Hello again, friends! Welcome – or welcome back – to the Super Challenge. We’re excited to have you here! Sharpen your pencil, make sure your word processor is set to autosave every few minutes (no, really, learn from my fail) and let’s dive into Round One.
This round is for personal essays: the mostly-true stories of your life. This round you’ll be writing within the framework of an assigned subject. Make sure that you center the subject, although the entire essay doesn’t have to be about the subject. For example, if the subject were horses, you could write about your first horse, about how much you wanted a horse, about a plastic toy horse, or about your summer camp experience in the Rockies. What you can’t do is write about a road trip your family took and casually mention that you drove past a horse in Nebraska along the way. We’ll try to give you some examples and parameters with your prompt, but as a general suggestion don’t worry about stretching the limits of the prompt – unless that’s what you need to do to find a story in your life. Write well, and don’t worry about being unique. You’ll be unique anyway, because nobody can tell your stories but you.
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s get to the topic assignments:
Group One (1)
A visual art project.
A few tips:
- You don’t have to be the artist or the person responsible for generating the product. It could be an acquaintance, co-worker, family member, etc.
- It’s about the PROJECT not the PRODUCT. Don’t write about a painting you found unless you had to restore or modify it. Don’t talk about a photo you see – talk about taking a photo. The process of creation is what we want to hear about.
- Visual art is broader than you think: ever make a powerpoint? a display board for a book report? a diorama? did your kid make a diorama? All those things count.
- Visual is a key word: we’re not looking for a music composition. If you’re going to discuss that mixtape you made in 9th grade, you’d better be talking about how you collaged ads out of a stolen Vanity Fair onto the mixtape cover to personalize it (just me?).
Group Two (2)
Memorizing something.
A few tips:
- We memorize a lot of things in life. Phone numbers. Directions. The words to songs. You don’t have to have been in high school drama to have memorized something – although you’re also absolutely free to talk about your terrible experience learning lines as the “best supporting actress” role in Seven Keys to Baldpate.
- Memorize. Not forget. Stay on target!
- It doesn’t matter if you successfully memorized the thing. Like Group One’s prompt, we’re asking for process not product.
- I probably don’t have to say this, but it doesn’t matter if you still remember whatever it was. Go ahead and look it up now if you need the exact words, images, or left turn that Mapquest thought was a right turn.
- Secret hint: If I still know all the words to It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine) and We Didn’t Start the Fire your judge might, too. Don’t take a chance that a judge has also memorized the thing, and then get it wrong, unless that is done deliberately and to advance your story. Use your search engine.
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!
A quick note about prizes: With the headcounts in and the entry fees in the bank, we have the final prize amounts. I, personally, would find checking on those numbers the fastest way to writers’ block, but if you’re made of sterner stuff than I, go check out the Super Challenge 7 main page, under PRIZES!
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.
