Round 1 Closes in:
Day(s)
:
Hour(s)
:
Minute(s)
:
Second(s)
Don’t stress yourself out.
Look, we know that’s big advice right now, but hear me out: don’t stress yourself out. There’s plenty of stuff stressing you out right now without your help. We know. We’re stressed too! The judges are stressed! My cat is stressed! My large, anxious dog is very stressed! So what I want for the next five minutes of your life is for you not to add to your stress. This is just a writing competition. And the prompts honestly aren’t as complicated as you may be about to make them. So don’t overthink it, and remember not to edit your voice out of your final work. As long as you write like you, nobody’s going to write an identical essay.
Just as a no-pressure reminder, here’s what you’re playing for:
- 1st prize: $250
- 2nd prize: $150
- 3rd prize: $100
This round you can write a personal or persuasive essay, wherever the prompt takes you. So let’s talk about those:
- 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.
- persuasive essays. A persuasive essay utilizes logic and reason to show that one idea or position is more legitimate than another. It attempts to persuade a reader to adopt the writer’s point of view on the topic. The argument must always use sound reasoning and solid evidence. It can do this by stating facts, giving logical reasons, using examples, and quoting experts. It can also utilize emotion effectively, but it should not depend on emotional appeal or require the reader to find the writer sympathetic in order to make its point. We’ll be judging these essays on how thoroughly and convincingly the author makes their stand. The judges don’t have to agree with the answer, but the answer will need to be supported by more than my mom’s old standby of “because I said so.”
Note: If you choose to use citations or footnotes to credit your sources (and you should credit your sources, if applicable), remember that those will count towards your overall word limit.
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s get to the assignments:
Group 1
A location you don’t remember well
Maybe you don’t remember the location because you were too young. Maybe it just doesn’t stick out because you were focused on something else at the time, or because you only went there once. Regardless of why you don’t know it well, your essay should feature this location (as a setting or topic) centrally, not mention it in passing.
Group 2
An object you’ve held onto longer than is rational
Trash or treasure? Do you still have your grandmother’s tea service even though you hate tea? Do you have a receipt in your purse from 1997? It’s rational to hold onto some things a long time, but there’s a point beyond which it doesn’t make sense to keep them. Your essay should feature something that’s clearly past that point, whether your reason for retention is emotional or just plain forgetfulness.
Group 3
Eavesdropping
Is eavesdropping good, bad, or somewhere in between? Have you ever eavesdropped, or been eavesdropped on? This prompt is about your opinions or experiences: take it where you need to, but feature eavesdropping (deliberate, secretive listening to a conversation), not overhearing (although that can become eavesdropping once you decide to hide and listen) or being told about.
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! (Also, we don’t want you to accidentally email your questions to a judge; it’s happened! Don’t be that guy!)
You’ll receive your feedback on Wednesday, August 26, and we’ll announce who’s moving on to the next round that day at noon US Eastern Time.
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.
