Happy New Year!

It’s the Year of the Ox – a hardworking sign, and we’re kicking the year off with some hard, but hopefully pleasant, work for you: a Super Challenge weekend. Over the next 48 hours you’ll be crafting an essay using the prompt for your group (you did get your email, right?), your words, and most importantly, your voice. Our writing pro judges are waiting to see what you do this weekend, but that’s no reason to tie yourself in knots. And don’t worry if you don’t have an idea tonight; sometimes you just have to sleep on it (or take a long, hot shower) to let your subconscious do its job. All you need to do tonight is give some serious thought to your prompt and the clues we’ve given you for how to use it. Our judges get these clues too, so we’re not hiding anything from you. There’s no secret behind-the-scenes cheat sheet that will take your well-told story off the table, as long as you center the prompt and give us 1,000 words (or fewer!) (does it make you nervous when people say fewer instead of less? It kind of makes me nervous. Don’t be nervous. It’s ok. While grammar is important, a less/fewer or a that/which confusion isn’t going to be the thing that knocks you out of the competition). If you’ve been following our Navigating Prompts series, you have a head start; if you don’t, this might be a good time to brush up on those tips! After all, they’re free.

You know what isn’t free? PRIZES. Now that we’ve tallied the entries and split the costs, here’s what you’re playing for:

• 1st prize: $200
• 2nd prize: $125
• 3rd prize: $75

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 shouldn’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

An abandoned craft project

This topic really has two parts, and they’re both important. First, the project has to be a craft project. That is, something you make with your hands. So, not that novel you put aside after NaNoWriMo three years ago, although large woodworking (and some small home repairs) projects are up for grabs. The end result should have been something meant to be tangible, even if the crafter never got beyond the planning stage. Second, it’s got to be abandoned. Not just laid aside, but left in a manner or for long enough that someone with no emotional attachment to the project might feel comfortable picking it up to complete without consulting the original crafter (or if it’s a complete disaster, throwing it away). The project does not need to be yours. 

Group 2

Weeds

Notice we said weeds and not weed? We’re not looking for cannabis here (although if it fits the rest of this description, you’re not going to be out of bounds for using it). Weeds are plants that are growing in places you didn’t plan for them to grow. That’s it. That’s the definition of a weed. Whether it’s a rose or a dandelion, a plant that you didn’t put in, coming up where you don’t want one of those, is a weed. We’re not looking for metaphorical thought-weeds, but physical plants. The space the weeds grow in doesn’t have to belong to you. They just have to be integral to your essay.

Group 3

A bad cake

Both terms in this prompt are fairly open to interpretation. Bad could mean the cake tastes terrible, or it could mean it’s ugly, or tasteless (in either sense). And cake… well, a cake-cake is good, but cupcakes are probably fine, and if you want to make a case for Subway bread being the worst cake, we’re open to it (be aware, though, that you’d need to defend why it’s “cake” and define “cake” thoroughly with some comparisons, and you only have a thousand words to do it in).

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.

Your title page should include: title, group number, prompt, and any applicable content warning.

Email your questions to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me or post your question in the private (judge-free) Super Challenge Discord channel—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, March 3, 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.

rowan@yeahwrite.me