Looking back
Hey, you. Yeah, you. Look how much you accomplished last year. Chances are, you’ve written a few words. Maybe you’ve even written a lot of words. Celebrate that! Even if you didn’t hit your goals (I know I didn’t), remember that every bit of story, every line of poetry that you wrote was something that didn’t exist before you set it down. That’s something to be proud of.
Looking forward
Now that we’ve celebrated last year’s successes, let’s put 2018 behind us and look ahead to new things.
For this month’s microprose challenge, we want you to give us exactly 39 words (that’s 20+19, get it?) about something that’s a first: the first step on the moon, a first baby, first night of Hannukah – you get the idea. Just be clear that it has never happened before.
Some tips:
- It’s okay if this is a first only for your story’s character(s). A story about a family’s first baby doesn’t mean it’s the first baby ever in the world – although if you wanted to write about that, go right ahead!
- The “first” can be an object or an event. That is, it could be “your first car” or “the first time you drove a car.”
- The fact that this is a first should be significant in the story. If your character is the first son, that needs to be important.
- Don’t get too fancy or try to think outside the prompt – a straightfoward story is just fine. The point is to be creative within the confines of the prompt, not to push the boundaries.
- Fiction and non-fiction are both welcome!
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.
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!The microprose challenge ends in:
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How to submit and fully participate in the Microprose Challenge
Basic YeahWrite guidelines: must be in response to the prompt found above; your entry can be dated no earlier than Wednesday, January 2; nonfiction, fiction, whatever (but not a poem), 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.
