It happens to everyone.
The widespread internet problems this past weekend really put a crimp in our style. But did we crash and burn? No, because we had backups in place (and some quick-thinking team members ready to jump in).
Raise your hand if you’ve ever closed your computer before saving your work. Or if the power went out just as you were about to hit “Submit” on that blog post. Or if a DNS Denial of Service attack shut down access to your outgoing emails.
It’s happened to all of us: hours or even days of work lost to the vagaries of modern technology. You really don’t want your yeah write post or your NaNoWriMo novel to disappear into the ether. Here are a few things you can do to minimize your pain and suffering.
- BACK UP YOUR WORK. I know, I know, you’ve all heard this before. I don’t care. DO IT. Flash drive, Dropbox, Google Docs, hard copy print-out – whatever your medium, remember to use it on a regular basis.
- EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. In other words, don’t wait until the last minute to submit your work. That goes for our weekly grids, for the super challenge, and for any other contest, litmag, or other venue out there.
- HAVE A CONTINGENCY PLAN. Let’s say something terrible happens. Your cable bill doesn’t get paid, your router crashes, squirrels chew through the wires. (Not kidding, this happened to me. Three days with no internet.) Make sure you know where to find the nearest coffee shop with wifi. Learn your public library hours. Sometimes you just have to scramble, but if it’s important to you, have a plan.
Whatever excitement may be in store for us this week, we can’t wait to read what you bring us. Remember to read the submission guidelines before you press post or hit send, especially if you are new around here. (Welcome!) Have a favorite yeah writer or two? 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. Stop by the coffeehouse and meet some of the people behind the words!
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Yeah write super challenge for fictioneers!
The second round of the fiction super challenge is over, and the judges are busily reading your entries. In the meantime, read some of the round 1 entries over on the super challenge announcements page. Round two winners will be posted next week!
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.
Rowan monitors the dueling messages on the signs of churches in her neighborhood in her essay, Pro-Choice. This week’s prompt up taken from the post is: The questions mounted up.
The poetry slam is back!
Do you miss our microstory challenge? Then this is the poetry slam for you. This month, we’re taking it a little easy on you with the nonet. No scanning! No rhyming!
If that’s not enough for you, this month’s nonfiction know-how will also be useful to fiction writers: we’re focusing on tension. There are two basic reasons that people continue reading a thing they’ve started. Find out what they are here.
Yeah write #289 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.
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