Round 2 Closes in:
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The Chair-y On Top
We’ve all had bad weeks. Weird ones. Hard ones. The cherry on top of this week, in which it seemed everything spilled, broke, broke down, or some diabolical combination of the above, was my desk chair breaking. Because I leaned over to pick up a kitten. I didn’t fall on the kitten, but that’s the only good thing to be said about the whole experience. So I’m writing to you precariously balanced on the remains of my chair while trying to figure out how I could possibly get a new one without leaving the house. Whatever you need to do for comfort in your writing nook this weekend, I wish you luck! Just not, you know, my luck.
In the final round of the Super Challenge, your prompt is a sentence. You’ll be incorporating it into your essay wherever you like. You can use it as the first or last sentence, repeat it throughout as a hook, or just slip it in somewhere in the middle. The catch is, it should sound like your sentence. If the mere idea of a sentence that isn’t yours invading your work gives you hives like the ones that mysteriously appeared on my ankles this week, we’ve put some great tips in this Navigating Prompts post.
Your essay can be personal or persuasive, but it can’t be over 1,000 words! Fortunately, your title page (check out the revised rules for a final round title page below) and any content warning you think is appropriate for your work don’t count.
Ready? Here’s the prompt you’ll be swearing at us about all weekend:
Final round prompt
[_____] [didn’t/doesn’t/don’t] come with a manual.
Ordinarily, when we give a sentence prompt, you can’t change ANYTHING about it. This time we’re trying something a little different, to keep the prompt flexible in situation (but not voice, you still can’t change the verb or phrasing or add words to it). You may replace the bracketted underline with a singular or plural noun. A person might be a name, occupation, or description that relates the watcher to the narrator. Examples: Nadiya, Hitesh, Shawn, Mr. Landeau, Grandma, my mom, my teacher, the mechanic, the entire third grade class. Or you could go with an object: my car, Nikon cameras, that dog food bowl. And so forth, but you get the picture. Use one of the three provided verbs to match your noun. Use appropriate grammar, and pick the right noun. That means it might not be perfect standard English grammar if you’re writing in dialect–but that should be a deliberate choice and clear in context.
The caveat is, that with all the flexibility we’re giving you, this is a complete sentence prompt. Not a phrase. No changing punctuation, no adding or subtracting words. No pluralizing manual. The only other change you can make is to add quotes if you’re putting it in dialogue.
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Don’t post your essay 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! You can also discuss your essay in the judge- (and judgment-) free Super Challenge channel on Discord.
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.
For the final round, the title page should include only your title, prompt, and any content warning you think is appropriate.
Example:
The Bobsled
Prompt: “We called her Rosebud, because we could.”
CW: medical trauma, hospitalization.
Email your questions to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me or post them in the Super Challenge channel on Discord—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 24, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, March 26, at 3pm US Eastern Time.
We hope you have as much fun with the prompt as we had picking it 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.
