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Pay attention
It is easy, so very easy, to go through life with blinders on—you’re in a hurry, trying to find a parking place, late for work or sending kids off to school, and you don’t see the old woman pick a flower out of a stranger’s garden, an act that could send you off in a dozen different directions in your writing. Am I projecting? Maybe I’m just talking about myself but I suspect not. The busier we are, the harder it is to stop, take a look around, pay attention to the world.
As poet Mary Oliver has written, “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” It may seem boring, this wakefulness, when all around us are people we see every day, doing the same things they always do. But there is magic in everyday moments. Look for it. Write about it.
This holiday week is unmoderated. Every post will be eligible for voting! The standard rules for nonfiction apply: stay within the 1,000-word count, no commercial posts, and use proper grammar and punctuation.
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Nonfiction theme of the month: flashback
What are we talking about? Rowan gives us the skinny on how to write flashbacks. Use it in your essay for this week’s challenge or don’t! This theme is totally optional. Either way though, be sure to read Rowan’s tips. She knows what she’s talking about.
This week’s ultimate question:
Who dropped the ball?
This optional prompt, which also serves as the ultimate question for the microstory challenge opening Wednesday, is here to serve as your inspiration for your nonfiction submission. Already have your own story thought up? No problem! The prompt is only there if you need it.
Want more info?
Is this your first time here? Check out Sunday’s post which kicked off the week here at yeah write. If you don’t think you can remember to check back every Sunday, you can sign up for our email blasts directly to your inbox. Our email subscribers can also join us in the yeah write coffeehouse at its new home on Facebook.
If you’ve never taken the time to read them, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our submission guidelines. The rules are a little different for each of our challenges and we’d hate to have to send back great writing on a technicality.
Did you happen to end up here because you suddenly saw yeah write in your stats? Sometimes members of our community spot excellent writing and they send those posts on over to us. We hope you don’t mind. Take a look around and get to know our community. We’re sure you’ll be happy here.
Have questions you can’t find the answer to by poking around the site? Email us or find us on Facebook and Twitter and we’ll happily help you out.
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How to submit and fully participate in the nonfiction challenge
Basic yeah write guidelines: 1000 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; nonfiction personal essay, creative opinion piece or mostly true story based on actual events.
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
It’s a holiday week here in the U.S. so all the yeah write grids are unmoderated! All submissions meeting the basic guidelines will be moved to the voting grid. Please note that submissions for this week will close on Wednesday at 11pm EST. Voting will open immediately thereafter and continue through Thursday. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.
Thank you for sharing with us your hard work! Good luck in the challenge…[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
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