Eighteen writers enter. Ten writers leave. While my part of the world is certainly starting to feel like a blisteringly hot dystopia, I’m not quite ready to go full Mad Max yet. Instead, I’m looking for a distraction, and I’ve got eighteen great writers lined up in our super challenge waiting to produce the kind of stories I’d rather be reading than another breakdown of how I’ll never have healthcare again.
I’ve got some good news, too, to go with the bad: We’ve sorted out those last few pesky entry fees and we’re ready to announce the prizes for Super Challenge #4:
First Prize: $150
Second Prize: $100
Third Prize: $50
Ready to earn those prizes? Let’s dive into Round 2 of the YeahWrite Super Challenge. This round, our writers will be working with a setting and an event. The setting is shown in an image, and the event is described.
A few tips and pointers about this round:
Neither the picture nor the event needs to be the entire plot of the story, but both must be integral to the plot. That is, the plot shouldn’t be able to happen if the characters don’t experience the event or the setting.
Writers don’t need to describe every detail of the photo prompt, but should give enough detail that someone who has never seen the image could produce a reasonable sketch resembling the scene based only on their description. They may add reasonable additions to the photo – fish to a river, a carving on a tree – but may not make it an entirely different scene by adding, say, a city to a barren desert image (although if there’s a road, that’s where the road might lead).
There are no genre restrictions. However, as always, we expect writers to respect the dignity and diversity of the audience for which they are writing. Our judges are drawn from all over the world and from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.
If work merits a content warning, writers should feel free to add that on the title page under the summary. It will not be included in word count. A good content warning will give a direct but not explicit description of what the reader may encounter: “CW: sexual assault” or “CW: transphobic character” but not “CW: graphic.” (graphic what? violence? sex? design?)
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s get to the assignments:
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Don’t post your story anywhere on the Internet until after our judges are done and you get your feedback! But if you want to talk up the competition or live-tweet your writing process, use the hashtag #YWsuper. Just remember not to include identifying details about which story is yours!
Your essays are due Sunday at 10pm US Eastern Time. Remember to check the rules for formatting, including all those fiddly details like title page, font, and filename. Don’t get disqualified on a technicality! We know it seems really useless at times, but all those rules have a purpose, from helping get your file where it needs to be to making sure you’re read anonymously and fairly.
Email your questions to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me—we will not be reviewing other email addresses or social media for your questions over the weekend and we want to make sure you get the answers you need!
We hope you have as much fun with the prompts as we had picking them out. Good luck, and good writing!
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
