Turn, turn, turn
Show of hands: who here loves summer? So do I. I mean, I love fall, too, and spring. (I prefer to ignore winter, to Rowan’s chagrin.)
It’s summer here in the US, of course, but we’re on the cusp of fall. The days are already getting shorter, the sun setting earlier. And for those of you on the other side of the world, it’s just the opposite. The turning of the seasons is inexorable (even with global climate change hanging over our heads), and everyone has an opinion about which is the best.
A season for everything
This month’s micro prompt is focused on seasons. We want you to give us a complete story in exactly 40 words that evokes a specific season without using the names for that season (i.e., spring, summer, fall/autumn, winter).
A few tips:
- Your story does not need to be about the season. You don’t need to write about New Year’s, sledding or shoveling snow to evoke winter.
- We do need to be able to clearly recognize the season. For example, a mention of cherry blossoms sets your story solidly in springtime. On the other hand, a mention of bare branches could evoke late fall, winter, or early spring, so that’s not enough of a clue.
- Your story should be a story, not just a description of a scene. That is, it should include some sort of action, conflict, and/or arc.
An example:
Here’s an example of a story that hints at a season without being about the season, or mentioning the season. This story is likely set in summer because the main character had gathered tomatoes from her garden. A little gardening knowledge, or a quick reference to a gardners’ almanac reveals that tomatoes are in season from late spring through to early fall/autumn, but they’re tastiest in late summer.
Tomatoes
by Daryl Scroggins
Don’t go, she thought, her face pressed to the door she had closed against him. She imagined him walking down toward the road, his new car by the mailbox. She saw herself opening the door—saw him turning to her, unable to go on, starting back.
But she didn’t open the door. She went to the kitchen and got ice for her eye. Poured herself a glass of water. She saw, then, the brown bag of tomatoes she had selected for him from her garden. But when she glanced through the peephole again, everything just looked round, like a road.
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, August 7; nonfiction, fiction, whatever, told in exactly 40 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.
