Welcome to YeahWrite's Weekly Prompts
YeahWrite #664 Weekly Writing Challenge
The world had moved on
Yeah, it’s a line from a Stephen King book. But that doesn’t make it less poignant or true. The world has moved on, and is moving on, and you and we are moving with it. A lot has changed since Erica posted the first lovelink (don’t know what we’re talking about? check out the retrospective in YW #500). In the last 664 weeks, we have never once missed a post, whether that post was one of the original weekly linkup grids, one of the moderated prompted genre grids, or one of the more recent monthly tutorial/weekly prompt combinations, we’ve been here every week.
And that’s kind of the problem, isn’t it? Because the world has been moving on.
664 weeks ago, you could still effectively monetize a personal blog, and bloggers were mostly people rather than content farms. 664 weeks ago, putting your writing on the internet was a great way to meet people and show that you could engage an audience, not a way to disqualify yourself to publishers and have your work stolen to train an AI to write stories nobody would pay you for. But it’s not 664 weeks ago.
The world has moved on.
It’s time for YeahWrite to do the same. Weekly prompts and posts don’t drive our traffic anymore, and they’re not something our community wants or can use. So after 664 consecutive weeks, we’re changing format.
So what does that mean for 2024? It means, in the words of another author, that we have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep. The three big events we have planned for 2024 include our long-awaited anthology (no, really, we mean it), a Super Challenge, and of course our monthly series, the Scarlet Quill Society. In 2024 the SQS will be focusing on getting you through that next step: publication. Whether you’re aiming for a place in an anthology, a traditional publisher for your longform work, or self-publishing on your own or through a service, our posts and panels will be there to help you spot scams and fill in the missing pieces to get your work into the places you want it. What we won’t have in 2024 is a weekly post shouting into a void you can’t fill without sabotaging your career as a writer. And we think that benefits all of us. Don’t worry – if you need an impromptu prompt, or a hand getting started, we’re over in our Discord waiting to help you out.
The world has moved on; we’re moving with it. See you there!
~Christine, Rowan & Arden
Welcome to Week #664
Here’s where you’ll find everything you need to get yourself ready to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)! Use our last weekly prompt—or don’t—and share links to your essays, stories, and poems in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord.
A note from the editors:
In light of the season, and the ways in which the major holidays of the season in the place where we live are inextricably entangled with Israel and the territories it occupies, YeahWrite joins in the call for everyone to consider, regardless of their personal heritage, what part they’re playing in the re-enactments of these mythologized histories. And in the call for a ceasefire.
Yeah Write’s Last Ever Writing Prompt is:
This week, your job, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story, essay, or poem incorporating the following prompt:
What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
For our final prompt we thought we’d reach back into the archives of our microfiction challenge – and deep into the pockets of this year’s trope series to hand you a songfic option. Yes, for the Rainbow Connection. Is that a problem? We’re all moving on together, and we want to know what you see in your stars. Have you learned to reach for them? What have you found? What do you hope to see?
Play with the prompt, and when you’ve got your words down, share your response in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook and Discord, by linking your blog post, Google Doc, or other file. Bonus points if you do it on WIP Wednesday! Stuck? Check out last year’s — no, year before last! — series on responding to prompts. While you’re at it, make sure to check out your fellow YeahWriters’ responses, and don’t forget to leave them some love in the comments!
Looking for our weekly grids? After nearly ten years, they’ve been retired. Read more about the latest changes to YeahWrite in the #500 Weekly Writing Challenge Kickoff Post.
The Schedule
Although YeahWrite is no longer releasing weekly prompts, we still invite you to share your work in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord. If you prefer to keep your work under wraps (and away from the eyes of potential publishers), you can still ask for beta readers in the Coffeehouse and share your work privately! Every Monday, we’ll check in to see how you’re doing and what your writing goals are for the week. Wednesdays are “Work-in-Progress Wednesdays.” Share a few sentences or even a paragraph or two in the Coffeehouse (no more than 250 words, please). Even if you’re not done writing, this could be the boost you need to stay motivated. Did you publish a book? Do you have a story in a magazine? The First Friday of every month is for self-promotion, where you can share commercial links to your work for purchase. (You can always share the news that you’ve been accepted for publication, though!) And of course, the entire community is here 24-7 to share your victories and setbacks, challenges and accomplishments. So come on in, pull up a chair, and say hello. We’re all writers here.
Upcoming and Ongoing
Sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any upcoming classes, workshops, or competitions.
Scarlet Quill Society (Free Workshop w/ Optional Paid Benefits)
Welcome to the secret back room where the Scarlet Quill Society meets. In this year-long workshop, we’ll be focusing on tropes! Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t avoid ’em. For the purpose of this year’s workshop, we’re defining a trope as a building block of storytelling. It’s a device or pattern of events that is used to solve plot or character problems or communicate meaning efficiently and effectively. Stay tuned for next year’s series on publishing, too!
Check out December’s post, where we finally get around to ruining your childhood ourselves, after months of claiming we weren’t going to do that. That’s right, we’re coming for that charming outrider of white supremacy and heteronormativity, the Hallmark Christmas Movie. Is it the end of heartwarming winter specials, or can we replace this with something just as cheery but more inclusive? Find out in our post, and then come see what our experts have to say for the low low price of $5 (or free with your YW membership).
Did you miss this month’s live discussion? Don’t fret! The video is up on our YouTube channel. You can check out our older videos on a pay-what-you-can basis! If you have a good time, leave a tip and we’ll love you forever.
Scarlet Quill Society workshop posts are always free. In addition, we are offering a couple add-ons that we think you’ll find exciting and worth a few bucks a month: face-to-face (okay, virtual) monthly gatherings to delve into the topics and answer your questions, and an editorial backroom on Discord! And for a bonus, if you’re a paid SQS member and you can’t make it to a meeting, you can still send us questions beforehand and we’ll make sure to cover them.
Sign up for a membership today to join the Scarlet Quill Society and automatically receive the Zoom link and password for every meeting. One-off monthly meeting tickets can also be purchased on Kofi. At YeahWrite we believe information wants to be shared. If you can’t afford to join us for society meetings, we post the recording about a week later, and you’re welcome to leave the tip you can afford (even if that’s just a nice thank you comment). Check out our YouTube channel for more.
2023 Anthology? WATCH THIS SPACE!
Spontaneous Writing Challenges
About the author:
Christine Hanolsy is a (primarily) science fiction and fantasy writer who simply cannot resist a love story. She joined the YeahWrite team in 2014 as the microstory editor and stepped into the role of Editor-In-Chief in 2020. Christine was a 2015 BlogHer Voices of the Year award recipient and Community Keynote speaker for her YeahWrite essay, “Rights and Privileges.” Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals and her creative nonfiction at Dead Housekeeping and in the Timberline Review. Outside of YeahWrite, Christine’s past roles have included Russian language scholar, composer, interpreter, and general cat herder. Find her online at christinehanolsy.com.
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
About the author:
Behind the scenes, Arden is currently working on the first novel of her Fated Paths trilogy. She also published a number of short stories and a fantasy anthology which can all be purchased on Amazon. Arden lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and two rescue pups. To read more of her stories, visit her website.
