   6         The author meets half of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission
•  3-5      The author meets few of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission
• 0-2       The author does not meet the criteria for a winning yeah write submission

[/check_list]

Courtenay of IA Soup Mama earned 52 points. Rounding down to 50 because my phone/calculator is way across the room charging, then dividing by 5, she earned a 10 on the editors’ scale: the author met most of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission.

Rounding down for Melisa at Just Begin from Here and rounding up for Mayor Gia, they each earned a 10. Most. Not all, but this week, it’s close enough for a top three finish. Even those with the lowest scores met half of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission. There were quality posts on the grid this week, and we appreciate your hard work.

[divider_header_h3]managing editor’s pick[/divider_header_h3]

[image width=”125″ height=”130″ align=”left” lightbox=”true” caption=”” title=””]https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Erica_profile.jpg[/image]

managing editor’s pick by Erica M

My Quest for Foam by Stacie of Snaps and Bits

Meeting more than half of the criteria for a winning yeah write submission, Stacie of Snaps and Bits captured my morning OCD with her post on creating the perfect foam for her morning latte. Much like me, her entire day depends on one extremely insignificant event, and if that goes wrong, the whole rest of the day is shot. As one who takes great care to present photos and other graphics for an audience, I appreciated how Stacie took the extra steps to properly display her latte foamfoolery. Her narrative was light and airy and appropriate for her fun subject matter. There was no unnecessarily dramatic build-up, and it kept my attention until the end. Congrats, Stacie, on your very first yeah write editor’s selection.

Editors’ mean average: 8

[divider_header_h3]contributing editors picks[/divider_header_h3]

[image width=”125″ height=”130″ align=”left” lightbox=”true” caption=”” title=””]https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Kristin_profile.jpg[/image]

editor’s pick by Kristin W

Little White Lie by Melisa of Just Begin from Here

What does a teenager want more than anything? To be believed when she’s telling a Big Old Lie. I found the description of the girls playing hooky engaging—and I believed the scene, right down to “working a groove on the wood floor.” The feigning illness worked well with a back-and-forth of inner monologue and outer dialogue—it sounded like a less confident Ferris Bueller. I also appreciated the emphasis on the small town role in this story. The friends, the doctor, the almost unwelcome anticipation of leaving it all.

Now, as wonderful as the story is, it’s the kind I’d want to sit down to tear apart line-by-line before the next draft materializes. But my services are pricey, so I’ll just say this: The opening is the best part. There is a lopsided attention to detail that, if balanced throughout the post, would really help the story sing. (I hate using “sing” to describe a fantastic piece of writing, but the Simon & Garfunkel reference got me.) Also, I know how tempting italics and bold font and all caps can be—they just make sense sometimes—but when used, they can serve as a placeholder for “go back and work on showing the emphasis I’m going for here.” And I think doing so may encourage more detail to crawl into the prose.

Congrats on telling a story so engaging involving your mother, it made it onto the grid during family-free month. 

Editors’ mean average: 10

[image width=”125″ height=”130″ align=”left” lightbox=”true” caption=”” title=””]https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Reedster_profile.jpg[/image]

editor’s pick by Cindy R

Smells Like…by Jessie of Jester Queen

Jessie at The Jester Queen’s wildly creative post “Smells like. . .” rocked my world this week. What the hell is going on here? Was the CD possessed like so many had accused Marilyn Manson himself of being? Or was the frazzled sleep-deprived grad student losing her own mind in the late night tedium of finishing a most esoteric essay? The post begs to be read aloud because it is like listening to your cleverest thinking-on-her-feet friend tell a hysterical story. Sure, she’s slowly going mad, like the Gene Hackman character in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,” but that’s neither here nor there. It’s conversational, as the most resonant writing is. There are no ten-dollar words in this post and Jessie’s simple language is more than enough in her talented hands.

I wondered about the choices of music that would get her through the assignment and found this to be the only line that seemed out of place – first, Tchaikovsky needs no first names, and AC/DC didn’t ring as true as the classics.

But flow? The post is a model of seamless transitions in place, time, and character, with “Marilyn-the-CD” acting as a well-developed character connecting us to our narrator, her neighbor, and her colleague, all the while providing the soundtrack to this wild tale. It’s clever, it’s complex in structure, and yet oh-so-simple in its parts. Brava, Jester Queen.

Editors’ mean average: 8

 [image width=”125″ height=”130″ align=”left” lightbox=”true” caption=”” title=””]https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/jeffrey_profile.jpeg[/image]

guest editor’s pick by Erica M’s husband Q

An In-Depth View Of The Male Orgasm by Chris at Change the Topic

Q’s synopsis dictated to me over the phone: hahaha manly man man something manly man man this was hahaha manly man man. 

I can’t remember his exact words, and it’s not my fault he’s now asleep while I’m writing up his section and he’s supposed to be awake and ready to pre-order our iPhones 5 at midnight. 

All I can say is Chris’s wife must have had her camera shutter speed set to super super because I can’t imagine it taking Chris longer than three minutes to make all those O-faces before going in for the high five at the end. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 

Congrats, Chris, on the win on your first time on the grid. I am looking forward to how you plan to top this week’s post next Tuesday.

Editors’ mean average: 9

Jury prize winner

Dare by Courtenay at IA Soup Mama

This is becoming a weekly habit: congrats once again to IA Soup Mama and her flash fiction “Dare”. I can’t wait to read more of her stuff after she discovers Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski and the masters of this century’s short stories. We can all say we knew her when she was just beginning to figure it all out. Congrats, Courtenay, on the win.

Comment karma

Thank you thank you to those of you who braved work hours, firewalls, CAPTCHA and comment moderation to comment on every single one of the 27 posts on the grid. Please grab your badge out of the sidebar and display it proudly. You are one of the best parts of yeah write and our community thrives on your enthusiasm.

[arrow_list]

• Mayor Gia
• Samantha
• Larks
• Melisa
• Courtenay

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Happy birthday, Melisa!

Please join me in wishing my friend Melisa a very happy 38th birthday. She’s been an absolute delight since she first stumbled upon yeah write about two months ago, and she’s the designer of the editors’ profile avatars and the yeah write bathtub gin header. Sometimes, the universe will bring you the one friend you need to complete your circle of friends, and Melisa has been that person for me since the day we met. Happy birthday, Melisa. We love you so much ~Erica, Jeffrey, Jordan, Jon Alex, Ehren, the yeah write editors and the entire yeah write community

Win-Win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most editor points awarded to the least. The top row five badges will return the first challenge week we fill the grid with 50 bloggers. For this week, because the grid had 27 entries, the array highlights the top row three. Oh and don’t forget, the week we return to 50 bloggers will begin a four-week challenge to earn a $100 Amazon gift card for writing materials and inspiration. 

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; it is always a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and in the spirit of competition as incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Thanks again, everybody, for linking up, for reading, for accepting the weekly challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

Yeah write #75 opens Tuesday. Bring your best stuff. Until then, please stop by Flood’s speakeasy for even more posts to read and enjoy.

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