So there’s this little community called yeah write. You may have heard of it. This post is all about how much I love it.

I stumbled into the front door of this l’il cheese shop quite by accident when another blogger linked up a guest post I wrote for her in April 2012. I’ve never looked back.

Sure, there’s the thrill of competition. I’ve done my time manically refreshing the grid to see my vote tally go up (or not). Accolades from my peers are one reason I kept coming back week after week.

Comments on my posts? What blogger wouldn’t want that sort of reader engagement? Yeah write has definitely increased my traffic. In fact, it’s the number three referrer to my blog, after Facebook and Twitter.

But the best part? Yeah write is a community – the coolest quirky subdivision of the internet.

I probably wouldn’t still be blogging if I hadn’t found it.

For me, at least, I write best when the process of writing is a shared experience. Emily Dickinson I’m not. I’ve made some of my best friends in the blogosphere here. And I’ve found some of the best writers who blog, which has elevated my own writing.

I jumped at the chance to join as an editor when Erica contacted me in the summer of 2012.

I work with people whose writing consistently blows me away. Erica can pull out a wildly creative, amusing, and gutting post seemingly out of thin air. Michelle’s autobiographical pieces are a model of showing rather than telling. I still have a vivid image in my head of golden Spanish streets from Kristin’s piece on her summer in Spain. Louise hasn’t blogged for a while (get on it, Louise!) but when she does? You can taste the juicy cantaloupe she’s handed by a tow truck driver.

And my colleagues at the speakeasy? Suffice it to say, there’s a reason I don’t write fiction.

As an editor, I still get to link up and play along on the challenge grid, but I also get a chance to deconstruct posts and curate them for our invitational. That has been an invaluable tool for me – to see the myriad ways a story can be told, to sharpen the bits that come harder for me, like lyrical details, and to appreciate authentic voice, especially in dialogue. Each week at yeah write is like having a front row seat at an awesome writing workshop.

The best writing workshop ever, filled with the misfits, freaks, and geeks.

My tribe.

*****

It’s badge day here at yeah write weekly writing challenge. In addition to 30 days of blogging with NaBloPoMo, we are running our bread-and-butter writing challenge. If you will be joining us on Tuesday for a friendly competition pitting your personal essay against your rowmie’s traditional blog anecdote, please grab the yeah write #137 challenge grid badge from the sidebar, review our submission guidelines, then get ready for Tuesday’s open submissions. We would love to have you.

Don’t forget it’s random rownie weekend. Visit some new-to-you blogs and leave a few thoughtful comments. It’s been rough out there for some of us, and everyone could use a little encouragement.

Did you know we’ve handed out Week 3 prizes? They were announced in Friday’s moonshine grid (hey, link up a fun post over there, the weekend crew is most awesome) so check out who won what, then cross your fingers for next week when we are giving away our grand prize for the whole month of blogging.