All work and no play…
This week, Arden and I are in Beaver Creek, Colorado, for Sirens, an annual conference that explores and celebrates the role of women in fantasy and science fiction. This year’s guests include Kate Elliot, V.E. Schwab*, Zoraida Cordova, and the incomparable N.K. Jemisin**. There’s daily programming – panels, roundtables, discussions, workshops – as well as ample time to get some real work of my own done. And to be honest, there is something truly validating – and energizing – about being surrounded by people as in love with my genre as I am. It’s times like this that my work – writing and editing – feels more like play. If you’re feeling a little dull, I encourage you to seek out opportunities to spend a little face-to-face time with your writing tribe.
* As I write this, V.E. Schwab is sitting just across from me. I haven’t read her yet, but after her presentation on why writers should be readers, I’m adding all her books to my nightstand.
** And N.K. Jemisin just walked up. How old is too old to be a flailing fangirl? #eavesdropping
This month’s fun and games
This is the time of year when the veil between the living world and the spirit world has thinned, allowing the souls of the dead to cross freely between them. With this in mind, this month we’re asking you for a complete story in exactly 39 words incorporating the word: haunt. Be creative – not all hauntings are performed by ghosts! (Some of them are performed by fangirls drifting along in the wake of certain well-known authors. Creepy? SURE IS.)
Need a hand?
Microprose sounds easy. After all, how hard can it really be to write a story with fewer than 100 words incorporating a prompt or two? But it turns out it’s our hardest challenge to really get right. Whether you’re a seasoned micropro or a brand new microwriter, it’s worth taking a minute to glance through the tips and tricks our editors have put together, like this quick refresher on what makes a micro great, or this one on how to incorporate mandatory prompts into adjudicated challenges. Make sure you make it to the vote this week: check your wordcount (we count those footnotes!) and prompts!
This is the badge you need:
Below is the YeahWrite badge you need for this month’s microprose challenge. Under the badge is a few lines of code. See that? Copy it and then paste it into the “text” or HTML view of your post editor. If you don’t copy it exactly, the image will not appear correctly in your post, and you will receive an error message when you submit the post to Inlinkz. If you have any questions regarding adding this code to your post or website, please contact us at editors@yeahwrite.me.
How to submit and fully participate in the Microprose Challenge
Basic YeahWrite guidelines: must be in response to the prompt found in the introductory post; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; nonfiction, fiction, whatever, told in exactly 39 words. You may enter only one microstory per weekly challenge.
How to submit and fully participate in the challenge:
- Please grab the code beneath the microprose badge in the body of this week’s post 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; and
- 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…
Loading InLinkz ...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.
