It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for…
but first a few announcements. Y’all, I want to remind you that we could only move the top two stories from each round to the finals. That means we’re grading on a very steep curve, and if your story didn’t make the cut that doesn’t mean it’s not great or that you shouldn’t start looking around for a home for it in print (after a few touchups, of course, which our vanity inclines us to think might incorporate your judges’ feedback). I also want to remind you that your judges were required to give positive and negative feedback, so even if they thought there was very little wrong with your story they’re going to tell you something they saw that you could work on. There’s no writer in the world who has written a story in 48 hours that couldn’t use a little work before it gets published. We promise. [Ed’s note – as a personal note from this editor to you, you should know that publishing is a really really small world and second-guessing editorial decisions is going to come back to bite you someday. We don’t share your feedback with our judges in any way that would make you identifiable (we do review your feedback to identify if there’s a problem with a judge or a place where we might give judges clearer instructions), but someday someone might. Remaining professional is always your best bet. /RBG, who wishes she could send this note in a much more pointed way to a different rejected writer this month] Now, on to the technical side of this challenge:
Once again, anything that went right is entirely due to our admin team’s untiring work behind the scenes, and anything you hate is probably my fault. Except that thing with the mail merge, which, I don’t even know. We sat there and watched the emails go out, and then they bounced back. Technology, amirite? That’s why we build in extra time in the challenges, to make sure you have your groups in plenty of time even if something goes wrong on our end, and that our judges have enough time to get their results to us even if something goes wrong. Thank you again to everyone for your patience, and we hope it was worth it.
Before we announce who’ll be moving on, let’s take a moment to chat about the next round of the Super Challenge. Starting Friday, the advancing writers will be working on combining tropes from two genres to make a blended-genre story. This is one of my favorite prompts, and the one that makes me REALLY wish I could write for this challenge. It’s also incredibly fun to judge! A few tips and pointers about this round:
- Look. Up. Your. Genres. Even if you know one of the genres well, even if your name is actually Ngaio Marsh and we assigned you “mystery,” it’s good to think about not only what you believe is in the genre but what your judges might be expecting to see. Both genres need to be easily identifiable, so think about which elements of the two will work together and which will not.
- Don’t go offroading with your genres. Sure, there are noir stories that don’t incorporate crime, femme fatales, or hardboiled main characters… but this isn’t the time to be trying to write one. Stick to the main tropes for your assigned genres and let the interplay between the two provide the sense of freshness and innovation you’re looking for to show off your creativity.
- There are no character, plot or setting restrictions, beyond what is necessary to demonstrate each genre.
Sound fun? Let’s see who’ll be taking on that, er, super challenge:
Congratulations to Our Advancing Writers
Let’s have a hand for the following writers, who will be advancing to the next round of the Super Challenge:
Tara Davis
Lisa Fox
Stephanie Lennon
Sarah Lloyd
Victoria Martin
Janna Miller
Charlie Rogers
Chrissie Rohrman
MM Schreier
Gail A Webber
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Writers, if you don’t have your feedback, please send us an email at superchallenge@yeahwrite.me, ’cause that email should have reached you about twelve hours ago. Now that this round of the competition is over, you’re free to post your work anywhere on the Internet you like, or take our judges’ suggestions and rework your submission to send on to other venues and anthologies. If it finds a home, we’d love to hear about it in the coffeehouse! And if you choose to post it to your personal site or blog, we’d love it if you’d link that up right here: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.
