Spread a little love
It’s been a rough week for a lot of us.
Politics aside, I think we’re all exhausted. We can hole up, or we can open up. Let’s do more of the latter for a while, okay? This week, write something meaningful to you. Tell people what you really think. Open your heart; bleed on the page. Or if escapism is your thing, give us something to make us smile, to make us laugh, to give us a little boost.
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, word repetitions, 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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A note from your friendly submissions editor
Hey, y’all. Rowan here. Months and months ago the editors put our heads together to talk about our grids, and I said that all I wanted for my birthday was to bring moderation back for a week. So here it is, my birthday week, and I’ll be moderating the grid. What does that mean? Well, it means that like always you should be bringing your best work. It also means that I’ll be reviewing every piece that goes onto the grid. I’ll be looking at poetry forms, grammatic structure in stories, plot arcs and that certain je ne sais quoi that makes a good story great. If I think your story or poem isn’t quite tall enough to ride this ride, don’t worry- you’ll get a detailed feedback letter explaining where it fell short and what you need to work on; basically the same feedback you’d get from one of the “editorial reviews” in our membership subscription. If your story meets our minimum standards of grammar and editing (please don’t think I mean that you can’t use sentence fragments or literary devices for voice! your writing doesn’t have to be boring to make the cut!) it’ll move forward to the vote on Thursday. If you’re still concerned about what moderation means for you, talk to a few of our more seasoned members in the coffeehouse. Everyone – editors included – has gotten a love letter from me at some point or another, and generally they’ve found those letters helpful. Remember, I’m a writer too. I know rejection hurts. That’s why the love letters really are love letters, intended to help you heal the places your story is hurting and get it ready to send out into the world wearing its best clothing and with every hair in place.
Back to you, Christine.
Yeah write super challenge for fictioneers!
The final round of the fiction super challenge is over! Our finalists were charged with combining two genres – western and horror – into one cohesive story. We’re tallying up the scores and we’re almost ready to announce the winners. In the meantime, go read some of the entries from the first two rounds over on the super challenge announcements page.
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.
This week Rowan reminded us of the need to get uncomfortable at our Thanksgiving tables this year in her post Good Housekeeping. This week’s prompt up is: That’s just the way old people are, honey.
November poetry slam
Ready for a new poetry slam form? Give our echo poem a try. We think you’ll love it.
Remember, our nonfiction know-how is not just for nonfiction. Have you ever held back from posting an essay because you were afraid it might hurt someone’s feelings? You’re not the first. This month’s nonfiction know-how tells you what you need to know to decide whether or not to go for it.
Yeah write #292 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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