Hotheaded
I’m probably not going to tell you anything you don’t know already, but you know those author quotes, books about writing, and “helpful” motivation websites that tell writers we need to write every single day at the same time?
Yeah, they’re assholes.
In a low spot recently, I started looking for writing advice and came across these two websites: bad advice link #1, bad advice link #2. The rage that ensued actually fuelled two essays. What was I so mad at?
First of all, that advice is just unrealistic. We’re going to miss a day; it’s going to happen. And the inevitable doesn’t make us less dedicated. Are doctors still doctors when they’re sipping mai tais on a beach in Maui? Of course, they are.
Second, the last thing we writers need is another warped conception of what a “writer” does to compare ourselves with. You know what? If you’re reading this blog, then you are a writer, and what you do is what writers do. That’s the transitive law, y’all.
Third, the only way writers are going to continue writing is if it stays fun. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find it fun to infer from that advice that if I don’t do what they say, then I am not dedicated or passionate enough. Forget that noise. They don’t know me.
Speaking of forgetting things, make sure to review the submission guidelines before you press Post. If you’ve found some other yeah write writers you dig, why not ask them to be your writing partner? Everyone needs another set of eyes to point out the typos, content errors, and ungainly phraseologies in our posts.
Prompt up!
Prompt up is our optional weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works: we choose a sentence prompt from last week’s winning nonfiction post and announce it in the kickoff. It’s your job to use that prompt in your poem or story and then run with it. The prompt is just a springboard, though: feel free to use it as your first sentence, move it, change it, or float down it to other territories.
Lisa reminded us of the importance of not jumping to conclusions in her post, Suspicious Activity Near Schools. This week’s Prompt Up is: He looked overworked at only half past noon.
May poetry slam: the rondeau
We don’t usually do two similar forms back-to-back, but this month we’re building on the bop with another “song” poem, the rondeau. There’s a few more rules to the rondeau, some rhyming and some scanning you’ll have to do, but it’s a lovely and lyrical form that uses skills you already have and then shakes them up in fifteen lines and a refrain. Give it a try! If you’ve been feeling intimidated by the poetry slams, this is a perfect time to get your feet wet and get some feedback with the unmoderated grid.
Check out Sunday’s post which kicked off the week here at yeah write. Our email subscribers can also join us in the yeah write coffeehouse at its home on Facebook.
Yeah write #266 fiction|poetry writing challenge is open for submissions!
Basic yeah write guidelines: 750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; fiction or poetry only.
How to submit and fully participate in the challenge:
- In the sidebar of this week’s post, please grab the code beneath the challenge grid badge and paste it into the HTML view of your entry
- Follow the InLinkz instructions after clicking “add your link” to upload your entry to this week’s challenge grid
- Your entry should appear immediately on the grid if you don’t receive an error message
- Please make the rounds to read all the entries in this week’s challenge
- Consider turning off moderated comments and CAPTCHA on your own blog
Submissions for this week’s challenges will close on Wednesday at 10pm ET. Voting will then open immediately thereafter and close on Thursday at 10pm ET. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.
Thank you for sharing with us your hard work! Good luck in the challenge…
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